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.
VICAR, n. Also viccar. Sc. usage: a layman who claims or has assigned to him the title of the Vicarage tiends of a parish after the Reformation; in Peebles, the church precentor, who was given the Vicarage dues as salary. The title was detached from the office in 1853.Sh. 1701 J. Brand Descr. Zetland(1883) 147:
The Tithes are farmed to Viccars, a kind of inferior Tacks-mens who are uneasie to the Ministers, not paying them what they are obliged to pay, till they please.Sh. 1736 Diary J. Mill (S.H.S.) 155:
The foresaid Robert Sinclair of Quendale out of pretence of being Vicar and paying the minister's stipend withdrew the Vicar day's works payed to the ministers for leading their peats.Peb. 1842 C. B. Gunn Parish Ch. Peebles 1784–1885 (1917) 81:
The Presbytery authorise Mr Elliot to apply to the Procurator for his legal opinion on an anomalous case of a vicar as precentor in his parish.Peb. 1847 R. Chambers Pop. Rhymes 31:
There is an official called the Vicar of Peebles, usually the precentor of the parish church, who collects a small tax from the proprietors, amounting in all to about £15.Peb. 1899 J. Grosart Chronicles 180:
One Sunday forenoon the vicar (as the precentor in the Parish Church was then called) stuck in the middle of a psalm.
