Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1971 (SND Vol. VIII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

SETTEN, n. Also setteen, -in(g). An I.Sc. measure of weight = a Lispund, q.v., or 24 marks (see Merk, 4.), the sixth part of a Meil, used also in the assessment of the value of agricultural land. Hist., except in calculation of tax on Crown land in Ork.Ork. 1701 J. Brand Descr. Ork. (1883) 42:
A Leispound or Setten, which with the Danes is that which we call a Stone.Ork. 1730 B. H. Hossack Kirkwall (1900) 408:
The Standart of the Malt-pundar Meil consisting of six of these Setteens, seventy-two libs. and no more.Ork. 1779 J. Swinton Weights, etc. 106:
To convert Setteens or Lyspunds to Scotch pounds, multiply by 30.Ork. 1799 Edb. Weekly Jnl. (24 July):
All and whole those ten settins mailing, with the Meikle House of Sandwick.Ork. 1805 G. Barry Hist. Orkney 211:
The smallest of these weights, or the one of the lowest denomination is the mark. Twenty-four marks make a setteen or lispund, or pund bysmer, or span; all of which are equivalent and convertible terms; and though the three latter are now obsolete, they were commonly used in the last age; six setteens or lispunds, make a meil, and twenty-four meils a last.Sh. 1822 S. Hibbert Descr. Sh. 323:
A late landlord converted the boumacks of every house on his estate to 4 settins of malt.Ork. 1884 R. M. Fergusson Rambles 148:
Each township, or group of small farms in Orkney, goes under the denomination of so many pennylands, farthing-lands, cows-worths, settens, and marklands.Ork. 1938 P. Ork. A.S. XV. 10:
The terms meil and setting were retained but on the so-called Bere Pundlar they were theoretically only two-thirds of the meil and setting respectively on the Malt Pundlar.