Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

INFEFTMENT, n. Sc. Law: the investing of a new owner with a real right in or legal possession of land or Heritage, formerly accomplished by a symbolic act but now by registration of the deed of transfer; the document which conveys this right. Also ¶infœftment (Ayr. 1822 Galt Provost iv.), †infeftement.Sc. 1709 Compend of Securities 241:
The giving of Infeftment of Lands redeemable or irredeemable is by Delivery of Earth and Stone of the Ground of the said Lands by the Proprietor, or his Commissioner as Baillie in that Part, to the Acquirer, or his Acturney, having and holding in his Hands, the Writs or Precepts, before Two Witnesses at least.Inv. 1742 Steuart Letter Bk. (S.H.S.) 434:
Let the Contract and the sesin be return'd to me howsoon the infeftment is exped.Sc. 1770 in Fergusson Poems (Grosart 1878) lxxiii.:
For writing an infeftement . . . . 2 6.Sc. 1779 H. Arnot Hist. Edb. 535:
Infeftment is a form in the Scots law, in which, by the presenting of earth and stone, as symbols, legal delivery, and possession of any landed property, is made to the person presented with the symbols. Without this ceremony, no person can possess a real right in land.Sc. 1845 Stat. Acc.² I. 269:
They are also empowered to grant infeftments by hasp and staple more burgi.Sc. 1896 W. K. Morton Manual 93:
The Conveyancing Act, 1874, s. 4 (2), provides that infeftment of the new owner shall imply his entry with the superior.Sc. 1927 Green's Encycl. Law Scot. IV. 169:
There can be no infeftment except on or under a grant from the Crown, mediate or immediate. This follows from the consideration that infeftment is a feudal act, and that the Crown is the head or lord paramount of the feudal system.

Phrs.: infeftment in security, — of relief, the temporary infeftment in heritable property of a creditor as a security for his loan or of a cautioner or surety for his engagement (Sc. 1722 W. Forbes Institutes I. ii. 269).Sc. 1754 Erskine Principles ii. 8. § 17:
Infeftments in security are another kind of redeemable right, by which the receivers are infeft in the lands themselves. . . . These rights, when they are granted, not to creditors for payment of their debts, but to cautioners for relief of their engagements, are called infeftments of relief.Sc. 1833 G. Bell Principles 247:
Infeftments in security merely, in which the land is pledged or burdened, but not transferred.