APPENDIX.—No. II.

THE TAXATION, RENTALS, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, OF ORKNEY AND ZETLAND.

The earliest Survey and Valuation of Orkney (1263) was the counterpart—perhaps the pattern—of the AULD EXTENT of Scotland made by Alexander III. somewhat later and subsequently to his intimate relations with Norway. It was to the Islanders an event of such importance, that history and tradition have combined to commemorate its date, place, and circumstances with picturesque minuteness. It was on St. Martin’s day 1263 that Hacon IV., in an upper chamber of Bishop Henry’s palace in Kirkwall, lay down to die of a broken heart and mortified ambition. But the cares of royalty followed him even to his deathbed; his troops and seamen, the relics of the storm and battle at Largs, were starving and houseless; and in the absence of Magnus Jarl III., he issued orders to divide the whole occupied lands of Orkney and Zetland into MARKLANDS containing 8 Eyrislands or Urislands, each of which should find quarters and supplies for a Hofding and a fixed number of men, probably in proportion to the Skatts formerly paid.

In the comparatively fertile and populous Orkneys, more minute subdivision soon became necessary; and some Scottish Jarl divided each Norse Urisland into the Scottish denominations of 18 Pennylands, and each pennyland into 4 Farthings or Merks, or (in some districts) into 6 Uriscops or Mæliscops, and finally into 10 Yowsworths, to suit the excessive partition of Odal heritage. Though the Mark is still the vague denomination of land measure in Zetland, as being sufficiently minute for its large tracts of comparatively valueless waste, even there it has been found convenient to estimate the unequal value of the Markland by Pennies, and to apportion its Skathald, Skatt, and Landskylld to the number of Pennies ascribed to each Mark, an alteration traditionally attributed to English valuators under a commercial Treaty between England and Norway—perhaps that of 1431. From the confusion of terms of value, weight, and size,—of Mark and Merk—of Peningr and Penny—of Urisland and Uriscop—of Marklands in Zetland of 4, 8, and 12 pennies per mark—and of Pennylands in Orkney of 3, 4, 5⅛, and 8 merks to the penny—so many difficulties beset this subject, that I rejoice that I am not required to attempt their solution; for the denominations of land-value still exist as fixed by Hacon’s Survey, practically undisputed by subjects or rulers—neither the ground of oppression nor the cause of complaint.

