Series 3 > Papers from the collection of Sir William Fraser

124
SIR WILLIAM FRASER’S PAPERS
VI
PAPERS RELATING TO THE VALUATION OF
KINCARDINESHIRE
From a very early date there have been in Scotland valuations
of lands known as Extents and framed as the basis of taxation.
Their history is obscure, and what we know about them is due
chiefly to the researches of Mr. Thomas Thomson in connection
with the election case of Cranstoun v. Gibson in 1818. Of his
Memorial for the Complainer in that case, Mr. Cosmo Innes says
(Legal Antiquities, p. 12): ‘Mr. Thomson laid before the Court
the most learned and accurate history of Scotch taxation that has
ever been written.’
One of Mr. Thomson’s propositions (p. 100) is : ‘ That there were
ancient valuations or extents of every species of real property in
the kingdom;—of the ecclesiastical lands and rents and tithes
holden in mortmain by the clergy, whether regular or secular;—
of lands holden of the Crown, by lords, barons, and other free
vassals in ward or in blench farm ;—and of the proper demesnes of
the Crown occupied by its thanes, stewarts, chamberlains, or other
collectors of the Crown rents according to these extents.’
In another place (p. 95) he points out that ‘in 1643 the former
system was set aside and another completely different substituted
in its stead.’ One result of this change, so far as Kincardineshire
was concerned, was the framing of a new valuation of the shire,
parish by parish, in terms of an Act of the Convention of Estates
in 1643. This, which does not appear to have been finally adjusted
till 1657, is the first document here printed. The other two
documents are, as they bear to be, the Taxt Roll for the year
1669, showing the sums payable by the several lands, and a
Retour of the Temporal and Spiritual lands made in the same
year and giving practically the same details.
(1)
VALUATION of the Shire of Kincardine, 1657 1
The heretors of the shyre of Kincardyne being frequently
conveened att Fordoune the thretteine day of October
j m vi c and fiftie sevin yeirs to consult concerneing severall
From copy certified by Walter Lyell and Thomas Lyell, notaries public.