Teind Court
The Teind Court, also known as the Court of Teinds, was established in 1707 when the functions of Commissioners of Teinds were transferred to the judges of the Court of Session.[1] It deals with the regulation of teinds, (Scottish tithes), which were originally a tenth part of the annual produce of land claimed by members of the clergy for their support.
Prior to the Reformation, the teinds of many parishes had been appropriated to support monastic houses or bishops or had been acquired by laymen. In 1560 no provision was made to endow the reformed church and many of its ministers were lacking in financial support. Therefore, various attempts were made by parliament and the privy council to agree on a fair division of teinds to enable the support of the clergy. In 1617 a committee of Parliament called the Commissioners of Teinds was appointed to settle suitable stipends for ministers.[2] This enabled any heritor to apply to the Commissioners to have his teinds valued and to apply to buy his teinds (except for any bishop’s teinds which were restored in 1662 and then acquired by the crown in 1689 when the episcopacy was abolished). The Commissioners of Teinds could also grant decrees of modification and locality, which fixed the amount of the stipend to be paid to the parish minister from the teinds and who would pay this. In 1707 the powers of the commissioners were transferred to the Court of Session judges who formed the Teind Court.
The jurisdiction of the Teind Court included the valuation and sales of teinds, the augmentation of stipends, disjunction of lands from one parish to another, erection and union of parishes and the building of new churches. After 1866 the Teind Court could also rule on applications for the feuing or sale of glebe lands (the lands whose produce directly belonged to the minister of the parish).[3]
The work of the Teind Court changed in 1925 when the provisions of the Church of Scotland (Property and Endowments) Act came into force. This ensured that standardised monetary stipends replaced teinds as and when any parish using teinds became vacant. Stipends were standardised on the basis of a finalised teind roll prepared by the clerk of teinds.[4] This meant that over time there was less requirement for the Teind Court and the Teind Office became a branch of the central office of the court.[5]
The records of the Teind Court are held by the National Records of Scotland (reference code TE). Individual decrees of the Teind Court can sometimes be found among the records of church congregations or in the personal papers of ministers or their lawyers, held by local authority archives services or other archives services.
Editor: Elspeth Reid (2023)
Related Knowledge Base entries
Bibliography
Birnie, Arthur, A Short History of the Scottish Teinds (W & R Chambers, 1928)
Black, William George, What are Teinds? An account of the History of Tithes in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1893)
Cooper, Lord, of Culross, ‘The Central Courts after 1532’ in An Introduction to Scottish Legal History ed. by G. H. C. Paton (Stair Society, 1958), pp. 341-49
Elliot, Nenion, Teinds or tithes and procedure in the Court of Teinds in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1893)
Elliot, Nenion, Teind papers: containing an account of tithes in Scotland with suggestions for the amendment of the system (Edinburgh, 1874)
Scottish Record Office Guide to the National Archives of Scotland (HMSO, 1996)
References
[1] Kirk and Teinds Act, 1707 (6 Anne c.10).
[2] Plantation of Kirks Act 1617 (c.3).
[3] Glebe Lands (Scotland) Act, 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c.71).
[4] Church of Scotland (Property and Endowments) Act (15 & 16 Geo. V c.33).
[5] Lord Cooper of Culross, ‘The Central Courts after 1532’ in An Introduction to Scottish Legal History ed. by G. C. H. Paton (Stair Society, 1958), pp.341-49 (pp.348-49).