This Survey was probably grounded partly on traditions of taxation, as early as the Norwegian Conquest, and partly upon the Matricula Regis, King Sverrer’s Register of the Odals confiscated under penal terms of redemption (1196)—and from its results was compiled the first Liber Census, or Skatt Book of Orkney and Zetland, the authentic Statement of the extent of each Odal Tun then in occupation, and of its Stent or proportion of Butter Skatt. As population increased, each Tun or subdivision thereof paid for its enlarged area of cultivation a Malt Skatt also, marking at once the advance from pasture and the increase of culture; and the old Liber Census was from time to time replaced as out of date, by a new and more complete record of such changes. The only specimen extant is a copy of the Skatt of Zetland, compiled by one of the Sinclair Earls, without a date, but so ancient that the scribe of the fifteenth century apologises for the illegible writing and uncouth terms, as unintelligible even to himself. This Skatt Book distinguishes each Thing; describes the extent of each Tun in Marks of so many pennies per mark; and under distinct heads charges against each possession its Odal-Skatt and Leangr, or Tenant’s Land-male of wadmæl, oil, or fish—or sometimes both Odal and Tenant burdens; probably because such lands, though formerly Odal, had fallen by confiscation to the King or Earl, and been set to a tacksman, subject to both the old and new exactions. But though it thus records a few land-males (showing the small extent of land in Zetland under tacksmen), the Skatt Book seems to have been a fair and distinct statement of National Taxation, unblemished by the studied confusion of tax and rent, of Odal and Feudal terms, which rendered its successor, the Rental, so oppressive to the Odaller. Like the Doomsday Book of another Northman race, the Skatt Book was the simple Record of the revenue and rule of taxation—its successor, the Scottish Rental, claimed to be also the substitute for a written title, the limit of every claim, the standard of every burden, the authority for every exaction; but compiled in secret, and jealously closed against public inspection, it rather favoured the claims of the ruler than secured the rights of the subject. The first duty imposed by James III. upon his new vassals, the Earl and Bishop of Orkney, was the compilation of such a rental, including not only the land-males or rents of his own newly acquired Earldom, and of the Church lands, but also the whole Skatts and other Odal taxes of the Skatt Book, exigible from the lands of free Odallers. The “Auld Parchment Rental,” Earl William’s last legacy of spite against the Bishop and the Odallers, has unfortunately been lost, but it is evident from other authorities that he revenged himself on the Churchman by pitiless exposure of his fraud and rapacity, and on the Laymen, by suggesting the close similarity and easy identity of Odal and Tenant rights and burdens. The same fate has overtaken the Rental prepared by Bishop William Tulloch, partly for the Crown’s instruction, partly in self-defence against the Earl’s accusations of Skatts abstracted and lands gripped, and other encroachments during the Lieutenancy of Bishop Thomas and himself. Of these conflicting Rentals, and their mutually truthful recriminations of embezzlement and oppression, much may be learned from the succeeding Rentals of Henry Lord Sinclair, of which the earliest was prepared in 1492, more than twenty years after the Impignoration, and therefore affording ample time for such Crown officers as Bishop Tulloch to alter every land right in the Islands. Accordingly, this Rental shows an aggravation of the number, nature, and amount of the Odaller’s burdens, and a studied confusion of his rights with those of the Tacksman of the Crown or Kirk. Thus, the Odal lands are charged with the ancient Skatt, but this is sometimes doubled and paid both to King and Bishop. The För-kaup is no longer the fee of the Lawman (whose salary of £12 is charged against the Crown in the tacksman’s account), but under the feudal name of Forcop is again exacted from the Odaller as a triennial grassum for the use of the once free and common pasture. The Votn-tel is entered under the corrupted name of Wattel; but in despair of its lost Norse meaning, the fancy of the Feudalist has explained it as a tax for holy water, or for the good offices of some saintly lady whose profitable virtues had outlived her name; while its ancient purpose of the Underfoud’s fee, is again supplied by the Balliatus, a new impost on the parish. Another parish burden of Hawkhens for the King’s falcons is first mentioned in the compota of Bishops William and Andrew (1478–9), and first charged in this Rental, where the Escheits of Moveables and Heritage are entered as an ordinary item of revenue, under the suggestive name of “Chetry.” The purely Scottish claims of Wrack and Waith (which in time ripened into the full Droits of Admiralty and the Leges Forestarum) were new and violent invasions of the Odal freedom of hunting, fishing, and sea-beach; and every occasional or temporary payment once paid became a tax for ever.

The several exactions may be classed in the order in which they are named in the Rental. 1st. Odal; 2nd. Tenant; and 3rd. District or Parochial Burdens.

The Odal payments consisted of—

1st. Stent, the Butter Skatt assessed by ancient valuation in proportion to the pennylands.

2nd. Butter Skatt, præter the Stent, an obviously unwarranted and often large increase of the tax—generally as much more.

3rd. Malt Skatt.

4th. Silver Skatt.

5th. Forcop, already explained, but of such arbitrary and unequal exaction as fully to warrant the definition of Dufresne, “Forcop, Forcapium, exactio, tributum haud debitum, per vim et contra jus captum.”

6th. Wattel, the Fee of the Underfoud, paid or estimated in grain.

The Land-male or Rent of Tenants or Tacksmen consisted of—

1st. Cost, or victual—generally paid in a commutation of two-thirds of malt, one-third of meal.

2nd. Flesh—paid in cattle or live stock, at a conventional estimate of 2 or 3 head to each Last of nominal quantity.

3rd. Pennyworths—an equivalent in grain, butter, oil, or other produce of the lands, in case of deficiency of the other payments.

The parochial exactions (all of Scottish origin) are summed up with a quaint acknowledgment of omnivorous rapacity; “And all this supra, is præter the Skattmarts, Wrack, Waith, Hawkhens, Chetry, Balliatus, and uthir profittis and Revenues that may happen ony maner of way.”

The relative share of the Odaller and Tenant in these new parish burdens is not expressed, but both must have looked back with regret to the worst of their ancient rulers, and watched with dismay the rising tide of Scottish oppression which was slowly but inevitably sapping their rights and overwhelming their liberties.

