Definition
In Scots law, a small customary payment in kind — specifically, a portion of meal — given to mill servants at a grain mill as part of the thirlage system. Sequel was distinct from multure (the toll paid to the mill owner for grinding) and formed part of the package of dues owed by those thirled, or bound, to grind at a particular mill. The specific portions making up sequel were known by local names including knaveship, bannock, and lock or gowpen, each representing a small measure taken from the grain or meal processed.
The term has no operative meaning in modern common law jurisdictions and is encountered almost exclusively in historical Scots law sources dealing with feudal tenure and milling rights.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The events that follow a previously mentioned event; or a narrative work set in the same universe as and chronologically after a prior work.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): That which follows; a succeeding part or continuation; also, consequence, result, or effect.
The common meaning of "sequel" — something that follows or comes after — bears no relationship to its technical Scots law meaning. A researcher encountering "sequel" in a historical Scottish legal document should not read it as signifying sequence or consequence. It is instead a term of art for a specific mill due, and context is rarely sufficient warning without prior knowledge of thirlage vocabulary.
Common Confusion
Sequel is easily conflated with multure, the primary toll of the thirlage system. The distinction matters: multure was paid to the mill proprietor; sequel (comprising knaveship, bannock, and lock or gowpen) was paid to the mill servants. A source that mentions only multure may be understating the total burden of thirling. Researchers reconstructing the economic weight of thirlage obligations must account for both categories of payment.
Why It Matters in Research
Sequel is a term that will surprise researchers who encounter it without forewarning. Its appearance in historical Scottish records, estate documents, rental books, or legal proceedings related to milling rights signals that the document is operating within the technical vocabulary of thirlage — a feudal system binding tenants to a particular mill and subjecting their grain to a schedule of tolls and dues. Recognizing "sequel" as a term of art, rather than a word meaning consequence or continuation, is essential to accurate reading.
The component terms — knaveship, bannock, lock, and gowpen — represent local or regional variations in how the servant's portion was measured or named. These sub-terms may appear in isolation in primary sources, and a researcher who does not know they fall under the umbrella of "sequel" may miss the connection to the broader thirlage framework.
Sequel does not appear in English common law sources. Its absence from most legal dictionaries outside the Scots law tradition means researchers working in comparative or British legal history need to consult Scots-specific sources such as Erskine's Institutes (Ersk. Prin.) rather than general legal reference works.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's is the primary historical dictionary source for this entry and provides a concise, accurate definition, correctly identifying sequel as a mill due paid to servants, naming its component forms, and citing Erskine's Principles as authority. The entry appropriately cross-references thirlage as the governing legal framework.
The definition is narrow but sufficient for its purpose. What Bouvier's does not do — and what researchers should not expect from a single-sentence entry — is situate sequel within the full economic and legal architecture of thirlage: the nature of the servitude, the relationship between the mill proprietor and the thirled tenants, the enforcement mechanisms, or the historical abolition of thirlage burdens in Scotland. For that context, Erskine's Institutes and later Scots institutional writers are the appropriate sources.
No meaningful divergence exists among historical sources on this term because the term's usage is narrow, technical, and jurisdictionally contained.
Jurisdictional Note
Sequel as a legal term is confined to Scots law and is primarily historical, associated with the thirlage system that was progressively dismantled through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It has no equivalent in English common law and carries no legal meaning in any modern jurisdiction.