Hist. Forms: 7 sawl-scot, 7–9 soul-scot; also 9 soul-scat. [f. SOUL sb. + SCOT sb.2, after OE. sáwlsceat (see SCAT sb.1) or sáwul(ʓe)sceot.] A due paid on behalf of a deceased person to the church of the parish to which he belonged; a mortuary.
[1664. Spelman’s Gloss., 501/1. Saulscot,… Animæ symbolum.]
1670. Blount, Glossogr. (ed. 3), Soul-scot (Sax.), money paid to the parish Priest at the opening the grave, for the good and behoof of the deceased’s Soul.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. xxviii. 425. The second best chattel was reserved to the church as a mortuary:… And therefore in the laws of king Canute this mortuary is called soul-scot … or symbolum animae.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xlii. For this service a splendid soul-scat was paid to the convent of Saint Edmund’s by the mother of the deceased.
1874. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. viii. 229. The clergy received … church-scot; and … soul-scot or mortuary-dues.
1892. J. C. Blomfield, Hist. Heyford, 84. Mortuaries, ‘soul-scot’ or ‘corse-presents,’ which are a kind of ecclesiastical heriot.
