Sasines

This a brief guide to the Register of Sasines for Glasgow and Strathclyde from the 17th to the 20th century.

What do I need to know before I start?

Try to find out:

  • name of person

  • when they lived

  • where they lived

​What records can I find in the Mitchell: Glasgow City Archives?

The Register of Sasines is Scotland’s property register from 1617.  Before this date, property transfers were recorded in notarial protocol books.  Glasgow retained its Burgh Register of Sasine until it was discontinued in 1927. There are printed abridgements to the sasines for other areas from 1781 which give all the details of the transactions.

 

The City Archives holds:

  • Glasgow Burgh Register of Sasines, 1694-1927 (B10/26)

  • Glasgow Town Clerk’s protocol books, 1547-1696 (B10/1)

  • Minute books of Rutherglen Burgh Register of Sasines, 1839-1938 (RU2/9)

 

Abridgements of Sasines, 1781-1980s, including indexes, for the Strathclyde area: 

  • Argyll

  • Ayrshire

  • Bute 

  • Dunbartonshire

  • Glasgow, Barony and Regality

  • Lanarkshire

  • Renfrewshire

​What records can I see online?

There are no records online.

​What records can I see elsewh​ere?

The Glasgow Town Clerk’s protocol books have been printed:

R Renwick, Abstracts of Protocols of the Town Clerks of Glasgow 1547-1600 (1894).


The vast majority of the original registers of sasines are held in the National Records of Scotland. You can access the abridgements for the whole of Scotland in their searchroom.