Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

†DEATHBED (LAW OF), n. Sc. law: a law by which “the heir in heritage was entitled to reduce all voluntary deeds granted to his prejudice by his predecessors, within sixty days preceding the predecessor's death; provided the maker of the deed, at its date, was labouring under the disease of which he died, and did not subsequently go to kirk or market unsupported” (Sc. 1890 Bell Dict. Law Scot. 284). Obs. since 1871.Sc. 1705 Fountainhall Decisions (1761) II. 302–303:
Her nephew raises a reduction thereof [of the will] upon the head of deathbed and gets witnesses . . . who seemed to prove that she died shortly after, without going to kirk or market.Sc. 1825 Session Cases (1824–25) 642:
The court being satisfied that the granter had, subsequent to the execution of the deed, been at market unsupported, . . . assoilzied from the reduction on the head of deathbed.