Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1708-1712, 1807, 1867-1870
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†ASSIZER, Assizzar, Assysor, Asyser, n. A juryman in Sc. law. Now obs. exc. hist.Sc. 1708 Royal Procl. (Scotl.) in Lond. Gaz. No. 4522/2:
We Require all Our Sheriffs, That they cause Sufficient and Legal Men to Compear before our said Judges . . . for being Asysers and Witnesses.Sc. 1710 R. Sibbald Fife and Kinross 154:
In a perambulation betwixt Easter-Kinghorns, anno 1457. . . . Amang Assizzars are, Robertus Malvyne [etc.].Sc. a.1712 Fountainhall Decis. (1759) I. 292:
The assizers exceeded their duty in offering to stop this expiscation . . . and they gave occasion to an irregular and tumultuary noise that was raised in the Court.Sc. 1807 R. Allan Dict. of the Ancient Language of Scot. 15:
Assys, Assysors — Jury, Jurors. Their oath was as follows "We shall leil suith say, And na suith conceal, for naething we may So far as we are charg'd upon this assise Be God himself, and be our part in Paradise And as we will answer to God upon The dreadful day of dome." [The oath is taken from Skene's De Verborum (1597), the only difference being the word "judgment" in place of "dome." The oath administered by the Clerk of Court to Scottish jurors at the present day is as follows: "Do you fifteen swear by Almighty God, And as you shall answer to God at the great day of judgment, That you will the truth say, and no truth conceal so far as you shall pass in this assise." (Hdg.1)]Sc. 1867–1870 J. H. Burton Hist. Scot. (1905) V. liv.:
John Kirkcaldy, a cousin of Grange, had gone to Dunfermline, in Fifeshire, to act as an assizer or juryman.
