The DOST
Corpus
The
corpus of texts from which the quotations in Volume I (A-C) are selected extends
to some 550 items drawn from sources which include national and local records,
family papers, charters, and prose and verse literature. Volume II adds 45 new
titles, many of them parish histories and other works of local
interest.
In 1955, A. J. Aitken,
recruited a new team of volunteers to carry out a major new reading-programme.
As a result some 700 additional works were added to the Combined Register of
Titles, printed in Volume III (H-L). In the Preface to Volume III, Aitken
wrote:
A
comparison of the new Combined Register of Titles with the original Register
will reveal that in the last nine or ten years hundreds of new sources of Older
Scots have been read for the Dictionary. In addition, a substantial number of
the books listed in the original Register of Titles has been carefully and
profitably re-examined and several important series which had previously been
only sampled have now been exhaustively dealt with.
Part
of the quest for completeness involved the excerpting of documents from parts of
Scotland which were poorly represented in the existing Register of Titles, e.g.
the transcripts of burgh and parish records from south-west Scotland made by the
4th
Marquis of Bute.
Small numbers of
sources continued to be excerpted throughout and are listed as part of the
prefatory material in subsequent volumes down to Volume VII after which further
new titles are included the Revised Register of Titles published in this
volume.
There follows a survey of
the categories of texts covered in DOST, with some discussion of their contents
and exemplary lists of titles in each category, drawn from the Revised Register
of Titles. The categories are broad, and there is a degree of overlap between
them.
I
Cartularies, etc.
Some
of the earliest quotations in DOST are taken from cartularies, rentals and
tax-rolls of monastic and other religious institutions. With entries dating
from the twelfth, or in some cases even the eleventh century, these records of
the great religious houses antedate the earliest Scots literary texts by several
centuries, and the earliest prose texts by even longer. Although written for
the most part in Latin, most also contain passages in Scots detailing, for
instance, the contents of an ancient charter granting property to the house,
disputes over contested lands, the boundaries of the monks’ holdings or
something, perhaps, as mundane as the arrangements for repairing parts of the
monastic buildings.
These records
have often been quoted for early examples of onomastic terms. For a selection of
such terms from the letter S alone, cf.
S(c)hor(e
n.,
Sid(e
n.
6,
Sike
n.,
Slad(e
n.
and Slak
n.1
Most
of the surviving cartularies have been published by historical societies such as
the Bannatyne, Maitland and Abbotsford Clubs.
Titles
Ayr
Friars Pr.
Chart.
Balmerino
and L.
Chart.
Beauly
Chart.
Black Friars
Edinb.
Blackfriars
Perth
Cart.
Cambuskenneth
Cart.
S. Giles
Cart. S.
Nich. Aberd.
Carte
Northberwic
Chart.
Coupar A.
Chart.
Holy Trin.
Chron.
Lanercost
Coldingham
Priory
Coldstream
Chart.
Coll. St.
Leonard
Coll. St.
Salvator
Crosraguel
Chart.
Durham
Priory
Reg.
Greyfriars
Convent
Dumfries
Hist.
Kinloss A.
Hist.
Pluscardyn
Holyrood
Chart.
Inchaffray
Chart.
Inchcolm
Chart.
Isle of
May
Liber
Aberbr.
Liber
Calchou
Liber Coll.
Glasg.
Liber
Dryburgh
Liber
Melros
Liber
Plusc.
Liber
Scon
Lindores
A.
Lindores
Chart.
Newbattle
Chart.
Paisley
Abbey
Rec. Kinloss
Mon.
Reg. Assed. S.
Marie de Cupro
Reg.
Cambuskenneth
Reg.
Cupar A.
Reg.
Dunferm.
Reg.
Episc. Aberd.
Reg.
Episc. Brechin
Reg.
Episc. Glasg.
Reg.
Episc. Morav.
Reg.
Kinloss A.
Reg.
Neubotle
Reg.
Paisley
Reg. St.
A.
Reg. S.
Giles
Reg.
Soltre
Rentale
Dunkeld.
Sciennes
Conv.
Sweetheart
Abbey Tax Roll
II
Records: Crown
and
State
More
important than the cartularies as sources of quotation material are the records
of the great offices of state and departments of government: the
Acts of the Scottish
Parliament
(Acts),
the Acts of the Lords
Auditors of Causes & Complaints
(Acta
Aud.),
the Acts of the
Lords
of Council in Civil
Causes
(Acta
Conc.),
the Register of the
Privy Council
(Reg.
Privy C.), the
Register of the Privy
Seal
(Reg. Privy
S.) and the
Register of the Great
Seal
(Reg.
Great S.), as well as the
Exchequer Rolls of
Scotland
(Exch.
R.), the
Accounts of the Lord
High
Treasurer of
Scotland
(Treas.
Acc.), and the
Master of Works
Accounts
(M. Works
Acc.).
The
Acts,
in 12 volumes, begin, essentially, with the reign of David I in 1124:
‘Incipiunt Assise Regis David’, translated at a later date as:
‘Heyr begynnis the lawys of the Kyng David’ and cover the period
1124 to 1707. This is the historical period covered by DOST, ending with the
Act of Union and the prorogation of the Scottish Parliament. Volume XII is
largely given over to a General Index of over 1,000 pages, running from
‘Aaron’s Rod’, found in a chest at Holyrood in 1291, to
‘Zouche, William la, de Assheby’, one of the English ambassadors
sent to treat with King Robert I in
1327.
