97 Sentences With "heritors" | Random Sentence Generator

These his successor (Queen Anne) finally introduced in 1712 by the Patronage Act. This gave the power to nominate Parish Ministers to local landowners — the Heritors. It was still up to the Kirk Session to appoint another person (with the agreement of the Presbytery), but this would be without the salary, house, etc., provided by the Heritors.

The revenues were in the hands of the landowners - the Heritors - who therefore nominated the Ministers, according to the Patronage Act, 1712.

In effect, they were the gentry of the Scots countryside, with legal privileges and obligations. Most ordinary farmers rented their land for a specific period of time from the heritors. Like the gentry in other countries, the heritors ruled the countryside. They were responsible for justice, law and order in their district and for keeping the roads in good repair.

On 9 January 1810 the heritors appeared at presbytery with proposals for a new church. The total cost was estimated at £5,100 with £305 provided by the government in respect of accommodation for soldiers garrisoned at the castle. The architect appointed was John Brash, a then little known Glasgow architect. His first plan was rejected by the heritors as being too large and too decorative.

Despite the theoretical abolition of lay patronage, heritors and elders retained the right to nominate candidates for their own parishes who could then be "called" by the congregation.

The Heritors approved of David Hamilton's second design, accepted John Connell's estimate of one thousand four hundred and thirty pounds for building the new Tower and John Wyllie of Corsehill, a mason, was appointed as the inspector and superintendent of the building.Love (2003), Page 84. On 21 December 1814, the foundation stone was laid by William Davidson Esq., Grandmaster of the Mother Lodge, Kilwinning, in the presence of the Earl of Eglinton and the Heritors of the Parish of Kilwinning.

In 1696 the Pow was brought under the formal management of a drainage commission (similar to the internal drainage boards of England and Wales) by the "Act in favour of Sir Robert Murray of Abercairney and other heritors upon the Pow of Inchaffray" passed by the Parliament of Scotland. The commission was empowered by the act to tax heritors, those landowners that benefited from the Pow, for the maintenance and improvement of the ditch. It noted that "the grass and corns of several heritors of the said lands are frequently lost and rendered useless". This act was repealed and replaced by an 1846 act (the "Pow of Inchaffray Drainage Act 1846") of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which included measures for the construction of new flood defences.

The status of the Church itself had been guaranteed by Act of Parliament, so it tended towards supporting legal procedures, though it protested against them. Many patrons were wary of provoking disputes, so tried to work with the heritors and elders of their parishes to present candidates who met with General Assembly criteria in terms of education, character and practical ability. This group of ministers, heritors, elders and patrons – called Moderates - formed the dominant group in the Church of Scotland during the 18th century.

As a preacher Brewster enjoyed an almost unrivalled local fame. His political views were extreme; he was a 'moral-force chartist,' and took an active share in the plans for carrying out the chartist programme. His whole life was one continuous succession of exciting disputes upon public questions, or with the heritors, the parish authorities, or the presbytery. This polemical spirit may be traced in the volume of his sermons entitled The Seven Chartist and Military Discourses libelled by the Marquis of Abercorn and other Heritors of the Abbey Parish.

The earliest church at Bolton was erected in around 1240. It was placed under the superiority of the Canons of Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh, and remained so for the next three hundred years. By 1804 the church had fallen into disrepair and the heritors agreed that something must be done.Louden, Revd George, Bolton Parish Church, Bolton, 1979: p2 In January 1805 the heritors met and decided that a new church should be built instead of repairing the old one, and that the new church should be capable of containing 250 people.

Balcanquhall derives his surname originally from lands in the parish of Strathmiglo, Fife. It is nearly certain that Walter was of the 'ilk' of Balcanquhall, and that he was born there—according to his age at death—in 1548 (cf. Sibbald's 'List of the Heritors' (1710) in History of Fife, appendix No. 2).

They were responsible for appointing – and paying – the minister and the schoolmaster, and for maintaining the church, manse and schoolhouse. They had also to provide for the poor of their parish. For all this they levied a rate on all the heritors in the parish – and often included non-heritor tenant farmers in the rate.

Houston, Scottish Literacy and the Scottish Identity, p. 5. In the burghs the old schools were maintained, with the song schools and a number of new foundations becoming reformed grammar schools or ordinary parish schools. Schools were supported by a combination of kirk funds, contributions from local heritors or burgh councils and parents that could pay.

The Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 (20 Geo. II c. 43) was an Act of Parliament passed in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745 abolishing judicial rights held by Scots heritors. These were a significant source of power, especially for clan chiefs since it gave them a large measure of control over their tenants.

The family itself has been described as "a beloved aristocracy that came, lingered a while, and vanished." Their property was parcelled out into lots among a number of heritors which in 1820 amounted to 16. The lairds of Lyne (sic) had a townhouse in Irvine as did many of the other lairds in Cunninghame.Strawhorn, John (1994).

Some members of the Presbytery had opposed his father's original appointment as Minister, fighting it all the way up to the General Assembly.McCall, pages 92-96 They felt he was being imposed on them by then Patron, Robert, Earl of Morton, and the rich Heritors of the Parish. Such disputes were common throughout Scotland at the time.

There has been a Parish school in Cambuslang at least since the Reformation, and probably before that. The schoolteacher was appointed and paid by the heritors, though he also charged fees. Free primary education came with the Education Act for Scotland (1871). Cambulang's original public school (1882) became Cambuslang College of the Building Trades and then subsequently a nursing home.

The kirk also had a major role in education. Statutes passed in 1616, 1633, 1646 and 1696 established a parish school system, paid for by local heritors and administered by ministers and local presbyteries.. By the late seventeenth century there was a largely complete network of parish schools in the Lowlands, but in the Highlands basic education was still lacking in many areas.

