The History of Old Cumnock by John Warrick M.A. (1899)
pp325,326,327,328
Tenants Obligations to Landlords
'Throughout Ayrshire long ago, tenants were burdened with a great number of vexation servitudes. Before entering upon their farms, they were forced to come under an obligation to give to the landlord each year so many days' ploughing and so many days' harvesting. As these obligations could only be fulfilled at the very time the farmer wished to plough his own fields and reap his own crops, they necessarily interfered with the working of his farm. By the end of the 18th century, however, these burdens were almost entirely removed. About the same period. feuars in Cumnock had to give one day's shearing to Lord Bute in addition to their ground rent.......
It was quite common for a portion of the rent to be paid in kind. Hens and chickens, along with oatmeal and beir, were taken at the stipulated time to the landlord. Thus, on the Dumfries House estate in 1789, in addition to the rent paid in money, the farms of Boyleston and Over Glaisnock had each to furnish 6 hens and 12 chickens. Over Glaisnock had also to carry 20 loads of coal. Knockterra, besides providing 8 hens and 8 chickens, had to furnish 1 boll of meal and 40 loads of coal. Skerrington Mill paid, as part of its rent, 2 bolls of meal. The following statement of the payments in kind, on the whole of the Dumfries House estate, in the year mentioned , is of interest. The various tenants had to furnish -
6 bolls of meal, 4 pecks beir, 316 hens valued at 9d.,
312 chickens valued at 4 1/2d., 732 loads of coal valued at 3d per load
Ten years later even this large supply of poultry and coal had increased for in 1799 there were provided 439 hens, 483 chickens and 821 loads of coal. Certainly the hen-house and the coal cellar of the lord superior of the day were kept fairly well stocked. Of course a load of coal would only be what could be carried on horseback in creels. The farmer did not purchase the coal; he simply conveyed the allotted quantity from the pit to the required destination.
On the other estates in the parish, the same custon prevailed. Even after the second half of the 19th century began, it lingered in a few cases. Meadow Farm supplied the annual charge of fowls to Glaisnock House until 1858. Mr Bannatyne tells us in 1837, that though rents were generally paid then in money, a few tenants gave "one-third money and two-thirds cheese and meal, according to the fiars' prices"
In another way the landlord had power over his tenants. In virtue of the old law of hypothec, the right was given to him to carry off the cattle of any farmer on his estate, who failed to pay his rent. This right was sometimes exercised. '
Boll - measure of capacity for grain (6 bushels in Scotland)
Beir - barley
During the 1870s, when John Baird was trying to establish Meikle Garclaugh, economic conditions deteriorated in agriculture. This was partly caused by the impact of competition from America when the Corn Laws were repealed and partly due to a series of poor harvests. This led to an intervention by the government to improve the lot of the tenant farmer and the introduction of the 1883 Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act. While the above was true of Meikle Garclaugh it was most likely true of nearly all the farms in Scotland.
The Great Depression of British Agriculture occurred during the late nineteenth century and is usually dated from 1873 to 1896.[1] Contemporaneous with the global Long Depression, Britain's agricultural depression was caused by the dramatic fall in grain prices that followed the opening up of the American prairies to cultivation in the 1870s and the advent of cheap transportation with the rise of steamships. British agriculture did not recover from this depression until after the Second World War.[2][3] (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression_of_British_Agriculture)
More to follow...
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| Rent reductions , Scotsman June 1893 |
