Dates covered by the sasine register
There were several attempts to start a national register of sasines in Scotland. One early attempt, The Secretary's Register, started in 1599 and ended in 1609. It is very incomplete. The full register really begins from 1617 and it runs until the present day. Since 6 April 1981 it is being gradually replaced, county by county, by the system of Registration of Title (ROT) but the sasine register still remains one of the oldest continuing records of land transactions in Europe.
The new ROT system is managed by The Registers of Scotland, Meadowbank House, 153 London Road, Edinburgh, EH8 7AU.
Organisation of the register
Despite speaking of a 'register' there are in fact several different series of registers.
- 1599 - 1609: the incomplete Secretary's Register, divided into counties.
- From 1617: a particular register of sasines for individual counties and a general register of sasines which covered all of Scotland, except the three Lothian counties. The general register was also used to record details of properties that were spread over more than one county.
- 1869 onwards: The system was restructured in 1869, to establish one general register arranged in county divisions.
All these registers are in National Records of Scotland (NRS) under the catalogue reference RS.
The 66 royal burghs maintained their own burgh registers of sasines. With the exception of the Glasgow burgh register, and the Aberdeen and Dundee pre-1809 registers, these records are held in NRS under the catalogue reference B.
The completeness of the register
The register was intended from the outset to cover all land transactions in Scotland. It was (and still is) a legal requirement to record a sasine or an equivalent title deed within a few days of its being made up. In practice, the registers are fairly complete from 1617 and are generally regarded as fully comprehensive from about 1660 onwards. There is only one significant qualification to this. Once made out, a sasine had to be recorded. It might happen, however, that an individual inherited a property where he was already resident. Most commonly this would happen where an eldest son inherited property on his father's decease. If his possession was undisputed, he might not go to the expense of having a sasine executed for some considerable time. Only later would he do this, if his possession was disputed, or if he had to produce a full set of titles before he could sell the property to a third party.
Documents other than sasines in the register
One of the ideas behind establishing the register was to prevent the repeated use of a piece of property as fraudulent collateral for securing loans. Consequently all deeds that secured debts on land (e.g. mortgages) had to be recorded. This means that you can sometimes learn a lot about the financial dealings of merchants, businessmen and land owners. Such investigations require time and patience, however.
Public access to the register
The register has always been a public record, open to inspection by anyone. This was again an aspect of its function of stopping fraud. The NRS does not charge fees if you are looking at the register for family history or other historical purposes. If your interest centres on a legal matter (e.g. you are in dispute with a neighbour about the line of a boundary wall or the division of costs for a common repair) then you will have to pay legal search fees to examine the record.
