As MoR rightly pointed out failure to live up to the obligations in the Feu Charter could result in the occupier being dispossessed and the land reverting to the superior.
This was the case in Scots Law until relatively recently. Indeed I had to deal with just such a case during my own legal career.
Feudal obligations more usually related to the required use of the land, for example as residential property or for the construction and continued operation of a school. These types of conditions have been replaced by conditions in title deeds which could be enforceable by neighbouring proprietors.
The obligation to pay financial dues has recently been abolished. Before that, since the nineteen seventies vassals had the right to buy out the superior's right to claim feuduty by paying a sum which if invested in government stocks would give the Superior the equivalent annual income. Obligations to supply goods to the superior (Casualties) were abolished early in the twentieth century. As far as I know the suggestion that the feudal superior retained an option to have first matrimonial rights with the vassal's new wife is apocryphal.
As MoR has said you could ascertain the circumstances under which the Chisholme lands passed to Drumlanrig by searching for the Feu Charter in the General Register of Sasines in Edinburgh.
Last edited by cessna152towser; 30th July 10 at 08:31 AM.
Regional Director for Scotland for Clan Cunningham International, and a Scottish Armiger.
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