fiar

noun

1. (historical)One in whom the property of an estate is vested, subject to the estate of a liferenter.

   “I say, since ye hae sae muckle consideration for me, I'se be blithe to accept your kindness; and my mother and me (she's a life-renter, and I am fiar, o' the lands o' Wideopen) would grant you a wadset, or an heritable bond, for the siller, and to pay the annual-rent half-yearly; and Saunders Wyliecoat to draw the bond, and you to be at nae charge wi' the writings.”

2. (historical)The price of grain in the counties of Scotland, as legally fixed on an annual basis.

   “It seems to be a practice as improper as it is unnecessary, to strike the fiars in three different qualities of the same species of grain; and it should, in our humble opinion, be discontinued.”

   “It was answered by the Sheriff. 1st, That the Act of Sederunt did not impose any positive injunction on Sheriffs to strike Fiars; that if the Fiars were substantially just, the Court could have no power to reduce them; and that the Act of Sederunt had never been observed in East Lothian;[…].”

   “In further confirmation that this is not the date of the origin, it may be stated, that there is very early mention of Commissaries' Fiars, Sir John Connell tracing the commencement of these so far back as the Reformation, when Commissary or Consistorial Courts were established, in place of those of the bishops or their officials; and notice is taken of the Fiars prices of grain in the records of the Commissary Court so far back as 1564—somewhat earlier than the statute above quoted.”