john 'laird' stewart -tenant or owner ?

[genegal]

have seen postings where john was a tenant  on an 6 acre on the breadalbane estate... thought the name 'laird' meant that you owned the property and were not tenants...could someone please  clarify this for me?
thankyou

[Cambron]

You have touched on an emotive issue which might well upset people if they read the following.
Outside the Cities and Towns land ownership and use was usually documented in terms of:-
The Feu holder-more often than not Nobility
The Feuar-some form of hereditary ownership subject to the Feu Holder
The Tenant-who rented or wadsetted the land from the above
The Cottar-who rented by means of his labour a small holding from the foregoing.
Locally the Feuar would be known as the Laird as he was close to his tenants.
However when people emigrated, and they were often tenants because they had money to pay the fare, they took to aggrandising their status by calling themselves Lairds.The locals back home would have laughed.
At best caution is needed.If the family was involved in a land transaction recorded by the Sasine Register in the NAS then they could use Laird.If they rented or wadsetted Laird was not appropriate.

[Skoosh]

Laird might just have been a nickname here. But, alternatively, there was a class of tenants known as "Bonnet Laird's" who farmed the land at a nominal rent on a long lease or tack (99 years often).
 In the Highlands a clan often owned no land at all, the chief was due rent to a feudal superior, (if he paid it at all!) and the land was parcelled out to the clan's "Tacksmen",  generally the chief's relatives, who lived off the rents (often in kind) of the tenants, paid the chief his rent and pocketed the difference.  Land being a finite resource, when a tack expired it was often re-granted to a nearer relative of the chief, he had to look after the welfare of his own immediate family, so cousins became disposessed.
 Rents, or the non-payment of them, was the cause of much conflict. The last clan battle, Mulroy, was fought over this issue.

Skoosh.

[aghadowey]

Laird is also a surname and it's not uncommon to use surnames as middle (or even first) names in Scotland- may indicate a mother's or grandmother's maiden name, etc. or after a friend or other person.

[genegal]

thankyou for the info you have  given regarding the status and title of laird...my question is how do i go about verifying  if john stewart owned the land or just took the title when he immigratde to canada?
 thanks again

[Cambron]

The previous trail on this site on John Laird Stewart quoted extracts from a Canadian publication and William Gillies' In Famed Breadalbane.
As I write this I have page 374 of the latter publication open in front of me.It is quite clear the Stewarts and Crerars you are researching were tenants of the Earl of Breadalbane before they exited en masse to Canada.This is a famous episode in the North Perthshire Clearances.
However if you want to research the Perth Sasine records which record land ownership transactions they are in the National Archives Scotland in Edinburgh and are summarised at top level in the online catalogue.

[Skoosh]

Check the county Valuation Rolls,(presumably Perthshire) if they cover the time of his emigration.
The Register of Sasines deal with change in land ownership.
Have a general search through the National Archives,  http://www.nas.gov.uk/onlineCatalogue/
Six acres is a very small piece of land, why is the ownership status of this so important.

Skoosh.

This post has clsashed with Cambron's. The Valuation Rolls would not be applicable at that time.

[genegal]

wow what fasinating info.... does anybody know why they left enmass? will go to libary and see if i can get a copy of either books....

would love to  go to scotland  sad to say it is not a week-end jaunt for me

thanks for your help

abbotsford bc canada

[Skoosh]

Genegal, a big subject, Google the "Highland Clearances"  & "Campbell of Breadalbane", for an insight. Firstly the people were cleared to make way for more profitable sheep, then came the famine of the 1840's, some estates paid the passage of their tenants overseas, it was cheaper than maintaining them. Sheep were in turn replaced by deer with further population loss.
 The Campbell's of Breadalbane were one of the wealthier chiefs, with a huge landholding. Due to the usual profligate lifestyle they ended up with nothing. The family still exist in much diminished circumstances, Wales maybe? There's a poem about them which begins "From Ben More to Glen More the land is all the Marquis's", don't remember the rest I'm afraid.

Skoosh.