Definition
An archaic Scots legal term for a broker — a person who acts as an intermediary agent in commercial transactions, negotiating bargains or contracts between parties for a fee or commission. The term appears in Old Scots legal usage and is functionally equivalent to the more familiar English term BROKER. Its practical legal meaning is the same: an agent who facilitates transactions between buyers and sellers without taking title to the goods or property involved.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in Scots legal history or with early Scottish legal documents may encounter "brocker" as a variant spelling where modern sources would use "broker." The term is archaic even by the standards of historical legal writing and is unlikely to appear outside of Old Scots sources, glossaries of Scots law, or secondary works drawing on such materials. Burrill cites Skene's De Verborum Significatione, a foundational Scots legal glossary, as the authority — meaning the term's documented legal life is largely confined to that lexicographical tradition rather than to broad transactional or judicial usage. Researchers should not expect to find "brocker" as a live operative term in case law or statutes; its value is terminological and etymological, helping identify the role being described in early Scots instruments or legal commentary. Cross-reference any occurrence with the substantive law governing brokers and brokerage in the relevant historical period.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole historical source to record this term with a legal definition. Burrill identifies it as Old Scots ("O. Sc."), traces it to "broccarii," and grounds the entry in Skene's De Verborum Significatione — a late sixteenth-century Scots legal glossary that remains an important reference for archaic Scots legal terminology. The entry is minimal, functioning as a cross-reference to "broker" rather than an independent substantive definition. No other major historical legal dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus — not Jacob, not Bouvier, not Black's — carry this spelling as a distinct entry, which confirms that "brocker" is a regionalism confined to the Scots tradition rather than a term with broader common-law circulation. Researchers should treat Burrill's entry as an identification aid rather than a source of substantive legal doctrine.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to Scots law and Old Scots legal usage. It has no documented application in English common law or other common-law jurisdictions. Research involving this term should be directed to Scottish legal history sources and to Skene's De Verborum Significatione in particular.