WATT, John in Easter Glentore, New Monkland ¹

   User ID: C707.

  General Notes:

"Watt
John
12/8/1670
portioner of Easter Glentore, parish of New Monkland
TT
Hamilton & Campsie Commissary Court
CC10/5/8"

from Wills and Testaments ¹

  Research Notes:

PORTIONER

The definition given of "portioner" in the Glossary of Records of the Parliaments of Scotland till 1707 is:

"Sc. Law. The proprietor of a small estate or piece of land resulting from the division of an original forty merkland among co-heirs or otherwise, a small land-owner."

The land might have been bought, inherited, or acquired through marriage. Since legally men had authority over women, any land owned by women was usually controlled by her father, brother or husband. Married women had few property rights, usually having to depend on a spouse's permission to initiate any legal activity.

It should be remembered that the owning of land was within the feudal system. The owner held the land from a superior, for a fee in cash or kind, and the ultimate superior was the Crown.

The alternatives to owning small pieces of land were usually: to be a tenant farmer, where a piece of land was leased to one or more individuals for a rent usually contracted over a stipulated period of time; or to be a farm servant or day labourer, working for wages from the owner or lessor of land. ^{2 3}

John married Lybra HOWIE, daughter of Johne HOWIE and Katrein.¹ (Lybra HOWIE was baptised on 6 July 1623 in Kilsyth parish, Stirlingshire, Scotland ^{4 5} and died before 9 August 1665 ¹.)

  Marriage Notes:

"Howie
Lybra
9/8/1665
spouse to John Watt in Easter Glentoir, parish of Monkland
TD
Hamilton & Campsie Commissary Court
CC10/5/7"

from Wills and Testaments ¹