CHANCELLOR, in Scotland, was the chief in matters of justice. In the laws of King Malcolm II. he is placed before all other officers; and from these it appears that he had the principal direction of the chancery, or chancellary as it is called, which is his proper office. He had the custody of the king's seal; and he was the king's most intimate counsellor, as appears by an old law cited by Sir James Balfour: "The
Chancellor chancellar sal at al tymes assist the king, in giving him counsell whir secretly nor the rest of the nobility, to quais ordinances all officaris, als well of the realme as of the kingis hous,ould answer and obey. The chancellar sal be ludgit neir unto the kingis grace, for keiping of his bodie, and the seill; and that he may be readie bath day and night at the kingis command." By having the custody of the great seal, he had an opportunity of examining the king's grants, and other deeds which were to pass under it, and to cancel them if they appeared against law, and were obtained surreptitiously or by false suggestions.
King James VI. ordained the chancellor to have the first place and rank in the nation, ratione officii; by virtue whereof he presided in the parliament, and in all courts of judicature. After the restoration of King Charles II. by a particular declaratory law, parliament first, the lord chancellor was declared, by virtue and right of his office, president, in all the meetings of parliament, or other public judicatures of the kingdom. Although this act was made to declare the chancellor president of the exchequer as well as other courts, yet in 1663 the king declared the treasurer to be president of that court.
The office of lord chancellor was abolished by the Union, there being no farther use for the judicial part of this office; and to answer all the other parts of the chancellor's office, a lord keeper of the great seal was erected, with a salary of 3000l. a-year.