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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

PORTIONER, n. 1. Sc. Law usage: the proprietor of a small estate or piece of land resulting from the division of an original piece of land among co-heirs or otherwise, a small land-owner (Sc. 1808 Jam., 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 753), “the proprietor of a small feu” (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 66). Comb. heir-portioner, see Heir, I. 10.Lnk. 1708 Minutes J.P.s (S.H.S.) 35:
John Davidsone, sone to Gavine D., portioner of Brounlee.Sc. 1730 T. Boston Memoirs (1852) VII. 98:
An old house . . . formerly belonging to Andrew Home, sometime portioner there.Slg. 1771 Weekly Mag. (23 May) 255:
Andrew Balfour, portioner of Loanhead of Denny.Abd. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ VII. 332:
At the same time, they cultivate the small pieces of property, of from one to six acres of land. There are about 60 of these small proprietors of land within the borough, called portioners.Sc. 1820 Scott Monastery iv.:
I wasna sae tocherless but what I had a bit land at my breast-lace. My father was portioner of Littledearg.Fif. 1845 Stat. Acc.² IX. 64:
The remainder of the parish, amounting to 24 imperial acres, is shared among twenty smaller proprietors, called here, as in other parts of the country, portioners.Rxb. 1845 T. Aird Old Bachelor 9, 11:
The strength and staple of the character of our Village lay in the small proprietors, styled variously Cock-lairds, Bonnet-lairds, Portioners, Feuars . . . Our Village is becoming less independent from the Portioners selling their little properties to the bigger lairds around.Lnk. 1928 W. C. Fraser Yelpin' Stane 24:
The last of the portioners whose fathers used to meet at the Birley Knowe to settle all disputes about the pasture held in common.Per. 1935 Sc. Country (Scott Moncreiff) 240:
It is not so long since Perthshire had its pendiclers, who held pieces of land belonging to a large farm, and its portioners, younger sons among whom was sub-divided the land owned by a family, but for the last hundred years, outwith the areas that suffered at the time of the clearances, there has been a tendency to consolidate small holdings into big farms.

2. In the University of St. Andrews: a student who boarded with the Principal of the college, and received gratis a defined ration of food, in earlier times called a portionist. Hist.Fif. 1740 J. Grierson St. Andrews (1838) 179:
Each portioner shall have for breakfast one-fourth of a loaf and one mutchkin of milk or ale, for which he shall go to the pantry himself, and carry it to his own chamber, and eat it there.Sc. 1946 R. G. Cant Univ. St. Andrews 81:
By the eighteenth century breakfast was served in the students' rooms. Different diets were prescribed for Bursars, Portioners, and Servers.