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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.

DISPONE, v. Also †dispon, †despone.

†1. Absol. To order matters.Sc. 1721 J. Kelly Proverbs 248:
Man propones, but God dispones.

2. Sc. law: legally to assign, make over, grant; to convey land, “formerly [until 1868] an essential word in any valid conveyance of land” (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Sc. Legal Terms 29).Sc. 1940 St Andrews Cit. (9 March) 7/6:
In disponing the strip of land . . . Mrs — made that stipulation.Ags. 1730 Private Contract (per Fif.¹):
The said W.A. . . . hereby assigns and dispons to and in favour of the said I.M. . . . all goods gear debts and sums of mony.Rnf. 1716 Descr. Sheriffdom Lnk. and Rnf. (Maitland Club 1831) 47:
During which tyme, much of it was desponed to other heritors.Dmf. 1845 Stat. Acc.² IV. 343:
On 12 August 1566, the church lands of Dunscore were disponed by John Welch.

Hence (1) disponee, the person to whom property is conveyed; (2) disponer, the person who conveys or legally transfers property.(1) Sc. 1703 Acc. Bk. Sir J. Foulis (S.H.S.):
Decr. 25: to Mr Rot. bennet about woodhall disponie a guinie.Sc. 1903 J. Erskine Princ. Law Scot. iii. viii. 8:
[The grantee] may also treat the settlement as a general disposition in favour of himself, and make up titles by notarial instrument, or in the other modes available to a general disponee.Sc. 1801 Will (per Fif.¹):
His and my heris and disponees.Sc. 1863 J. Paterson Hist. Ayr. and Wgt. I. ii. 771:
He purchased the regality of Failfoord . . . from the disponees of Sir Thomas Wallace Dunlop.(2) Sc. 1754 J. Erskine Princ. Law Scot. ii. vii. 4:
Dispositions to be holden of the disponer are transmissions only of the property, the superiority remaining as formerly.Sc. 1814 Scott Waverley (1817) x.:
[He] possessed himself of the estate . . . to the prejudice of the disponer's own flesh and blood.Sc. 1890 Bell Dict. Law Scot. 332:
The disponer or maker of the deed “sells and dispones,” or, where the deed is gratuitous, “gives, grants, and dispones,” the subject of the deed to the receiver, who is technically called the disponee.

†3. With upon: to dispose of. Cf. Dispose.Sc. 1819 Scott Bride of Lamm. xiii.:
Sit still and see my substance disponed upon to an idle . . . serving man.