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”
the Scottish legal terms for what is common knowledge or generally accepted by people as a fact; usually applied to one way in which a marriage could be recognised, which was by two people living together and being commonly looked on by others as being man and wife; can also be applied to a someone having the reputation of being a thief.
(mainly relating to cattle) spotted or streaked with white; white-faced.
the crime of assaulting someone in his own home.
rack; slatted wooden or iron framework (e.g. for fodder in a stable)
can come in various forms. The heir general is one who succeeds to both the heritable and moveable property of a deceased person, who also happens to be that person’s heir at law and heir by normal course of succession (his heir of line); the heir of provision on the other hand, is one who succeeds by virtue of the terms of a settlement or some express provision; ‘heir special’ refers to the right of an heir to receive infeftment in particular lands; an heir of conquest is one who inherits lands or other heritable rights from someone who did not succeed to the lands or rights himself but acquired them in some other way; and heirs portioners are women who succeed jointly to heritable property; see also apparent heir.
certain moveable goods (generally the best) belonging to the deceased, to which the heir in heritage (heritable property) was entitled by law, so that the heritable property was not received bare of all furnishings.
an obligation to repay borrowed money, which has been secured by a grant of land which would be held by the lender as security for the repayment.
one of the two types of property recognised in Scots law, also called heritage. This concerns all rights to land and whatever goes with land, houses, mills, fishings, teinds and so on. (The other type is moveable property, which comprises just about everything else. The laws and documents relating to each type of property are different).
the landed proprietors in each parish who were responsible for the upkeep of the parish church, the parish school, payment of the minister’s stipend and schoolmaster’s salary etc.
nothing to do with heirship (though it is sometimes spelt the same); this is the crime of making away with someone’s cattle by force, sometimes shown as herdship.
a term conveying a particular structure within an archival catalogue, based on an arrangement of a whole collection of archival items into smaller groups or sections, with items falling into each of these segments. This may sometimes also be referred to as a ‘tree’.
Archival approaches to cataloguing consider how a collection or fonds of archival materials were used and kept in relation to each other by the person(s) or organisation(s) which created them for use in the first place. By trying to preserve this structure when collections are cared for within an archive service, archivists aim to preserve this additional layer of information about the way in which materials were being used in the day to day, before they were moved to an archive. See also the archival principles of respect des fonds and original order
the High Court of Justiciary is the principal criminal court in Scotland, operating through a number of circuits. Also known as the High Court.
something written wholly in the handwriting of the writer.
the act by which someone approves of a written deed (and thereby binds himself to fulfil its terms)
one of the forms of diligence; the comparatively mild one. Takes the form (as they generally do) of a letter in the monarch’s name under the signet seal, which is sent to a law officer instructing him to charge someone who has defaulted on an agreement to pay or perform what he had agreed within a set time under pain of being denounced rebel and ‘put to the horn’. It opens the way for the action by which the defaulter’s moveable property can escheat to the Crown in theory and in fact be sold to satisfy the complainer in practice. See poinding.
almshouse; a charitable lodging-place for destitute people. See knowledge base.
derived from the concept of a ‘hypothetical’ security; it could be said to be an understood security, right or claim which a creditor might have over something belonging to his debtor (or potential debtor). For example, a landlord could be said to have a hypothec over the crops grown by his tenants in any particular year, for the rents due for that year.