tenant
one who holds lands (generally for a fixed term) by tack.
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”
tenant-in-chief
a landowner in the feudal system who held his estates directly from the crown.
tenement
in legal terms, a landholding, usually (but not always) a piece of land which is built upon. A more modern, architectural meaning of ‘tenement’ is a type of domestic building, divided into separate dwellings (flats), each of which is separately rented or owned. This type of building became very common in industrial towns of Scotland in the late nineteenth century.