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”

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y

Wa We Wh Wi Wr

Will, Latter Will

A will (also known as a latter will) is a document drawn up by someone stating what they want done with their possessions after death. Until 1868, wills could only determine what happened to the deid’s pairt, that is moveable property after the legal rights of a surviving spouse and children had been met. In Scots law this was separate from the appointment of an executor (see testament) but in practice if someone left a will, they often used the same document to appoint an executor. See Knowledge Base on Wills and Testaments for more information.