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”
Purpresture was a delinquency (a feudal crime) as a result of which a feuar could suffer forfeiture of his lands, for the offence of encroaching on streets, highways or commons belonging to his superior; purprision is generally the illegal encroachment on (or enclosure of) lands or property belonging to another.