soul-scot Hist.
Forms: 7 sawl-scot, 7–9 soul-scot; also 9 soul-scat.
[f. soul n. + scot n.2, after OE. sáwlsceat (see scat n.1) or sáwul(ᵹe)sceot.]
A due paid on behalf of a deceased person to the church of the parish to which he belonged; a mortuary.
| [1664 Spelman's Gloss. 501/1 Saulscot,..Animæ symbolum.] 1670 Blount Glossogr. (ed. 3), Soul-scot (Sax.), money paid to the parish Priest at the opening the grave, for the good and behoof of the deceased's Soul. 1766 Blackstone Comm. II. xxviii. 425 The second best chattel was reserved to the church as a mortuary:..And therefore in the laws of king Canute this mortuary is called soul-scot..or symbolum animae. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe xlii, For this service a splendid soul-scat was paid to the convent of Saint Edmund's by the mother of the deceased. 1874 Stubbs Const. Hist. I. viii. 229 The clergy received..church-scot; and..soul-scot or mortuary-dues. 1892 J. C. Blomfield Hist. Heyford 84 Mortuaries, ‘soul-scot’ or ‘corse-presents’, which are a kind of ecclesiastical heriot. |