Property records
The most frequently used records of Scottish heritable property are:
- Title deeds (instruments of sasine) and inventories
- Sasine registers
- Tax rolls
- Valuation rolls
- Estate papers
The most frequently used records of Scottish moveable property are:
- Wills and testaments
- Sederunt books
- Household accounts
Title deeds and inventories
When ownership of heritable property changes, through sale or inheritance for example, the property is conveyed. Usually, a lawyer will draw up a title deed, which until the late 20th century was known as an instrument of sasine. The survival of individual title deeds is haphazard. These have often survived among the records of the lawyer’s office, or among the personal papers of the family or individual who owned the property, and sometimes these have been deposited in a local archives service.
Sasine Registers
The majority of conveyances in Scotland from 1617 until the late 20th century were sent by lawyers to be registered in centrally held registers known collectively as the register of sasines. For more details about the early register of sasines (before 1781) go to <https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/research-guides/research-guides-a-z/sasines> [accessed 26 April 2024].For details of sasines after 1781 go to the Knowledge Base entry on Property Records – Sasine Abridgements. The general register of sasines is the responsibility of Registers of Scotland and since the introduction of the Land Register of Scotland in 1981, all conveyances are recorded there instead of the register of sasines. For further details see <https://www.ros.gov.uk/our-registers > [accessed 26 April 2024].
Tax rolls
Taxation in Scotland became well organised and better recorded from the 1690s onwards, and most taxes were based on property ownership. Most records of taxation in Scotland are held by the National Records of Scotland. For further details see <https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/research-guides/research-guides-a-z/taxation-records > [accessed 26 April 2024].
Valuation rolls
A special type of tax roll was the valuation roll, on which each property’s rental value and annual tax was estimated, and the name and address of the owner and tenant recorded. For further details see the Knowledge Base entry on Valuation Rolls.
Estate papers
Where a family owned an estate, the surviving records of property management are referred to as estate papers, and many collections of estate papers are either in archives services or still held privately by the families that created them. These may include records of tenants and tenancies showing the names of farmers or estate workers as well as their rents, applications for leases, roups of lands, stock or equipment and plans of the estates.
Wills and testaments
For further information about wills and testaments, see the Knowledge Base entry on Wills and Testaments. Inventories of moveable property are usually part of these records.
Sederunt books
For further information about sederunt books see the Knowledge Base entry on Trust Sederunt Books.
Household accounts
Household accounts, where they survive, can contain information about moveable property such as bed linen, furnishings, glassware and crockery, as well as the day-to-day purchases of groceries and other supplies. These types of records can survive in the family papers of people with limited incomes and no heritable property as well as the better off.
Contributors: Andrew Jackson, Robin Urquhart (both SCAN, 2002), Elspeth Reid (2021).
How is the word ‘sasine’ pronounced and what does it mean?
Strictly speaking, the word ‘sasine’ is pronounced ‘sezin’, but in archive search rooms in Scotland you are most likely to hear it pronounced ‘say-zeen’.
Sasine means ‘possession’, especially with regard to property. It is similar to the English word ‘seize’, and it medieval times, when property was granted there was a ritual seizing of a clod of earth (or some other symbolic part of the property) in front of witnesses. Further information about this can be found in the website of the Registers of Scotland <https://www.ros.gov.uk/> [accessed 26 April 2024].
What do the abbreviations in the Sasine Abridgements stand for?
The abbreviations mainly concern types of legal document being registered and commonly occurring legal terms. The Scottish Council on Archives is grateful to Andrew Jackson for permission to reproduce this list.
| assig. | assignation |
| bar. | barony |
| bond and disp | bond and disposition in security.
The commonest form of heritable security in the 19th century. It combines a personal bond by the borrower with a disposition of the lands on which the sum was secured |
| bond corrob. and disp. | bond of corroboration and disposition.
A heritable security where the bond is intended to corroborate an obligation already undertaken (for example by an ancestor of the obligator) |
| ch. | charter |
| ch. conf. | charter of confirmation
(from a feudal superior) |
| ch. conf. and novodamus | charter of confirmation and novodamus.
A charter of confirmation also containing a new grant (novodamus) or a change in the incidents of tenure of the previous grant. |
| ch. resig. | charter of resignation
(from the feudal superior) |
| ch. resig. and adjud. | charter of resignation (by a superior) on an adjudication (i.e. a judicial process to attach heritable property for debt) |
| ch resig G. S. | charter of resignation under the Great Seal |
| comp. | comprising |
| con. excamb. | contract of excambion, for the exchange of properties, for example to rationalise boundaries. |
| con. fee and liferent | conjunct fee and liferent. A joint fee in two or more persons during their lives, the survivor taking a fee of one half and a liferent of the other. |
| con. of ground annual | contract of ground annual
A form of heritable security. |
| decr. arb. | decreet arbitral.
