Promissory Notes
There are two types of document to draw attention to here. The first has a general nature. The promise might be of land or an annual return with a guarantee to make it up (perficio) if it was insufficient or not regarded as of the same value (valens, valentia). It might be the case that the donor could not warrant or guarantee the gift so he would have to compensate with another property or gift elsewhere. Or it might be the case that the values of certain lands were unknown. Sometimes we meet a word such as racionabiliter. It is tempting to think this means an appeal to what is reasonable; instead, it may sometimes imply regularity, or the process being done properly. I give a few examples of this type of document first.
Secondly there is a class of document where it is specifically stated that X will be given Y merks/pounds until the donor has given him Y merklands/poundlands. Such a document implies, at least in the early days, that a merkland was regarded as returning a merk; a poundland a pound, of rent.
Sources (full details in Bibliography)
RRAN = Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum
RRS = Regesta Regum Scottorum
RMS = Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scottorum, (Register of the Great Seal)
Annandale I = Fraser, W. ed., The Annandale Family Book Volume I
Chart. = Barrow, G.W.S., The Charters of King David I, Woodbridge, 1999
ESC = Early Scottish Charters, ed., Lawrie
CDS = Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland
Earls of Chester = G. Barraclough, (ed.), The Charters of the Anglo-Norman Earls of Chester
St Peter’s Glos. = R.B. Patterson, (ed.), Original Acta of St Peter’s Abbey, Gloucester
Montgomeries = Memorials of the Montgomeries, ed., Fraser, W.,
Lennox = The Lennox, ed., Fraser, W.,
AHC (Lochwinnoch) = Archaeological and Historical Collections relating to the County of Renfrew, Parish of Lochwinnoch
GD = Gifts & Deposits in the National Records of Scotland (see online catalogue)
RPS = Records of the Parliaments of Scotland (online resource)
Source | Date | Amount of Grant | … until amount of land | Text/Comment |
RRAN (Bates) (144) | 1085 | Manor in England to Fécamp Abbey | exchange to equal value | si vero tantum non valet, escangium eque valens eidem ecclesie persolvam |
Chart.(194)/ESC(110) | 1139 x 1153 | decem marcas argenti
(10 marks of silver) |
until make up a knight’s fee | donec perficiam ei plenarium feodum unius militis |
Chart.(95)/ESC(114) ex Henry, son, David I | c. 1140 | xl solidos … unoquoque anno (40s p.a.) | exchange to the same value | donec excambium eiusdem elemosine eis dedero ad valenciam in convenienti loco |
RRAN III (274) | 1141 | c libratas terre
(£100 land) |
make up to the same value | Property ‘ad perficiendum predictas c libratas terrae’ … ‘ad valentiam … ad valens’ |
Chart.(177) or
RRS I (42) |
1145 x 1153 | land in Roxburghshire | exchange to the same value, to their reasonable satisfaction | et si ego aut heredes mei Waltero vel heredibus suis predictas terras … varantizare non poterimus, … excambiam ad valenciam ad suum racionabile grahant dabimus |
Earl of Chester (86) | 1147-8 | Fifehead (Dorset) (name derives from ‘5 hides’) | exchange to the same value | escambium ad valens et ad eius warandum donarem |
RRAN III (492) or
Earls of Chester (106) |
1153 | pro xxx libratis terre
(£30 land) |
make up to the same value | si ville … xxx libras annuatim non valuerint … perimplebit |
RRS II (100) | 1178 x 1186 | 4m + 33s +20s + 8s + 5s 8d (= 9m) | until a return of 9 merks | donec predictas elemosinas … eis warrantizare potero vel alibi redditum ix marcarum assignavero |
RRS II (247) | 1178 x 1185 | duas carucatas terre
(2 carucates) |
to the same value | quousque in reditu ecclesie excambium ad valenciam terre illius eis donet in perpetuam elemosinam tenendum |
RRS II (329) | 1189 x 1194 | xl solidos singulis annis
(40s p.a.) |
a return of 40s in land or otherwise | quousque eis redditum xl solidorum aut in terra aut in alia redditu assignavero |
RRS II (360) | 1189 x 1195 | decem libras … singulis annis
(£10 p.a.) |
donec ecclesiam de Foreys et ecclesiam de Dich vacare contigerit
(until churches vacant) |
