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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

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.

RESIGN, v. Sc. Law, of a vassal: to surrender his feu to his feudal superior. Derivs. resignatary, one in whose favour resignation was made; resignation, the form by which a vassal gave back the feu to his superior, by means of a mandate or procuratory of resignation, to be reconveyed to a new vassal by a charter of resignation. Abolished in 1874; resigner, the resigning vassal.Sc. 1708 Acts of Sederunt (1790) 225:
Resignations of Lands in the Superior's Hands.Sc. 1722 W. Forbes Institute I. III. 4:
The Party, in whose favour Resignation is made, takes Instruments (called an Instrument of Resignation) in the Hands of a Notary. . . . A simple Resignation in favorem, doth not denude the Resigner, without Infeftment following in the Person of the Resignatary.Sc. 1752 J. Spotiswoode Stile of Writs 62:
When a Disposition of Lands is made by an Apparent Heir, who is not infeft, there is adjected to the Right a Procuratory for serving the Disponer Heir to his Predecessors, and for resigning.Sc. 1814 J. Sinclair Agric. Scot., App. I. 199:
Resignation is that form by which the vassal appears, by himself or his attorney, in presence of his superior, or of the superior's commissioner, and there resigns into the hands of the superior the right he received by the original charter.Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 77:
Resignation occurred when a vassal surrendered his estate to the superior, either ad remanentiam, permanently, or in favorem, where the intention was that the superior should make a new grant, by a charter of resignation, in favour of another, probably a purchaser from the person resigning the land.