Acta
Aud., Acta Conc. and
Reg. Privy
C., are concerned with the administration
of justice, securing of rights and redress of wrongs as well as the preservation
of peace within the realm and the devising and enforcing of regulations to that
end. The Reg. Privy
C., commencing in 1545 and running on
unbroken, in several series, until the late
17th
century, is the record of the workings of Scottish justice during the medieval
and renaissance periods.
The
Reg. Privy S.
records the authentication of various
classes of crown letters and grants, such as gifts of pensions, tacks of crown
lands, remissions of penalties for crimes, legitimation of illegitimate
offspring and commissions to minor offices of state. For other crown grants,
such as charters, the attachment of the Great Seal might be required, and these
transactions are recorded in
Reg. Great S.
In some cases the Privy Seal might be
applied to a precept as a first step in the process of procuring the Great Seal.
Quotations drawn from these sources are an important source of information
especially about the class of landowners and
office-holders.
The Exchequer Rolls
(Exch.
R.) run from 1264 to 1600, filling 23
volumes with details of revenues accruing to the crown from royal lands. The
usefulness of Exch.
R., which is largely in Latin, lies in the
fact that the vernacular terms that are given are frequently glosses of the
Latin and are thus supplied with a Latin
definition.
Treas.
Acc., on the other hand, is generally in
Scots providing a wealth of information about the life of the royal court. As
the editor of Vol. I says in his Preface: ‘The value of these records for
historical illustration can scarcely be over-estimated...there is hardly any
department of public affairs or of contemporary life and manners...on which they
do not shed important
light.’
M.
Works Acc. deals with the building and
repairing of the royal castles and palaces between 1529 and 1679, providing
information about architecture, the construction of buildings, tradesmen, tools
and materials.
Titles
Acta
Aud.
Acta
Conc.
Acta Conc.
&
Sess.
Acts
Acts
& Decr.
Acts
Sederunt
Decis.
Lords
Exch.
R.
M. Works
Acc.
Rot.
Sc.
Treas.
Acc.
III
Law
Scots
law, in all its aspects has had an enormous influence on Scots, and works
relating to the law are of great importance in the Corpus. There is, of course,
considerable overlap between this category and the categories of Records in II
above and IV below, the records of the major legislative offices of state and of
the local courts. This section is placed here because, although it includes
legal textbooks, and works on the law in general, it also includes some
compilations of laws that could, perhaps, equally well be included in these
sections. It also includes decisions and decreets of judicial
bodies.
The
oldest vernacular versions of the laws of Scotland – the ‘auld
laws,’ as Sir John Skene called them – are preserved in a number of
manuscripts (e.g. the
Bute
MS and
Adv.
MS 25. 4. 15), and
in various secondary sources. Quotations in DOST are most often taken from an
Edinburgh University PhD thesis, Margaret Robertson’s ‘An Edition of
Some Early Vernacular Versions of the ‘Auld Laws’ of Scotland’
(1962) a copy of which is housed in the DOST Library.
Leading
legal textbooks include Sir James Balfour’s
Practicks:
or, a System of the more ancient Law of Scotland
(Balfour
Pract.);
Sir James Dalrymple of Stair’s
The
Institutions of the Law of Scotland
(Stair
Inst.)
and
The
Decisions of the Lords of Council & Session
(Stair
Decis.);
Sir John Lauder of Fountainhall’s
The
Decisions of the Lords of Council and Session
(Fountainhall
Decis.)
and Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh’s
The
Laws and Customes of Scotland in Matters Criminal
(Mackenzie
Laws
& C.). Robert
Pitcairn’s
Criminal
Trials in Scotland
(Crim.
Tr.) is a vivid
compilation of some of the more sensational court cases, many involving
witchcraft. There is also the first Scottish dictionary of legal terms:
De
Verborum Significatione: The Exposition of the Termes And Difficill Wordes,
Conteined in the Fovre Bvikes of Regiam Majestatem, and vthers, in the Actes of
Parliament, Infeftments, and vsed in the practicque of this Realme collected and
exponed be M. John
Skene, Clerke of our Soveraine Lordis Register
(Skene
Verb.
S)
of which copies of both the 1597 and 1599 editions are in the DOST
Library.
Titles
Admir.
Ct. Bk.
Adv. MS 25. 4.
15
Balfour
Pract.
Barounis
Lawis
Bell
Dict. Law
Scotl.
Gen.
Reg. Hornings
Gibb
Sc. Legal
Terms
Hannay
College of
Justice
Harcarse
Decis.
(T.)
Hope
Major
Pract.
(T.)
Hope Minor
Pract.
Hornings
Gen. Reg.
Instit.
Ct.
Sess.
Justiciary
Ct. Rec.
IV Records:
Local
Life
and trade in Scotland’s towns are documented in the burgh or town council
records. Many such records have been published by the Burgh Records Society;
others exist only in manuscript, and are cited from the manuscripts or from
transcripts in the DOST Library. Related material such as town charters,
treasurer’s accounts, by-laws or inventories of the town’s common
good may also appear in burgh records or as separate documents. The Records of
the Convention of the Royal Burghs of
Scotland
(Conv.
Burghs) contains the minutes of regular
meetings of representatives of the royal
burghs.