In rural communities this act obliged local heritors to provide a schoolhouse and pay a schoolmaster, while ministers and local presbyteries oversaw the quality of the education. In many Scottish towns, burgh schools were operated by local councils. In the Highlands, as well as problems of distance and physical isolation, most people spoke Gaelic which few teachers and ministers could understand.

Korsakov expanded the production and opened one more manufactory in Borovichy (Novgorod region). Afterwards these distilleries belonged to the merchant's heritors. "The storehouse" had been successfully producing Russian vodka by the times of the World War I. After that production and selling of vodka to the public was forbidden. Since 1914 to the October Revolution state hospital was placed in the storehouse's building.

Bolton Parish Church The first church to be built in Bolton was erected in around 1240. The church at Bolton was placed under the superiority of the Canons of Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh and remained so for the next three hundred years. By 1804 the church was falling into disrepair and the heritors agreed that something had to be done.Louden (1979) p.2.

Schools were supported by a combination of kirk funds, contributions from local heritors or burgh councils and parents that could pay. They were inspected by kirk sessions of local elders, which checked for the quality of teaching and doctrinal purity.M. Todd, The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland (Yale University Press, 2002), , pp. 59–62. There were also large number of unregulated private "adventure schools".

This ancient power had been abolished in 1649, (during the Commonwealth), restored (with the Restoration in 1660 and abolished in the first place by William in 1690 before he re-imposed it in 1712). It led to many struggles between Kirk Sessions and Heritors throughout the 18th and 19th Centuries — including the appointment of Mr M’Culloch — and finally to three secessions from the Kirk.

These and the lairds probably numbered about 10,000 by the seventeenth century and became what the government defined as heritors, on whom the financial and legal burdens of local government increasingly fell.J. E. A. Dawson, Scotland Re-Formed, 1488–1587 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), , p. 331. Below the substantial landholders were those engaged in subsistence agriculture, who made up the majority of the working population.

Schools were supported by a combination of kirk funds, contributions from local heritors or burgh councils and parents that could pay. They were inspected by kirk sessions of local elders, which checked for the quality of teaching and doctrinal purity.M. Todd, The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland (Yale University Press, 2002), , pp. 59–62. There were also large number of unregulated private "adventure schools".

The most important later act was that of 1649, which declared that local heritors were to be assessed by kirk session to provide the financial resources for local relief, rather than relying on voluntary contributions.R. Mitchison, A History of Scotland (London: Routledge, 3rd edn., 2002), , p. 96. By the mid-seventeenth century the system had largely been rolled out across the Lowlands, but was limited in the Highlands.

Most subsequent legislation built on the principles of provision for the local deserving poor and punishment of mobile and undeserving "sturdie beggars". The most important later act was that of 1649, which declared that local heritors were to be assessed by kirk session to provide the financial resources for local relief, rather than relying on voluntary contributions.R. Mitchison, A History of Scotland (London: Routledge, 3rd edn., 2002), , p. 96.

This has been seen as a reaction against the oligarchical nature of the established kirk, which was dominated by local lairds and heritors. Unlike awakenings elsewhere, in the eighteenth century the revival in Scotland did not give rise to a major religious movement, but mainly benefited the secession churches, who had broken away from the Church of Scotland in the eighteenth century.G. M. Ditchfield, The Evangelical Revival (London: Routledge, 1998), , pp. 53 and 91.

In rural communities these acts obliged local landowners (heritors) to provide a schoolhouse and pay a schoolmaster, known in Scotland as a dominie, while ministers and local presbyteries oversaw the quality of the education. In many Scottish towns, burgh schools were operated by local councils. By the late seventeenth century there was a largely complete network of parish schools in the Lowlands, but in the Highlands basic education was still lacking in many areas.

Other Ministers, Heritors and Elders objected to Patronage on principle, as compromising the independence of the Church and the right of congregations freely to call their own Ministers. They viewed the whole of the 17th century as a struggle to achieve this, most notably during the Covenanter disturbances, culminating in the victory of the Glorious Revolution. Later, this Party of principled opposition was called the Evangelicals. It became dominant in the 19th century.

A. Allen and C. Spence, Edinburgh Housemails Taxation Book, 1634–1636. (Woodbridge: Scottish History Society, 2014.) Their home, which was on the north side of the High Street, close to John Knox’s house, was eventually inherited by John Bayne of Pitcairlie. As heritors, Donald Bayne and Beatrix Richardsone received a tax demand from the Town Council to help finance the construction of Parliament Hall, that was completed 1639. In 1637 Donald married Marjorie Liddail as his third wife.

Threepwood Road was a 'Statute Labour Road' maintained under Act of 1669 which required the appointment each year of overseers who would require tenants, cottars and servants to do unpaid work on the road. There were penalties for absence and the Heritors were obliged to supply funds for repair with tolls raised.OS Name Book of 1855-57 The 'Parish' road was built in 1810 and the Druids Graves cairn was robbed for stone to build it.Smith, p.

In 1720, the building was in such a poor state of repair that the minister, the Rev. Charles Campbell, thought it would possibly fall down. In September 1725, the Marquess of Lothian presented plans for a new church to Dalkeith Presbytery and the heritors (landowners). Edinburgh architect Mr Alexander McGill had drawn up these plans, and, although the project was approved, work did not commence on the new building, and on a clean site, until 1727.

The closing decade of the seventeenth century saw a slump, followed by four years of failed harvests, in what is known as the "seven ill years", but these shortages would be the last of their kind. As feudal distinctions declined in the early modern era, the barons and tenants-in-chief merged to form a new identifiable group, the lairds. With the yeomen, these heritors were the major landholding orders. Others with property rights included husbandmen and free tenants.

