Kind Regards June & Roy http://www.btinternet.com/~roy.cox/index.htm -----Original Message----- From: Roy [mailto:roy.cox@btinternet.com] Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 4:17 PM To: 'Gordon Barlow' Subject: RE: [OEL] Scottish tacks Good Afternoon - TACK: The Scottish dictionary list 2 different definitions of this word, both of which are expanded on at length, the 2nd is I think the one in question here? 1. Tack or Nail 2. A lease or tenure. Esp. the leasehold tenure of a farm, mill, mining or fishing rights It also refers to a related word of TAK which has many variations seemingly to depend on which part of Scotland one is from or maybe which Clan? It also relates: - "Tax or Toll collecting; The period of Tenure; The farm or piece of land held on a lease; A customary payment levied by a feudal superior; An agreement; A bargain; A specified period of time; A lease; A spell (of weather); It then relates A TAKKAR: A person who grants a Tack; And includes the word TACKSMAN: A person who holds a Tack, a tenant or lessee. This is accompanied by a note: "There is evidence from the late 15th century to the early 16th century" But does not describe this evidence. The whole covers over a single page of related variations which look to be Clan and dialect related. Kind Regards June & Roy http://www.btinternet.com/~roy.cox/index.htm -----Original Message----- From: Gordon Barlow [mailto:barlow@candw.ky] Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 5:38 AM To: OLD-ENGLISH-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [OEL] Scottish tacks According to a book I am reading on Scottish history, the basis of land tenure in the 17th Century for junior branches of "the chiefly houses" in the clan territories of the Highlands, was "usually either a tack, wadset or a feu. A tack was a lease. A wadset was the Scots term for a mortgage. It was often converted into a feu, which meant virtual ownership in exchange for a lump sum annual payment to a feudal superior who retained certain powers of control..." ""... the clan gentry, often known generically as tacksmen..." I found that very interesting, because I had never heard the term "tacksmen" before. It seems reasonable enough to presume that the words "feudal" and "fee" came from "feu", and I also wonder if our word "tax" might conceivably have come from "tacks", in the same general sense of payments for an income-producing area of land. What does the Team think? Also, is there any modern cognate of "wadset"? Gordon ==== OLD-ENGLISH Mailing List ==== OLD-ENGLISH Web Page http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~oel/

In tracing the painter Christian Frederick Zincke i have found him in the Poor Rates 1715-1748 for St pauls covent garden london ive found several good sites on the poor laws but none that explain who was liable to pay and how their liabilty was calculated CFZ's stayed about the the same at 6sh 6pence 1710 till 1729 but it jumps to £1 16sh in 1733 and by 1741 had risen to £2 15sh having just recieved my council tax bill for this year i know just how he must of felt chris Glass ruislip Uk