The Your Scottish Archives Glossary defines archaic words and phrases, mostly Scots law terminology, commonly found in documents and records in Scotland’s archives. If you think a word or phrase should be added to the glossary, or an existing entry could be defined better, please contact us at your@scottisharchives.org.uk.
You can also use the Dictionary of the Scots Language as a further resource at https://dsl.ac.uk/ for Scots words and phrases (including legal terminology).
To find a term within the glossary, click on the initial letter of the word you are looking for, then select the relevant syllable segment displayed below.
Example: to find the term “roup” select section “R” then sub-section “Ro”
a magistrate in a burgh; but ‘baillies in that pairt’ (part) are representatives appointed to carry out a specific function, usually the giving of sasine. People appointed thus by the Crown are ‘sheriffs in that pairt’. The term can also be used to indicate a farm servant, for example a ‘cow bailie’ was a stockman looking after cattle.
children’s legal share of their parent’s moveable property on death; also called the legitim. It is one-third of the moveable property when the other parent survives, and one-half when both are deceased.
strictly speaking, someone who holds his lands (‘barony’) direct from the Crown, which used to be accompanied by certain privileges, particularly as regards the administration of justice and the right to sit in Parliament (this last limited to the greater barons in the 15th century).
the right of someone holding lands from a former feuar who had granted (usually sold) the lands to him, rather than holding them from the superior of the lands. It can also be called ‘base fee’. What would normally happen in such a case, would be that the seller would undertake in the grant to get the buyer infeft by the superior of the land also, so that he would have two titles to it.