feuing conditions query

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

The dictionary definition is spot on, and clearly explains the relationship that exisited between the superior and and the feuar. However, what is missing is the charter (or in more modern terms the contract) that would have existed between the land "occupier" and his feudal superior. Usually this charter spelled out the financial, and sometimes personal, obligation that had to be met in order for the feuar to retain possession of the land. Failure to live up to this obligation could result in the occupier being dispossessed and the land reverting to the superior.

Looking at the facts as you have presented them (without the embellishments) it looks as if two events occurred that caused the loss of the estates-- being on the wrong side in 1648, and owing Drumlanrig a tidy sum of money. Precisely how the money actually came to be owed will probably never be known. It could have been as simple a situation as running up debts because of living well above one's means-- something a great many Scottish chiefs succumbed to. Or, it could have been borrowed to pay a fine and thus avoid a lengthy prison sentence for having been on the wrong side in 1648.

What I suspect may have happened is that the Chisholm Estates were forfeited and then purchased by Drumlanrig, with an embellished "Sir Walter Scott" version of the events added, perhaps, sometime in the 19th century.

Since land transactions were recorded in the Sassines, I'd suggest that a quick look there would perhaps shed a bit more light on the subject.