The Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) 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. Since the SCAN project ended, the Dictionary of the Scots Language has gone online at http://www.dsl.ac.uk/, and this should be consulted for Scots words and phrases (including legal terms).
a silver coin worth 13 shillings 4 pence (or
two-thirds of a pound) Scots, and therefore
just over shilling sterling at the time of the
Union; common also as a unit of valuation of
land, as in "the two merklands of ault
extent of Glaur"
a feudal casualty
which entitled the superior of a property to
demand a payment from the heir to that property
when the heir married or became marriageable;
seenon-entry,
relief,
wardship
a contract made between the husband or promised
husband of a woman who was about to marry or
just had, and her male relatives, settling the
provision to be made for the wife or future
wife. The idea was to improve on the legal
rights of the wife or future wife and any children
of the marriage, usually by the husband agreeing
to grant them a liferent,
or to grant the wife an annuity (the
jointure), which would safeguard against
any risk of the husband becoming insolvent.
The contract could be made before marriage,
when it was termed an "ante-nuptial contract",
or it could be "post-nuptial" if made
after; the ante-nuptial version gave the wife
and children much stronger rights over the husband's
estate should get into debt, because they
would then be entitled to be considered as his
creditors.
cattle paid as part of a rent at Martinmas
(11 November)
mear, mere
mare, femail horse; wooden frame on which wrongdoers
had to 'ride' as a public punishment; wooden
frame used on a trestle to support scaffolding;
bricklayer's hod
mell(with)
have dealings with (used in a testament, it
applies to the executor's disposal of the deceased's
property)
someone who is older than 12 if female or
14 if male, but still under the age of 21; however
"minority" can be used to refer to
the whole period of a person's life from birth
until they reach 21. Minors may have curators
who are appointed to look after their affairs;
see alsopupil
misprision of treason
having knowledge of a treasonable act or intent
but failing to inform on it
the other kind of property in Scots law as
opposed to heritable;
in general, it is every type of property which
isn't land or something connected with land.
happens when someone has property which is
being claimed by several others, for instance
a debtor owing money to several creditors; he
can then raise an action of multiple poinding
with the aim of having it discerned that he
is only liable to make one single payment
like sequels,
these were rights which arose out of occupiers
of lands being bound or astricted
to use a particular mill only. Multures
were a quantity of grain due to be paid to the
owner or tenant of the mill in return for having
corn ground, but they were payable by everybody
making use of the mill whether they were astricted
or not; people who used the mill voluntarily
(e.g because it was nearest) were its
"out-sucken multurers", those bound
to use that mill were its "in-sucken multurers".
The sequels which they also had to pay were
comparatively small dues payable to the miller
and his servants who actually did the work;
see also sequels,
sucken,
thirlage
mutchkin, mutskin
measure of capacity, mainly for liquids, but
also for powdered or granulated solids (0.43
litre); container of this capacity
