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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

ESCHEAT, n., v. Sc. usages. [ɛs′tʃit]

1. n. The forfeiture of a person's property, heritable or moveable, upon his conviction of certain crimes, and also, until 1748, upon denunciation for non-payment of civil debts.Sc. 1700 Process against Egyptians in S.C. Misc. (1846) III. 176:
And furder, that the escheat of these, their countenancers, such as now the Laird of Grant, shall fall.Sc. 1740 Scots Mag. (Oct.) 484:
The penalty for the first fault is forty pound, for the second, one hundred merks, and for the third, escheat of moveables.Sc. 1754 Erskine Principles ii. v. 23:
Escheat . . . used to signify any casualty or forfeiture, by which a right fell from the proprietor, or accrued to another; . . . but it has been, by a later use, restricted to that special forfeiture which falls through a person's being denounced at the horn. It is either single or liferent.Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 32:
Escheat. Forfeiture of a man's estate. Single escheat is forfeiture of moveables to the Crown upon conviction of certain crimes of which murder is possibly to-day the only one. In the case of treason, escheat of all property is incurred. Formerly there was a feudal casualty of escheat, suffered through denunciation as a rebel for non-payment of debt and also through conviction of crime. It was for life only.

†2. v. To forfeit. Gen, in pa.p. escheat.Sc. 1700 Process against Egyptians in S.C. Misc. (1846) III. 190:
We . . . declairs their heall moveable goods and gear to be escheat, and inbrought to the Fiscall for his majesties interest.Sc. 1816 Scott O. Mortality xxxvi.:
His moveable goods and gear escheat . . .to his majesty's use.Sc. 1876 J. Grant Burgh Sch. Scot. 49:
In 1509 persons were prevented from importing . . . Books under penalty of escheating the same.