thirlage

Also, through Thirlage, they formed part of the feudal system and its associated bureaucracy.

Thirlage ended in the late 18th century and resulted in a number of mills being abandoned once market forces took a hold.

This was the payment, amounting to a year's rent, for a miller to enter into rights under the law of thirlage.

In Scotland thirlage tied land to a particular mill, whose owner took a proportion of the grain as multure.

Many quern stones are found in a broken condition, maybe having been broken purposely according to thirlage law.

Under thirlage the suckeners had to convey new millstones to their thirled mill, sometimes over significant distances.

Early leases of mills gave to the miller the legal right to break quern-stones which were being used in defiance of thirlage agreements.

The Thirlage Law was repealed in 1779 and after this many mills fell out of use as competition and unsubsidised running costs took their toll.

The 'Sucken' was the area over which a mill held thirlage over tenants and a 'suckener' was a tenant thirled to a particular mill.

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.

The Duke of Portland abolished thirlage in mid-19th century, making Millburn Mill, and Lochlea's head of water, redundant.

Such tracks were necessary for many reasons, not least the obligation of thirlage by which tenants had to take their corn to be ground at the mills held by the monks.

The Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 finally ended Any obligation of thirlage which has not been extinguished before the appointed day is extinguished on that day.

The obligations of thirlage eventually ceased to apply, but thirlage in Scotland was only formally and totally abolished on 28 November (Martinmas) 2004 by the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000.

The millers were obliged to enforce the adherence of tenants to the thirlage laws, as 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 loch's drainage may relate to the abolition of thirlage in 1779 resulting in the need for 'heads of water' to power a number of smaller mills become unnecessary and the lochs were reclaimed as farming land; this fate for example was met by Millburn Mill that was powered by the waters of Lochlea.