latin and scottish phrases

6.1 LATIN PHRASES

6.2 SCOTTISH LEGAL TERMS

The following are some Scottish Legal Terms which appear from time to time in writs lodged with Applications.

ACRE	One Scots acre = 1 acre 1 rood 1 pole 23.8 square yards Imperial 1 Scots acre - 4 roods 1 rood - 40 falls 1 fall - 36 square ells

ALLUVIUM	The soil accumulated by the action of a river, usually washed from adjacent land upstream. The owner of the land, thus increased, is legally entitled to benefit from the new soil.

AVERAGE (or ARRAGE)	One of the feudal services of uncertain nature, perhaps the supply of a horse to carry goods or otherwise do work for the superior. Usually in the phrase arrage and carriage.

BOLL	A measure of weight and capacity, varying slightly according to the type of grain measured and to the county or district. The standard wheat boll (Linlithgow) was equal to 3 bushels 3 pecks. The barley boll (Linlithgow) was equal to 5 bushels 3 pecks. A boll was 4 firlots or 1/16 of a chalder A boll of oatmeal weight 1 cwt. 2 stones

BOOKING	A form of land-tenure peculiar to the Burgh of Paisley. Conveyances of land under this tenure, in place of an obligation to infeft, contained an obligation "to book and secure".

BOVATE	See Oxgate.

CAIN, KAIN	(Gaelic cain-customers or rents paid in kind). Generally applied to fowls, eggs or animals paid to a landlord in lieu of rent. (see - reek hen).

CARRIAGE	A feudal duty or service consisting in providing transport for the superior, e.g. to car coals, peats, lime, salt etc.

CARRUCATE	(Med. Latic carruca - a wheeled plough) See Ploughgate.

CHALDER	See Boll.

COMMONTY	A right to the perpetual use in common with others of a piece of land generally for pasturage; such land itself, a common.

CRUIVE	A salmon-trap consisting of an enclosure or fence in a river so constructed as to catch only fully-grown fish which once inside the enclosure cannot get out again. Cruives must be kept open on Sundays.

DAVACH	A measure of land particularly associated with North-East Scotland and described as equal to four ploughgates calculated as 416 Scots acres, but probably more correctly an indefinite are of land including rough grazing as well as arable ground varying in extent according to fertility.

EXTENT, AULD AND NEW	The name given to the general valuation of land in Scotland for the purposes of taxation, casualty assessment and franchise. The Auld Extent was made in the reign of Alexander III (c.1280), the New, as a result of the improvement of land and altered money values, in 1474. Both valuations appear in the Retours after 1474 and later valuations were generally calculated in multiples of Auld Extent. The practice fell into disuse being replaced by the Valued Rent, an assessment of 1643, and later by the modern Valuation Roll of 1854. In its reduced form of stent, the word came to mean a task. Hence stentmaster etc.

FARTHINGLAND	See Pennyland.

FEAL and DIVOT (FAIL)	A servitude right to cut turf for building, thatching or fuel. Both words mean sods, fails being thicker than divots.

FERM	A fixed yearly amount in money or kind paid as rent for land.

	Hence ferm-bear (barley), ferm-mean etc., ferm-maill (rend payable in money only).

FIARS	(Old French feor, feur - fixed price). The average prices of the various types of grain fixed annually in February for the current year by the Sheriff in the Friars Court. Originally fixed to ascertain the money value of Crown Rents, later to settle value of grain sued for at law and, since 1808, only to determine the amount of a parish minister’s stipend. To fix these amounts is technically called "to strike fiars" and the procedure is regulated by Acts of Sederunt of 1723.

GOWPEN	A double handful. LOCK A single handful. Two of the perquisites in grain or mel of the mill-servants, payable by those in the sucken of a mill.

HAINING	An enclosure fenced off originally by a hedge, generally for the purpose of protecting a hay crop from cattle.

INFIELD and OUTFIELD	In the old agricultural system before rotational farm, the two main divisions into which a farm was the best land nearest the farmstead, which was continuously in crop and received the winter dung. The outfield or second-best land was cropped and pastured alternately in five-year periods.

KINDLY TENANT or RENTALLER	One who holds land on very favourable terms by enrolment in the rental-book of a superior, but not by feu charter. They were generally construed to have a life-rent of the property, except in the case of those of Lochmaben, whose rights are perpetual and alienable, and in other cases where the rights appear to have been heritable.

KNAVESHIP	A small proportion of the grain ground at a mill given to the servant who does the actual grinding: one of the sequels of thirlage.

LOCK	See Gowpen.

