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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

TEST, n.², v.². Sc. usages:

I. n. 1. A will or testament. Rare and prob. a n. usage of II. 2.Ayr. 1890 J. Service Notandums 13:
By ane eik to his test, he left to Peter Scartle the soom of five shillings.

¶2. A contrivance used in school to ensure that only one pupil at a time left the classroom (see quot.).Ayr. 1879 J. White Jottings 65–66:
The test was a little bit of wood of cylindrical form, about ten inches in length, and was placed in an aperture of the door, and in sight of the master. When a pupil wished to go out of School . . . he went up to the master and said, ‘Please, the test, sir.' If the test was in the aperture near the door, the boy was allowed to go, and no individual could get out till the test was returned to its place.

II. v. 1. tr. To leave by will or testament, to bequeath. Rare.Bte. 1718 Session Bk. Rothesay (1931) 329:
A return from Colonel Stewart's relict wherein she owns the hundred pounds Sterling tested.

2. intr., also with upon: to make a will, execute a testament. Obs. in Eng. exc. as a Civil Law term. Vbl.n. testing.Sc. 1754 Erskine Principles iii. ix. § 6:
The absolute property of the deceased, on which he can test.Sc. 1821 Scott Pirate vi.:
I will gie it to some poor body — that is, I will test upon it at my death.Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 987:
A wife has power to test without the consent of her husband. A pupil, however, has not the power to test.Sc. 1889 Stevenson M. Ballantrae vi.:
If I had been put to my oath, I must have declared he was incapable of testing.

3. Sc. Law: to authenticate a deed by ending it with a formal description of the document and the names and designations of the witnesses who are to subscribe. Obs. exc. in comb. testing clause, the clause or formula by which this is done.Sc. 1773 Erskine Institute ii. iii. § 33:
All precepts should be ingrossed in the charter, towards the end of it; that is, immediately before the testing clause.Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 988–9:
A testament must be properly tested and signed before witnesses. . . . The testing clause is the technical name given to the clause whereby a formal written deed or instrument is authenticated.Sc. 1896 W. K. Morton Manual 98:
Testing Clause. — This clause narrates the due execution of the deed by the granter in presence of witnesses therein designed.Sc. 1928 Encycl. Laws Scot. V. 474:
A testing clause, although usually appended to formal writs and providing a convenient method of authenticating alterations, is not now an essential of a probative deed.