Sasine in
Scots law
Scots law () is the legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. Together with English law and Northern Ireland ...
is the delivery of
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
property, typically land.
Feudal property means immovable property, and includes everything that naturally goes with the property. For land, that would include such things as buildings, trees, and underground minerals. A superior (e.g., a
heritor) might authorise his agent or factor to give possession of his property to someone else through a document known as a "precept of sasine". One of the earliest records in Scotland is from 1248 when
Sir Malcolm, son of the then
Earl of Lennox
The Earl or Mormaer of Lennox was the ruler of the region of the Lennox in western Scotland. It was first created in the 12th century for David of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon and later held by the Stewart dynasty.
Ancient earls
The first ear ...
, ‘conferred full Sasine’ of certain lands at
Strathblane
Strathblane ( gd, Strath Bhlàthain, ) is a village and parish in the registration county of Stirlingshire, situated in the southwestern part of the Stirling council area, in central Scotland. It lies at the foothills of the Campsie Fells and th ...
to Sir David Graham.
Over time, sasine came to be used in common speech as a reference to the deed or document recording the transfer, rather than to the transfer itself. Hence phrases such as "to give sasines", "to deliver sasines", "to receive sasines", "to take sasines".
Alternative spellings include: ''seizin'', ''seisin'', ''sasin'', ''seasin'', ''sasing'', ''seasing'', ''sesin'', ''seasin'', ''sesine'', ''seasine'', ''saisine''.
Additional explanations
A
Register of Sasines was created in every locality by the
Registration Act 1617. It functions to this day on a national level as the
General Register of Sasines.
Transfers of property were originally by symbolic delivery, by handing over a clump of ground or a stone or similar object on the property itself, and then registering the "deed of conveyance" in the local "Register of Sasines". The term 'Instrument of Sasine' was actually the recording of the event of the symbolic delivery of the property as witnessed, and minuted, by a Court Official in attendance for that purpose.
[Registers of Scotland] Actual ''sasines'' on the land itself were made unnecessary by an act of 1845. The "instrument of ''sasines''" was superseded by the recording of the conveyance with a "warrant of registration" by an act of 1858. The last legal ceremony of sasine in Scotland was performed in 2002 as
Glenmorangie
Glenmorangie distillery (pronounced with the stress on the second syllable: ; the toponym is believed to derive from either Gaelic ''Gleann Mòr na Sìth'' " vale of tranquillity" or ''Gleann Mór-innse'' " vale of big meadows") is a distille ...
handed over the land of St Mary's Chapel in
Easter Ross
Easter Ross ( gd, Ros an Ear) is a loosely defined area in the east of Ross, Highland, Scotland.
The name is used in the constituency name Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, which is the name of both a British House of Commons constitue ...
to the Cadboll Trust.
The corresponding term in English law was
livery of seisin
Livery of seisin () is an archaic legal conveyancing ceremony, formerly practised in feudal England and in other countries following English common law, used to convey holdings in property. The term ''livery'' is closely related to if not synon ...
(but not the term
seisin Seisin (or seizin) denotes the legal possession of a feudal fiefdom or fee, that is to say an estate in land. It was used in the form of "the son and heir of X has obtained seisin of his inheritance", and thus is effectively a term concerned with co ...
).
See also
*
Seisin Seisin (or seizin) denotes the legal possession of a feudal fiefdom or fee, that is to say an estate in land. It was used in the form of "the son and heir of X has obtained seisin of his inheritance", and thus is effectively a term concerned with co ...
, English feudal equivalent
*
Livery of seisin
Livery of seisin () is an archaic legal conveyancing ceremony, formerly practised in feudal England and in other countries following English common law, used to convey holdings in property. The term ''livery'' is closely related to if not synon ...
*
Moot hill
A moot hill or ''mons placiti'' (statute hill) is a hill or mound historically used as an assembly or meeting place, as a moot hall is a meeting or assembly building, also traditionally to decide local issues. In early medieval Britain, such h ...
, a sasine ceremony of barony rights
Sources and references
{{Reflist
Scots law legal terminology
Scots property law
Land use
Real property law
Scottish coast and countryside