Early use of merkland terms in documents. I have inserted Arabic numerals in brackets after Roman. Scottish examples in italics.
Source | Date | Location | Text | Comment |
Denariatas (pennylands) | ||||
RRAN III (406) | 1140 x 1143 | Kent? | ix (9) denariatas terre | As well as solidatas |
Solidatas (shillinglands) | ||||
RRAN (Bates No 69) | 1072 x 1073 | Isle of Grain (Kent) | lx (60) solidatas de pastura in Grean | |
RRAN II (630) | 1103 x 1106 | to Romsey Abbey | 20 ‘solidates of land’ | |
RRAN II (685) | 1105 | Abbey of Ely | solidatis in sense of expenses, misuse? | |
RRAN II (1151) | 1107-1116 | Warwickshire | xxx (30) solidatas terre | |
RRAN II (1196) | 1107-1118 | England | tres (3) solidatas terre | Multiple examples |
RRAN II (1225) | 1107-1120 | Sussex | quinque (5) solidatas terre | |
RRAN II (1446) | 1123-1126 | Warwickshire | xxx (30) solidatas terre | |
RRAN II (1586) | 1129 | Beyond Durham Bridge | 38 solidates | |
RRAN II (1649) | 1130-1133 | Hampshire | lxx (70) solidatas terre | |
RRAN II (1833) | 1107 x 1133 | Sussex | 30 solidates of land | |
RRAN III (898) | 1126 x 1135 | Hampshire | ix (9) solidatas terre | |
RRAN III (827) | 1137 | Hampshire | x (10) solidatas prati | 10 shillinglands of meadow |
Cart. Shrewsbury (285) | 1155 x 1160 | Cambridgeshire | centum (100) solidatas de terre | from William FitzAlan |
Cart. Lindores No VIII | 1198 x 1219 | Kincardineshire | centum (100) solidatis terre | |
Mercatas (merklands) | Either mercatas or marcatas | |||
RRAN III (243) | 1136 x 1147 | Cambridgeshire | x (10) marcatas terre | |
RRAN III (85) | 1140 x 1154 | Lincolnshire | ii (2) marcatis terre | |
RRS II (514) | 1213 | Scotland | viginti (20) marcatas terre | S of Forth or between Forth & Mounth |
Libratas (poundlands) | Also Englished as librates | |||
RRAN II (712) | 1105(?) | to church at Hertford | xxx (30) lib[rat]as terrae | |
RRAN II (1012) | 1112 x 1113 | in England | vii (7) libratas, lx (60) libratas | Multiple examples |
RRAN II (1208) | 1117 x 1119 | Essex | 6 libratas | |
RRAN II (1389) | 1123 | 20 librates | ||
RRAN II (1418) | 1123 | Devon | xii (12) libratis terre | |
RRAN II (1586) | 1129 | Durham | 4 librates | |
RRAN III (180) | 1130? | Lincolnshire | 30 libratas terre | |
RRS II (152) | 1173 x 1178 | Perthshire | x (10) libratis terre | |
RRS II (554) | c. 1175 | Scotland | 100 librates (APS: ‘Centum libr terre’) | =APS I p 116, See also RRS II (486). |
RRAN = Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum
Cart. Shrewsbury = Cartulary of Shrewsbury Abbey. Re No 285: William FitAlan was brother of Walter, founder of the Stewart family in Scotland – and Paisley monastery. The Prior of Wenlock was a witness.
In ‘Monumenta de Insula Manniae’ vol II, p 27, Oliver gives an instruction from King John of England to the Sheriff of Lancaster in 1206. He is to assign 30 ‘marcates of land’ (or merklands) to the King of Man. On p 29 is a similar order dated 1207 but this time the land is described as 20 ‘librates’ (or poundlands) – which was the equivalent. Conversions between these units happened seamlessly in both Scotland and England but Scotland must have decided to found its new system on merks. When did this happen?
The first Scottish examples I can find are RRS II (152) 1173 x 1178 for £10 land and RRS II (514) 1213 which gives ‘viginti marcatas terre‘ or twenty merks of land. From the same period there is a charter concerning Lindores which refers to ‘centum solidatis terre‘ (100s of land – i.e. 7½m) in Kincardineshire (Chartulary of the Abbey of Lindores No VIII, 1198 x 1219). In theory such a system could have been in the making at any stage from 1136 when Scotland developed its own coinage. There is one other document which I think shows merklands in embryonic form. This is a charter by David I dated to 1136 x 1153. I have taken the text from GWS Barrow’s ‘Charters of King David I’, No 118, and slightly changed his explanatory abstract.
David … me dedisse et concessisse Nicholao clerico xx sollidos in carucata illa quam Petrus … de me tenet in Hedinham, et preter hoc dimidiam marcam in illa dimidia carucata terre quam Tebaldus … de me tenuit in eadem villa, … Has itaque predictas duas marcas do ei et concedo … in escambio illarum duarum marcarum quas in Lellescleue … concesseram et confirmeraveram.
The gist of this is that David grants to Nicholas the clerk, twenty shillings (i.e. 1½ merks) in that ploughgate which Peter holds of the king in Ednam; and also half a merk in the half-ploughgate which Theobald held of the king in the same fermtoun. David gives these two merks (i.e. 1½m + ½m) to Nicholas in exchange for those two merks he had formerly granted him in Lillesleaf.
Shillings and merks ‘in‘ ploughgates are not as definitive as ‘marcatas terre‘ or merklands. However these merks are of a different order to those which appear as units of account. There they were either ‘marcas argenti‘ (merks of silver, i.e. probably a weight in bullion) or they were composed of 160 one pence coins. I think that when this document of 1136 x 1153 speaks of merks ‘in‘ land we are more than halfway to merklands. It makes no sense unless we read it as land being given a monetary value.
In the absence of more definitive statements in the documents I don’t think we can go much further although we can surmise that the concept of merklands developed in Scotland as the twelfth century progressed. Probably they resulted directly from the new Scottish coinage after 1136. Possibly they were stimulated by, and analogous to, the development of merklands and poundlands in England. By 1213 it appears they were firmly entrenched in the minds of Scottish administrators – if not yet embedded everywhere in the landscape. In most of Scotland, Norse pennylands, Anglian carucates and Pictish davachs still held sway as land-assessment units.

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