The rebels and their hostages continued west, reaching the Sound of Mull by the evening of 11 May. On arrival off Mull, Charles Campbell was sent ashore to Lorne, where he attempted to raise local heritors under their feudal obligations to his father. In the interim, the main invasion force sailed southwards to Islay; Argyll decided to land the majority of his troops by night and surprise Atholl's militia, disembarking at one o'clock in the morning of the 17th.

This meant a return to persecution; preaching at a conventicle was made punishable by death, while attendance attracted severe sanctions. In 1674, heritors and masters were made responsible for the 'good behaviour' of their tenants and servants; from 1677, this meant posting bonds for those living on their land. In 1678, 3,000 Lowland militia and 6,000 Highlanders, known as the "Highland Host", were billeted in the Covenanting shires, especially those in the South-West, as a form of punishment.

R. A. Houston, I. D. Whyte "Introduction" in R. A. Houston, I. D. Whyte, eds, Scottish Society, 1500–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), , p. 34. Kirk sessions also had an administrative burden in the system of poor relief. An act of 1649 declared that local heritors were to be assessed by kirk sessions to provide the financial resources for local relief, rather than relying on voluntary contributions.R. Mitchison, A History of Scotland (London: Routledge, 3rd edn.

The town council were sole managers of the school until, in 1848, the school (having been renamed The 'Hamilton Academy') re-located again, to larger premises on the town's Hope Street, with Rector's residence and accommodation for boarders, built by the heritors of the Parish of Hamilton, the town council and subscribers, the school then coming under the management of a Directorate chosen of these three parties. The Report on Schools in Scotland, 1868, notes that Hamilton Academy was unusual in this respect, being "a parochial, burgh and a proprietary school combined." In 1866 the Subscribers passed their interest over to the town council who, along with the heritors, managed the school until in 1872 management was transferred to the newly elected School Board of the Burgh of Hamilton under the terms of the Education (Scotland) Act 1872, under the terms of which Act the school was also confirmed (1876) as being a 'higher-class school.'Programme and Souvenir printed by the Hamilton Advertiser newspaper for the opening of the 'new' Hamilton Academy building, 22nd. Sept.

Preaching at a conventicle was made punishable by death and attendance was punishable by severe sanctions. In 1674 heritors and masters were made responsible for their tenants and servants and from 1677 they had to enter bonds for the conduct of everyone living on their land. In 1678 3,000 Lowland militia and 6,000 Highlanders, known as the "Highland Host", were billeted in the Covenanting shires as a form of punishment. In 1679 a group of Covenanters killed Archbishop James Sharp.

J. Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), , pp. 51–2. These and the lairds probably numbered about 10,000 by the seventeenth century and became what the government defined as heritors, on whom the financial and legal burdens of local government increasingly fell.J. E. A. Dawson, Scotland Re- Formed, 1488–1587 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), , p. 331. Below the substantial landholders were those engaged in subsistence agriculture, who made up the majority of the working population.

Schools were supported by a combination of kirk funds, contributions from local heritors or burgh councils and parents that could pay. They were inspected by kirk sessions, who checked for the quality of teaching and doctrinal purity. There were also large number of unregulated "adventure schools", which sometimes fulfilled local needs and sometimes took pupils away from the official schools. Outside of the established burgh schools masters often combined their position with other employment, particularly minor posts within the kirk, such as clerk.

In 1844 Clerk was called to what was then the biggest parish in Scotland, the Parish of Kilmallie, then partly in Argyll and partly in Inverness-shire. The previous minister, Thomas Davidson, had come out of the established church during the Disruption of 1843 and taken two thirds of the congregation with him to the Free Church of Scotland. Clerk inherited a situation where bitterness over the religious arguments was exacerbated by hostility to the heritors, or landlords, over evictions of highland peasants from their landholdings.

Scotland was also visited 22 times by John Wesley, the English evangelist and founder of Methodism, between 1751 and 1790.Mackie, Lenman and Parker, A History of Scotland, p. 304. Most of the new converts were relatively young and from the lower groups in society, such as small tenants, craftsmen, servants and the unskilled, with a relatively high proportion of unmarried women. This has been seen as a reaction against the oligarchical nature of the established kirk, which was dominated by local lairds and heritors.

He spent a lot of his own money paying for distributing texts of Scripture and the Shorter Catechism to children in Scotland and America. He secretly gave £200 to the recently established Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge in Edinburgh. Dean Stanley in his Lectures described Mr M’Culloch as "no wild fanatic, but a learned, unostentatious scholar, a slow, cautious and prudent parish minister". Eventually, Mr M’Culloch persuaded the Heritors to repair the church and a "neat, plain edifice" was erected, a new manse following in 1756.

Schools were supported by a combination of kirk funds, contributions from local heritors or burgh councils and parents that could pay. They were inspected by kirk sessions, who checked for the quality of teaching and doctrinal purity. There were also large number of unregulated "adventure schools", which sometimes fulfilled a local need and sometimes took pupils away from the official schools. Outside of the established burgh schools, masters often combined their positions with other employment, particularly minor posts within the Kirk, such as clerk.

The site is now submerged under the reservoir.Web site of Historic Environment Scotland; Henderland, Site Name Megget, Old Church canmore.org.uk/site/217827 retrieved June 2016 This was built, not at the expense of the heritors of the parish (the usual practice), but with money raised by the parish combined with the aid of the resident farmers, who assisted in collecting materials. It had a slate roof and seats and was maintained by voluntary contribution, although by the 1830s it was in want of repair.

