Docquet vide infra on a marriage cert

[Montrose Budie]

As has been answered already, the meaning is -

'For docquet, see below'.

'Docquet' is a very old European Latin legal term, but still used in Scotland in the 1800s, which, in this instance can be taken to mean a form of certification that the registrar had carried out his duties correctly, and including some statistics relating to the Register Books involved, including notes on the numbers of clerical errors; as well as the Registers of Corrected Entries; and for the relevant time period, the smallpox vaccination records.

Contrary to popular belief registrars were "under the control and superintendance" of the local Sheriff, which term includes Sheriff-Substitutes, and not General Register Office Scotland in Edinburgh !

Depending on the nature of the registration district involved, the following could play a role in the appointment of the registrar, - the town council, the parish council, the local heritors, and the Sheriff or Sheriff-Substitute. The detailed situation could get quite complicated.

The original 1854 Act, vide supra <bg>, included the duty for the local Sheriff of carrying out an annual check that the registrars had performed their duties satisfactorily.

It was realised from the very beginning that this situation was not ideal as it would be unreasonable to expect the local Sheriff to have the required expertise to enable him to carry out this task efficiently.

The 1855 amending act therefore transferred the responsibility for this annual check to one of a number of District Examiners appointed by GROS, who spent their time travelling around their area inspecting the registers. I have a memory from somewhere that the initial number of such Examiners was 5 or 6 for the whole of Scotland.

It's quite common to see an annotation in the left margin of a register with the initials of the District Examiner, followed by various abbreviations most often including 'Ex.'

From experience of many such annotations, it appears to be the case that the term 'Superintending Registrar' with various appropriate abbreviations, was also used by District Examiners appointed by GROS.


In a sense registrars in the 19th C, and into the 20th C, can be considered as being self-employed.


Incidentally Registrars were appointed for life, or as another Latin term goes - 'ad vitam aut culpam', ( = for life or until fault ) but with the safeguard that 'No Registrar shall acquire any vested right in or to his office by virtue of his appointment'.


Most registrars today are employees of local authorities, i.e. still not directly employed by GROS.

mb

[Currie]

Thanks for the explanation mb. It’s a lot easier to understand than all the legal rigmarole, especially in the 1855 amendment.

All the best,
Alan