Bannatyne Club > Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis, e pluribus codicibus consarcinatum approximately A.D. MCCCC [i.e. 1400]
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Findhorn and the Ness there were certainly not less than four," aud probably from
the terms of one charter, x a great many more. These were of small extent, often less
than a single parish. It would appear that the whole district of Moray having
lapsed to the crown, whether by forfeiture or otherways, while many portions
were granted by Malcolm and William, and their immediate successors, in frank tene-
ment or baronage, subject only to the burden of military service, a large part still
remained the property of the sovereign, who granted it either in lease for a limited
period, or in perpetual feu-farm for the payment of a certain money rent. There
is sufficient evidence in this chartulary that the feuars, or perpetual tenants, even of
small portions of those crown lands, bore the title of Thane. These words are not
only used synonymously, but the precise relation is marked in more than one place,
which the thane bore to the villain on the one hand, and the dominus, or lord of a
fief, on the other.?
There is reason to believe that the administrators or stewards of certain portions of
Crown lands, and sometimes even the tenants removable at pleasure, were also desig-
nated Thanes; z and in one instance we find the title borne, and evidently hereditary for
generations, in right of lands not even held directly of the Crown, but paying a rent
and liable for service of vass?lage to a subject superior. 3
u Dyke, Brothyn, now Brodie, Moythas, tenure ; and while we find one of the famiiy
now Moynes and Cawdor. styled simply " John Thane son and apparent
x No. 40. " heir of Fyndlaus the thane of Glentilt," the
* No. 34, 40, 5 ; and App. No. 20. same Fynlay is designated " Finlay Tosschach"
z N. 34. See also Reg. Mag. Sig. p. 29, in several instruments connected with the final
JV". 5 1 . convey ance of the property by him to Ihe family
a Robertthe Steward of Scotland, afterwards of Athol, in the beginning of the sixteenth cen-
King Robert II., before his accession to the tury. The Gaelic term Toschuch is reudered
throne, granted, as Lord of Athol, to Eugenius, by Skene and olhers an officer or mair. It has
Thane of Glentilt, brother of Reginald de In- more lately been stated to mean the eldest cadet
sulis, and his heirs, the Thanage of Glentilt, for of a Highland clan. It cannot perhaps be pre-
a rent of 1 1 merks sterling, and the service of sumed without more evidence, that it was here
four horses once a-year in his Lord's hunting in used as the precise translation of the Scotch
Bencromby ; with the condition that if the said thane and the thanus of the charters ; but its
thanage by any calamity should not be worth so being used uniformly for those terms in the writs
much as 1 1 merks, the rent should be fixed by an mendoned, with the whole circumstasces of the
assize of the vicinage. base holding, suffieiently prove that the office of
This property was held of the Earls of Athol thane was not of high rank or dignity.
by the successive descendants of Eugenius, who The eharters of this thanedom — thanagiutn
are styled for several generations, " thanus " Abnathie sive le thandom de Gleniilt — as it is
and " le thane" de Glentilt. They appear lat- sometimes called, are preserved in the charter-
terly to have adopted a surname from their chest of his Grace the Duke of Atholl.
the terms of one charter, x a great many more. These were of small extent, often less
than a single parish. It would appear that the whole district of Moray having
lapsed to the crown, whether by forfeiture or otherways, while many portions
were granted by Malcolm and William, and their immediate successors, in frank tene-
ment or baronage, subject only to the burden of military service, a large part still
remained the property of the sovereign, who granted it either in lease for a limited
period, or in perpetual feu-farm for the payment of a certain money rent. There
is sufficient evidence in this chartulary that the feuars, or perpetual tenants, even of
small portions of those crown lands, bore the title of Thane. These words are not
only used synonymously, but the precise relation is marked in more than one place,
which the thane bore to the villain on the one hand, and the dominus, or lord of a
fief, on the other.?
There is reason to believe that the administrators or stewards of certain portions of
Crown lands, and sometimes even the tenants removable at pleasure, were also desig-
nated Thanes; z and in one instance we find the title borne, and evidently hereditary for
generations, in right of lands not even held directly of the Crown, but paying a rent
and liable for service of vass?lage to a subject superior. 3
u Dyke, Brothyn, now Brodie, Moythas, tenure ; and while we find one of the famiiy
now Moynes and Cawdor. styled simply " John Thane son and apparent
x No. 40. " heir of Fyndlaus the thane of Glentilt," the
* No. 34, 40, 5 ; and App. No. 20. same Fynlay is designated " Finlay Tosschach"
z N. 34. See also Reg. Mag. Sig. p. 29, in several instruments connected with the final
JV". 5 1 . convey ance of the property by him to Ihe family
a Robertthe Steward of Scotland, afterwards of Athol, in the beginning of the sixteenth cen-
King Robert II., before his accession to the tury. The Gaelic term Toschuch is reudered
throne, granted, as Lord of Athol, to Eugenius, by Skene and olhers an officer or mair. It has
Thane of Glentilt, brother of Reginald de In- more lately been stated to mean the eldest cadet
sulis, and his heirs, the Thanage of Glentilt, for of a Highland clan. It cannot perhaps be pre-
a rent of 1 1 merks sterling, and the service of sumed without more evidence, that it was here
four horses once a-year in his Lord's hunting in used as the precise translation of the Scotch
Bencromby ; with the condition that if the said thane and the thanus of the charters ; but its
thanage by any calamity should not be worth so being used uniformly for those terms in the writs
much as 1 1 merks, the rent should be fixed by an mendoned, with the whole circumstasces of the
assize of the vicinage. base holding, suffieiently prove that the office of
This property was held of the Earls of Athol thane was not of high rank or dignity.
by the successive descendants of Eugenius, who The eharters of this thanedom — thanagiutn
are styled for several generations, " thanus " Abnathie sive le thandom de Gleniilt — as it is
and " le thane" de Glentilt. They appear lat- sometimes called, are preserved in the charter-
terly to have adopted a surname from their chest of his Grace the Duke of Atholl.
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Publications by Scottish clubs > Bannatyne Club > Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis, e pluribus codicibus consarcinatum approximately A.D. MCCCC [i.e. 1400] > (44) Page xxviii |
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Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/81605701 |
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Description | Place of publication Edinburgh unless otherwise stated. No. 125 is relative to but not part of the club's series. |
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