Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
UNFREE, adj. Also on(e)frie. Not having the rights of a freeman or burgess in a burgh, not being a member of a guild or incorporation. Obs. or hist.Rxb. 1699 J. Wilson Hawick (1858) 129:
With ane proportionable reliefe from the rest of the onfrie trades within the shyre of Roxburgh.Ags. 1708–10 A. J. Warden Burgh Laws Dundee (1872) 403:
An unfree apprentice. . . . A parcel of shoes taken from an unfree person.Rxb. 1717 J. J. Vernon Hawick (1900) 205:
Every unfree person within the said toun.
Comb. unfreeman, -woman, one who has no burgess rights in a town. Hist.Sc. 1700 Burgh Rec. Gsw. (1908) 295:
Neither of the burgesses inhabitants of the said burghs shall collowr unfreemens vessells under collowr of their owne.Ayr. 1730 Burgh Rec. Prestwick (M.C.) 90:
Noe onefrie man have libertie ore previlege of the moss.Sc. 1737 Elchies Decisions I. App. II. No. 8:
Merchants in a Burgh cannot retail unfreemens goods as their own.Gsw. 1755 View Merchants Ho. (1866) 177:
To call and conveen before him the saidis haill unfreemen and women, that use trade.Slg. 1815 Trans. Slg. Nat. Hist. Soc. (1924) 49:
Thomas M'Nie Junior, merchant shoemaker, admitted to the privilege of measuring and serving during his life on payment of £7, he not to pack nor peal with unfreemen.Sc. 1824 Scott Redgauntlet x.:
I am not a person to pack or peel with Jacobites, and such unfreemen as poor Redgauntlet.Sc. 1876 J. Grant Burgh Schools Scot. 141:
The supplying of instruction to the son and daughter of every burgess and unfreeman.
