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 set of records of the same type from the same provenance. Typically within a fonds there will be one or more series. They are most easily recognised in corporate or government fonds, such as the minutes of a committee or accounts of a department.
the process by which an heir acquired the right to an estate. It started with the brieve ordering an inquest to determine who was next heir to the estate, followed by the retour of the inquest stating the heir’s right to succeed followed by his entry, (his formal acceptance by the superior of the estate). It was called a ‘special service’ when the heir’s ancestor had been formerly infeft in the estate, that is, had had full legal possession of it by virtue of a sasine; if the heir’s ancestor was not infeft, then the process was called a ‘general service’. Until the process of serving the heir had been gone through, he would be the apparent heir; see also heirs.
table napkin; serviette
obligations which went with a property, or which had to be performed to a particular person.