Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1974 (SND Vol. IX). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

THANE, n.¹ [θen]

1. Sc. Hist.: a minor noble who acted as an official of the Crown with certain fiscal and later, judicial, authority over a tract of land, poss. the toiseach or chief of Celtic times, to whom the title of thane was applied from the nearest corresponding office in the Anglo-Saxon organisation after the anglicisation of the Sc. Court in the 11th century and whose status was ultimately turned into that of baron under the Feudal system. The quots. illustrate the fluctuating views of historians over the last two centuries about the precise nature of the office.Sc. 1710 R. Sibbald Hist. Fife 23:
The Thanes were his Treasurer-deputes for the Lands they were Thanes of.Sc. 1774 D. Dalrymple Annals Scot. I. 27:
It is probable, that some men who had been formerly called Thanes, did now assume the appellation of Earls [c.1100].Sc. 1807 G. Chalmers Caledonia iv. iv.:
Thanes and thanedoms were unknown to Celtic Scotland.Sc. 1859 C. Innes Thanes of Cawdor (S.C.) x.:
The administrator of the Crown lands, the collector of rents, the magistrates and head man of a little district, known among his Celtic neighbours as the “Toshach”, took a charter of the whole district from the Sovereign, whereby he became, under the Saxon name of Thane, hereditary tenant.Sc. 1882 J. F. S. Gordon in L. Shaw Hist. Mry. I. 18:
It appears by the laws of King David that Thanes held of the King and also of Earls; as Thanes of both descriptions were subjected to certain penalties if they were absent from the loyal army, and are distinguished from Barons and Milites.Sc. 1938 Sources Sc. Law (Stair Soc.) 111:
These older [Celtic and Norse] courts became merged in Sheriff Courts, Brieves, Thanes and Lawmen becoming Sheriffs.Sc. 1958 Intro. Sc. Legal Hist. (Stair Soc.) 149:
The Scottish thane of the 12th century was in a similar position to that of the pre-conquest English thane — a half-way stage between royal official and landholder.Sc. 1960 G. W. S. Barrow Acts Malcolm IV 45:
Three important classes of local official known to have existed under Malcolm IV were mairs, thanes and judges.Sc. 1991 R. Crombie Saunders in Tom Hubbard The New Makars 28:
An auld sang's in my thocht
That tells o dule an skaith:
A thane wi luve's distraucht,
Bot luve's forouten faith.

Hence (1) than(n)a(d)ge, the domain or jurisdiction of a Scottish thane; (2) thanedom, = id.; (3) thanry, a court held under the jurisdiction of a thane, a baron court.(1) Sc. 1862 E. W. Robertson Scot. under Early Kings II. 471:
By the conversion of the thanage into a barony the Thane became the Laird.Sc. 1873 J. H. Burton Hist. Scot. II. 55:
Another and peculiar element which remained for some time after this period among the seignorial institution of Scotland, that of Thanage. It was swept away before the strict Norman feudality of the Conquest, but it subsisted long afterwards in Scotland.Sc. 1880 W. F. Skene Celtic Scot. III. 245, 256:
The thanage consisted, like all baronies, of two parts, demesne and that part given off as freeholds or tenandries. The demesne was held by the Thane of the king in feu-farm. . . . On Deeside, at some distance from its mouth, were three thanages — those of O'Neill, Birse, and Aboyne.Sc. 1968 Dundee & District (Jones) 155:
There were also in Angus a quite remarkable number of thanages. These appear to have been old tribal territories annexed by the crown and administered by thanes or stewards, though as time passed their relationship to the King became more that of vassals than officials. By the fourteenth century most of the thanages had been converted into baronies held in military tenure while those that survived were regarded as baronies held in feu-farm, that is by payment of a feu-duty.(2) Sc. 1775 L. Shaw Hist. Mry. 181:
The lands of Ligate, Newton, Ardgaoith, etc., in the parishes of Spynie and Alves, are called the Thanedom of Moray.Sc. 1777 Caled. Mercury (15 March):
To be Sold . . . The lands and Barony of Balbegno, lying within the parish of Fettercairn, and shire of Kincardine, with the office of Thanedom of Fettercairn.Sc. 1837 W. F. Skene Highlanders (1902) 261:
Thanedoms were certainly hereditary in Scotland.m.Sc. 1986 Colin Mackay The Song of the Forest 173:
The storm had wrought a desolation everywhere else. There was not a village in all the thanedom where the old and the young and the sick were not going to die of starvation that coming winter.(3) Sc. 1744 W. Macfarlane Geog. Coll. (S.H.S.) I. 286:
A little round mount commonly called the Law, which has been probably the place for the Thanry or Barron Court.

2. Used in gen. sense, arch. of any nobleman, specif. an earl. Usu. jocularly. Fem. form thaness, a titled lady.Sc. 1721 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) I. 28:
In this at Court the Thanes were gayly clad.Sc. 1728 Ramsay Poems (S.T.S.) II. 86:
The Thane of Fife, wha lately wi' his Flane, And Vizy leel, made the Blyth Bowl his ain.Ayr. 1785 Burns 2nd. Ep. to J. Lapraik xii.:
Or is't the paughty feudal thane?Sc. 1827 Scott Surgeon's Daughter iii.:
All the rural thanes and thanesses attended on these occasions.