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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1956 (SND Vol. IV).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

FACULTY, n.

1. Sc. Law: in the interpretation of deeds, particularly of trusts, a power given to do something or not, at will, as distinguished from an instruction given which is obligatory.Sc. 1716 Faculty Decisions III. App. 39:
Though their charters do not specifically contain the faculty of feal and divot, yet that is undoubtedly comprehended.Sc. 1758 Ib. II. 249:
In virtue of the faculty reserved to William Buchanan in the disposition granted by him to his son he could gratuitously, and on deathbed, burden the said lands with the sum of £100.Sc. 1856 Session Cases (1855–6) 781:
The power conferred (by the will) is a power or faculty of dividing the sum among the parties.Sc. 1929 Green's Encycl. VII. 69 Note:
The earliest references to the subject in Scottish legal literature are concerned with the reservation by the granter or disponer of heritable subjects of a power to burden the subjects. In this context the words “power” and “faculty” are used interchangeably or even in conjunction.

2. As in Eng., the members of a particular profession; specif. in Scot. the Faculty (of Advocates), the collective title of the members of the Scottish bar. The word is also applied to some local societies of solicitors, e.g. the Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow. For phr. Dean of (the) Faculty, see Dean, n. 2. (1).Sc. 1714 W. Forbes Decisions Pref. vii.:
The whole Society goes under the Name of the Faculty of Advocates, a very honourable Body, into which none are admitted but such Gentlemen as have spent several Years in the Study of the Laws.Sc. 1777 D. Hume Autobiog. 17:
In 1752, the Faculty of Advocates chose me their Librarian.Sc. 1808 Scott in Life (ed. Lockhart) I. 60:
The usual trials, which, by the regulations of the Faculty of Advocates, must be undergone by every candidate for admission into their body.Ayr. 1833 Galt Howdie, etc. (1923) 43:
She resided in the old town of Edinburgh, in a close celebrated as a receptacle for the widows of the Faculty, and the relicts, as the Scotch call the surviving wives, of divines.Gsw. 1909 J. Coutts Hist. Univ. Gsw. 354:
In 1817 Mr James Galloway, Writer in Glasgow, began to lecture on that subject [conveyancing] under the patronage of the Faculty of Procurators.

3. In the Sc. Universities: one of the departments of learning in which degrees are given, originating from the medieval University of Paris and until 1889 numbering four, viz. Divinity, Law, Medicine, Arts, since enlarged by Science, Music, Engineering. Note the special significance of the term as applied to Glasgow University.Sc. 1744 Session Papers, Catanach v. H.-Gordon (1 Nov.) 26:
It is the Professor, joined with the Doctors and inferior Graduates, and matriculated Students, that compose the Faculty; as is evident from all the Universities where Order and Regularity are commonly kept up: They chuse their Head, who is called the Dean.Gsw. 1799 Stat. Acc.¹ XXI. App. 15:
This style, of Dean of Faculty of the University, which we see was a considerable time before the Reformation, continues to be used to this day; there being only one dean of faculty in that University, who is considered not as the head of one particular faculty, but in the light of an university officer, as the rector is.Sc. 1949 Gsw. Univ. Calendar 37:
The first buildings were those of the Faculty [of Arts] and it is important to note how, in the history of the University of Glasgow, the terms University, College and Faculty are closely interlinked.Gsw. 1951 J. M. Reid in Sc. Review (Feb.) 204:
When, in the 17th century, the College meeting (of Principal and professors) became known as the Faculty and a slightly larger body which was no doubt the heir of the old University Congregation, and which included the Rector and Dean of Faculty, as the Senatus, the new academic pattern of the monarchical college-university which was to be repeated all over the English-speaking world was firmly set.