Sasine in
Scots law
Scots law () is the List of country legal systems, legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing Civil law (legal system), civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different histori ...
is the delivery of
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
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
A heritor was a privileged person in a parish in Scots law. In its original acceptation, it signified the proprietor of a heritable subject, but, in the law relating to parish government, the term was confined to such proprietors of lands or house ...
) 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 e ...
, ‘conferred full Sasine’ of certain lands at
Strathblane
Strathblane (, ) is a village and List of civil parishes in Scotland, parish in the registration county of Stirling, situated in the southwestern part of the Stirling (council area), Stirling council area, in central Scotland. It lies at the foo ...
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
Registers of Scotland (RoS) () is the non-ministerial department of the Scottish Government responsible for compiling and maintaining records relating to property and other legal documents. They currently maintain 21 public registers. The offic ...
was created in every locality by the
Registration Act 1617 (c. 16 (S)). 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 the
Infeftment Act 1845
Land registration in Scots law is a system of public registration of land, and associated Scots property law#Recognised Property Rights in Scots Law, real rights. Scotland has one of the oldest systems of land registration in the world. Registra ...
(
8 & 9 Vict. c. 35). The "instrument of ''sasines''" was superseded by the recording of the conveyance with a "warrant of registration" by the
Titles to Land (Scotland) Act 1858 (
21 & 22 Vict. c. 76). 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 distillery ...
handed over the land of St Mary's Chapel in
Easter Ross
Easter Ross () 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 constituency and a Scotti ...
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 synonym ...
(but not the term
seisin Seisin (or seizin) is a legal concept that denotes the right to legal possession of a thing, usually a fiefdom, fee, or an estate in land. It is similar, but legally separate from the idea of ownership.
The term is traditionally used in the context ...
).
See also
*
Seisin Seisin (or seizin) is a legal concept that denotes the right to legal possession of a thing, usually a fiefdom, fee, or an estate in land. It is similar, but legally separate from the idea of ownership.
The term is traditionally used in the context ...
, English and French 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 synonym ...
*
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 Middle Ages, early mediev ...
, 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