MAILL	Strictly, rental paid in money. Sometimes called silver-maill. Grass-maill was the rent payable for grazing cattle on some other’s pasture.

MART	An ox or cow fattened for slaughter about the end of the November and salted for winter provisions.

MERK (MARK)	A MERK is an old Scots coin equal to 13/4 Scots. A merkland is land valued in auld extent at that sum. A ploughgate being a forty-shilling land of Auld Extent and being calculated at about 104 aces, a merkland would be on an average 34 acres, the exact size however depending rather on its productive capacity than on its superficial area.

MULTURE	The duty, consisting of a proportion of the grain, exacted by the proprietor or tenant of a mill on all corn ground. Insucken multure was that exigible from farmers within the sucken of the mill and was heavier than outsucken multure, levied on those outside the sucken who came voluntarily to the mill. Dry multures are duties, in grain or money, paid by suckeners whether grain is ground or not.

OXGANG or OXGATE	The amount of land which it was calculated one of a team of 8 oxen could plough in a year, i.e. 1/8 of a ploughgate. Latinised also as bovate.

PARSONAGE	The teinds of a parish paid for the maintenance of the resident clergyman. In parishes in the endowment of a monastery or cathedral, parsonage teinds were of corn only and went to the endowed body, vicarage teinds (the lesser teinds) being the perquisite of the vicar or priest in charge. In other parishes, both teinds went to the resident.

PENNYLAND	A land originally valued at a penny of auld extent. There were similarly shillinglands and farthinglands. These valuation divisions of land persisted in the North and West of Scotland much later than elsewhere.

PLOUGHGATE	The amount of land which a plough pulled by a team of 8 oxen could till in a year, generally calculated at 104 Scots acres but varying probably according to the productive capacity of the land rather than its extent. (This definition is questioned by some authorities). Also called carrucate, or, in England hide. The proprietor of a ploughgate, held of the Crown, had a parliamentary vote. In money terms a ploughgate was a forty-shilling land of auld extent.

REEK HEN	A hen paid as part of the rental for each house which reeked, i.e. a dwelling-house with a fireplace.

RUNRIG	Originally land, alternate rigs of which belonged to different proprietors. After 1695 such land was re-apportioned more conveniently into divisions, larger than rigs, of several acres each. The term is uded more loosely to describe small divisions of land adjacent to one another which farmers took it is turn to work and crop. A rig (ridge) is a piece of land ploughed about a central furrow, varying in size but now measuring about 15-18 feet wide.

SEQUELS (Latin sequelae)	The minor charges to the mill-servant (e.g. knaveship, lock) imposed on those proprietors in the sucken of a mill. See Multure.

SHILLINGLAND	See Pennyland.

SOCCAGE	An ancient tenure of land by which the vassal rendered only agricultural services to the superior.

SOUM (SOWM)	A soum of land is the amount which will pasture one cow or ten sheep per season. An action of souming and rouming is one designed to ascertain how many cattle a grazier with grazing rights in a common might pasture thereon. To roum (i.e. make room) is, literally, to allot space to each grazier.

SUCKEN	The lands of an estate on which there was an obligation to grind corn at a certain mill. Proprietors or tenants of such lands were called suckeners. (see also Thirlage). The chief dues for such grindings were called multures and the lesser duties sequels.

TACIT RELOCATION	The principle that where no notice is given to terminate a lease, the lease is renewed on the old terms for a year (if originally for a year or more).

THIRLAGE	The servitude or obligation on occupiers of certain lands to take their grain to a particular mill to be ground for payment of certain duties (in kind) specified in the conveyance. See Multure, Sequels, Sucken.

THRAVE	A measure of cut corn equal to 2 stooks, i.e. 24 sheaves.

UDAL	A non-feudal tenure, once common in Orkney and Shetland, whereby owners of land hold direct of the Crown for a payment called skat, perhaps originally for the privilege of pasturing on common land. In Shetland a common pasture is a scathold. There is, of course, no charter or sasine with such land, though most of the old udal land has now been broken up and feued by Crown Charter. Udallers are liable for the ordinary land tax.

VICARAGE	The lesser teinds (of hay, garden stuff, young animals and other farm produce except corn) reserved for the vicar or resident priest of a parish, which was in the endowment of a cathedral or monastery. See also Parsonage. Though assessed, these teinds were seldom actually exacted, the vicar being paid his salary directly from the bishop or abbot.

WARE	Sea-weed. Formerly this might be feued to any vassal but, if not, it was common property.

click icon above to go back to plans manual homepage