The unusual octagonal Kirk of Dreghorn The Church of Scotland parish church at the top of Station Brae, dating from 1780, has an unusual octagonal plan. At one time, the church was known locally as the "Threepenny" after the 12-sided Threepence coin. Following the Scottish Reformation, maintenance of the small rectangular church, the manse and churchyard, as well as payment of the minister's stipend, was vested in local landowners, the Heritors of the Parish. After years of complaints over repairs, in February 1777 the minister, Mr Tod.

In 1559, in the Scottish Reformation, an image of Mary mother of Jesus was taken from Neilston Parish Church and thrown into a pool of the River Levern. The pool ever since has been known as the Midge Hole. One of Neilston Parish Church's most celebrated ministers was Dr Alexander Fleming and his Life (1883) contains much of interest relating to Neilston. In 1826, despite enlargement of the church, it was too small to accommodate the population and the Heritors demanded payment of seat rents for those attending services.

The Macbean territory lay chiefly in the parish of Dores, as may be seen from the preponderance of the name on the tombstones in the churchyard, represented by Kinchyle and Drummond as heritors. They were represented in Strathnairn by Macbean of Faillie, and in Strathdearn by Macbean of Tomatin. Kinchyle was undoubted head, and signs the Bond of Union among the Clan Chattan in 1609; the Bond of Maintenance of 1664; and finally, in 1756, the Letter of Authority from the Clan to Mackintosh, to redeem the Loch Laggan estate. According to the Rev.

The 'Red Kirk', as it was known, was situated at Rye Park, where Thistle Street now stands. The Burghers, built their church the same year in Kinloch Street. This church later went through a series of Unions with other churches, becoming part of the United Original Secession Church in 1822 and the Free Church in 1852. Barry Parish Church proved insufficient to house the rapidly expanding population of the parish and the refusal of the Heritors to fund its enlargement led to the building of Carnoustie church in 1837.

19th Century Houses in Brownside Road By the end of the 19th century, many wealthy Glasgow businessmen had built houses in Cambuslang due to its easy accessibility by rail from the city. Many of the heritors had sold off their estates for building. In the late 1860s, Thomas Gray Buchanan sold off the 'lands of Wellshot' on which elegant limestone and slate roofed villas were built. His own mansion house still exists – a very modest early 19th-century country house, situated in Milton Avenue off Buchanan Drive – though it is divided into flats.

Following the Dutch invasion of England by the Presbyterian William of Orange, the so-called Glorious Revolution definitively restored Presbyterianism as the only legal form of Church government in Scotland. A 1690 Act (again, by the Parliament of Scotland) did not abolish patronage, but vested this power instead in the heritors and elders of each parish, who could propose a candidate to the whole congregation, to be either approved or disapproved by them. If they disapproved, they needed to give their reasons. Disputes were to be resolved by the presbytery.

In the burghs, the old schools were maintained, with the song schools and a number of new foundations becoming reformed grammar schools or ordinary parish schools. Schools were supported by a combination of kirk funds, contributions from local heritors or burgh councils and from parents that could pay. They were inspected by kirk sessions, who checked for the quality of teaching and doctrinal purity. There was also a large number of unregulated "adventure schools", which sometimes fulfilled a local need and sometimes took pupils away from the official schools.

Harry Home subsequently assigned his right to Alexander Home, eldest lawful son of said John Home of Renton, the Precept by Oliver Cromwell being dated at Edinburgh, 10 August 1658.Historic Manuscripts Commission, Manuscripts of Colonel David Milne-Home of Wedderburn Castle, N.B., London, 1902: 13, and 202-4 In 1857 there were about 70 'heritors' or feuholders in the barony.Hunter, William King, History of the Priory of Coldingham, Edinburgh & London, 1858 Today there are many more, all converted into freeholders with the abolition of feudal land tenure by the Scottish Parliament in November 2005.

The present parish of Houston and Killellan dates from 1771 when the two parishes of Houston and Killellan were joined. The former parish kirk in the nearby hamlet of Kilallan was known as the Church of St Fillan which gives the hamlet its name. The former church building was left redundant by the unification and was abandoned and un-roofed some time after 1791.Snoddy, Page 169 The Barochan Aisle on the north side of the kirk is the burial place of the Flemings of near by Barochan Castle, feudal superiors and heritors of the kirk.

Ferguson had thought about building the canal since 1793, but it was never completed because of "difficulties in effecting the necessary arrangements with neighbouring heritors." Objections were raised by the Merchant Maiden Hospital, which owned the land on the south side of the Ugie. Despite being advised to take out an interdict to prevent the work, in January 1797 the hospital thought its case was not strong enough. The hospital applied for an interdict four months later however, when of the canal had been dug to the point where the north and south Ugie joined; it was granted in July 1797.

Old College, University of Edinburgh, rebuilt in 1789 according to plans drawn up by Robert Adam A legacy of the Reformation in Scotland was the aim of having a school in every parish, which was underlined by an act of the Scottish parliament in 1696 (reinforced in 1801). In rural communities this obliged local landowners (heritors) to provide a schoolhouse and pay a schoolmaster, while ministers and local presbyteries oversaw the quality of the education. The headmaster or "dominie" was often university educated and enjoyed high local prestige.William F. Hendrie, The dominie: a profile of the Scottish headmaster (1997).

Principal William Robertson was the leader of the so- called Moderates. These saw themselves as enlightened Calvinists and Presbyterians who were prepared to compromise with the Government in many matters - in particular, over the issue of Patronage - but not on the spiritual independence of the Church. George Hill was one of this party, and took over the leadership of it when Robertson died. He was a very sincere Calvinist and a proud Presbyterian, but did not take a gloomy view of the former, and accepted that landowners (the Heritors) who paid a Minister's salary had some rights in their appointment.

