In Scotland, a baron or baroness is the head of a feudal barony, also known as a prescriptive barony. This used to be attached to a particular piece of land on which was situated the caput (Latin for "head") or essence of the barony, normally a building, such as a castle or manor house. Accordingly, the owner of the piece of land containing the caput was called a baron or baroness. According to Grant, there were around 350 identifiable local baronies in Scotland by the early fifteenth century and these could mostly be mapped against local parish boundaries. The term baron was in general use from the thirteenth century to describe what would have been known in England as a knight of the shire.
The 1896 edition of Green's Encyclopaedia of the Law of Scotland noted that "the mere territorial baron has no title of dignity appropriated to him". In the Encyclopaedia of the Laws of Scotland (1927), John Horne Stevenson stated that "a barony title did not itself confer any dignity upon the holder". The Court of the Lord Lyon issued a ruling in April 2015 that may recognise a person possessing a barony and other feudal titles (lordship/earl/marquis) on petition. The Lord Lyon King of Arms now prefers the approach of recognizing the particular feudal dignity as expressed in the Crown Charter that the petitioner presents. These titles are recognised as the status of a minor baron or baroness, but not a peer. Scottish feudal baronies may be passed to any person, of either sex, by inheritance or conveyance.
Scotland has a distinct legal system within the United Kingdom. Historically, in the Kingdom of Scotland, the Lord Lyon King of Arms, as the Sovereign's minister in matters armorial, is at once herald and judge. The Scottish equivalent of an English baron is a Lord of Parliament.
History
A "Scottish Prescriptive Barony by Tenure" was, from 1660 until 2004, the feudal description of the only genuine degree of title of UK nobility capable of being bought and sold (along with the caput, or property), rather than passing strictly by blood inheritance.
Statutes of 1592 and the Baronetcy Warrants of King Charles I show the non-peerage Table of Precedence as: Baronets, Knights, Barons and Lairds, Esquire and Gentlemen.
A General Register of Sasines was set up by Statute in 1617, with entry in the Register giving the prescriptive right (right by normal or correct usage), after so many years, to the caput or essence of the barony. The individual who owned the said piece of land containing the caput was hence the baron or baroness. Uncertainty over armorial right was removed by the Lyon Register being set up by Statute in 1672, such that no arms were to be borne in Scotland unless validly entered in Lyon Register.
Up until 1874, each new baron was confirmed in his barony by the Crown by Charter of Confirmation. Up until 28 November 2004, a barony was an estate of land held directly of the Crown, or the Prince and Great Steward of Scotland. It was an essential element of a barony title that there existed a Crown Charter erecting the land into a barony, recorded in the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland. Often the original Charter was later lost, however an Official Extract has the same legal status as the original Charter.
From the Treaty of Union of 1707 - until 1999 - a unified Parliament of Great Britain (since January, 1801, known as the Parliament of the United Kingdom), at Westminster, was responsible for passing legislation affecting private law both north and south of the Scottish border. In 1999, the devolved Scottish Parliament was established, and private law measures can now be passed at Holyrood, the seat of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
Using a "prescriptive feudal grant" allowed developers to impose perpetual conditions affecting the land. The courts became willing to accept the validity of such obligations, which became known as "real burdens". In practical and commercial terms, these real burdens were like English leasehold tenure.