narrative clause
the clause in a charter or other deed making a grant, which names the granter and the person receiving the grant and says why it is being made.
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”
net and coble
the fishing net and/or coble boat were symbolic objects used for the grant of fishings during ceremonies of sasine, the traditional ceremony through which land ownership and rights were transferred from one party to another; see symbols.
non-entry
a feudal casualty. This was the rents from a dead feuar’s property which fell due to his superior until the feuar’s heir was entered with the superior.
nonage
was when a person was considered to be incapable of performing a certain act of the grounds of youth, and was generally applied to those under 21; it might be found spelt ‘non-age’, and a minor might be said to ‘be in nonage’
notarial instrument
strictly, any document drawn up by a notary. The document referred to as such in the late nineteenth century may concern the adoption of a trust by trustees, or the addition of new trustees, but there are various other forms.
notary public
in the middle ages, almost invariably a churchman who had been admitted to practice by the authority of the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor. But there seem to have been little to stop anyone who could write from setting himself up as a notary, and the authority of some them to do so and their trustworthiness were, to say the least, doubtful – Scottish parliaments were much concerned about ‘false notars’. After the Reformation, they were regulated to become public functionaries who, on passing an examination and trial were admitted by the Court of Session to the power of making instruments which had ‘faith in law’; these could be about any ‘lawful and honest business’ but in practice were usually instruments of sasine.
novodamus
a charter containing a clause in which the superior of a property grants it ‘of new’, usually because there was a defect in the original title to the property or because either the feuar or superior wanted to get the conditions of the original grant altered.
nychtbour
a Scots term meaning neighbour