Similar to the burgh
records, and often contained in the same volume, are the minutes of proceedings
in the burgh courts.
Other local
records of a legal nature include sasines and notaries’ protocol books,
both detailing property transactions. The Glasgow Protocol Books
(Glasgow
Prot.), for example, consist of 11 volumes
covering the period
1547-1600.
Local administration is
evidenced also in the records of baillie, baron, regality and sheriff
courts.
Much post-Reformation
ecclesiastical administration is recorded in the kirk-session records which
demonstrate graphically the all-pervading influence of the Kirk at both national
and local level. As the moral guardians of their communities, the kirk-sessions
were greatly taken up with individual cases of immorality. However, they were
also responsible for the welfare of the poor and for ensuring that the local
property-owners, the heritors, paid their fair share towards the costs of poor
relief, upkeep of the school and payment of the schoolmaster’s salary,
etc.
Wills and testaments provide
an important source of information about material culture and the Revised
Register of Titles includes, among others, the testamentary records of Edinburgh
and Glasgow, Dumfries, Dunblane and St Andrews. The Edinburgh Testaments
(Edinb.
Test.) alone comprise 80 manuscript
volumes, covering the periods 1514-32 and 1567-1700, preserved in the National
Archives of Scotland (NAS). In the absence of printed editions, the excerpts to
be found in DOST give some idea at least of the value of these records, and
will, perhaps, act as a spur to the digitisation of Scotland’s
records.
Occasionally the fortunate
survival of records such as these, and the efforts of a local society in their
publication can result in an individual town or locality being particularly well
covered in DOST. Records relating to the town of Ayr and its surrounding county,
for example, have no fewer than nine entries in the DOST Revised Register of
Titles.
Titles
Aberd.
B.
Acc.
Aberd.
B.
Rec.
Aberd.
B. Rec.
MS
IV
Aberd. B. Rec.
(SHS)
Aberd.
Council Lett.
Annan
Rec.
Arbroath B.
Rec.
Arbroath Old
Doc.
Ayr B.
Acc.
Banff
Ann.
Banff
Rec.
Cambeltown B.
Rec.
Cullen B.
Rec.
Dumbarton B.
Rec.
Dumbarton
Common Gd.
Acc.
Dumbarton
Treas.
Acc.
Dumfries
Council
Min.
Dumfries
Treas. Acc.
Dundee
B. Laws
Dundee B.
Min.
Dundee Treas.
Acc.
Dysart
Rec.
Edinb. B.
Deeds
Edinb. B.
Rec.
Edinb.
Chart.
Edinb. D.
Guild Acc.
Elgin
Rec.
Glasgow B.
Rec.
Glasgow B.
Rec.
(MC)
Glasgow
Burgesses
Haddington
B. Rec.
(Robb)
Haddington
Chart.
Inverness
Rec.
Jedburgh B.
Rec.
Kirkcaldy B.
Rec.
Kirkcudbr. B.
Rec.
Kirkwall
Council
Rec.
Melrose Reg.
Rec.
Misc. B.
Rec.
Montrose B.
Rec.
Montrose
Treas. Acc.
Paisley
B. Rec.
Paisley
Tolbooth
Acc.
Peebles B.
Rec.
Peebles
Gleanings
Rec. Old
Aberd.
Rothesay B.
Rec.
Rutherglen B.
Rec.
Stirling B.
Rec.
Aberd.
Baillie Ct.
Aberd.
Burgh Ct.
Aberd.
Sheriff Ct.
Alloway
Baron Ct.
Argaty
Baron Ct.
Ayr B.
Ct. & Council
Bk.
Ayr B.
Ct.
Breadalbane Ct.
Bk.
Broxmouth &
Pincarton Baron
Ct.
Burntisland B.
Ct.
Canongate &
Broughton Ct.
Bk.
Carnwath Baron
Ct.
Carnwath Baron
Ct.
(SHS)
Carrick
Baillie
Ct.
Cockburnspath
Baron Ct.
Corshill
Baron Ct.
Crail B.
Ct.
Cramond
Grant Regality Ct.
Bks.
Cullen B.
Ct.
Deerness
Baillie
Ct.
Dumfries B.
Ct.
Dundee B.
Ct.
Dunferm.
Regality Ct.
Edinb.
B. Ct. Bk.
Falkirk
Baron Ct.
Fife
Sheriff Ct.
Forbes
Baron Ct.
Forres B.
Ct.
Glenluce Baron
Ct.
Haddington B.
Ct.
Holmains Baron
Ct.
Inverness B.
Ct.
Keillour Baron
Ct.
Kinross Baron
Ct.
Kirkcudbr.
Sheriff Ct.
Deeds
Kirkcudbr.
Sheriff Ct.
Processes
Kirkcudbr.
Stewartry Ct.
Rec.
Kirkintilloch
B. Ct.
Kirkwall
Sheriff Ct.
Deeds
Lanark
Sheriff
Ct.
Linlithgow B.
Ct.
Linlithgow
Sheriff
Ct.
Monimail Reg.
Ct.
Monkland Baron
Ct.
Monteith
Stewartry
Ct.
Montrose
Baillie
Ct.
Newburgh B.
Ct.
Orkney &
Shetl. Ct.
Bk.
Orkney &
Zetl. Sheriff
Ct.
Perth Convener
Ct. Bk.
Philorth
Baron Ct.
