Thirlage was a

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

servitude (or astriction) under

Scots law Scots law () is the List of country legal systems, legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing Civil law (legal system), civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different histori ...

restricting

manorial Manorialism, also known as seigneurialism, the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features included a large, ...

tenants in the milling of their grain for personal or other uses.

Vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...

s in a

feudal barony A feudal baron is a vassal holding a heritable fief called a ''barony'', comprising a specific portion of land, granted by an overlord in return for allegiance and service. Following the end of European feudalism, feudal baronies have largely bee ...

were thirled to their local

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * Factory * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Paper mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * Sugarcane mill * Textile mill * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic ...

owned by the feudal superior. People so thirled were called suckeners and were obliged to pay customary dues for use of the mill and help maintain it.

Background

The term ''thirlage'' is a metathesis of Scots ''thrillage'' 'thralldom', derived from ''thril'' '

thrall A thrall was a slave or Serfdom, serf in Scandinavia, Scandinavian lands during the Viking Age. The status of slave (, ) contrasts with that of the Franklin (class), freeman (, ) and the nobleman (, ). Etymology Thrall is from the Old Norse ...

', which was a body servant, retainer, or vassal to a noble or chief. The term is interchangeable with Scots ''carl'' (or English ''

churl A churl ( Old High German ), in its earliest Old English (Anglo-Saxon) meaning, was simply "a man" or more particularly a "free man", but the word soon came to mean "a non-servile peasant", still spelled , and denoting the lowest rank of freemen ...

'') and indicates subservience to the feudal superior and feudal laws, the situation being not that far removed from the conditions of

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. The obligations of thirlage eventually ceased to apply, but thirlage in Scotland was only formally and totally abolished on 28 November (

Martinmas Saint Martin's Day or Martinmas (obsolete: Martlemas), and historically called Old Halloween or All Hallows Eve, is the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours and is celebrated in the liturgical year on 11 November. In the Middle Ages and early mo ...

) 2004 by the

Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 The Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 (asp 5) was a land reform enforced by an act of the Scottish Parliament that was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 3 May 2000, and received royal assent on 9 June 2000. Provisions Th ...

. An identical feudal astriction existed and was enforced actively in feudal western Europe, e.g. mill soke in England, in France, in the Netherlands, in Germany. Thirlage was the feudal law by which the laird (superior) could force all those vassals living on his lands to bring their grain to his mill to be ground. The law ensured that all the grain the vassals produced could be measured and thus taxed. Vassals had to carry out repairs on the mill, maintaining the lade and weir as well as conveying new millstones to the site. Such trees as

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

and particularly

hornbeam Hornbeams are hardwood trees in the plant genus ''Carpinus'' in the family Betulaceae. Its species occur across much of the temperateness, temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Common names The common English name ''hornbeam'' derives ...

were grown as a crop to provide the necessary wood for the mill machinery. The Thirlage Act was repealed by the Thirlage Act 1799 ( 39 Geo. 3. c. 55) and after this many mills fell out of use as competition and unsubsidised running costs took their toll. This explains why so many mills ceased to be marked on maps after this date. Lambroch Mill for example was on the

Annick Water The Annick Water (previously also spelled as Annack, Annoch (1791) or Annock) is the largest tributary of the River Irvine. The river runs from Long Loch, just inside East Renfrewshire, in a generally south-western direction through North Ayrs ...

near

Stewarton Stewarton (,
) is a town in East Ayrshire, Scotland. ...

in Ayrshire and apart from the weir and some other indications, it has entirely vanished, most likely because it was the thirlage mill for

Lambroughton Lambroughton is a village in the old Barony of Kilmaurs, Scotland. This is a rural area famous for its milk and cheese production and the Ayrshire cattle, Ayrshire or Dunlop breed of cattle. Although Kilmaurs is in the council area of East Ayrs ...

and its business went to Lainshaw or

Cunninghamhead Cunninghamhead is a hamlet on the Annick Water in the Parish of Dreghorn, North Ayrshire, Scotland. The area was part of the old Cunninghamhead estate, and once contained several watermills. Cunninghamhead and the mills on the Annick Water The ...

mill after the Thirlage Act was repealed.

