excambion
a contract whereby one piece of land was exchanged for another.
Your Scottish Archives Glossary
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”
exception
a claim or excuse used within a legal defence, which was made with the intention of stopping a case in its tracks. The ‘exception of non-numerate money’ (exceptio non numeratae pecuniae) was a claim that the money due to be repaid by a debtor had never been paid, or never properly paid in the first place. The exceptio rei judicatae ‘the exception of the thing judged’ was a claim that the case under consideration had already been tried by a different court.