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Scottish or Scots units of measurement are the weights and measures peculiar to Scotland which were nominally replaced by English units in 1685 but continued to be used in unofficial contexts until at least the late 18th century.[citation needed] The system was based on the ell (length), stone (mass), and boll and firlot (volume). This official system coexisted with local variants, especially for the measurement of land area.
The system is said to have been introduced by David I of Scotland (1124–53), although there are no surviving records until the 15th century when the system was already in normal use. Standard measures and weights were kept in each burgh, and these were periodically compared against one another at "assizes of measures", often during the early years of the reign of a new monarch. Nevertheless, there was considerable local variation in many of the units, and the units of dry measure steadily increased in size from 1400 to 1700.[1][2]
The Scots units of length were technically replaced by the English system by an Act of the Parliament of Scotland in 1685,[3] and the other units by the Treaty of Union with England in 1706.[4] However, many continued to be used locally during the 18th and 19th centuries. The introduction of the Imperial system by the Weights and Measures Act 1824 (5 Geo. 4. c. 74) saw the end of any formal use in trade and commerce, although some informal use as customary units continued into the 20th century. "Scotch measure" or "Cunningham measure" was brought to parts of Ulster in Ireland by Ulster Scots settlers, and used into the mid-19th century.[5][6]
- ^ Simpson, A. D. C. (2005), "Interpreting Scots measurement terms: a cautionary tale", in Kay, Christian J.; Mackay, Margaret A. (eds.), Perspectives on the Older Scottish Tongue, Edinburgh: University Press, pp. 139–52.
- ^ Connor, R. D.; Simpson, A. D. C. (2004), Weights and Measures in Scotland: A European Perspective, Edinburgh: NMS/Tuckwell Press, ISBN 978-1-901663-88-4.
- ^ "Act for a standard of miles" (16 June 1685). APS viii: 494, c.59. RPS 1685/4/83.
- ^ Union with England Act 1707 (c. 7), art. 17.
- ^ Andrews, John Harwood (1985). Plantation acres: an historical study of the Irish land surveyor and his maps. Ulster Historical Foundation. p. 126.
- ^ Hall, Anna Maria (1842). Ireland: Its Scenery, Character, &c. How and Parsons. pp. 198, fn. Retrieved 15 May 2015.
We notice the Scotch acre, chiefly because it is the measure employed in some of the northern Irish counties.