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From: Linda Sutherland <>
Subject: Re: Strange terms in Land records
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2001 00:34:38 +0100


The message <>
from (Peter Jamieson) contains these words:

> But I think the main point is that the merk/mark and ure/ore names relate
> to the productivity of the land /as perceived by the landowner/ (i.e.
> "what can I charge my tenants?") and are therefore only indirectly related
> to the sort of measurements people tend to use today (acres/hectares).


Apparently, a mark was originally a measure of weight of precious
metal, equivalent to 8 ounces (226.8 grams), with 1 mark of gold
valued the same as 8 marks silver.

Marks of land and marks of goods derived from that. They were
valuations rather than physical measures, gauged by what could be
purchased for, or at least was regarded as equal in value to, one
mark of silver. Good arable land, for example, would count as more
marks than the same area of rough grazing.

To quote Brian Smith, "These marks of land were so-called because a
mark was their purchase-price. Incredibly, Shetlanders were still
buying and selling an average mark of land for a mark of goods as
late as the 1620s."

The first chapter of "Toons and Tenants" concentrates on Papa Stour,
and gives clues to meanings of a number of the words people have been
asking about. In 1709, Papa Stour apparantly was divided into four
quarters, at least one of which was called a room - "the roum of
Gaurdie". Each quarter comprised three lasts of land, and each last
contained 18 marks of land. In this
instance, each mark, according to Smith, was "about an acre of arable
land in extent". But, as he goes on to explain, the last wasn't
determined by area, but rather by its rental value.

Lasts of land in other areas of Shetland apparently contained
differing numbers of marks (and I think, though Brian doesn't
explicitly say so, that rooms wouldn't necessarily always have
comprised three lasts). What they had in common was the rent.
Wherever it was, and however many marks it contained, a last of land
was (originally - rents varied later) designed to yield 144 pennies,
or 12 shillings, in rent. In Papa Stour's 18-mark lasts, each mark
paid eightpence, while Fair Isle's 12-mark lasts paid 12 pennies (one
shilling) the mark, for example.

One of Brian's sources, quoted in the appendix, is an extract from
the rental of Shetland of c. 1628, giving some details of Shetland
weights, measures and values. For land, it says that 8 ures = 1 mark,
18 marks = 1 last, 4 lasts = "a peice of corneteynd". "Corn teind", I
think, is a tithe or tax paid in corn, but I don't understand what's
meant by equating 4 lasts with a piece of it. Does anyone know?


Udal land - the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines "udal" as:

"A form of freehold tenure requiring no service or acknowledgement of
a superior, characteristic of Orkney and Shetland and formerly
practised by other Scandinavian and early Germanic peoples; land held
in this way. "

Same source defines "feu" as:

"A n.
1 Orig., a feudal tenure in which land is granted by one person to
another in return for an annual payment in place of military service.
Now, a perpetual lease for a fixed sum. L15
b A piece of land held in feu. L18.

2 Hist. = FEE n.2 1a. E17.
in feu, upon feu (of tenured land) subject to certain payments or
services.Comb.: feu duty the annual sum payable on a feudal tenure.

B v.t. Grant (land) on feu. L16."


--
Linda Sutherland



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