Definition
Titulars of erection were persons in Scotland who, following the Reformation, received grants from the Crown conveying former monastic and priory lands that had been converted ("erected") into temporal lordships. When the Scottish Reformation dissolved the ecclesiastical authority of the Roman Catholic Church in the mid-sixteenth century, the Crown assumed control of extensive monastic landholdings and reorganized them as secular estates. The grantees of these estates received not only the physical property but also the titles, rights, and privileges previously held by the religious houses — including the right to collect teinds (the Scottish equivalent of tithes) from lands within the former ecclesiastical territory. These grantees were accordingly known by two interchangeable designations: lords of erection (emphasizing their feudal rank under the new secular title) and titulars of the teinds (emphasizing their right to collect ecclesiastical revenues now flowing to a lay holder).
The term "erection" in this context refers to the legal act of constituting or elevating a parcel of land into a new tenure category — here, the conversion of church property into a temporal lordship by royal grant. The titulars held their rights in a hybrid legal position: they stood in the place of the dissolved religious houses for purposes of teind collection and land title, yet held under the feudal Crown as secular lords.
---
Common Confusion
TITULARS OF ERECTION / LORDS OF ERECTION / TITULARS OF THE TEINDS: These three designations refer to the same class of persons. The variation reflects which aspect of their position is being emphasized — their status as grantees of erected lordships, or their function as lay collectors of teinds. Researchers should not treat these as distinct legal categories. A fourth term, "commendators," sometimes appears in related historical literature and describes persons who held abbeys or priories in commendam (a form of administrative custody) before or during the Reformation period; commendators were frequently among those who subsequently became titulars of erection, but the terms are not synonymous.
---
Why It Matters in Research
This term belongs almost entirely to Scottish legal history of the Reformation period (roughly 1560 onward) and the subsequent statutory settlements of teind law, culminating most significantly in the Teinds Act 1633 and associated legislation. Researchers encountering this term in historical Scottish sources should treat it as a marker of post-Reformation land tenure and ecclesiastical revenue law, not as a live concept in modern Scots law.
Several research traps warrant attention. First, the term "erection" carries a specific technical meaning in this context that is unrelated to its modern legal uses (such as the erection of a corporation or a building). A source using "erection" in Scottish land law before the eighteenth century is almost certainly invoking this Reformation-era category. Second, the right to collect teinds — one of the titulars' chief privileges — became a source of prolonged litigation and legislative reform. By the seventeenth century, Parliament moved to regulate and ultimately commute teind obligations, fundamentally altering the position of titulars. Sources from before and after the major teind settlements will describe the titulars' rights very differently. Third, the Rapalje & Lawrence entry provides only a cross-reference and no substantive definition, meaning researchers relying on that dictionary alone will find this term a dead end without access to Bell's Principles or Scottish institutional writers.
For corpus research, this term connects Scottish feudal tenure, ecclesiastical property law, and the broader history of teinds. Tracing titulars of erection through the Law Mind corpus will likely require moving between land law, church law, and Scottish institutional writers — particularly George Joseph Bell, who is the authority cited by both Black's and Bouvier's on this point.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
The three substantive dictionary sources — Black's (1st and 2nd editions) and Bouvier's — are in close agreement, and all three trace their definitions directly to Bell. The language across all three entries is nearly identical, suggesting that Bouvier's and Black's drew from the same immediate source rather than conducting independent analysis. This convergence is useful as confirmation but should not be mistaken for independent corroboration; the chain of authority runs back to a single institutional writer.
What the historical dictionaries do not address is the evolution of the titulars' legal position over time. The definitions treat titulars of erection as a static category — grantees who received monastic lands and teind rights — without noting that this class of right-holders became legally controversial almost immediately. The Scottish Crown's practice of erecting these temporal lordships generated resistance from both the Presbyterian Kirk, which sought to reclaim teind revenues for parish ministers, and from heritors (landowners subject to teinds), who resisted lay titular claims. The statutory reforms of the seventeenth century, particularly those addressing the commutation and standardization of teinds, substantially curtailed what the titulars could demand. A researcher relying only on the dictionary definitions will miss this trajectory.
Rapalje & Lawrence's entry is functionally empty for this term, offering only a case citation without exposition.
---
Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to Scots law and has no equivalent in English common law or other common law systems. Its relevance is confined to Scottish legal history, particularly land tenure and ecclesiastical property matters from the Reformation through the eighteenth century. Modern Scots law does not employ this category as an operative concept.
---