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).
or tailzie.
A deed by which the legal course of succession
to lands can be altered and another one substituted,
or by which the descent of the lands can be
secured to a specified succession of heirs and
substitutes
entry of an heir
acceptance of an heir to landed property by
the feudal superior of the property
eodem die
"on the same day"
error,
summons of
a legal action to get someone's service
as heir to a property annulled, on the quite
reasonable grounds that an
inquest had identified the wrong person
as heir because a nearer heir existed
"common of estover" (really an English
term) is the technical name for the right of
tenants, for example, to use dead wood for fuel
evidents
a Scottish name for any deeds or other written
evidence
ex deliberatione
dominorum concillii
"by the deliberation of the Lords of
Council". Written on the bottom of
all signet
letters, in pursuance of the legal fiction that
all these derive directly from the king and
his council
Not really a defence, but rather a claim or excuse in the nature of a defence,
which was made with the intention of stopping
a case in its tracks. The "exception
of non-numerate money" (exceptio non
numeratae pecuniae) was a claim that the
money due to be repaid by a debtor had never
been paid, or never properly paid in the first
place. The exceptio rei judicatae
"the exception of the thing judged"
was a claim that the case under consideration
had already been tried by a different court.
a certificate by a law officer that he had
served a summons, letter of diligence
or some other writ as he had been ordered to
do. It was important to get this right,
for if the execution wasn't carried out in exactly
the right way, the person summoned, etc. could
plead an exception
a census or valuation of all the lands in
Scotland for tax purposes. The "auld
(old) extent" was probably made in the
13th century. By 1474, it had been noticed
that it was a bit out of date, and it was replaced
by the "new extent" (which was often
just the auld extent multiplied by 4,5 or 6).
Lands continued to be described in terms of
these extents long after either were made as
e.g "the ten-shilling lands of ..... of
auld extent"