si redditus predictarum ecclesiarum cum vacaverint summan decem librarum non contineant quod deerit in ecclesiis istis de decem libris perficiam ei alibi secundum estimacionem legittimam proborum hominum (make up any shortfall, at the estimation of honest men) |
St Peter’s Glos. (357) | 1189-1203 | viginti solidos annuos | 10 merklands or more | donec providamus ei in beneficio decem marcatas vel supra |
Annandale I (2) | 1194-1214 | lands of Kynemund | if can’t guarantee then land to the same value | Guarantee ‘in tempore pacis’. Et quando garantizare non poterimus, dabimus illis excambia sua de terra nostra in Herternes ad valenciam |
Annandale I (3) | c.1194-1214 | lands in Dumfriesshire | if can’t guarantee then land to the same value | et si illas eis warentizare non potuerimus, ego et heredes mei dabimus sibi … terram in escambium infra vallem Anand ad valenciam terrarum prefatarum |
Earls of Chester (212) | 1207-1211 | viginti solidos annuos | in land or other benefice | quousque eis alibi melius providerim in terra vel in alio beneficio |
Red Book of Menteith, II (6) p 213 | c. 1260 | viginti libratas terre
(£20 land) |
viginti libratas terre racionabiliter extensas in territorio de Abirful (Aberfoyle) | |
RRS IV Part I (36) | 1262 | orders an inquest re lands in Angus | et hec omnia diligenter et fideliter inquisita una cum valore et rationabili extenta terre prenominate | |
CDS I (2336) | 1263 | 10 marks of land in wards or escheats | cf next item. Perhaps ‘marks of land’ sometimes an abstract valuation, not marklands per se but equivalent value. | |
RRS IV Part I (56) | 1265 | quinquaginta libras sterlingorum singulis annis (£50 p.a.) | until as much by wardship, marriage, escheat or otherwise | donec eidem Hugoni in warda maritagio eschaetta vel aliquo alio modo in tantum vel uberius fecerimus provideri |
RPS 1293/2/15 or RRS IV Part I (321) cf RRS IV Part I (118) | 1293 – but from c. 1279-1286 | centum marcatas terre in tenanciam
(100m land) |
100 merklands, that is 40 merklands + £40 (60m) cash | centum marcatas terre in tenanciam, scilicet quadraginta marcatas terre in vicecomitatu de Carrik et quadraginta libras de camera domini regis (here merklands + cash equivalent = merklands) |
RRS VI (123A)
pp 527-8 |
1352 | terram de Padinane
(Pettinain, Lanark) |
until as much land | quousque de tanta terra per nos … dicto Allexandro … loco competenti plenarie fuerit satisfactum |
RRS VI (438) OR
GD39/1/5 |
1369 | terras … de Kynclevyne
(Kinclaven, Perthshire) |
until £40 land | quousque nos … eidem Willelmo … in loco competenti de quadraginta libratis terre hereditarie duxerimus seu duxerint providere |
Montgomeries II (37) | 1438 | Earldom of Lennox | sall geff proporcionaly
shall give proportionately |
als mikyll as the ald astent is in propirte in a yher
as much as the old extent is in property in a year |
RMS II (1772) | 1488 | £20 p.a. | liferent to that value | Gilbert Fisch – vitali redditu tanti valoris in loco competente |
RMS II (1783) | 1488 | £20 p.a. | benefice to £20 or more | James Silver – quousque … ad beneficium valoris £20 vel exceden. |
Table showing cash gifts until specific amounts of land are granted instead. In bold = arithmetic mismatch.
p.a. = per annum or yearly, also ‘annuatim’ or ‘singulis annis’; n.s. = not stated. Many fall in period 1360-1392.
Source | Date | Amount of Grant | … until amount of land | Recipient/Comment |
RRS II (514) | 1213 | viginti marcas … annuatim
(20m p.a.) |
viginti marcatas terre
(20 merklands) |
Robert de Aubein given 20m owed to king by Coldingham Priory for ‘waiting’. donec ego vel heredes mei eidem Roberto … dederimus viginti marcatas terre (S of Forth or between Forth & Mounth) |
RRS IV Part I (132) | 1281 | quatuordecim milia marcarum sterlingorum
(14,000 marks sterling) |
agreed as tocher or dowry by bride’s father (5 x 20 specified as 100 i.e. NOT ‘long’ hundreds of 120). Groom’s father to give land worth 1400 marks, (rex Norvvagie mille et quadringentas marcatas terre de moneta sua Norichana usuali nunc temporis vel ad eius valorem si ipsa mutetur). Half dowry can be given in coin (in pecunia numerata) or in lands at the rate of 100m annual rent for each 1000m of tocher due (ita quod ex illis terris pro singulis mille marcis centum marce nomine redditus percipiantur illo anno et sic ulterius annuatim).