In 1732 a further cause of difference arose. The general assembly passed an act ordaining that when the right of presentation was not exercised by the patron, the ministers should be elected by the heritors and elders, and not by the congregation. This displeased Erskine, Wilson, and others, who regarded the congregational right as sacred, and Erskine preached a vehement sermon on the subject, for which he was censured by the synod of Perth and Stirling. The censure was confirmed by the general assembly, and on 14 May 1733 Wilson joined with Alexander Moncrieff and James Fisher in a protest.

The Rev, Grierson described the parish of Errol as having five schools in 1837. The main parish school had a master and an assistant, whose salaries were paid for by the heritors, and the subjects they taught included English, mathematics, geography and, if required, languages (Latin, Greek and French). Three of the other schools were either partly-endowed or supported by a body of subscribers, and more reliant on the fees paid by the pupils. The fifth school was a small school-house where an 'elderly widow' taught young children to read and girls knitting (a dame school).

If the heritors did not pay then the amount was to be taken from their estate funds. These rights lasted for 15 years for the vagrants and five years for the unemployed. Despite the low costs this business was not a success and it disappears from the records after a relatively short period of time,Lauchland, Page 27 the buildings being turned into a brewery. In the muniment records of Irvine it is recorded that the council agreed to pay for the maintenance of two 'poor boys' in 1664-1665 who were housed at the manufactory of Ayre alias Montgomeriestoun.

In Scotland the term heritor was used to denote the feudal landholders of a parish until the early 20th century. For example, in the early 20th century the heritors of the Highland Parish of Crathie and Braemar were the estates of Mar Lodge, Invercauld, Balmoral, and Abergeldie. Historically, land-holding in Scotland is feudal in nature, meaning that all land is technically "owned" by the Crown, which, centuries ago, gave it out – feued it – to various tenants-in- chief in return for specified services or obligations. These obligations became largely financial in time, or ceremonial or at least notional.

Similarly, these tenants-in-chief gave parcels of land out to lesser "owners", and the resulting reciprocal obligations too became financial – feudal dues – or notional. Often, though, conditions were imposed by the feudal superior at the time of the transaction – used in the 19th century as a form of planning control. The result was that "landowners" had differing rights to the land they "owned". However, those who held their land without limit of time – that is, only had a ceremonial or ancient financial obligation towards their notional "superiors" – were distinguished from others and were called heritors.

The church's manse, now Kilallan Farm or House, immediately adjacent to St Fillan's, is considered to be the oldest existing dwellinghouse in Renfrewshire. It had a stable and a byre now converted and was sold around 1771 by the heritors, its condition being recorded as 'bad' in the first Statistical Account. It had a typical loupin stane much used by the minister of the old kirk to mount his horse.Snoddy, Page 168 In 1950 a visitor recorded that the old glebe field was exceptionally fertile in comparison with other parcels of land in the area and was traditionally regarded as being the old kitchen garden of the pre-Reformation priests.

In rural communities these acts obliged local landowners (heritors) to provide a schoolhouse and pay a schoolmaster, known in Scotland as a dominie, while ministers and local presbyteries oversaw the quality of the education. In many Scottish towns, burgh schools were operated by local councils. Some wealthy individuals established "hospitals", boarding schools for deserving pupils, such as George Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh, which was founded in 1628 and whose impressive building was opened in 1656 for 180 boys. By the late seventeenth century there was a largely complete network of parish schools in the Lowlands, but in the Highlands basic education was still lacking in many areas.

The kirk had been built in a rather precarious position on a cliff-side, and from 1807-10 it was rebuilt a little further up the hill as the new Parish Church. The Heritors then moved the older portions of the Auld Kirk to the new one, leaving only the front door, the clock and the belfry. There was not much left of the old kirk after that, and it came to be used as a burial ground for the Woodside family. Later on, however, it was closed for further burials and partly renovated, with the old high wall replaced by railings and paths dugs over the ground.

British history Online Retrieved : 2010-11-13 It is said that the Earl of Stair was the prime mover in suppressing the parish because of the inconvenient horse ride he had to undertake to get to Barnweill Church from his home at Stair. The suppression met with considerable opposition from the parishioners and the heritors and it was not until 1707 that the Presbytery annexed the old parish to that of Craigie and Tarbolton. Until 1707 the Minister of Stair had to preach under an oak tree on the Fulton Estate to lawfully qualify for the stipends of Barnweil]. A number of the old Barnweill parishioners joined the Symington Church.

It was at this time that he went in distress to Mr Wodrow of Eastwood and it was perhaps because of his physical and mental state that he did not fulfil his duties immediately. For three years and three months no communion services were held and the schooling was neglected. It should also be said that Mr M’Culloch’s attempts to get the (perhaps disgruntled) Heritors to repair the dilapidated church met with little success. He therefore began preaching in a tent next to the church, using letters and printed sermons from New England detailing the extraordinary events taking place there — the so-called First Great Awakening.

The addition of an Episcopalian system in 1584 resulted in a situation where bishops presided over Presbyterian structures, while local lairds or heritors controlled the appointment of clergy in their districts. Tensions between these three power centres drove many of the political and religious conflicts that dominated the 17th century. In 1567, the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots was exiled to England, where she was imprisoned and later executed. She was replaced by her one-year-old son James VI who was brought up as a Protestant; by the 1630s, Catholicism was largely restricted to members of the aristocracy and remote Gaelic-speaking areas of the Highlands and Islands.

