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”
(1) the name given to a decree of the Teind Court, determining the extent and value of the teinds due to be paid by a heritor; (2) the determination of the value of land and property for the purposes of taxation (see also stent), hence valuation rolls
holder of land by feudal tenure; see also feuar.
‘succeeding in the vice’ takes place when someone arranges with a tenant who is to remove from the property he holds by lease, to take over his holding from him when he goes without the consent of the landowner.
any sort of grain or corn; ‘victual rents’ are payments made in grain.
a Latin word meaning ‘see’. Often used in older indexes.
dues payable by anyone possessing lands illegally; for example, a tenant who was supposed to leave his holding at the end of his lease, but didn’t, would be liable to his landlord for the profits the landlord could have made if he had resumed control of the lands himself or leased them to another tenant.
(1) a record that documents life events (births, marriages, deaths etc); (2) a record that is essential to protect the assets of an organisation and enable recovery after a disaster.
not quite forgery but related to it; it means altering a document without the consent of all the parties to the document.
‘namely’
simply a written evidence of payment.