ANNEXATION, in its general acceptation, signi fies the act of uniting one subject to another of greater extent, value, or importance, from which it had previ ously been distinct and separate.
In the law of Scotland, this term is used to denote the uniting of lands unalienably to the crown. By the Scots act, 1455, c. 41., the annexed property of the crown was described and declared to be unalienable, unless the gift should receive the sanction of parlia ment. Two years subsequently to the passing of this act, however, a new enactment was made, which ren dered the former completely nugatory. By the statutes 1457, c. 71. ; 1540, c. 116. ; 1584, c. 6., and several sub sequent enactments, the precautions of the act 1455, e. 41., were so effectually removed, by the power of sub infeudation, granted by parliament, that the property of the crown was, in course of time, completely dissi pated, and reduced to the castles of Edinburgh, Stir ling and Dunbarton, together with the feu-duties of the ancient domains ; which, in consequence of the in creased nominal value of money, amount to a mere trifle.
The annexation of the temporality of benefices was made by the act 1587, c. 29., for the purpose, as ex pressed in the narrative or preamble of the act, of en abling his Majesty to support the royal dignity, with out taxing his subjects. By this act, all church-lands, •whether belonging to bishops, abbots, or other bene ficiaries, were annexed to the crown, to remain for ever with it unalienably, under the following excep tions : 1. All lands which, before the statute, had been
erected by the crown into temporal lordships. '2. Lands which had been conferred upon hospitals, and which continued to be appropriated to the purposes for which they were originally intended. 3. Benefices, the patro nage of which, before the Reformation, was vested in laymen. 4. The manses and glebes which belonged to popish churchmen. Lastly, and in certain cases, grants of pensions out of benefices.
Annexation quoad sacra, is the annexation of lands belonging to one parish to another, when they arc found to lie at too great a distance from the parish-church ; practice introduced for the convenience of the inhabi tants in attending divine service. Such annexation, however, affects only the inhabitants : the lands con tinue, in all civil respects, to form a part of the old parish, and consequently remain burdened with the pay ment of stipend to that church from which they were disjoined. But the proprietors of these lands are not liable for the expence of upholding the church or manse of the parish to which they are annexed ; in this re spect they still continue to be accounted a part of the old parish. Erskine's Inst. B. ii. tit. iii. § 14.; and tit. x. § 19, 20. & 64. Bell's Diet. of the Law of Scotland, Art. Annexation. (z)