I have come across a sasine which is not the normal passing or selling on of land between people, and don’t quite understand it.
In 1769, a James Scoular sets up a heritable bond ‘the sum of two hundred pound scots money at the due and ordinary annualrent of the said sum from the term of Whitsun ‘
to pay to some 26 gentlemen of the parish.
The first named is the schoolmaster, and then the minister of the Associate Congregation church, then various land owners and tenants.
He also states for ‘their further and better security and more sure payment of the foresaid present sums and above rents thereof the said James Scoular does hereby bind himself and foresaids to infeft and sease the forenamed persons and the foresaids upon their own proper charges and expenses heritably under aversion and at and under the conditions and provisions after expressed In all and haill an yearly annuity of ten pound or such an annualrent as by law for the time shall be agreeable & correspond to the foresaid sum of two hundred pound foresaid yearly to be uplifted and taken at two terms in the year Whitsun and Martinmass by equal portions’
There are several pages of a lot of legal stuff, but this seems to be the gist of it.
Does this mean that Mr Scoular is giving all these gentlemen an annuity of £10 a year? That would seem an awful lot of money. And why would he do that? – there is no reason mentioned in the sasine.
Perhaps it had something to do with the church? I believe the Strathaven United Presbyterian church was formed about this time (around 1764), being an offshoot of the Associate Presbytery near East Kilbride some distance away. And I know my ancestor, (who is third named in the long list of ‘creditors’), were members of this church.
I can’t find out much about James Scoular. He only has one other sasine in the indexes – so not somebody of any great wealth buying or selling land.
Can anybody help?
Many thanks