Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
†CULRACH, CULREACH, n. A surety given to a court when a person is removed from its jurisdiction to that of another (Sc. 1808 Jam., culreach). Also phr. bond of culrach, a “pledge that justice should be done” (Sc. 1836 Chambers's Jnl. (1st Series) 5, 311).Sc. a.1746 in R. Chambers Domestic Annals (1869–74) III. 236:
The system of culreach or repledgiation was one of great antiquity in Scotland, but last heard of in the Highlands. So lately as 1698, George Earl of Cromarty obtained a charter, giving him this among other powers: If any of the indwellers and tenants of his lands should happen “to be arrested or attached before any judge or judges, spiritual or temporal, in any time coming, to repledge and call them back to the privilege and liberty of the said court of bailiery and regality of Tarbat.”
