Advocate: a barrister

Annualrent: (one word) interest on a debt

Attainder: a form of condemnation reserved for serious capital crimes such as treason. An attainted person was stripped of their titles and property, which could not then be inherited by the heir

Assize: jury

Baillie: in Scotland, a town councillor

Baron: title once given to the senior judges of the Exchequer Court

Baronet: a hereditary knight whose baronetcy is normally attached to lands.

Baronetcies were granted by the Crown, usually as a reward for services rendered

Bow: distinctly narrow or crooked part of a street, e.g. Edinburgh’s West Bow and Nether Bow

Burgess: citizen accredited with certain rights, e.g. to carry out his trade

Causey: causie stane: a hard stone sett used for paving featuring in many of the streets of old Edinburgh and the New Town

Clandestine marriage: one not performed by a licensed minister of religion. See also irregular marriage

Close: built-over passageway. Many of Edinburgh’s  old closes have been preserved.Some of them opened out into courts, such as Milne’s Court and James’Court

Commissary: judge of the Commissary Court which had jurisdiction over wills and divorces

Court: open area enclosed by buildings

Covenanter: an adherent to the Scottish National Covenant of 1638, which demanded freedom from all forms of pressure to conform to episcopal beliefs and practices. See note 8 of Chapter 3 for details

Curator: legal guardian, e.g. of a minor. See also tutor

Dispone: to legally transfer real or personal property

Dominie: schoolmaster, from the Latin dominus, master

Drystane dyke: a wall made without mortar by using irregular flattish stones that lock together under their own weight

Dux: first in the class or school at the end of the school year

Dyke: wall

Eik: a supplement, as in the eik to a testament

Entail: a legally binding document, the main purpose of which is to dictate the line of succession of heritable property. See for example the Middlebie Entail in §6.3

Exchequer Court: the court that ruled over all matters related to government finances and revenue in Scotland

Feu: the right to hold property, as given by a ‘superior’, ultimately one who holds land directly from the Crown; adj. feudal.  See Youngson (p. xxiv)

Flit: move house

Gait: road or street, e.g. Cowgate, Canongate

Gardyloo: literally‘watch out for the water’, from gardez l’eau (phonetically and euphemistically)

German: (as in brother-german) natural

Hospital: a place of refuge for the needy or infirm

Howff: habitual meeting place, frequently a drinking den

Irregular marriage: one meeting the legal standard, that a declaration of marriage had been made, but not meeting the full requirements of a regular marriage.

Jus relictae: a widow’s rights, e.g. a share of the joint movable property and a terce.

Laird: landowner, whether titled lord or otherwise

Land: large tenement often with several independent dwellings accessed from a common entry, for example, Gladstone’s Land in the Lawnmarket

Liferent: the use of something for the rest of one’s life

Lord Advocate: the highest legal post in Scotland

Merk:    (1) an ancient Scottish monetary unit equal to two thirds of one pound Scots;
                (2) a measure of land, e.g., the ‘Twenty Merk Land of Middlebie’

Pavement: sidewalk

Port: city gate

Pupil: a boy under the age of fourteen or a girl under twelve

Pound Scots: The original Scottish pound. On monetary union in 1707 it was worth a twelfth of a pound sterling, i.e. twenty pence in pre-decimal currency. See also merk

Pounds, Shillings and Pence: British currency up until 1971; the pound (£ or L) was divided into twenty shillings (s), each of which was worth twelve pence (d). Sums of money were represented as, for example, £1 2s 3d or £1/2/3

Press: shelved cupboard

Regular marriage: one complying with rules of the established Church (c. f. Irregular marriage).

Retour: legally return (as heir)

Royal Mile: the long street running downhill from Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood Palace. It comprises four main sections, Castlehill, Lawnmarket, High Street and Canongate

Sasine: a transfer of feudal property. Also the deed of transfer or the record of it. See also seise

Seise: to take possession of feudal property. See also Sasine

Sheriff: county magistrate

Signature: the draft in English of a charter to be written out in Latin, on vellum, for signature by the monarch

Solicitor General: the highest legal post in Scotland after Lord Advocate

Summons Declarator: a legal notification of involvement in an impending court action

Tack: (1) lease; (2) share of product taken as rent

Tacksman: under the feudal system, a henchman granted a ‘tack’ from his superior in return for services, e.g., bringing in rents, and keeping order

Tailzie: alternative form of the word entail

Tenement: a holding; a building divided into separate dwellings or shops

Terce: the right to a share (nominally a third) of a dwelling house and land

Tolbooth: town hall, often with a gaol

Town or Toun: anything from a city down to a single house that was the chief building in a country area, for example, ‘Waverley learned … that in Scotland a single house was called a town’ (Scott, Sir Walter, 1814, Chap. IX)

Turnpike stair: a spiral staircase, usually built onto the exterior of a building

Tutor: the curator of a pupil

Valve: vacuum tube

Writer: (1) general legal practitioner; (2) clerk or accountant in the HEICS

Writer to the Signet: a legal practitioner accredited to appear in the Court of Session, abbr. WS

Wynd: a narrow street with buildings on either side, for example, St Mary’s Wynd.