Mary Simpson wrote: > I have a couple of the wonderful booklets from anesfhs for the 1696 > Poll Tax for Old Deer & Longside, and Cruden. Wonderful stuff, but can > somebody tell me what the terms: > > " Grassman " > " Grasswoman " and > " Grassfolk " > > would mean? There are loads of them! Would these people be > cultivating grass for a fodder crop? I.e. hay? And surely this would > only have been a part of the agricultural production. So why would > some be given this specific designation, would they have been perhaps > middlemen or agents obtaining grass / fodder for others? I have never > come upon this term before. I think the deliberate cultivation of grass as a fodder crop was an 18th century invention, along with the use of turnips. The "Concise Scots Dictionary" lists "girseman " ("grassman" would have been someone talking posh!) as: "landless peasant with only rights of pasturage." Gavin Bell