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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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

POSSESS, v. Sc. usages:

1. To hold or occupy as a tenant, to lease.Sc. 1758 Caled. Mercury (9 Sept.):
A Farm . . . lying six Miles South of Edinburgh, within the Parish and Barony of Primrose, the Property of the Earl of Roseberry, and possessed by John Hasty.

Hence possession, n., a tenancy, Tack; a piece of ground, a small farm or the like, held under lease, a small-holding. For the distinction in Sc. Law between natural and civil possession see Natural.Arg. 1717 Carskey Jnl. (Mackay 1955) 49:
He rests me fifty mrks Scots for his proportion of the Entress of his said possessione.
Abd. 1735 Monymusk Papers (S.H.S.) 32:
The said James Moore obliges himself and forsaids, not to allow or have any grassmen or crofters, nor any other families besides his own upon the said possession.
Abd. 1749 Caled. Mercury (21 Sept.):
There is also a Possession of the said lands called Middletown.
Sc. 1771 Weekly Mag. (11 July) 35:
I find that in some parts of Scotland the word possession is also employed as a general term to denote the goods or things themselves which are possessed or enjoyed by any one, and is in particular applied to denote those territories which one acquires a right to possess by means of a lease, being nearly synonimous [sic] with farm.
Kcb. 1795 Stat. Acc.1 XIII. 643:
The lands capable of improvement have neither been thrown into farms of immoderate extent, nor broken down into small possessions.
Sc. 1805 R. Forsyth Beauties Scot. I. 519:
[The farm's] run from £30 to £1200, if below £30, they are called possessions.
Abd. 1879 A. F. Murison Memoirs (1935) 209:
One of this farms of which was genneraly called possessions was taken by my grandfather it was called Wellhowe.

2. Deriv. possessory, adj., in Sc. Law comb. possessory judgment, the legal rule by which an occupier of at least seven years' standing cannot be dispossessed by a rival claimant except by an action of reduction in court (see quots.).Sc. 1722 W. Forbes Institutes I. ii. 81:
Seven Years Possession of a Benefice, without a Title, gives a possessory Judgment.
Sc. 1773 Erskine Institute iv. i. § 50:
A possessory judgment founded on seven years' possession, in consequence either of a seisin or of a lease, has this effect by the law of Scotland, that one, though claiming under a right preferable to that of the possessor, cannot claim the possession until, in a formal action of reduction, he shall get his competitor's title of possession declared void.
Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 754:
A tenant who has been in the peaceable possession of lands for seven years under a written lease, of a longer endurance than seven years, is entitled to the benefit of a possessory judgment, whereby he will be maintained in possession until his title, if it be defective, is regularly reduced and set aside in the proper action.
Sc. 1927 Gloag and Henderson Intro. Law Scot. 416:
Standing a possessory judgment in his favour, the holder has the rights of a bona fide possessor.

[O.Sc. possessioun, = 1., 1517, possessory judgment, 1622.]

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"Possess v.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 28 Mar 2024 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/possess>

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