Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
†QUOT, n. Also quoat. The proportion, the twentieth part, of a deceased person's moveable estate, payable in pre-Reformation and Episcopal times in Scotland to the bishop of the diocese on confirmation of the testament (Sc. 1808 Jam.). It was reduced in 1701 to a Commissary Clerk's fee and finally abolished in 1823. Hist.Sc. 1701 Acts Parl. Scot. X. 282:
Our Sovereign Lord . . . Discharges all Quoats of Testaments fallen due since the Act of Parliament sixteen hundred and eighty nine abolishing Prelacy to be exacted from any of His Majesties Leidges either by Commissars or their clerks and Fiscals.Sc. 1754 Erskine Principles iii. ix. § 11:
The Bishop was, in all confirmations, intitled to the twentieth part of the moveables, called the quot of the testament, which was anciently computed, without deduction of debts.Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 806:
Consequently, the quot was paid to the injury of the creditors. This injustice was remedied by [the Act of] 1669, c. 19, which gave the quot from the free estate only, and at last, by the act 1701, c. 15, the quot was prohibited.