The award of arbitrators on a point or points jointly submitted to them by parties in dispute. |
| disch. | discharge |
| disp. | disposition |
| disp. and assig. | disposition and assignation |
| disp. in impl. | disposition in implement.
A disposition granted in implement of a previous imperfect conveyance. |
| disp. of tailzie | disposition of tailzie
(i.e. constituting an entail). |
| eod. die | eodem die
(on the same day) |
| extract sp. service | extract of special service
(see ret. gen. serv.) |
| feu. ch. | feu charter |
| feu. con. | feu contract |
| feu. disp. | feu disposition.
In the 19th century the distinction between the charter and the disposition was that a charter was used to create a new feu, and a disposition to carry one forward to a new proprietor. A form of disposition was also used for the former purpose, however, and was known as a feu disposition. |
| G.R. | general register (of sasines) |
| G.S. | great seal |
| mar. con. | marriage contract |
| not. instrument. | notarial instrument
Strictly, any instrument drawn up by a notary. The document referred to as such in the late 19th century normally concerns trustees, either their assumption of the new trust, or the addition of new trustees. |
| oblig. | obligation |
| par. | parish |
| post nupt. mar. con. | post nuptial marriage contract |
| P.R. | particular register (of sasines) |
| pr. chan. | precept furth of chancery.
A deed similar in effect to a precept of clare constat q.v., used where the crown was the superior |
| pr. cl. con. | precept of clare constat.
A deed granted by the superior to the heir of a deceased vassal, reciting that it ‘clearly appears’ (clare constat) that the recipient is the lawful heir, thus enabling him to take sasine. |
| proc. resig. | procuratory of resignation.
The appointment of one or more procurators to resign property into the hands of the superior. By the 18th century this was usually a clause in a disposition rather than a separate document. |
| ratif. | ratification |
| ren. | renunciation |
| resig. ad. rem. | resignation ad remanentiam.
Resignation into the hands of the superior was either for the purpose of a regrant to a third party (resignation in favorem), or to remain in the superior’s own hands (resignation ad remanentiam). |
| ret. gen. serv. | retour of general service.
The verdict of an inquest establishing that a claimant was the heir of a deceased person. A retour of general service merely established his character as heir. A retour of special service detailed the lands in which the deceased died infeft. |
| seq. | sequestrated |
| Latin phrases | |
| eod. die | on the same day |
| loco tutoris | in place of a tutor |
| pro indiviso | undivided |
| propriis manibus | with his own hands |
| vide | see |
How do I convert the legal jargon into who is doing what with which bit of property?
You need to familiarise yourself with the different types of transaction. Compare the entry you are interested in with these various types to see which is the closest. The most common types are:
- Outright sales and gifts
- Family settlements
- Succession
- Rights in security
- Bankruptcy
- Notarial Instruments
You can see typical examples from the sasine abridgements for the first four of the above categories in the Knowledge Base entry for Property Records – Sasine Abridgements.
To see a full entry in the General or Particular Register of Sasines, what information will I need from the sasine abridgement?
You require several bits of information from each abridgement. Firstly the county involved. Secondly whether the entry is in the Particular Register or the General Register. Thirdly the reference number to the corresponding volume in the register.
At the end of each sasine abridgement is a numerical or alpha-numerical reference. If this begins with the letters G. R., then the full sasine entry will be found in the General Register of Sasines prior to 1868, held by the National Records of Scotland (reference RS.3). If the reference begins with the letters P. R. it refers to a full sasine entry in the Particular Register of Sasines for a county or group of counties. If the reference has no letters prefixing it, then it refers to a sasine entry in one of the county divisions of the register after 1868.
Whether or not the reference has a P. R. or G. R. prefix, the remainder of the reference consists of two numbers. The first refers to a volume in the relevant series of registers. The second refers to a folio number within that volume. Once armed with these reference numbers, the next step is to consult the catalogues to the sasine registers at the National Records of Scotland, and then the sasine entry itself.
The example below is taken from the sasine abridgements for Aberdeenshire. The reference at the end of the entry, ringed in red, reads ‘P. R. 249. 114.’ This shows that the full sasine entry will begin on folio 114 of volume 249 of the Particular Register for Aberdeenshire.
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Are sasine abridgements a good source for genealogy?
Sasine abridgements can be a very good source of information for genealogy for those whose ancestors owned land in Scotland from 1781 onwards. They record successions to property, which help establish death dates and family relationships, and they are easily searched by county by personal name.
However, there are limitations. Do not think of the sasine abridgements as an annual list of property owners in Scotland. Rather they are a record of property transactions each year. The limitations of using sasine abridgements for genealogy are that they:
- concern owners of property, not tenants or other occupants
- record a majority of, but not all, property transactions in any given year
- contain legal jargon
- require a working knowledge of Scotland’s feudal land law