Sucken

The 'sucken' was the area over which a mill held thirlage over tenants and a 'suckener' (or 'in-sucken multurer') was a tenant thirled to a particular mill. The millers were obliged to enforce the adherence of tenants to the thirlage laws, since the income of the miller was based on that portion of the tenants' grain that the miller was legally entitled to take for the act of milling the grain. The legal term 'astricted' was applied to a tenant who was thirled or bonded to a particular mill. The term ''outsucken'' was applied to a mill which ground corn from outside its sucken for whatever reason.

Multure

Multure (or mulcture), pronounced 'mooter', was the name for the mill toll: a fixed proportion of the tenant's grain, paid to the miller by the suckener to grind the corn. The term 'dry multure' was often used, indicating the multure that a tenant had to pay, whether the grain was to be ground or not. Failure to take grain to the thirled mill was termed 'abstracted multure' and could result in the suckener being fined. The term '

bannock Bannock may mean: * Bannock (British and Irish food), a kind of bread, cooked on a stone or griddle served mainly in Scotland but consumed throughout the British Isles * Bannock (Indigenous American food), various types of bread, usually prepare ...

' denoted the payment to a miller's servant amounting to a handful of meal, in addition to that given as knaveship, this being a handful of cereal from each load milled. After the abolition of thirlage the term 'lick of goodwill' or 'lock' was the term for the miller's payment for grinding the cereal, etc. Aiton records in 1811 that barley, wheat, peas, beans, and every form of green crop were exempt from multure.

Grassum

This was the payment, amounting to a year's rent, for a miller to enter into rights under the law of thirlage. This was a significant sum, and the miller was often forced to insist on his rights of multure to make a reasonable living.Warrack, Alexander (1982)."Chambers Scots Dictionary". Chambers. . By 1811 grassum was almost unknown in Ayrshire.Aiton, William (1811). ''General View of The Agriculture of the County of Ayr; observations on the means of its improvement; drawn up for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture, and Internal Improvements, with Beautiful Engravings''. Glasgow. Page 173

Dishonesty

The Scots term ''mill-bitch'' was used for a bag hung near the millstones into which a dishonest miller would slip a handful of meal now and then. The 'mill-ring' is the space between the millstones and the wooden frame. This space inevitably collected meal and was enlarged by unscrupulous millers to increase the amount that accumulated to their benefit. The term 'ring the mill' was used in common discourse to mean a 'cheat'.

Quern-stones

Early Scottish multurers' duty to use their baron's mill could be legally enforced by the miller breaking

quern-stone A quern-stone is a stone tool for hand-grinding a wide variety of materials, especially for various types of grains. They are used in pairs. The lower stationary stone of early examples is called a ''saddle quern'', while the upper mobile st ...

s. Querns allow free grinding at home to gain independence from thirlage. Many quern-stones were intentionally broken. This is maybe after having been broken purposely according to thirlage law. However, there are various ceremonial explanations.

Thirlage Act 1799

The Act allowed those suckeners bound by thirlage to make a one-off payment that 'bought' them out of the various legal requirements: Section 55 of the

abolished the last vestiges of thirlage as of 28 November 2004.

Transporting millstones

Under thirlage the suckeners had to convey new millstones to their thirled mill, sometimes over significant distances. The width of some of the first roads was determined by the requirement to have at least two people on either side of a new grindstone being transported, with a wooden axle called a 'mill-wand' passed through the hole in the centre.

Aid to the poor

Suckeners would place a small amount of grain in a bag at the mill which would be used to help feed the poor or those suffering hard times.

References

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External links

A Researcher's Guide to Local History terminology A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient ...

Feudalism in the British Isles