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Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1934 (SND Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BAR(R)ON-BAIL(L)IE, -BAYLZIE, n. A Baron Baillie was the deputy appointed by a Baron to exercise the jurisdiction of the Baron both civil and criminal in the Barony Courts. He might also act as an assessor in such Courts (A.C.M.). [′bɑrən ′beli]Sc. 1845 Stat. Acc.² I. 393–394:
Within the barony of Dodineston, the abbots appointed baron-bailies to execute their jurisdiction within their proper limits.Sc. 1899 H. G. Graham Social Life 18th Cent. I. 209:
Barons and chiefs . . . held courts of regality, in which they or their baron bailies, who served as assessors, acted as judges with, and sometimes without, a jury of their own vassals or tenants.Bnff. 1702 quoted by W. Cramond in Bnffsh. Field Club (1903) 48:
Mr Robert Sharp, present dean of gild of the Burgh of Cullen, barron baylzie of the lands and barrony of Rannes for the tyme.em.Sc. (a) 1891 “H. Haliburton” Ochil Idylls 60:
Ye proveses o' rank, an ye That are but baron-bailies.Lnl.¹ 1933:
Every year at the Riding of the Marches at Linlithgow a baron-bailie is elected to take charge of the affairs of the village of Blackness, which is still under the jurisdiction of Linlithgow. . . . His duties are now merely nominal.Hdg. 1845 Stat. Acc.² II. 13:
The council annually elect a baron bailie over the adjoining village of Nungate.Dmf. 1794 B. Johnston Gen. View Agric. County of Dmf. 91:
When those who occupy thirled land sell any of their corns unground, . . . the baron-baillie, at the petition of the multurer, holds a multure court.

Hence Baron-Bail(l)ie Court and Bar(r)on Court, the court of justice held by a baron or his baron-bailie, in his barony, given by N.E.D. as Sc. and with exclusively Sc. examples.Sc. 1743 Simon Lord Lovat in Earls of Cromartie (ed. Fraser 1876) II. 294:
He went to Inverness, Culloden, and McIntosh about the head Barron Court which is to hold at Inverness this day.Sc. 1813 N. Carlisle Harris in Topogr. Dict. Scot. II.:
The Baron-Baillie Court of Macleod, the Chief, is the only Court of Justice in the Parish.Sc. 1818 Scott H. Midlothian xxvii.:
There was a Baron Court to be held at Loan-head that day.