Series 3 > Selections from the Monymusk Papers, 1713-1775

INTRODUCTION
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improvements had been carried out, show a higher rate of
increase. Nether Mains, for instance, comprising a large
part of the Old Mains, which had been rented at £333, 6s. 8d.
in 1741, was let for £1133 in 1774. Inver, another farm
which had been greatly improved by Grant, rose in rent
from £116 in 1710 to £598 in 1741, to £736 in 1755 and to
£1077 in 1774, when it was divided into two farms, Easter
and Wester Inver, together comprising 278 acres, of which
207 were arable. Tombeg’s rent rose from £66 in 1710 to
£133 in 1741 and to £578 in 1774.
East or Nether Mains is a good example of the new type
of farm now being created. Its organisation at the end of
our period shows the deep changes that had been effected
in economic and social life. In 1750 this farm, as we have
seen, was worked directly by Sir Archibald Grant with
Robert Leitch as overseer ; five years later, Leitch was
tenant paying a rental of £1267, which included part of
Inver as well. His live stock consisted of 19 work oxen,
10 horses, 96 sheep, 14 milk cows, and he employed 13
men servants as well as extra hands at busy times like
harvest. Two of the men servants—Will Watt and John
Percellie—had each £24 ‘ neat fee,’ £2, 8s. for shoes and
£32, 10s. for meal, making a yearly wage of £58, 18s.
Alexander Lainge, the herd, received only £2, 8s. of fee,
18s. for shoes, and £12, 3s. 9d. for victual, in all £15, 9s. 9d.
for the half-year. Wages per day varied from 4s. to 3s.
or 2s. with meal for men and to 2s. 6d. for women employed
at harvest.1 Most of the men servants lived in the
‘ Coattown ’ and had small parcels of land. Will Watt,
for instance, paid a rent of £7, which represented about
half an acre. Percellie is not mentioned in any rent roll
1 Monymusk MSS. : Journal of Farm under Robert Leitch’s Care, 1749-
1750, in Family Account Book, pp. 203-227. See Third Spalding Club
volume edited by present writer.