The Treaty of Union, article 20, enacts ‘That all heritable offices, superiorities, heritable jurisdictions, offices for life, and jurisdictions for life, be reserved to the owners thereof as rights of property, in the same manner as they are now enjoyed by the laws of Scotland notwithstanding this Treaty.’
The Usher of the White Rod at the time of the Union was entitled to receive certain fees from the recipients of honours conferred by the King as Sovereign of Scotland, and could recover these fees from a Scotsman in whatever part of the King’s dominions he, the grantee, might be in, and from an Englishman if he, the grantee, received the honour while in Scotland. From 1766 to 1904 the holders of the office claimed and received fees from the grantees of titles and dignities of the United Kingdom.
Held (rev. judgment of the Second Division) that although the effect might be to deprive the Usher of valuable emoluments, the terms of article 20 of the Treaty of Union were too unambiguous to be open to interpretation by any custom or practice which had grown up since, that by it the rights effeiring to the office of Usher were as before the Union, and consequently fees were only payable by a grantee of a Scottish honour or dignity, not by the grantees of honours or dignities of the United Kingdom.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Loreburn), Lord Atkinson, Lord Kinnear, and Lord Gorell
Citations:
[1911] UKHL 73, 49 SLR 73
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Constitutional
Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.619227