Renfrew
Sheriff
Ct.
Rutherglen B.
Ct.
St. A. B.
Ct.
St. A. Baillie
Ct.
Selkirk B.
Ct.
Shetland
Sheriff
Ct.
Stitchill Baron
Ct.
Stranraer B.
Ct.
Urie Baron
Ct.
Wamphray Baron
Ct.
Wigtown B.
Ct.
Aberd. Reg.
Sasines
Argyll
Sas.
Crail Reg.
Sas.
Dumfries
Test.
Dunblane
Test.
Edinb.
Test.
Glasgow
Prot.
Glasgow
Test.
Hamilton
& Campsie
Test.
Kirkcudbr.
Test.
Lanark
Test.
Moray
Test.
Orkney &
Shetl. Test.
Orkney
Test. and
Inv.
Particular
Register of Sasines for
Shetland
Prot. Bk.
R. Broun (etc.)
Retours
St.
A.
Test.
Brechin
Test.
Aberd.
Eccl. Rec.
Acts
Gen.
Assembly
Alford
Rec.
Alyth Par.
Ch.
Andrews
Bygone Ch.
Life
Ayr
Presb.
Boharm Kirk
S.
Bonckle Kirk
S.
Brechin Kirk
S.
Brechin
Presb.
Canongate
Kirk S.
Carmyllie
Kirk S.
Colmonell
Kirk S.
Crail Kirk
S.
Cramond
Ch. Alves
(etc.)
Cramond
Kirk S.
Cullen Kirk
S.
Cupar
Presb.
Dingwall
Kirk S.
Dingwall
Presb.
Dumbarton
Kirk S.
Dumfries
Kirk S.
Dunblane
Synod
Dundee Kirk
S.
Dundonald Par.
Rec.
Dunferm. Kirk
S.
Dunkeld
Presb.
Earlston
Presb. Index
Edinb.
Kirk S.
Edinb.
Presb.
Elgin K.
Session (Elgin
Rec.)
Ellon
Par.
Ellon
Presb.
Falkirk Par.
Rec.
Fife
Synod
Fraserburgh
Kirk S.
Galloway
Synod
Gunn
Cross Kirk,
Peebles
(etc.)
Hassendean
Kirk
S.
Inverness
Kirk S.
Inverness
Presb.
Irongray K.
S.
Kilrenny Old
Parish
Records
Kingarth
Par. Rec.
Kinghorn
Kirk S.
Kirkcaldy
Presb
Kirkwall Kirk
S.
Lanark
Presb.
Lochwinnoch
Par.
Lorimer
St.
Cuthbert’s
Lothian and Tweeddale
Synod
Markinch
Kirk
S.
Mousewald
Kirk S.
Old Kirk
Chron.
Orkney Bp.
Ct.
Penninghame
Par. Rec.
Rec. Kirk
Scotl.
Rothesay
Par. Rec.
S. Leith
Rec.
St. A. Kirk
S.
St. A.
Presb.
Stirling
Kirk S.
Strathblane
Par.
Strathbogie
Presb.
Vernon
Par. & Kirk
Hawick
Wemyss Kirk
S.
V Trades, Occupations,
Industry
The
various trades and occupations carried on in the towns and cities of Scotland
are very well documented in DOST. The building and associated trades figure in
some of the national records dealt with in section II above, especially
Treas.
Acc. and
M. Works
Acc., and are not listed here. Section IV
covers documentary material concerned with the craft guilds of the towns and
with industrial and commercial activity more
generally.
As can be seen from the
list below, glovers, hammermen
(sc.
workers in metal), bakers, butchers, candle-makers, weavers, cordiners
(sc.
shoemakers), wrights, printers, surgeons and tailors, among others, have all
left us documentary testimony of their affairs, and of the laws and regulations
governing their trades or professions. The Baxter Books of St Andrews
(St. A. Baxter
Bks.) detail the workings of the bakery
trade and its associated craft guild in St Andrews from 1548 to 1861.
Crail Squaremen
is concerned with wrights, who used the
carpenter’s square in their work. Whitelaw’s
Sc. Arms Makers
contains extracts from burgh and other
records describing, among other things, the testing of the skills of these
specialist workers to ensure that they were worthy of admission to the craft
guild. Apprentices, at the end of their training, were required to produce a
specified artefact as their ‘essay’ for this
purpose.
On the industrial side,
Fawside Coal Compt
is the account-book of the coal and
salt-works at Fawside in East Lothian. Similar documents survive from Torry and
Tulliallan in West Fife.
Hilderstoun Silver
Mines, in three volumes from 1608 to 1613,
describes the mining for precious metal that was carried on in the hills between
Bathgate and Linlithgow in West Lothian.
New Mills
Manuf. is ‘The Records of a Scottish
Cloth Manufactory at New Mills, Haddingtonshire, 1681-1703’. Long after
New Mills was defunct, weaving was still largely a cottage industry in Scotland,
and a rare survival from this sector is
Weaver’s Acc.
Bk., the account-book of James Allan,
weaver in Shettleston (Glasgow), from 1687 to
1694.
Foreign trade is evidenced by
merchants’ and skippers’ account books, such as Halyburton’s
Ledger
(Halyb.),
which itemises trading transactions with the Netherlands, and
Wedderburn Compt.
Bk., the account-book of David Wedderburn,
merchant of Dundee, 1587-1630.
