Definition
In Scots law, to alienate or convey property. The term describes the act of transferring title or rights in property from one party to another. It is a term of Scottish legal usage with no direct modern equivalent in English or American law.
Why It Matters in Research
ANNALY is an archaic term confined almost entirely to historical Scots law sources. Researchers encountering it in pre-modern Scottish legal documents, land records, or treatises should treat it as a technical term of conveyancing, equivalent in function to alienate or convey in English legal usage. It will not appear in modern Scottish statutory or case law and is not part of the contemporary legal vocabulary of any jurisdiction.
The term's primary research value is as a reading aid: a researcher working through historical Scottish instruments of title, feudal grants, or early modern legal pleadings may encounter it without any contextual explanation. Knowing that it signals a transfer of property — not a lease, not a pledge, not a trust — is the essential intelligence.
Cross-references within historical sources can create confusion. Burrill's entry on ANNALY sits immediately adjacent to his entry on ANNATES, a wholly unrelated concept from English ecclesiastical law concerning first-year profits of clerical appointments. Researchers scanning Burrill's text should take care not to conflate the two, as the proximity is alphabetical only and the legal contexts are entirely distinct.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree precisely: ANNALY means, in Scots law, to alienate or convey. There is no divergence on substance. Black's (both editions) and Burrill offer identical definitions.
Burrill alone provides a supporting authority, citing Skene's De Verborum Significatione, the sixteenth-century Scottish legal glossary compiled by Sir John Skene. This source is the natural primary reference for researchers seeking to trace the term's original usage and context within Scots feudal legal vocabulary. None of the three dictionaries expands on how the term was used in practice, what formalities attended the act of annaly, or how it interacted with feudal tenure rules — a limitation researchers should note when the term appears in a document requiring fuller contextual interpretation.
Jurisdictional Note
ANNALY is a term of historical Scots law only. It has no recognized meaning in English, American, or other common law jurisdictions and is not operative in any modern legal system. Researchers should not attempt to import its meaning into non-Scottish legal contexts.