Other Scots terms
This glossary explains terms drawn from Scottish civic, social, and religious life and supplements that of legal terms used in Scotland during the late 17th century. Many many be unfamiliar to site visitors from both sides of the Atlantic.
As with the legal terms, I have drawn on the Dictionaries of the Scots Language website (source of the image to the right).
If you come across other unfamiliar terms, please get in touch for an explanation.
Other Scots terms
| baillie | A town councillor and magistrate in a Scottish burgh, often responsible for local justice and administration. |
| baxter | A baker |
| burgh | Towns which had legal and trading rights and privileges granted by royal charter. |
| burgess | A freeman of a Scottish burgh, enjoying trading rights and civic privileges, admitted normally through inheritance, purchase, marriage to a burgess’s daughter or widow, or completion of an apprenticeship. Though rare, women could be admitted as burgesses, eg, as widows continuing their husband’s business or as daughters inheriting privileges in the absence of male heirs. |
| Commissioner of Supply | A county landowner appointed by Parliament to collect local taxation (notably land tax) and administer county affairs, including roads and militia |
| corn | A generic term for grain crops such as oats, barley, or wheat. |
| Covenanter | A Presbyterian who adhered to the National Covenant (1638) and the Solemn League and Covenant (1643), opposing royal attempts to impose episcopacy on the Scottish Church. |
| Covenanter Remnant | Covenanters in the 1680s who were the strongest in opposition to the authorities, many refusing oaths of allegiance and abjuration (also ‘Society People’) |
| conventicle | An irregular religious meeting in the open or in a house. Mainly but not exclusively an activity of Covenanters. |
| cordiner | Shoemaker (from the French cordonnier) |
| cottar | A smallholder or farm labourer with a cottage and patch of land, usually in return for labour services. |
| deposed | Formally removed from office. Used of ministers deprived of their charges for refusing to conform to episcopal arrangements or religious policy of the Crown. |
| druggist | An apothecary or seller of medicinal drugs. Later evolved into the modern ‘chemist’ or ‘pharmacist’. |
| elder | A lay office-bearer in the presbyterian Church of Scotland, elected from among the congregation, sitting on the kirk session, sharing responsibility for religious and moral discipline, and for administering poor relief. |
| Episcopalian | A supporter of church governance by bishops, in 17th-century Scotland, aligned with the religious policy promoted by Charles II and James VII/II. |
| First and second charge | Designations for senior (‘first charge’) and junior (‘second charge’) ministers in more populous or geographically larger parishes. |
| freeman | Someone granted full trading and civic rights in a burgh or guild, enjoying privileges of commerce and local citizenship that were denied to ordinary residents. |
| General Assembly | The supreme decision-making body of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland meeting annually, with authority over doctrine, worship and church discipline. |
| grassman | A cottar with limited grazing rights on common land, paying rent through labour. |
| guild brother | A member of a guild, a historic association of artisans or merchants who controlled their craft or trade in a specific town or territory |
| herd | A pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on open pasture |
| heritor | A landowner of heritable property, responsible for parish obligations such as maintaining the church, school, and sometimes militia. |
| hind | A male skilled farm servant who was often responsible for a pair of horses |
| Kirk Session | The parish court, made up of the minister, session clerk and lay elders, responsible for discipline, poor relief, and oversight of local religious life. |
| indweller | A resident of a particular town or parish |
| laird | A minor landowner, below the nobility but socially above tenants and heritors of lesser means. |
| litster | A dyer of cloth or yarn |
| merk | A Scots currency unit, worth 13 shillings 4 pence Scots (two-thirds of a pound Scots, about 1 shilling sterling). |
| Mr | Abbreviation for the Latin ‘Magister’, applied to men with a university degree (eg, ministers, teachers and advocates) and on occasion employers who are masters of craft or trade employing servants and apprenticeships. |
| operative mason | A working stonemason, contrasted with ‘speculative masons’ admitted to a lodge of Freemasons for social or philosophical reasons. |
| Mr | Abbreviation for the Latin ‘Magister’, applied to men with a university degree (eg, ministers, teachers and advocates) and on occasion employers who are masters of craft or trade employing servants and apprenticeships. |
| outed | A term widely used for the large number of ministers who refused to conform to episcopacy in 1662. |
| oy | Grandchild (occasionally a nephew or niece) |
| Presbyterian | An adherent of church governance by elders, organised in kirk sessions, presbyteries, and synods, rather than bishops. |
| Presbytery | The sub-regional body of ministers and elders within Presbyterian governance, overseeing kirk sessions and the appointment of ministers. |
| relict | A surviving widow (less commonly, widower) |
| Scots pound | Roughly equivalent to 1/12th of a pound Sterling before the Union of Parliaments in 1707 |
| servitor | A personal attendant or subordinate in service to a superior (eg, a legal clerk or secretary to a landowner) |
| Society People | See Covenanter Remnant |
| Synod | A larger assembly of several presbyteries, dealing with appeals and wider issues of doctrine and discipline. |
| speculative mason | A freemason not practising as a stonemason, but joining a lodge for social, moral, or philosophical purposes. |
| tacksman | One who holds a tack or lease of property, usually a tenant farmer. The term may also apply to tacks of mills, fishing rights, and the collection of customs and other dues. In many areas tacksmen ranked socially between landowners and ordinary tenants, and might sub-let parts of their tack. |
| tocher | A dowry or marriage portion, consisting of money, goods, or land brought by a bride to her husband. |