Bk. Rates
is the short title of ‘A Table of
Valuation and Prices of Merchandise brought within the Realm’, and
directly relevant to that is
Huntar
Weights &
Measures.
Skipper’s Acc.
(Smettone) and
Skipper’s Acc.
(Morton) are account-books kept by
individual skippers with entries listing transactions all over the northern
European seaboard from Yarmouth to Flanders, from Dieppe to
Danzig.
Titles
Aberdeen
Pynours
Aberdeen
Trades
Atkinson
Gold Mynes in
Scotland
Bk.
Rates
Canongate
Hammermen
Colston
Edinb.
Guildry
Crail
Squaremen
Crawford
Mining P.
Creswell
Royal Coll. Surgeons
Edinb.
Cupar Trades
Dickson
& Edmond Ann. Sc.
Printing
Disposition
of the two mills in Crail
Dumfries
Fleshers
Duncan
Glasg. Physic. &
Surg.
Dundee
Shipping
P.
Dunferm. Coal
Acc.
Dunferm.
Hammermen
Dunferm.
Hammermen MS
Dunferm.
Weavers
Duns
Glovers
Edinb.
Candlemakers’ Seal of Cause
Ratif.
Edinb.
Cordiners’ MSS
Edinb.
Guilds
Edinb.
Hammermen
Edinb.
Hammermen’s Seal of
Cause
Edinb.
Masons
Edinb.
Surgeons
Fawside
Coal Compt.
Fenton
Sc. Salmon Fishing
Spears
Gairdner
Hist. Coll.
Surg.
Glasgow
Bakers
Glasgow
Barbers
Glasgow
Bonnetmakers
Glasgow
Coopers Min.
Bk.
Glasgow
Cordiners
Glasgow
Hammermen
Glasgow
Maltmen
Glasgow
Masons
Glasgow
Merchants
House
Glasgow
Trades
House
Glasgow
Wrights
Glasgow
Wrights Acts
Haigh
Mining
P.
Halyb.
Hilderstoun Silver
Mines
Hist.
Glasgow Gardeners
Huntar
Weights &
Measures
Inverness
Tailors’ Minute Bk.
Jedburgh Fleshers’
Book
Kelso
Glovers
Lowe
Chirurgerie
Mining Rec.
Mint
Melting Journals
Murray
Legal Practice in
Ayr
Mylne
Master
Masons
New Mills
Manuf.
Perth
Glovers
Perth
Guildry
Perth
Hammermen
Perth
Shoemakers
Perth
Tailors
Sc.
Merchandise
Sheriffhall
Coal Accompt.
Skene
Agric.
MS
Skipper’s
Acc.
(Morton)
Skipper’s
Acc. (Smettone)
Smout
Sc.
Trade
St. A. Baxter
Bks.
Tailor’s
Acc. Bk.
Torry Coal
& Salt
Works
Trans. Edinb.
Arch.
Tulliallan
Coal
Wks.
Weaver’s
Acc. Bk.
Wedderb.
Compt. Bk.
Whitelaw
Sc. Arms
Makers
VI
Family papers, account books, inventories,
etc.
Family
papers such as letters, charters, writs, estate papers, account books and
inventories offer evidence of the lives of the great (and lesser) landed
families of Scotland. DOST has been fortunate in receiving permission to quote
from a large number of such documents. In many cases, of course, the papers are
already in the public domain, thanks to the publications of historical and
antiquarian societies, such as, the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and
Antiquarian Society and the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field
Naturalists’ Society. A number of individual family archives were read,
transcribed and published at the behest of Sir William Fraser, the great
historian and palaeographer, and the ‘Fraser Books’ are used
extensively throughout the dictionary, for example,
Douglas
Chart.,
Bk.
Carlaverock,
Lennox
Mun. and
Montgomery
Mem.
Unlike
the account books mentioned in the previous section, which are devoted to
commercial transactions for profit, works such as
Foulis Acc. Bk.
and
Household Bk. Gr.
Baillie, or, at a higher social level,
Household Bks. Archb.
Sharp,
Household Bk. M.
Stewart and
Inv.
Wardrobe
detail the everyday transactions necessary
to the regulation of a
household.
Where interesting
quotation material is to be found, secondary sources have also been excerpted.
Many of these are parish, area or county histories, such as R. Brown
Paisley,
Old
Dundee,
Stow,
Strathendrick,
Edgar Hist. Dumfries
and Craig-Brown
Selkirkshire
and general works of history such as Charles Rogers
Social Life in
Scotland (Rogers
Social
Life).
Titles
Acc. Lady
Bellenden
Ancram
& Loth.
Corr.
Annandale
Fam. Bk.
Argaty
Estate P.
Argyll
Fam. Lett.
Athole
MSS
Atholl
Mun.
Ayr & W.
Coll.
Balcarres
P.
Binns
P.
Bk.
Mackay
Black Bk.
Taymouth
Blackhalls
Boyd
Fam. P.
Boyle
Mun.
Breadalbane
Doc. or
Lett.
R.
Brown
Paisley
Bruces &
Cumyns
Bruces
of Airth
Buccleuch
Household
Book
Buccleuch
MSS
Buccleuch
Mun.
Burnett
Fam[ily]
P[apers]
Burnett of
Leys
Caldwell
P.
Chambers
Domestic Annals
Scotl.