Cf CDS II (1945) and RRS V (360) below. |
|
RRS IV Part I (313)
also in: CDS II (1617)
|
1286 x 1289
1304 |
£20 Yearly
£20 yearly |
Land to that amount
£20 land |
See RRS IV Part I (313) notes pp 229-230
‘King Alexander gave him a fee of £20 yearly till he had land to that amount’. (Plea from Alexander Comyn). |
CDS II (1737) or
RRS IV Part I (310) |
1304-5 | £20 yearly | £20 land | ‘till provided in land to that amount’
(Plea from Reginald le Chien [Cheyne]). |
CDS II (1664) | 1305 | £10 yearly for life | In recompense for £10 land in Ayrshire | |
CDS II (1945) | 1307 | 10,000 marks | Edward I gave Earl of Gloucester 10,000 marks to buy 1000 marks of land. Cf RRS IV Part I (132) above RRS V (360) below. | |
RRS V (268) | 1325 | septem marcis cum dimidio sterlingorum annuatim (7½m p.a.) | £10 land | quousque sibi de decem libratis terre in loco competenti citra montes Scotie … per nos … fuerit provisum |
RRS V (360) | 1328 | 40m p.a. | 40 merklands or 400 merks sterling | donec sibi … satisfactum fuerit de quadraginta marcatis terre vel de quadringentis marcis sterlingorum. Cf RRS IV Part I (132) & CDS II (1945) above. |
RMS I App 1 No 103 | 1329 | £40 p.a. | 40 merklands | William Sinclair – quadraginta mercatis terre |
RMS I (127) | 1362-3 | £20 sterling p.a. | £20 land – suitable place | Alexander Cokburne – viginti libratis terre in loco competenti |
RMS I (419) & (546) | 1371-2 | 40 merks sterling p.a. | 40 merklands | John de Cragy – quadraginta marcatis terre in loco competenti |
GD124/1/416 | 1373 | £100 sterling p.a. | £100 land | Robert Erskyne & Christian Keth |
RMS I (448) | 1373 | £20 sterling p.a. | 20 merklands | Andrew de Conynghame –viginti marcatis terre in loco competenti |
RMS I (476) | 1373 | £40 sterling p.a. | £40 land | William Fenton – quadraginta libratis terre in loco … competenti |
RMS I (492) | 1373-4 | 12m sterling p.a. | 12 merklands | Fleming to Boyd – duodecim marcatis terre … in loco competenti |
RMS I (498) | 1375 | 10m sterling p.a. | 10 merklands | Alexander de Lindsay – decem marcatis terre … in loco competenti |
GD150/34/d | 1377/1402 | £40 | £40 lands | Henry de Douglas |
GD124/1/1124 | 1378 | 40m sterling p.a. | 40 merklands | Thomas de Erskyne |
RMS I (681) | 1379 | 20m sterling n.s. | 20 merklands | Ade Forstar – viginti marcatis terre … in loco competenti |
RMS I (648) | 1379-80 | £40 sterling p.a. | £40 land | Alexander Lyndesay – quadraginta libratis terre … in loco competenti |
RMS I (646) | 1380 | 200m sterling p.a. | 200 merklands | James Douglas – ducentis marcatis terre in loco competenti |
RMS I (640) | 1381-2 | £26-13s 4d sterling p.a. | £26 13s 4d land | (£26 13s 4d = 40 merks) Patrick Gray – in loco competenti |
RMS I (700) & (788) | 1381 | £20 sterling p.a. | £20 land | John de Svyntona – viginti libratis terre … in loco competenti |
RMS I (719) | 1382-3 | £10 sterling p.a. | £10 land | David de Foulertona – decem libratas terre … in loco competenti |
GD160/116/1 & 2 | 1383/1386-7 | £40 sterling p.a. | £40 land | Malcolm of Drummond |
RMS I (723) | 1383 | 40 merks sterling p.a. | 40 merklands | Andrew Mercer- quadraginta marcatas terre … in loco competenti |
RMP pp 359-361 | 1385 | 20s sterling p.a. | 20s lands | Paisley Abbey – viginti solidatis terre |
GD150/34/c | 1386-7/1402 | 20 merks sterling | 20 merklands | Henry de Douglas |
RMS I (753) | 1387? | £300 sterling p.a. | £300 land | William de Douglas – trecentis libratis terre in conveniente loco |
