Director of Chancery
The office of Director of Chancery (or Chancellory), the keeper of the Quarter Seal of Scotland, was formerly a senior position within the legal system of Scotland. The medieval post, latterly an office at General Register House, Edinburgh, was abolished by the Reorganisation of Offices (Scotland) Act 1928.
The Scottish chancery was responsible for draughting, issuing and recording royal charters (e.g. charters of novodamus), patents of dignities (see Letters patent), gifts of offices, remissions, legitimations, presentations, commissions, brieves (brief warrants) and others crown writs appointed to pass the Great Seal or the Quarter Seal of Scotland.[1]
The quarter seal of Scotland is now kept by the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland.[2]
Office holders
- James Colville, politician, judge and diplomat
- Thomas Bellenden of Auchnoule, ambassador to England
- John Bellenden, Lord Justice Clerk
- George Buchanan, historian and humanist scholar
- John Scot, Lord Scotstarvit, judge and satirist
See also
References
- ↑ Dictionary of the Law of Scotland.
- ↑ "The Chancery pre-1707". The National Archives of Scotland. National Records of Scotland. Retrieved 27 July 2014.