Of the taxes, rents, and assessments of the Rental, only a very small part was payable in money, and every coinage seems to have been current, though at an exchange often and arbitrarily fluctuating.

The rest of the Debts and Duties, as they were called, were paid in kind or produce, and measured by the Pundar and Bysmar—the Can and Barrell—the Cuttel and Pack—the native Standards and Instruments respectively of weight, capacity, and extent. The correctness and uniformity of these instruments was guarded with jealous care by the Thingmen, and the Wardthing of every Parish elected a Lögrettman or Lawrightman to watch the measuring of its debts or duties by the Underfoud, and to take charge of its Standards, which were from time to time compared and corrected in presence of the Thing, by reference to a Common Standard of each kind of instrument of mensuration. Each of these common Standards was more solemnly authenticated by the Common Seal, or the signature or mark of the Lawman, by authority of the Lawthing, and severally kept by one of the Lawrightmen of four different districts, honoured by law or custom with their custody. This system of inspection, counter-checks, and separate guardianship, effectually precluded fraudulent or ignorant tampering with the Weights and Measures of the country, till virtually cancelled by the violence of the Donatary and his agents in superseding the Lawrightmen.

Of measurement by weight the instruments were—1st, The Pundar or Pundlar, identical with the Steelyard or Statera, and of two kinds—the Malt Pundar for weighing Malt and other bulky articles, and the Bere Pundar for Bere only, using the same weights, but each a third less than the same denomination on the Malt Pundar; and 2ndly, the Bysmar, on which were weighed the butter and other articles requiring more minute mensuration. The following figures will explain the form of the Pundar and Bysmar better than description, and show their liability to error and fraud, and the consequent necessity for the jealous watch of the Lawrightman upon the weigher’s crafty hand.

The first is a facsimile of the woodcut which occurs in the original edition of the Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus, of Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala, p. 468, Romæ, 1555, folio. The other is copied from The General Grievances and Oppression of the Isles of Orkney and Shetland (by James Mackenzie), p. 19. Edinb. 1750, 8vo.: Both cuts are figured in Dr. Hibbert’s Shetland.

The weights in use were—

8Eyrar or Ounces= 1Mark of half a pound
24Marks= 1Lispund, Span, Setteen, or Stone.
6Lispunds= 1Meil.
24Meils= 1Last.

Of measurement by capacity, the instruments were the Can or Kanna of Norway, and the Barrel or Bariel of fifteen Lispunds.

48 Cans of Oil or 15 Lispunds of Butter= 1 Barrel.
12 Barrels, 180 Lispunds, or 576 Cans= 1 Last.

Of measurement by extent the only instrument was the Cuttel or Alin, a wooden rod of the length of the Scottish Ell. The Cuttel of Wadmæl became in Zetland the general measure of value, standard of barter, and substitute for a current coinage; 6 Cuttels being equivalent to an Eyrir or ounce of land taxation, and 6 score or a large hundred of Cuttels being the standard price of an ox or six sheep.

6 Cuttels = 1 Gudling or Gullioun—10 Gulliouns = 1 Pack.

The standards of weight and measure were unchanged till Earl Robert, by raising the weight of the fundamental Mark from 8 to 10 ounces, added in the same proportion of one-fifth to every other denomination—and by increasing the Gudling from 6 to 8 Cuttels, he added one-fourth to every Pack of Zetland Wadmæl. Earl Patrick increased the Mark to 12 ounces, thus adding one-third to every Lispund, Meil, and Last; and subsequent Donataries improved the profitable example by aggravating the Mark to 20 ounces, and thus boldly achieving an increase of 250 per cent. upon every denomination of weight or measure. The only apparent exception was the Barrel, which, being a vehicle of foreign export, could not be enlarged, and consequently could only contain 10 of these aggravated Lispunds instead of 15 of the normal size; but the balance was charged in loose Lispunds of similar overweight.

There is no authentic statement of the revenues of James III. as Sovereign and as Earl of Orkney, but assuming and deducting a rise during the Episcopal Tacks proportioned to that which appears between the first and second Rentals of Lord Sinclair, the Skatts and Land-males of the Crown may be approximately stated at between £500 and £600.

