medieval-atlas/economic-development/236
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Burgesses' landed interest During the fourteenth century it became increasingly common for wealthier burgesses -Like Adam Forrester of Edinburgh, who was prominent in crown service, or the Perth families of Mercer and Spens, who acquired land along Loch Lomond through marriage to a Campbell heiress -to acquire lands outwith their burghs. Country estates provided produce, rents and status. They could be acquired through marriage or as a reward for service to church, Crown or a magnate as well as being a means to invest surplus capital. Some families severed their connections with their burgh oforigin but this generally took a number of generations; most continued to participate in burgh life. This practice was made easier by the fact that most country estates belonging to burgesses were situated relatively close to their burghs. • Edinburgh Burgesses' landed interest in the fourteenth century: Aberdeen, Perth and Edinburgh The early seventeenth century saw a boom in the acquiring by wadset of rural property by Edinburgh merchants as collateral for lending money to nobles and lairds throughout Scotland. Almost half of the 300 wealthiest merchants of the capital accepted the mortgage of rural property, under terms of reversion usually of two, seven or nineteen years. None abandoned mercantile activities to become either property speculators or country lairds. In a period of rising grain prices, the wadsetters were more interested in collecting the rentals and produce rather than establishing themselves on estates, more than 40% of whi ch were beyond the immediate vicinity of Edinburgh. Yet the areas involved included some ofthe most fertile in the country. William Dick, wealthiest of Edinburgh's merchant princes, had properties extending from Ayrshire to Caithness and f.i~ '\:, purchased a six-year tack ofOrkney in 1636 for £35,730 per annum. But many, like Dick, were badly hit by the crises of the 1640s and 1650s; the Edinburgh money market, as a result, was far less interested in investing in rural property in the second half of the century. Amongst the nobles and lairds involved were the Kerrs, Homes and Maitlands in the Borders; the Erskines and Hamiltons in central Scotland; the Bruces and Wardlaws in Fife; the Sinclairs and Urquharts, as well as the earl of Caithness and the Earl Marischal, north of the Tay; the earl of Eglinton, Lord Herries and the Stewarts in the south-west; and the earl of Morton along with representatives of almost every prominent family in Lothian. North of Tay 14 Fife 13 13 36 10 14 Distribution of Edinburgh burgesses' landed Percentage distribution of Edinburgh burgesses' interest in the seventeenth century landed interest in the seventeenth century, by region 236Transcribers who have contributed to this page.
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Aberdeenshire County, Angus County, Argyll County, Ayrshire County, Banffshire County, Berwickshire County, Buteshire County, Caithness County, Clackmannanshire County, Cromarty County, Dumfriesshire County, Dunbartonshire County, East Lothian County, Fife County, Inverness-shire County, Kincardineshire County, Kinross-shire County, Kirkcudbrightshire County, Lanarkshire County, Midlothian County, Morayshire County, Nairnshire County, Orkney County, Peeblesshire County, Perthshire County, Renfrewshire County, Ross County, Ross And Cromarty County, Roxburghshire County, Selkirkshire County, Shetland County, Stirlingshire County, Sutherland County, West Lothian County, Wigtownshire County