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.