Their progressive increase during the sixteenth century may be more minutely estimated by a comparison of Lord Sinclair’s Rentals (1492–1502) with that of Earl Patrick (1600–1), and an unerring tariff of current prices is found in the Rentals themselves, or in the contemporary Rolls of the Scottish Exchequer. The last Rental of Lord Sinclair stands thus—

1502.Scat Butter—1312 Lispunds at 1s. per Lispund£8200
Scat Malt—60 Lasts at £3, 6s. 8d.20000
Forcöp (the exact amount of the Lawman’s fee, £12)1200
Wattel—12 Lasts4000
Total Odal Payments £33400
Butter, 24 Barrels (360 Lispunds)£22100
Cost (or Grain Rent), 88 Lasts29368
Flesh, 59 Lasts (118 oxen at 13s. 4d. per head)78134
—— 32 salted Marts at the same price2168
Hawkhens, 440 at 6d 7 68
Total Land males of Earldom 42334
Total Crown’s Scats and Males £75734

These revenues, with the unrentalled profits of Wrack, Waith, Chetry, Balliatus, &c., were farmed by Tulloch and other tacksmen, at a rent or Tack duty varying from £366 to £466, till James V. (1540) ascertained by personal investigation, that under the most liberal tack, a duty of £2000 was not too high for the increased value of official perquisites, and the higher prices of conversion, which had raised the Crown’s Rental as follows—

1540.Butter at £3 per Barrel£262100
Malt at £5 per Last30000
Wattel at £5 per Last6000
Forcop as before1200
Total Odal payments £634100
Butter£7200
Cost44000
Flesh (150 cattle at £1, 10s. per head)22500
Hawkhens at 6d.1100
Total Land males 74800
Total Crown Rental £1382100

The same Tack duty of £2000 was paid by Lord Robert Stewart as a Feu-duty; and in 1568, the first year of his actual exercise of power, the higher prices of conversion had raised the Crown Rental to the following value, without increase of quantity:—

1568.Butter, 87½ Barrels (at £9 per barrel)£787100
Malt, 60 Lasts (at £30 per last)180000
Wattel, 12 Lasts (£360), Forcop (£12)37200
Total Odal payments £2959100
Butter, 24 barrels£21600
Cost, 88 Lasts264000
Flesh, 59 Lasts (at £7, 4s.)424160
—— Marts, 32 (at £3, 12s.)11540
Hawkhens, 440 (at 6d.)1100
Total Land males of Earldom 340700
Total first Rental of Earl Robert £6366100

On his disgrace (1587) and the new grant to Chancellor Maitland and Bellenden on an increased duty of £4000, the Rental, as stated in their Charter, was found to have been raised to the following quantity and value, without distinction of Skatt or Land male.

1587.Butter, 1458 Lispunds (at 12s.)£874160
Grain, 189 Lasts (at £30)567000
Flesh, 91 Lasts (at £7, 4s.)60560
Money, in lieu of Forcop and Skatt Silver10900
Total (acknowledged) Rental of the Crown£725920

But this numerical statement of quantities no longer expressed the actual burdens of Orkney. Earl Robert’s increase of the weights and measures had added a fifth to every nominal Mark, Lispund, Meil, or Last in the Rental, and when he was reinstated (1589) (compounding at a reduced Feu-duty of £2075), the quantities and value actually paid under the nominal Rental amounted to—

1589.Butter, 1822½ Lispunds (at 12s.)£1093100
Grain, 236½ Lasts (at £30)709500
Flesh, 113¾ Lasts (at £7, 4s.)81880
Money in lieu of Forcop and Skatt Silver10900
Total Crown Rental in Orkney£9015180

Accordingly Earl Robert’s final Rental, although the articles of payment differ in arrangement and commutation, amounts, at the former conversions, to nearly the same sum and value:

1592.Butter, 87½ Barrels at £9 per Barrel£787100
Do. loose, 791½ Lispunds at 12s. per Lispund474180
Grain, 227 Lasts at £30 per Last681000
Flesh, 97½ Lasts at £7, 4s. per Last70200
Hawkhens and other Poultry, 3242 at 6d.8110
Swine, 3 at £1, 16s.580
Peats, Rabbit-Skins, and other minor articles10100
Money, in lieu of Forcop and Skatt Silver144130
Total last Rental of Earl Robert£901600

