Heritable jurisdictions

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Heritable jurisdictions, in the law of Scotland, grants, of jurisdiction made to a man and his heirs.

They were a usual accompaniment to feudal tenures, and the power which they conferred on great families, being recognized as a source of danger to the state, led to frequent attempts being made by statute to restrict them, both before and after the Union. They were all abolished by Act of Parliament in 1747, following the Jacobite uprising, with compensation available upon formal application by the dispossessed.

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.