Coldingham Household
Book
Colquhoun
Chart.
Coltness
Coll.
Craig-Brown
Selkirkshire
Cromartie
Corr.
Denmylne
MSS
Donibristle
Mun.
Douglas
Chart.
Douglas
Corr.
Dunbar
Social
Life
Dundas Fam.
P.
Dunlop
P.
Echt-Forbes
Chart.
Edgar
Hist.
Dumfries
Elphinstone
Chart.
Elphinstone
Fam. Bk.
Fam.
Innes
Fam.
Rose
Fam. Seton
MS
Foulis
Acc. Bk.
Fraser
Chart.
Fraser
P.
Frasers of
Philorth
Funeral
Acc.
Garth Estate
P.
Glenartney
Doc.
Gordon
Geneal.
Hist.
Grant
Chart.
Grant
Corr.
Gray Lett.
& P.
Haddington
Corr.
Haddington
Mem.
Haddo
P.
Haigs of
Bemersyde
Hamilton
MSS
Hamilton
P.
Hamilton P.
(Camden
Soc.)
Hay
Geneal.
Sainteclaires
Hibbert
P[apers]
Hist.
Carnegies
Hist.
Clan Gregor
Hist.
Dumfries
Hist. Fam.
Kennedy
Hist. Fam.
Seton
Hist.
Kennedy
Home
Chamberlain’s
Acc.
Home
Clothing Acc.
Home
MSS
Household Bk.
G.
Baillie
Household
Bks. Archb.
Sharp
Household Bk.
Jas. IV
Household
Bk. M.
Stewart
Household
Bks. Jas.
V
Household Bks.
Jas. VI and
Anne
Household
Papers
Hunter Fam.
P.
Innes
Sketches
Inv.
Ld. J. Gordon’s
Furnit.
Inv. of
Pictures in Hamilton Mun.
MS
Inv. Pictures in
Clerk of Penicuik MSS
Inv. Q.
Mary
Inv.
Wardrobe
Kennedy-Lauderdale
Lett.
Lady
M. Kennedy
Lett.
Kingston
Contin. Ho.
Seytoun
Lamont
P.
Lauderdale
P.
Lennoxlove
MS
Leslie Fam.
Hist.
Leven &
Melv. P.
Mackintosh
Mackintoshes
Mackintosh
Mun.
Macleod
P.
Maitland
Geneal.
Setoun
Maitland
Ho.
Setoun
Mar &
Kellie
MSS
Marchmont
Marchmont
P.
Maxtones
Maxwall
Commonpl.
Bk.
Maxwell
Mem.
Melrose
P.
Melville
Chart.
Melville
Commonpl..
Bk.
Melville
Corr.
Menzies
Charters
Milne-Home
MSS
Moncreiffs
Montgomery
Mem.
Montgomery
P.
Monymusk
Writs
Moray
Lett.
Old
Dundee
Oliphants
Red
Bk. Grandtully
Red
Bk. Menteith
Rep.
Boyle, Maxwell-Stuart etc.
Mun.
Rogers
Social
Life
Ruthven
Corr.
Sanderson
Rural
Society
Sanderson
Mary Stewart’s
People
Seafield
Corr.
Stewart
Mem.
Stirling
Palace Larder
Book
Stirlings of
Keir
Stow
Strathendrick
Swintons
Tayler
Hist. Fam.
Urquhart
Thanes of
Cawdor
Warrender
P.
Wauchopes
Waus
Corr.
Wedderburn
Bk.
Wemyss
Chart.
Wemyss
Corr.
Wemyss
Mem.
Wemyss of
Bogie MSS
Will A.
Betoun
Yester
Wr.
VII
Literary, historical, theological and polemical prose
Literary
prose in Scots begins in 1456 with Sir Gilbert Hay’s
The Buke of the Law of
Armys,
The Buke of
Knychthede and
The Buke of the
Governaunce of Princis. The tradition of
discursive prose continues
with
the three volume theological work composed
in 1490 for the use of James IV,
The Meroure of
Wyssdome by John Ireland, Professor of
Theology at the University of
Paris.
The early sixteenth century
saw the final flourishing of the verse chronicle tradition of the fifteenth
century and historical writing became largely the preserve of prose writers.
Hector Boece’s Latin history of Scotland was translated,
c1531,
into Scots prose by John Bellenden
(Bell.
Boece) and, in 1535, into a verse
chronicle, The Buik of
the Croniclis of Scotland, by William
Stewart
(Stewart).
Around the same date the Jedburgh monk
Adam Abell, however, turned his back on the metrical tradition to write his
Roit or Quheill of
Tyme
(Abell)
in prose. This work, as yet only in manuscript, is available in a unique
transcipt in the DOST Library.
The Complaynt of
Scotlande (1549)
(Compl.)
addresses the contemporary political crisis affecting ‘Dame Scotia’
from a patriotic viewpoint. Bishop John Lesley’s history of Scotland
(Leslie)
has an interesting bibliographic history of its own. Written originally in
Scots, it was later translated into Latin, with extensive additions, by its
author. This Latin edition was subsequently translated into Scots by Father
James Dalrymple
(Dalr.).
In these last two works we see Scottish history from the perspective of the
Catholic supporters of Queen Mary. In
The Historie and
Chronicles of Scotland, a1578
(Pitsc.),
the Fife laird Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie wrote from a Presbyterian
standpoint. He embellishes his history with a wealth of curious and far-fetched
incidents which tend to distract from the work’s usefulness as a
historical account.
