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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SUPPLEMENT, n. Sc. Law usages in combs.: †(1) letters of supplement, “a warrant issued by the Court of Session to enable an inferior judge to summon a defender to appear when he did not live in the jurisdiction” (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 87, obs.). See Letter, 2.; †(2) oath in supplement, an oath by which a litigant could give evidence in his own favour when impartial legal evidence was incomplete or defective, e.g. by a woman in an affiliation case.(1) Sc. 1754 Erskine Principles i. ii. § 11:
When one, who has not his domicile within the territory, is to be sued before an inferior court, the Court of Session must be applied to who grant letters of supplement to cite the defender to appear before the inferior judge.Sc. 1871 Erskine Institute II. 36 note:
For letters of supplement are now substituted an indorsation of the Sheriff's warrant by the sheriff-clerk of the county in which it is proposed to execute it.Sc. 1928 Encycl. Laws Scot. XIV. 301:
Letters of Supplement may still be used for intimating assignations when the debtor or debtors are furth of Scotland.(2) Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 684:
Whenever semiplena probatio is made out, (which is in all cases a question of evidence), the purseur is entitled to the oath in supplement. When a merchant's books are regularly kept, there is semiplena probatio that they are correct, and his oath in supplement is competent to prove the truth of what is contained in them.Sc. 1871 Erskine Institute I. 178 note:
Since the passing of the Evidence Act, 16 and 17 Vict. c.20, the old method of proof by semiplena probatio and oath in supplement, has been practically superseded.