[ad. late L. jūdicātōri-um, neuter of jūdicātōri-us adj.: see next.]
1. A court of judicature; a body having judicial authority; a tribunal. Now chiefly Sc.
1606–7. Act of Counsell of Scot., 4 Feb. The Writers and Clerkes of all Iudicatories within this Realme.
1676. Owen, Worship of God, 83. From the highest Court of their Sanhedrim, to the meanest Judicatory in their Synagogues.
1707. Atterbury, Serm. (1723), II. 172. Human Judicatories … give sentence only on matters of right and wrong.
1765. Act 5 Geo. III., c. 49 § 4. A protest … shall be registerable in the Courts of Session or other competent judicatories.
1801. A. Hamilton, Wks. (1886), VII. 226. The treaties of the United States had been infracted by State laws, put in execution by State judicatories.
1850. Ht. Martineau, Hist. Peace, II. V. vii. 318. The Scotch Church … whose four judicatories … were still all elective.
b. transf. and fig.
1656. Stanley, Hist. Philos., IV. (1701), 134/2. They assert that passions or affections are the Judges [κριτηρια] … To these assertions … concerning the Judicatories, agreeth what they assert concerning Ends.
1674. Govt. Tongue, vi. 70. These are arraigned at every Table, in every Tavern. And at such variety of Judicatories, there will be as great variety of sentences.
1850. McCosh, Div. Govt. (1852), 290. It [conscience] is the highest judicatory in the human mind, judging all and being judged of none.
2. Judicature; a system of judicature.
c. 1575. Balfour’s Practicks (1754), 265. Anent the college of justice, institutioun and judicatorie thairof.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., VIII. § 206. The Lords, as the Supreme Court of Judicatory.
1647. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. xxxvii. (1739), 55. Evidence … in the Saxon Judicatory, sometimes consisted in the pregnant testimony of the fact itself.
1884. Law Times, LXXVI. 342/1. The judicatories of Scotland and England were as independent of each other, within their respective territories, as if they were the judicatories of two foreign states.
† 3. A judicatory or critical stage, a crisis. Obs.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., XIX. 810. Judicatories (or Crises) which do not terminate the disease, are signs of a predominant and perverse humour.
