Estate Management in the Eighteenth Century. 1+7 



then .resided at Hopetoun House, Linlithgowshire. Thirteen 

 days after his appointment he sends his factors the foUowing^ 

 instructions : — 



"Wrote to the Factors for Rentals of the Estates, and for 

 information upon several different points, and directed Eye- 

 Draughts of the whole Estate, for the better understanding of the 

 nature and position of the different farms, to be made by John 

 and James Tait, Land Surveyors in Lockerbie." 



An Eyedraught as used in 1758 was a form of plan prepared 

 by judging measurements by the eye without the use of a scale 

 I have been able to find and bring with me four — they are appli- 

 cable to the lands in the Upper Division of the Estates, namely — 

 Johnstone, Kirkpatrick-Juxta, and Wamphray parishes, and the 

 lands on Annan, Evan, and Moffat Waters. They are very 

 interesting because they give a complete survey of all the farms 

 in that portion of the Estate as arranged prior to 1758, also the 

 lands that were held runrigg and a number of commons before 

 they were divided. 



Having shown you the farms and their boundaries as they 

 appeared in 1758, let me now draw your attention to the lets of 

 farms as appearing among the older papers. In an old rental 

 dated 1683 most of the farms seem to be without tenants. Tliis 

 can easily be understood when we rememVjer that about that time 

 Claverhouse was busy in this county stamping out " Con- 

 venticlers," so much so, that according to a recent writer, " The 

 peasantry fled his presence as if it were the plague." 



The next rental I noticed of any importance was for the year 

 1707 (the year of the Treaty of Union) by which tinie all the 

 farms appear to have been let to tenants on yearly tacks, which 

 continued till about Whitsunday, 1722, when long leases came 

 into use for the larger farms, the following being the usual con- 

 ditions of let then in use for a sheep farm, viz. : — 



Polmoodie, in Parish of Moffat. — " To John Murray, Junior, 

 for 21 years after Whitsunday, 1722, pays of tack duty £1633 

 6s 8d Scot mony at two termes, viz., Martinmas and Whitsun- 

 day, as also pays the sum of 2400 lb. Scot in name of grassum, 

 viz., 600 lb. Scot Lambas, 1722; 600 lb. Scot Lambas, 1723; 

 600 lb. Scot Lambas, 1724; 600 lb. Scot Lambas, 1725." 



Another of the same for an arable farm : — 



" Kirkbank in Parish of Johnstone. — " To James Thor- 