This meant a return to persecution; preaching at a conventicle was made punishable by death, while attendance attracted severe sanctions. In 1674, heritors and masters were made responsible for the 'good behaviour' of their tenants and servants; from 1677, this meant posting bonds for those living on their land. In 1678, 3,000 Lowland militia and 6,000 Highlanders, known as the "Highland Host", were billeted in the Covenanting shires, especially those in the South-West, as a form of punishment. St Giles Kirkyard, Edinburgh, where prisoners were held after the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679 In 1679, a group of Covenanters killed Archbishop Sharp.

The cipher was, however, at length read by William Spence, Argyll's private secretary, and independently by two cryptographers, George Campbell and Gray of Crigie. Argyll, it appeared, had remonstrated with other Whig conspirators about their rejection of his proposal that he should be provided with £30,000 and 1,000 English horse. They offered £10,000 with 600 or 700 horse, the money to be paid by the beginning of July, and Argyll was then to go at once to Scotland and begin a revolt. He gave an account of the standing forces, militia, and heritors of Scotland, who would be obliged to appear for the king, to the number of 50,000.

These were settlements of a handful of families that jointly farmed an area notionally suitable for two or three plough teams, organised in run rigs. Most ploughing was done with a heavy wooden plough with an iron coulter, pulled by oxen. The rural economy boomed in the thirteenth century and in the immediate aftermath of the Black Death was still buoyant, but by the 1360s there was a severe falling off in incomes to be followed by a slow recovery in the fifteenth century. As feudal distinctions declined in the early modern era, the major landholding orders, or heritors, were the lairds and yeomen.

R. Mitchison, Lordship to Patronage, Scotland 1603–1745 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1983), , p. 80. The practice of feuing (by which a tenant paid an entry sum and an annual feu duty, but could pass the land on to their heirs) meant that the number of people holding heritable possession of lands, which had previously been controlled by the church or nobility, expanded.J. Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), , pp. 51–2. These and the lairds probably numbered about 10,000 by the seventeenth century and became what the government defined as heritors, on whom the financial and legal burdens of local government increasingly fell.

A private bill, aimed at establishing the commissioners as a body corporate to take into account changes in the size of the drainage basin and to the number of heritors, was submitted to the Scottish Parliament by the drainage commissioners in March 2017 to replace the 1846 act. It received royal assent as the "Pow of Inchaffray Drainage Commission (Scotland) Act 2019" on 17 January 2019., 2019 asp 1 The Pow drainage commission is the only local drainage commission in Scotland. It is responsible for some of the country's most fertile agricultural land and has also worked to allow residential development to take place on part of the drainage basin.

An Elder of the Church of Scotland for his home parish of Cadder, Muir became embroiled at the beginning of 1790 in a dispute with the local landlords led by James Dunlop of Garnkirk, a rich owner. Muir acting on behalf of the elders challenged the attempt of the landlords or heritors to pack the selection committee for a new minister with "Parchment Barons". Upon the case being referred to the Synod at Glasgow, Muir was appointed as Counsel for the congregation and fought a protracted case on their behalf all the way to the General Assembly. In the event the case of the landlords was thrown out, and Muir and his party emerged victorious.

The earliest record of education in the area is contained in the Minutes of Edinburgh Town Council in 1598, when Baillie Lawrence Henderson was sent to "the toun o Currie to help the gentlemen of the Parish select a Schoolmaister"; however it is not stated where the school was situated. In 1694, the heritors appointed a Mr Thomson to teach scholars in the Church until Thomas Craig of Riccarton found a place for the building of a school and house for the schoolmaster. The foundations of the school were laid in 1699. The school and school house cost 500 merks and the salary of the schoolmaster was 20 pounds Scots per year.

Spier's School in 1900 A map of the school as it was in 1888 The school opened on 22 September 1888, with 140 pupils, mostly from North Ayrshire, and with Robert Bruce Lockhart, previously head of Waid Academy, as the first headmaster. Fees were charged, but free education was available to local children who passed a qualifying examination and were recommended by their schoolteachers. The school administration was in the hands of the Lord Lieutenant of the County, seven representatives of the school boards, and the existing trustees as life governors, to be replaced by two heritors of the parish of Beith in due course. The boarders were always a minor element, never more than fourteen.

John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll (1693-1770); paid £25,000 The Act was one of a number of measures taken after the defeat of the 1745 Jacobite Rising to weaken the traditional rights held by clan chiefs, the others being the 1746 Dress Act and the Act of Proscription.Proceedings of the Scottish Parliament on 27 September 2000: A Debate on the Highland Clearances, accessed 27 August 2008. Such rights were not restricted to clan chiefs and were widespread throughout Scotland. There had been a number of previous attempts to either eliminate or weaken them; for example, the 1692 Church of Scotland Settlement removed the right of heritors to nominate church ministers for their own parishes.

Aberdeen was undergoing rapid expansion in the early 19th century and landowners in Torry, the Menzies family of Pitfodels, wished to capitalise on the opportunities arising from the establishment of the turnpike road between Aberdeen and Stonehaven in 1799. A series of legal disputes as to exact ownership of the lands ended in arbitration. An Act of Parliament was eventually obtained by the Heritors of Nigg and the Road Trustees in 1828 for a bridge to replace the Craiglug Ferry. The City Architect in Aberdeen John Smith and his rival Archibald Simpson were asked to tender design proposals for the bridge and its approach roads from the north and south side in June 1829.

158; archive.org. He took an important part in promoting the Union, and was consulted by Harley and other leading Englishmen concerning it. During Anne's reign, the chief object of his policy was to frustrate the measures which were planned by Lord Oxford to strengthen the Episcopalian Jacobites, especially a bill for extending the privileges of the Episcopalians and the bill for replacing in the hands of the old patrons the right of patronage, which by the Revolution Settlement had been vested in the elders and the Protestant heritors. On the accession of George I, Carstares was appointed, with five others, to welcome the new dynasty in the name of the Church of Scotland.

