Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1976 (SND Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
DEWAR, n. The hereditary keeper of a relic of a (Celtic) saint, esp. a bell or pastoral staff. The word has now become the surname of a family whose ancestors held this office. Hist. Hence dewarship, the duty of a dewar. See P.S.A.S. (1889) XXIII. 110 sqq.Sc. 1818 Archaeol. Sc. II. i. 75:
The term Dewar, in Gaelic, signifies a bellman. . . . This is not the church bell, but a fine hand-bell, still carefully preserved by the Dewars. Sc. 1881 J. Anderson Scot. in Early Christian Times 218, 231:
The present representative of the ancient Dewars, or hereditary keepers of the crosier. . . . In the fifteenth century the Dewarship of the Coygerach was still a recognised hereditary office. Sc. 1904 J. M. Mackinlay Influence Pre-Reform. Ch. 11:
Dewar or Doire was the name given to the hereditary keeper of a bachall or other object connected with the cultus of a saint. Per. 1933 G. A. F. Knight Archaeol. Light II. 220:
In pre-Reformation days there were in Glendochart no fewer than five different relics of St Fillan. These were in the keeping of five hereditary ‘Dewars’, each with a croft of land held by the tenure of the keepership.
[O.Sc. dewar, id., 1336, Gael. deoradh, an alien, stranger, pilgrim, hence appar. ‘one who takes a relic from place to place for miraculous purposes.’]
