Register of Sasines?.....

jennyblain · Post by **jennyblain** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 5:37 pm

Am I right in thinking that there's only one way to look up things in the General Register of Sasines, and that's to get to New Register House?

There's an interesting bit of the testament of Ann Fisher or Stewart (which I posted about in the Scottish People section) which refers to property in Muiravonside parish she got from her mother, and says it's 'described in an Instrument of Sasine in favor of the said Mrs Mary McCulloch in liferent for the liferent use allenarly and use in [fee or feu?] recorded in the General Register of Sasines the second day of December Eighteen hundred and forty five'...

So I'm trying to find out how to get sight of the entry, in an attempt to find out what may have been going on...

Jenny

Post by **AnneM** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 5:41 pm

Hi Jenny

I thought the sasines were at the National Archives of Scotland but might be wrong. The correct word is fee not feu.

A liferent is exactly what it says, the right to the use of the property for the person's life. The fee is the outright ownership of the piece of property which belongs to the fiar (person it's left to finally) and becomes available for his or her use when the liferenter dies. The fee is a kind of ownership which belongs to the person but does not become totally effective till the liferenter dies.

Anne

jennyblain · Post by **jennyblain** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 6:41 pm

Sorry - General Register House! (Typing too fast there - was thinking about the content not the building..) Thanks Anne. They are of course very close..

Why I'm interested in seeing the document, of course, is to get any sense of what was going on and why.. Mary's children were born in Linlithgow Bridge, her father had previously run the Bridge Inn which seems to be part of the property in question, she and her husband appear to have run the inn at least in the 1810s, and in the 1841 census her daughter Ann and son in law are running the Inn, but Mary herself is a servant in Edinburgh. And now I find that there's something assigning the Linlithgow Bridge property to her, in 1845 on 2nd December. It all seems very odd!

I'll go on persevering.

Jenny

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:59 pm

Hi Jenny
It may be worth getting in touch with NAS because you have a date for the recording of the sasine. They should be able to locate it provided you can give them enough info and possibly then photocopy it for you, but they will be able to advise on the possibililty of that and the cost, which will depend on the number of pages.

Best wishes
Lesley

trish1 · Post by **trish1** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 12:53 am

I bought a couple of sasines some time ago - I think there was a minimum charge of 10 pounds per sasine. I received a quote via email.

Trish

jennyblain · Post by **jennyblain** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 1:01 pm

I have emailed them to ask about the sasine.. will let people know how it goes!

There seem to have been quite a few property transactions going on. Could I but get access to an index.. clearly this is something that should be pursued. Anybody know other ways of searching out title deeds etc. in the 18th century, as I think there going back a generation would help here?

Jenny

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 11:52 pm

Hi Jenny
The only way I know of is to spend a day (or two!!) in NAS. The post 1780 (as far as I remember) sasines are all indexed for each county, both by, in most cases, surname and also place names. The index entry gives a summary of the content of each sasine and also gives a starting point for the ref. number for the original document. Many a happy hour can be spent gathering info from the indices under the staircases, then going upstairs to convert the refs to modern refs & order the documents which seem the most relevant!

Best wishes
Lesley

jennyblain · Post by **jennyblain** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:09 am

Thanks Lesley. I'm going to have to do that! There's heaps of other stuff about these same properties that I want to check! Ah, when though, that's the question..

Jenny