The Reformation
period was characterised by a proliferation of theological writing from both
sides of the religious divide. In 1552,
The
Catechism of John Hamilton, Archbishop of
St Andrews, a manual of instruction in the Catholic faith, offered one route to
those seeking a less revolutionary way through the religious struggles. John
Knox’s works, in six volumes, present a version of the history of his
times from a Protestant perspective. The polemical nature of Knox’s work
is answered in the Catholic tradition by the writings of Ninian Winz(yogh)et,
master of the grammar-school of Linlithgow, and Quintin Kennedy, abbot of
Crossraguel Abbey in Ayrshire, as well as by the authors included in the
anthology Catholic Tractates
(Cath.
Tr.). In the following century, writings
on theology and church history are overwhelmingly Presbyterian. They are
frequently written from the point of view of the Covenanting divines who
bitterly resisted the re-imposition of episcopacy. Two substantial instances of
such writings are the letters and journals of Robert Baillie, principal of
Glasgow University
(Baillie),
in three volumes, and a
History of the Kirk of
Scotland by David Calderwood, minister of
Crailing in Roxburghshire
(Calderwood),
in eight volumes. Another prominent minister, Samuel Rutherford, exhibits a
notably emotional and overwrought style which can be sampled in his
Letters
and such works as
Christ &
Doves,
Christ’s
Napkin and
The Tryal and Triumph
of Faith. The Glasgow scholar and divine
Zachary Boyd is represented in DOST by several works, including
The Last Battell of
the Soule in Death
(Boyd
Last
B.). Theological works of the
17th
century deserve greater attention than they have generally attracted. The DOST
Library is fortunate in possessing a particularly good collection of these
bequeathed by Dr Mary P. Ramsay (see Preface to Volume IV). For reasons of
space, only a few of these texts are listed below: (etc.) following a reference
indicates that many other works by that author will be found in the Revised
Register of Titles.
Many of the
secular prose works from this period take the form of diaries, autobiographies,
letters, memoirs and journals. There is a degree of overlap here with some of
the texts quoted at IV above. In this section, however, the titles listed are
those whose authors were largely concerned with recording and commenting on
political and religious
affairs.
The Autobiography and
Diary of James Melvill, minister of Kilrenny
(Melvill)
is particularly noteworthy, with the
Autobiography giving us a unique picture of childhood and youth in provincial
Scotland
(sc.
Montrose) in the
mid-16th
century. The Covenanter Archibald Johnston of Warriston
(Johnston
Diary),
the Fife laird John Lamont of Newton
(Lamont
Diary),
the Ayrshire laird William Cunningham of Craigends
(Cunningham
Diary)
and the Edinburgh lawyer John Nicoll
(Nicoll
Diary)
are some of the writers who afford us
vivid and often revealing insights into the events of their
times.
Similar in content and tone
are the memoirs of Sir James Melville of Halhill
(Melville
Mem.),
spanning the period 1549-93, the
Memoirs of the Affairs
of Scotland, 1577-1603, by David Moysie
(Moysie),
the
Memoirs of his own
Life
and
Times (1632-70) by Sir John Turner
(Turner
Mem.)
and the Memorials of
Transactions in Scotland and
Journal of the
Transactions in Scotland by John
Knox’s secretary Richard Bannatyne
(Bann.
Memor.
and
Bann.
Trans.).
Scots
abroad provide a different range of insights. The Journal of Thomas Cuningham of
Campvere
(Cuningham
Journal)
is the diary kept by the Conservator at the Scottish Staple Port in the
Netherlands.
Lauder
Jrnl.
contains Sir John Lauder of Fountainhall’s account of a trip to France in
which the narrative of a Presbyterian Scot in Catholic France offers a lively,
amusing and perceptive contrast of cultures which had developed close ties over
several centuries.
Lithgow
Trav.,
on the other hand, is an extraordinary tale of a Scottish adventurer’s
‘painful peregrinations’ through exotic climes. One of the many
countries visited by Lithgow was Poland, in whose ‘bowels’, he
assures us, no fewer than thirty thousand Scottish families reside. A more
sober account of these East European exiles can be found in
Scots in
Poland.
Titles
Account Present
Persecution of the Church in Scotland
Armstrong
Hist.
Liddesdale
Auchinleck
Chronicle
Balfour
Ann.
Bann.
Memor.
Bann.
Trans.
Bell.
Boece
Bell.
Livy
Birnie
Kirk-b.
Birrel
Diary
Bk.
Chess
Blair
Autob.
Blairs
P.
Blakhall
Narr.
Blessedness
of the
Dead
Boece
Bower
Chron.
Boyd
Last
B.
Brodie
Diary
T.
Brown
Diary
R.
Bruce
Serm.
Buch.
Detect.
Buch.
Indict.
Buch.
Wr.
Burne
Disput.
Carstairs
Lett.
Casket
Lett.
Chron.
Perth
Colville
Lett.
Colville
Paraenese
Compl.
Compl.
Zetl.
Contempl.
Sinn.
Corr. M.
Lorraine
Cullen
Chron.
Aberd.
P.
Gordon Brit.
Dist.
Goudie
Shetl.
Antiq.
Grahame
Anat.
Hum.
