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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1965 (SND Vol. VI). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

MANSE, n. Also †mans(s), †mance. Sc. forms and usages. [mɑns]

1. The dwelling house provided for the minister of a particular church, the parsonage; sometimes the minister's household. Gen.Sc. Attrib. in combs. manse-maill, see Mail, n.¹, 1. (20); manse-seat, the seat in church occupied by the minister's family. Phr. a son or daughter of the manse, a son or daughter of a Presbyterian minister. Gen.Sc.Sc. 1700 Acts Gen. Assembly 14:
For repareing and building Kirks, and Manses, and settling of Schools, in these Bounds.Wgt. 1746 Session Bk. Glasserton MS. (16 Feb.):
The minister, Patrick Dickson and John Ker is appointed to meet at the mance tomorrow about eleven of the clock for distribution of the poors money.Ayr. 1785 Burns Holy Fair xvii.:
But faith! the birkie wants a manse: So, cannilie he hums them.Ags. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ V. 366:
In excambion for the glebe and manse of Navar.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xliii.:
The cure of souls . . . with stipend, manse, glebe, and all thereunto appertaining.Crm. 1854 H. Miller Schools 392:
He stood for a time opposite the manse door.Sc. 1856 M. Oliphant Lilliesleaf liii.:
To think that this was our Mary, a bairn of the Manse.Dmb. 1863 St. Andrews Gaz. (19 Dec.):
In the manse seat every cushion stuffed with hair was carried off bodily.Ags. 1889 Barrie W. in Thrums ii.:
The manse fowk doesna deal wi' him, except they're wantin' short-bread. He's Auld Kirk.Kcd. 1933 L. G. Gibbon Cloud Howe 28:
Funny to think she had married a minister, that this was the Manse, that she was its mistress.Sc. 1949 N. B. Morrison Winnowing Years 14:
She saw to it that the manse was astir from the moment she awoke in the morning to the moment she lay down to sleep.Sc. 1962 Glasgow Herald (8 Oct.) 7:
Dr McIntyre . . . is a son of the manse, always a good step on the high road to fortune in Scotland.wm.Sc. 1989 Anna Blair The Goose Girl of Eriska 111:
He bade them goodnight and marched back home to his manse. Sc. 1990 Times (12 Feb.):
A son of the Manse, brought up without privilege under the stern precepts of presbyterianism, in the great outdoor spaces of the lowlands, Buchan was, for 30 years, Scotland's premier man of letters. Sc. 1994 Sunday Times (17 Jul.): 
Certainly, there were Protestant 'hardliners' in the West and perpetually anti-Tory Roman Catholics in Dundee...But it was not universal: in 1900 Roman Catholic Blackfriars voted for Bonar Law, a teetotal son of the manse. Sc. 1997 Scotland on Sunday (9 Mar.) 1:
Brown, son of the manse, talked in almost religious terms of "our socialist faith" and called to mind the parable of the Good Samaritan by saying Labour would "never walk by on the other side". Sc. 1997 Daily Telegraph (24 Jul.):
George Williamson Auchinvole Dick, a son of the manse, was born on Aug. 14, 1914, in Fife. Sc. 2000 Edinburgh Evening News (30 Mar.) 32:
The garden of her home, an old manse on the edge of Sanquhar in Dumfriesshire, is a source of inspiration, both for pleasure and work. Sc. 2004 Scotsman (12 Nov.) 43:
The West Lothian-born son of the manse plays Casanova in a forthcoming BBC 3 series and Barty Crouch Jr in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, released next year.

†2. The house reserved by Aberdeen University for the occupant of a particular chair. Now obs.Abd. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XXI. 61:
The persons next in order to the Principal were, the teachers of canon law, civil law, and medicine. . . . The canonist's salary is equal to that of the Principal; the civilists 20; and that of the mediciner 20 merks: each having besides, a manse, garden and glebe.Abd. 1917 W. K. Leask Interamna Borealis 55:
The wall of the Humanity Manse.Abd. 1952 K. E. Trail Old Aberdeen 107:
In 1773 the professors decided to . . . employ the materials from Fraser's building for manses for the professors. The manses of Greek and Mathematics were built at this time.