Dr Fleming proceeded to preach from a tent erected in the graveyard for a period of about eight years, insisting that "the people of the Parish are entitled to hear the gospel without money or price." The case went to the House of Lords and although it was not successful, the parishioners were subsequently able to return to the church and take their places without paying rent and with no further opposition from the Heritors. In 2003, in a major refurbishment, six skeletons were found beneath the floorboards of the church. Initially sealed off as a crime scene, archeologists from the University of Glasgow confirmed the skeletons were around 400 years old.

The Disruption Assembly, painted by David Octavius Hill In the nineteenth century the Church of Scotland was increasingly divided between the evangelicals and the Moderate Party.J. T. Koch, Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia, Volumes 1-5 (London: ABC-CLIO, 2006), , pp. 416-7. While evangelicals emphasised the authority of the Bible and the traditions and historical documents of the kirk, the Moderates, who had dominated the General Assembly of the Church since the mid-eighteenth century, tended to stress intellectualism in theology, the established hierarchy of the kirk and attempted to raise the social status of the clergy. The major issue was the patronage of landholders and heritors over appoints to the ministry.

When a Patron failed to nominate a candidate for a vacancy within six months, his right of Patronage fell to the Presbytery. Each Presbytery proceeded as it saw fit, but the General Assembly of 1732 passed an Act which regulated this, by establishing the 1690 rules, granting the Patronage right to the Heritors and Elders, with procedures to be followed if a congregation objected to a candidate. Some members, including Ebenezer Erskine wanted to see the regulations of 1649 applied, by which all heads of families in a congregation called a Minister. The fact that they could no longer have their objections recorded led to the first schism in the Church of Scotland - the Original Secession.

The Hamilton family of Brownmuir were probably descended from Udston, ancestor of the Hamilton's of Wishaw, however Dobie records that they were originally a cadet branch of the Hamiltons of Duchal and held Brownmuir for some centuries.Dobie, page 74 The first recorded laird from circa 1611 is Hugh HamiltonPaterson, Page 83 and the next Hamilton heir is William, noted in the 1615 testament of William Montgomerie, merchant in Rakerfield. William appears in the inventory of Hew Montgomerie of Boghall, as having a claim for dry multures and he was in 1685 recorded on the roll of the Lochwinnoch heritors, as the feuar of the land of Auchinbothie-Blair. William Hamilton, the elder of Brownmuir, is recorded as a creditor in 1648 of Robert Gawane (Gavin) of Beith.

In the lower ranks of society, girls benefited from the expansion of the parish schools system that took place after the Reformation, but were usually outnumbered by boys and often taught separately, for a shorter time and to a lower level. Acts in 1616, 1633, 1646, and 1696 obliged local landowners (heritors) to provide a schoolhouse and pay a schoolmaster, known in Scotland as a dominie, while ministers and local presbyteries oversaw the quality of the education. By the late seventeenth century there was a largely complete network of parish schools in the Lowlands, but in the Highlands basic education was still lacking in many areas. In the eighteenth century, wealth from the Agricultural Revolution led to a programme of extensive rebuilding of schools.

Houston and Whyte "Introduction", p. 34. Under an act of 1649, kirk sessions were charged with levying taxes on local heritors for poor relief, rather than relying on voluntary contributions. By the mid- seventeenth century the system had largely been rolled out across the Lowlands, but was limited in the Highlands.O. P. Grell and A. Cunningham, Health Care and Poor Relief in Protestant Europe, 1500–1700 (London: Routledge, 1997), , p. 37. The system was largely able to cope with general poverty and minor crises, helping the old and infirm to survive and provide life support in periods of downturn at relatively low cost, but was overwhelmed in the major subsistence crisis of the 1690s, known as the seven ill years.

John Smith was the architect of Banchory Ternan East Church, and his 1825 plans showing the seating arrangements for the heritors and their tenants are held by the congregation. The style of the building is very typical of his work: the ogee profile of the coping stones on the front boundary wall is his personal "trade mark" being found on most of his buildings. John Smith (1781–1852), known as "Tudor Johnie", was Aberdeen's first city architect. Most of his churches are in the Perpendicular Gothic style; Udny and Nigg are not unlike Banchory, while Aberdeen South in Belmont Street (now a theme pub), St Clement's in Footdee (closed), and Fourdon (=Auchenblae) Parish Church are more grandiose exercise of the same genre.

As a commercial venture pursued by the Earls of Eglinton to rival the Royal Burgh of Ayr itself, the burgh was never a great success.Campbell, Page 134 In 1662 the Earl of Eglinton was however given the rights by the Privy Council who in 1662 passed a special actMcJannet, Page 186 in his favour that gave the earl the right to the manual labour of all the vagrants and temporarily unemployed in Renfrewshire, Ayrshire and Galloway. These individuals were taken to Montgomerieston where he had a wool factory. The heritors from the parishes had to support the labourers to the tune of £6 Scots per month while they were there and the earl only had to provide food and clothing.

Robert Aitken's map of Beith The 'proposal' for potential subscribers at the beginning of the work gives information of the layout of the atlas, together with the detail that: "Each map will contain the names of every House within the Parish - the whole Roads, Turnpike, Parochial, and Private - and the Rivers and Streams. Each Map will contain the names of the principal Heritors, and sundry Statistical and Historical Notices". Aitken was successful in his attempt to attract sufficient subscribers, 86 being listed; he had stated that he needed 100 in the 1827 'proposal'. The list of subscribers is impressive in its coverage of the artistocracy and significant land owners in Ayrshire suggesting a degree of co-operation indicating close contacts within the landowners of Ayrshire.