RMS I (773) | 1386 | 20 merks sterling | 20 merklands | Robert Stewart – viginti marcatis terre in loco competente |
Lennox II (32) or
GD220/2/1/32 |
1387 | £10 of silver p.a. | 10 merklands | John Stewart – decem marcatas terre, against 100m sterling due |
RMS I (811) (cf 812) | 1390-1 | £40 sterling p.a. | £40 land | David de Lyndesay – quadraginta libratis terre in loco competenti |
RMS I (812) (cf 811 | 1390-1 | 40m sterling p.a. | 40 merklands | David de Lyndesay – quadraginta marcatis terre in loco competenti |
RMS I (819) | 1390-1 | £20 sterling p.a. | £20 land | Walter de Ogilvy – viginti libratis terre in uno loco competenti |
RMS I (821) | 1390-1 | £20 sterling p.a. | £20 land | Andrew Mure – viginti libratis terre … in loco competenti |
RMS I (842) | 1392 | 40 merks sterling p.a. | 40 merklands | William Stewart – quadraginta marcatis terre in loco competenti |
RMS I (849) | 1391-2 | 40 merks sterling p.a. | 40 merklands or
400 merks |
William de Lyndesay – quadraginta marcatas terre … in loco competenti … vel … quatuor centum marcas sterlingorum |
RMS I (856) | 1392 | 20 merks sterling p.a. | £10 land | William de Danyelstona – decem libratis terre in loco competenti |
GD160/116/3 | 1394 | £40 sterling | £40 land | Malcolm of Drummond |
RMS II (65) | 1426 | £10 p.a. | 12 merklands | Patrick de Dunbar- 12 marcatis terrarum |
Laing Charters (105) | 1426 | 40m p.a. | 20 merklands | Fowlartoun sons – twenty markis worth of my said landis |
RMS II (126) | 1429 | 20 merks p.a. | 20 merklands | Robert Coxale – 20 marcatis terrarum |
RMS II (387) | 1450 | 13 merks p.a. | 12 merklands | Collegiate church of Dunglas – 12 marc. de terris |
RMS II (586) | 1452 | £20 | £20 lands | Alexander de Dunbar – £20 terrarum in locis competentibus |
The table clearly demonstrates the link between merks and merklands. In origin, 1 merkland must have been expected to yield 1 merk of rent.
There are four documents amongst the above which suggest a ‘going rate’ in the period 1281-1392. In RRS IV Part I (132) 1281, CDS II (1945) 1307, RRS V (360) 1328, and RMS I (849) 1391-2 there is a presumption that 1 merkland would cost 10 merks to buy so 1 merkland was valued at 10m. If 1 merkland produced 1m rent per year then the purchase price of land was generally set at 10 years of nominal rent. This presumption was challenged by inflation. RMS II (3857) 1513 dealt with discharging a debt of 800 merks. 40 merklands were allocated to this, counting 1 merkland for 20 merks of debt. The same ratio of 1:20 applied in RMS II (3870) 1513. For comparison, and yet further complication, we could also look at GD25/1/470 1545 which also dealt with payment of a debt. This time the rule-of-thumb was ‘computing 1 merk of new extent, for each 20 merks of the … sum’.
The mismatches, emboldened in the table above, usually concern equating merks with pounds, or merklands with poundlands. (1 merk was 13s 4d or two-thirds of a pound of 20s). Sometimes this may be down to simple errors in making up the documents. But it also shows how easily contemporaries slipped between talking about one unit into talking about the other. AHC (Lochwinnoch) Vol 1 No 73, of 1527, deals with a dispute about 200 merks. One of the solutions was to infeft (enfeoff) one of the parties ‘heretablie be charter and seising in xx libs. worth of land that gevis xx libs. of maile be yeire’ (heritably by charter and sasine in £20 worth of land which gives £20 of rent a year).
