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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SEQUESTRATE, v. Pa.p. sequestrate(d), sequesterat. Sc. Law usages:

1. tr. and intr. To place (lands or other heritable property) under a factor or trustee appointed by the Court of Session to administer the property and the rents from it, usu. while the ownership is the subject of a legal action (Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 899, 1899 W. K. Morton Manual 174). Hence sequestration, the act of so doing.Sc. 1722 W. Forbes Institutes I. ii. 171:
Sequestration is the depositing of a Thing, whereof the Property or Possession is disputed, by two or more pretending to it, in the Hands of a Third Person, to keep, till the Controversy be decided.Sc. 1773 Erskine Institute ii. xii. § 55:
Sequestration of lands (under which may be comprehended every heritable subject) is a judicial act of the Court of Session, whereby the management of a subject sequestrated is taken from the former possessor, and intrusted to the care of a factor or steward named by the Court; who gives security for his administration, and is, by his commission, accountable for the rents to all having interest.Sc. 1807 Morison Decisions App. s.v.:
The Lord Ordinary sequestrated the subjects in question, and appointed a factor to uplift the rents. The defender, who had been in use to receive these rents, presented a petition to the Court against this sequestration.Sc. 1857 Session Cases (1857–8) 276:
The Court, with a view to the due administration and management of the pro indiviso property, sequestrated the rents, and appointed the petitioner judicial factor.

2. Specif. in more modern usage: tr. and intr. or absol., to put into the hands of a trustee by appointment of a court all the property of a bankrupt for its equitable division among his creditors; more gen., to make (a person) bankrupt; to go bankrupt. Hence sequestration, the process of sequestrating, formerly distinguished from sequestration under 1. by the term mercantile sequestration or sequestration in bankruptcy (Sc. 1899 W. K. Morton Manual 174).Inv. 1739 Steuart Letter-Bk. (S.H.S.) 419:
Adjudications are now carreing on against him and his esteat sequesterat and put into the hands of a Factor for the behalf of his creditors.Sc. 1768 Caled. Mercury (20 March):
A large Parcel of good Silver Watches . . . they are sequestrate goods now the property of creditors, and certainly to be sold.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian i.:
Landlord sequestrates — creditors accept a composition.Sc. 1899 W. K. Morton Manual 358:
Sequestration may be obtained by Petition to the Court of Session, or to the Sheriff of the county where the debtor resides or carries on business, at the instance of the debtor himself, or a creditor.Sc. 1958 Intro. Sc. Legal Hist. (Stair Soc.) 57:
The statute of 1772 (12 Geo. III. c. 72) was the first to provide a judicial process of sequestration by which the bankrupt's estate was transferred to a trustee for the benefit of the creditors as a whole, thereby preventing a creditor from acquiring a preference by the use of diligence.