Thus showing an increase of quantities and value since his first audit of 1569 amounting to—

Butter, 431½ Lispunds at 12s.£258180
Grain, 67 Lasts at £30201000
Flesh, 22½ Lasts at £7, 4s.161100
Poultry, swine, and minor articles85190
Money132130
Total augmentation of Rental by Earl Robert£264900

If to this aggravation of the Rental we add his revenue from Tolls, Customs, Droits, Escheat and triennial Grassums, and consider the forced labour, the diminished area of cultivation, and the doubled penal conversions for every deficiency of these impossible quantities, we may estimate the income of Earl Robert and the misery of the Islanders; though the Rentale pro Rege et Episcopo (1592–1600), which exhibits the numerical increase of exaction, is silent as to his aggravation of the Weights and Measures.

This addition of a fifth to every actual payment was augmented to a third by Earl Patrick’s similar aggravation of the Mark to 12 ounces; and increased penal conversions were exacted for all arrears, rests, or unpaid balance of duties beyond what the Islands could produce, till their actual burdens thus aggravated, and valued at the current averages of conversion, amounted to—

1600.Butter, 87½ Barrels at £20£1,75000
Do. loose, 1055 Lispunds at £22,11000
Grain, 306 Lasts at £6018,36000
Flesh, 130½ Lasts at £162,08808
Swine, 3 at £41200
Hawkhens, &c., 3242 at 1s.16220
Peats, &c., about2350
Money144130
Total Crown Rental of Earl Patrick£25,65000

But besides this large revenue, and that derived from the Grassums, Droits, Tolls, Customs, Fines, and other unrentalled, unacknowledged, and unestimated perquisites, to the amount of about £6000 more, the Stewart Earls were also Commendators of the Estates of the Church, to which they proved no less dutiful as nursing fathers during their possession of about half a century. The Rental of the Bishopric at the Impignoration or beginning of the sixteenth century cannot be ascertained, but at the time of James V.’s visit, the articles composing the Church Rental (as shortly afterwards attested, and valued at the prices of the period), amounted to the following sums and quantities:—

1540.Butter, 180½ Barrels at £3£541100
Grain, 79 Lasts at £539500
Flesh, 12½ Lasts at £337100
Marts, 4 at £1, 10s.600
Hawkhens, 217 at 6d.586
Swine, 2 at 15s.1100
Wax, Peats, &c., about1316
Silver25126
Total Rents and Teinds of Bishopric in 1540£125126

These quantities were officially attested by Bishop Adam in 1561, and in 1568 (the date of his first contract with Lord Robert), amounted at the current prices to the value and quantity following, viz.—

1568.Butter at £9 per Barrel£1624100
Grain at £30 per Last237000
Flesh at £7, 4s.9000
Marts at £3, 12s.1480
Hawkhens586
Swine at £1, 16s.3120
Wax, &c.2216
Silver25126
Total£438126

These articles, the amount of the Bishopric Rental at Earl Robert’s entry, he increased to the following quantities at the same conversion:—

1587.Butter, 73½ Barrels at £9£661130
Do., 136 Lispunds 21 Marks at 12s.8226
Grain, 189 Lasts, 20 Meils, 5 Setns, at £305696010
Flesh, 84 Lasts, 18 Meils, 2 Setns, at £7, 4s.610100
Poultry, 10462630
Wax, &c.2466
Silver29972
Total£740000

which by his aggravation of one-fifth of every weight and measure, actually represented the following quantities and value at his death, 1592:—

1592.Butter in Barrels (unchanged)£661100
Do., Loose, 171 Lispunds at 12s102120
Grain, 237⅓ Lasts at £30712000
Flesh, 105 Lasts 22 Meils at £7, 4s.762120
Poultry2630
Wax, &c.271510
Silver29972
Total£900000

Earl Patrick’s aggravation of one-third in like manner raised the actual quantities paid from the Bishopric in the same proportion, and at the current prices of conversion, to the following value:—

Butter, 73½ Barrels at £20 per Barrel£1,47000
Do., 182 Lispunds at £2 per Lispund36400
Grain, 253 at £60 per Last15,18000
Flesh, 113 Lasts at £16 per Last1,80800
Poultry, 1046 at 1s. each5260
Swine, 2 at £4800
Wax, &c., about33610
Money29972
Total Bishopric.£19,21500