Rothes
Affairs
Kirk
Rutherford
Lett.
(etc.)
Scot
Narr.
Spotsw.
Hist.
Turner
Mem.
Warning
to Professors in
Fife
Welsh
Alarm
to Impenitent
(etc.)
Wodrow
Hist.
Work
Goes Bonnely On
The
Scottish poetic tradition is a rich one, beginning with John Barbour’s
Bruce
(Barb.)
in 1375, and continuing through the
Legends of the Saints
(Leg.
S.) in 1380,
The Buik of
Alexander
(Alex.)
around 1400, the alliterative poems of the mid and late
15th
century, Blind Harry’s
Wallace
(Wall.)
and the poems of the Makars, Robert Henryson
(Henr.),
William Dunbar
(Dunb.),
Gavin Douglas
(Doug.)
in the late
15th
and early
16th
centuries. The works of Sir David Lindsay
(Lynd.),
including Ane Satyre
of the Thrie Estaitis
(Lynd.
Sat.),
in the first half of the
16th
century period lead up to the Reformation and the poetry of Alexander Scott
(Scott),
Alexander Montgomery
(Montg.),
King James VI
(James
VI) and William Fowler
(Fowler),
secretary to James’s consort, Anne of Denmark, as well as a host of lesser
figures, some of them anthologised in the Bannatyne and Maitland MSS
(Bann.
MS and
Maitl.
MS). Straddling the genres of literature
and history are the metrical chronicles of Andrew of Wyntoun
(Wynt.)
and William Stewart
(Stewart).
From a linguistic point of view, this
poetry shows the range and elasticity of the Scots language in ways that prose
cannot. The poetry of Dunbar, for instance, demonstrates how poets of the Middle
Scots period could alternate between the invective of the flyting, and the
high-flown aureate diction applied to more elevated subjects. Rhymes provide
unique evidence for contemporary pronunciation, and quotations in DOST
frequently include a rhyme word to evidence the phonological relationships of
particular words.
New editions of major
works have been taken account of and compared with older editions, which in many
cases they clearly supersede. Thus, quotations from Dunbar’s works
appearing in DOST may be taken from the Bannatyne or Maitland MSS, the Chepman
and Myllar prints, the Scottish Text Society edition of 1883-93, the Oxford
University Press edition of 1979 or most recently, occasionally, the Association
for Scottish Literary Studies edition of
1998.
Titles
Adamson
Muses
Thr.
Alex.
Allit.
P.
Asl.
MS
Bann.
MS
Barb.
Bernardus
Boyd
Sonet
C.
Brown Relig. Lyrics
15th
c.
Burel
Pilgr.
Burel
Queen’s
Entry
Christis
Kirk
Clar.
Craig
Dewoit
Exerc.
Doug.
Doug.
Conscience
Doug.
Pal. Hon.
Dunb.
Duncan Laideus
Test[ament]
Florimond
Fowler
Fugitive
Poetry
G.
Ball.
Garden
Elphinstoun
Garden
Kings
Garden
Worthies
Gray
MS
Lord Fergus’
Gaist
Lufaris
Compl.
Lundie
Poems
Lynd.
Maitl.
F.
Maitl.
Q.
Makc.
MS
Mare of
Colinton
E.
Melville Godlie
Dreame
Montg.
Montg.
P.
Mure
Norvell
Meroure
Orphius
Peblis to
Play
Pennecuik
Poems
Philotus
Pleuch-Song
Polemo-Mid.
Polwart
Flyt.
Prestis of
Peblis
Quare
Jel.
Ratis
R.
Rauf
C.
Reid
Swire
Rob
Stene
Rolland
Ct.
Venus
Rolland
Seven
S.
Rowll
Cursing
Sat.
P.
Sempill
Ballatis
Sempill
P.
Seven
S.
Sir
Colling
Sir
Eger
Steel
Roy
Robert
IX
Miscellanea
Vernon
Freemasonry in
Roxburghshire
Gardening and
Husbandry
Belhaven
Rudiments
LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR
Carmichael
Etym.
Despauter
Donatus
Hume
Orthog.
Irvine
Nomenclatura
Rudiments
Wedderburn
Gramm.
Wedderburn
Voc.
MUSIC
Art
of Music
Dauney
Anc. Sc.
Melodies
Forbes
Cantus
Livingston
Metrical
Psalter
Louis de
France Music Bk.
Maynard
Sc. Treatise on
Music
Music of
Scotland
Ross
Musick
Fyne
Wode’s
Psalter
TRADITIONAL
LORE
Banks
Sc. Cal.
Customs
Black
Cal.
Witchcraft
Black
Orkney & Shetl.
Folklore
Black
Sc.
Witches
Dalyell
Darker
Superstit.
Il
Capellano delle
Fate
Kirk
Secr.
Commonw.
McPherson
Prim.
Beliefs
Murray
Witch-cult
Old-lore
Miscellany
Sharpe
Witchcraft
Sinclair
Satan’s
Invisible World
The DOST Corpus
represents the largest and most wide-ranging body of texts ever consulted for
the compilation of a dictionary of the Scots language, or for Scottish studies
in general. It is believed that the Revised Register of Titles will prove to be
a valuable scholarly resource in itself, listing as it does an unprecedented
number of literary and non-literary, manuscript and printed texts, with
up-to-date bibliographical
information.
H.
D. Watson