The Town House Beith's townhouse was built by public subscription in 1817; the lower part of the building originally consisted of two shops, one of which was an ironmonger's operated by George B Inglis from 1862 until around 1900. There was also a small room where prisoners were kept prior to their appearance in the upper hall which was used as a JP Court, Sheriff Small Debt Circuit Court, meeting of the road trustees and as a public meeting room. It was also used as a public reading room. For the first twenty years the management of the Town House was in the hands of the JPs of Beith, Dalry, and Kilbirnie, the heritors of the parishes, the propietors of certain houses in Beith, and finally tenants of said houses within of the cross.

So the whole of Scotland got a Parliamentary grant of less than was spent on one single Church of England; and the majority of parishes, and parishioners, in Scotland got nothing at all. The task of selecting the sites and overseeing the work was entrusted to the Commissioners for Building Highland Roads and Bridges, and in particular to their Chief Surveyor Thomas Telford. The Bill required that the heritors, should apply for a new kirk to be built on land that they would make available, and in August 1825 the Commissioners considered 78 applications; eighteen more were received by June 1826, and eventually, and not without difficulty, sites were chosen for 32 kirks and 41 manses, the extra manses to be provided where there was already a kirk, but no manse.

One of those who had added his voice against John Lister's appointment, Ebenezer Erskine was to lead a number of Ministers out of the Church of Scotland as a protest against Patronage, forming the Original Secession Church.McCall, Lecture XII, page 346 et seq Perhaps to avoid such disputes, several heritors and Elders of the Kirk Session of Aberdour wrote to James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton, who now Patron of the Parish, shortly after Robert had been licensed, and asked that he be appointed assistant and expected successor to his father.McCall, page 95-96 This was agreed and he was called on 13 December and ordained on 2 April 1754 as Assistant Minister of Aberdour. Ten years later, on 17 September 1764, when his father died, he became the Minister of Aberdour.

An act of the Scottish parliament in 1696 underlined the aim of having a school in every parish. In rural communities these obliged local landowners (heritors) to provide a schoolhouse and pay a schoolmaster, while ministers and local presbyteries oversaw the quality of the education. In many Scottish towns, burgh schools were operated by local councils.. By the late 17th century, there was a largely complete network of parish schools in the Lowlands, but in the Highlands basic education was still lacking in many areas.R. Anderson, "The history of Scottish Education pre-1980", in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes, eds, Scottish Education: Post-Devolution (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2nd edn., 2003), , pp. 219–28. Andrew Melville, credited with major reforms in Scottish Universities in the 16th century. The widespread belief in the limited intellectual and moral capacity of women, vied with a desire, intensified after the Reformation, for women to take personal moral responsibility, particularly as wives and mothers.

A legacy of the Reformation in Scotland was the aim of having a school in every parish, which was underlined by an act of the Scottish parliament in 1696 (reinforced in 1801). In rural communities these obliged local landowners (heritors) to provide a schoolhouse and pay a schoolmaster, while ministers and local presbyteries oversaw the quality of the education. In many Scottish towns, burgh schools were operated by local councils. One of the effects of this extensive network of schools was the growth of the "democratic myth" in the 19th century, which created the widespread belief that many a "lad of pairts" had been able to rise up through the system to take high office and that literacy was much more widespread in Scotland than in neighbouring states, particularly England.R. Anderson, "The history of Scottish Education pre-1980", in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes, eds, Scottish Education: Post- Devolution (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2nd edn., 2003), , pp. 219–28.

Robert Aitken's map of Little Cumbrae. In the 1827 'proposal' document Aitken had promised subscribers that the maps would also carry information such as the names of every house within the Parishes, whole Roads, Turnpike, Parochial, and Private; names of the Rivers and Streams; names of the principal Heritors, and "sundry Statistical and Historical Notices." These 'sundry statistics' included the populations of the parishes in 1755, 1791, 1801, 1811 and 1821; the total rental value in pounds Scots of the parish or major towns; the surface area in square miles; sometimes the latitude and longitude of major towns; sometimes the extent in miles of parish roads and turnpikes with toll houses marked and named as such; a colour key to the roads is sometimes given; the maps have a scale in miles and furlongs at the bottom of the page. The extent of moorland and green pasture is sometimes shown; height of the principal hills and some significant buildings is shown; ruins are marked as such and even tumuli indicated.

A. Grant, "Service and tenure in late medieval Scotland 1324–1475" in A. Curry and E. Matthew, eds, Concepts and Patterns of Service in the Later Middle Ages (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2000), , pp. 145–65. Below the lairds were a variety of groups, often ill-defined. These included yeomen, sometimes called "bonnet lairds", often owning substantial land. The practice of fueing (by which a tenant paid an entry sum and an annual feu duty, but could pass the land on to their heirs) meant that the number of people holding heritable possession of lands, which had previously been controlled by the church or nobility expanded.J. Wormald, Court, Kirk, and Community: Scotland, 1470–1625 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991), , pp. 51–2. These and the lairds probably numbered about 10,000 by the seventeenth century and became what the government defined as heritors, on whom the financial and legal burdens of local government would increasingly fall.J. E. A. Dawson, Scotland Re-Formed, 1488–1587 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007), , p. 331. Below the substantial landholders were the husbandmen, lesser landholders and free tenants, who were often described as cottars and grassmen,R. Mitchison, Lordship to Patronage, Scotland 1603–1745 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1983), , p. 82.