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A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

(Purchasar,) Purches(s)ar, -our, n. Also: -er(e; -air; -ir. [ME and e.m.E. purchasour (Manning), -oure, -or, -er, purchesur (15th c.), -chessor (c1540), AF purchasour = OF porchaceor (13th c. in Greimas), later pur-, pourchaseur, agent noun f. pourchacier, pourchasser, Purchas(e v.] A purchaser, in various senses.

1. A contriver; a machinator, schemer, plotter. ?c1500 Rathen Manual 27/2.
We cursis … all conspiratouris that is to saye fals or vyckyt purchessouris or tratouris

2. One who procures or obtains, in senses 4 and 5 of Purchas(e v.(1) 1565 Crim. Trials I i 469.
And makes fayth that thai nor nane in thair names wes purchessaris thairof [a letter from the King and Queen] 1589 Antiq. Aberd. & B. III 189.
The … furthgevaris of the preceptis or the parteis purchessouris thairof 1590–1 Crail B. Ct. MS 23 Feb.
Off fywe hundereth merkis to be wptane als weill off the partaker and purchessar off the said licence as off the nychtbouris purchesseris and vsaris thairoff 1591 Crim. Trials I ii 262.
[To] Dauid Hering … purchessair of the said respett 1597 Edinb. Candlemakers' Seal of Cause Ratif.
With consent of … purchesiris of this our confirmatioun 1599 Acts Sederunt ii 28.
The compleiners, purchesseris thairof [sc. of bills of suspension] 1618 Aberd. Council Lett. I 161.
Purchesaris(2) 1549 Reg. Privy S. IV 78/2.
The personis foirsaidis, purchessaris of the said prebendrie and pensioun foirsaid(3) 1587 Aberd. Council Lett. I 12.
That the disqueyttaris of the common fellowship of nichtbourheid within burgh and purchesseris of lordschipis to the preiudice of the same sall … be punisched

b. After Wyclif and Purvey, rendering L. conquisitor. c1520-c1535 Nisbet 1 Cor. i 20.
Quhar is the purchasere of this warld?