Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

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

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First published 2002 (DOST Vol. XI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Tulchan, n. Also: tulchen, -in, -ain, -ane, tulcan, (tuchan). [Gael. tulachan.] A calf-skin stuffed with straw to induce a cow to let down her milk. Only fig. as a term a. Of endearment. b. Of derision: Applied to the bishops appointed by the Earl of Morton. Also attrib. with bischop.a. c1500-c1512 Dunb. (OUP) 41/23 (M).
Quod scho … Be still my tuchan [OUP cowffyne, STS cuchair] and my calfe My new spanit howffing fra the sowkb. a1578 Pitsc. II 282/7, 8.
The tulchen to wit ane feinȝeit counterfeitt bischope … the kingis lordis that obtenit thair beneficeis culd find na way to have proffeit thairof without thay had ane tulchen lyk as the kow had or scho wald gif milk ane calfis skin stoppit with stra 1600-1610 Melvill 31.
Bischopes … war named ‘tulchains,’ that is, calffs' skinnes stuffed with stra, to cause the cow giff milk a1651 Calderwood VI 484.
They are licenced by their provisiouns to lift up the rents of all their kirks, and to pay stipends to tulchans to serve the cure 1693 Answ. Presb. Eloq. 39.
The Earl of Morton … brought in titular bishops … ; and thereupon those bishops were called in derision tulcans i.e. A calfs skin stopped with straw to make the cow give her milkattrib. 1584 Sempill in Sat. P. xlv Pref. 61.
They be now tulchin bischops stylit c1630 Scot Narr. 24.
These bishops of the new forge were called ‘tulchane bishops.’ … The bishop served to cause the bishoprick yeeld commoditie to my lord, who procured it to him 1640 True Representation Proceedings Scotland 68.
The Scottish name of tulchan bishops … a tulchan in our language being the skin of a calfe stuffed with straw, and set up beside the kow to make her give milk to the owner a1651 Calderwood III 207.
These bishops were called tulchan bishops … For the lords gott the benefices, and presented suche a man as would be content with the least commoditie 1687 Shields Hind Let Loose 67.
They were only tulchan bishops