The lands given above are usually in decimal units, or multiples thereof, (10, 20, 40, 100 etc, of either merks or pounds). This might seem a trivial point but it is probably important to discount duodecimal units (i.e. counting by 12’s). The reason for emphasizing this is that in some counties, like Renfrew, there is good evidence of ancient reckoning in 12’s. For example, some of the Paisley properties in Lochwinnoch parish calculated their cheeses at 6 score to the hundred (6 x 20 = 120), i.e. the old ‘long hundred’. Auchinhean appears in RSS VIII (89) 1580-1 as giving ‘ane hundreth stane of cheis, makand sex scoir in the hundreth’. In some of Paisley’s Kilpatrick properties there is evidence of subdivision of the farms into twelfths. In nearby Meikle Govane (Cartulary of Pollok-Maxwell p 113 No 1, 1627) we find five hundred hens’ eggs (reckoning twice 60 for the hundred – i.e. 600 altogether). In Cowal, Argyllshire, in 1488 (ER X p 47) we meet ‘iiclxviii martis, computando sexies viginti per centinario’ (268 marts [stirks for slaughter], reckoning six score per hundred) – so making a total of 120 + 120 + 68 = 308 marts. In the Cartulary of Haughmond Abbey, Shropshire, (No 5 c. 1224-1232) we meet sheep reckoned ‘per maiorem centenarium’ (by the greater hundred). Equally in the Charters of the Anglo-Norman Earls of Chester (292), 1198-1217, sheep in Lincolnshire are reckoned ‘per maius centum’ (by the great hundred, i.e. 120).
It is also useful to look at these decimal units as units of disposal; how feudal Scotland was divided up. The largest units are usually those of £100 (150m) while £20 units are commonplace. These give us an inkling of the land-allocations which took place as Scotland became a feudal country. The parish of Eaglesham was 100m, Mearns was £160 (240m), Cruiksfew was £100 (150m), Eastwood was £20 (30m). RMS I (602) deals with £100 lands in Aberdeenshire. According to Rotuli Scotiae I, pp 615-616, 1341, Godfrey of Ros had lost 100 merklands in Scotland. These are not, generally, units of 12m or 24m or 36m. Once the merkland system had been launched it seems to have developed in an orderly, decimal, fashion.
A striking number of the above documents date from 1360-1390 and follow a distinct format, the language often couched in similar terms. Given that they date from over two centuries after my posited introduction of the merkland system isn’t it rather surprising that they still reflect the link between 1 merk and 1 merkland? We might expect inflation and increasing prosperity to have meant an appreciation of land-values. The answer to this is probably to be found in the contemporary context. In the years before 1360 there had been a good deal of conflict with England as well as the devastating impact of the Black Death. The picture of Scotland laid before parliament in the report of 1366 was dire. ‘True value’ was pitched well below, sometimes drastically below, ‘Auld Extent’. The Scottish currency was depreciated against the English (i.e. sterling) in 1367 (RMS VI (385)). This may explain why the link between a merk of rent and a merkland of value retained its hold in the eyes of officialdom.
The issue of adjusting extent to meet changing economic circumstances opens up a whole new field of research which is beyond the self-imposed remit in this blog. The subject is so large that I shall not explore the relationship between ‘Auld’ and ‘New’ extent, or how a twelfth-century innovation evolved during its several-hundred-year history. The tension between a system of abstract valuations, maintained as a uniform index over many centuries, with value as measured continuously in the market-place, must have been apparent from day one. Most of the time, there was likely a slow appreciation of value. This is reflected in the multiple examples of ‘New Extents’ which were higher than the ‘Auld’; and rentals which showed increase. From the period of the Wars of Independence up to and beyond 1366 there was depreciation, at least in the war and plague-ravaged parts of Scotland. There were multiple economic factors at play. War, disease, abandoned farms, issues of supply and demand, inflation, currency depreciation, weather, technology, all played a part. The period covered is so long, and the provinces of Scotland so various, that we cannot possibly do justice to them with broad brush strokes. However, a clerical lament from 1454 helps point up some of the issues:
Calendar of Scottish Supplications to Rome, Vol V, No 537 pp 147-8, 1454, gives the view of John, Bishop of Moray. He states that by ancient statute and custom his canons and dignitaries had to financially support vicars, priests, deacons etc.
Several of the canons in past times did and continued to pay for some time and grant to the vicar priests 6 marks, to the deacons 4 marks, and to the subdeacons 3 marks sterling, of old and good money then current in those parts, from which, according to the selling price of victuals and the value of money, they could have a fitting and competent sustenance. But with the passing of time, money became so attenuated in these parts that 3 marks present money scarcely equals 1 mark of old money, and so where 6 marks formerly sufficed for the sustenance of a vicar of the choir, today 10 marks scarcely suffice. Moreover, some of the canons refuse to maintain the necessary ministers at their own expense, alleging that they are willing to pay 6 marks, light money now current (which does not equal 2½ marks of the old money) to the vicar priest, 4 marks to the deacon and 3 marks to the subdeacon, from which the said ministers cannot be sufficiently sustained.
As throughout economic history, depreciation and inflation played havoc with those on a fixed income.

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