1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Heritable Jurisdictions

HERITABLE JURISDICTIONS, in the law of Scotland, grants of jurisdiction made to a man and his heirs. They were a usual accompaniment to feudal tenures, and the power which they conferred on great families, being recognized as a source of danger to the state, led to frequent attempts being made by statute to restrict them, both before and after the Union. They were all abolished in 1746.