Signet Library
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| Abbreviation | WS Society |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1594 |
| Type | Professional body |
| Purpose | Promotion of standards in legal services |
| Headquarters | Signet Library |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 55°56′56.80″N 3°11′29.91″W / 55.9491111°N 3.1916417°W |
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Region served
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Scotland |
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Keeper of the Signet
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Lord Mackay of Clashfern |
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Main organ
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Council |
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Parent organization
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College of Justice |
| Website | www |
The Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet is a private society of Scottish solicitors, dating back to 1594 and part of the College of Justice. Writers to the Signet originally had special privileges in relation to the drawing up of documents which required to be signeted, but these have since disappeared and the Society is now an independent, non-regulatory association of solicitors. The Society maintains the Category A listed Signet Library, part of the Parliament House complex in Edinburgh, and members of the Society are entitled to the postnominal letters, WS.
Solicitors in Scotland were previously known as "writers"; Writers to the Signet were the solicitors entitled to supervise use of the King's Signet, the private seal of the early Kings of Scots. Records of that use date back to 1369. In 1532, the Writers to the Signet were included as Members in the newly established College of Justice, along with the Faculty of Advocates and the Clerks of the Court of Session. The Society was established in 1594, when the King's Secretary, as Keeper of the Signet, gave commissions to a Deputy Keeper and 18 other writers.
Writers to the Signet began as clerks to the Keeper of the Signet, and were afforded the privileges of freedom from taxation by the Burgh of Edinburgh, exemption from military duty, and rights of audience before the bar of the bar of the College of Justice. Writers were involved in drawing up summonses to the Court of Session. Writers were, however, de jure prohibited form acting as procurators but de facto this was often ignored.
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Wikipedia