The following Abstract of the results of these Tables will exhibit briefly the progressive increase of the burdens of Orkney during the sixteenth century—

1502.Crown Rental £75734
1540.By a rise of prices—
Crown£1382100
Bishopric125126
Rental at the visit of James V.
2633126
1568.By a farther rise of prices—
Crown£6366100
Bishopric438126
Lord Robert Stewart’s first Rental
£10,747126
1592.By a rise of quantity, weight, and price—
Crown£901600
Bishopric900000
Earl Robert’s final Rental
18,01600
1600.By farther rise of quantity, weight, and price—
Crown£25,65000
Bishopric19,21500
Earl Patrick’s Rental of Orkney
44,86500

I am not aware of any authentic Rental of the burdens of Zetland during the sixteenth century, except the statement in the Charter to Maitland and Bellenden (1587), and the Comptroller’s Accounts (1588), after twenty years of Earl Robert’s aggravations of weight, measure, and value, when a third had been added to the contents of every Pack of Wadmæl and Lispund of Fat-gude at arbitrary conversions in a coinage as arbitrary. The nominal quantities (for which the Donatary compounded with the Royal Comptroller at £400) are there stated as follows:—

Wadmæl, 167 Packs (of 60 Cuttels) at 6d. per Cuttel£250100
Butter and Oil, 1530 Lispunds at 12s. per Lispund91800
Wattel, commuted at 105 Dollars at 30s. each157100
Tolls, &c., 120 Angel-Nobles (at £4) and 20 Dollars51000
Total Rental accounted for by the Donataries£183600

But by the augmented Weight, Measure, and Price, the burdens actually extorted from the Lordship of Zetland were raised (exclusive of Ox-money and other unacknowledged exactions) to the amount and value of—

Wadmæl, 167 Packs (of 80 Cuttels) at 2s. per Cuttel£133600
Butter, 2040 Lispunds at 18s. 8d.190400
Wattel, 105 Dollars at 36s. each, with other augmentations21000
Tolls, &c.200000
Total actual burdens of Zetland£545000

From these Abstracts of the Revenues of the Crown Estate and Bishopric of Orkney and of the Lordship of Zetland, the income drawn from the Islands by Earl Patrick, exclusive of a multitude of unacknowledged exactions, may be approximately stated thus—

Orkney—Crown Skatts, Duties, and Males£25,65000
Bishopric Rents and Teinds19,21500
Tolls, Customs, Admiralty, Justiciary, &c. (about)6,00000
Total Revenue of Orkney.£50,86500
Zetland—Skatts, Males, Tolls, &c. 5,45000
Total Revenues of Earl Patrick [[3]]£56,31500

[3]. About £5000 Sterling—a princely revenue in those days, when the general scarcity of coin, and poverty of kings and kingdoms had been met by a debasement of the coinage gradual and universal; but in Scotland so rapid, that the £ Scots, equivalent to the £ English in 1366, was worth only 8s. in 1468—6s. 8d. in 1540—3s. 4d. in 1568—and 1s. 8d. in 1600.

The peculation of subsequent Donataries, by the fraudulent increase, fluctuation, and complexity of the Standards of Weight and Measure, and consequent augmentation of the burdens of Orkney to the amount of 3000 Cattle, 5000 Bolls of Grain, 6218 Lispunds or Stones of Butter, and 700 Gallons of Oil, became (1750) the subject of the memorable PUNDLAR PROCESS. To the various Memorials and Pleadings in that suit I must refer for more minute details, as the whole difficult subject is there discussed and exhausted, but in a form too long for insertion, and too intricate for condensation. The evidence was complete, that the Crown Donataries had for two centuries persistently, fraudulently, and enormously increased the legal weights and measures of the Islands. But after the Pursuers had been driven to incur the expense of this elaborate proof, a decision was given against them on the merely preliminary plea of prescription, to the disgrace of a corrupt or partial Court. With such Judges even the specific evidence of date, place, and person, now added by the complaints, might have had little weight; perhaps they might have obsequiously convicted the Zetland witnesses against Lawrence Bruce, of Conspiracy against “that worthy man.”