Moot hill explained

A moot hill or mons placiti (statute hill)[1] is a hill or mound historically used as an assembly or meeting place, as a moot hall is a meeting or assembly building, also traditionally to decide local issues. In early medieval Britain, such hills were used for "moots", meetings of local people to settle local business. Among other things, proclamations might be read; decisions might be taken; court cases might be settled at a moot. Although some moot hills were naturally occurring features or had been created long before as burial mounds, others were purpose-built.

Etymology

Although the word moot or mote is of Old English origin, deriving from the verb to meet, it has come to have a wider meaning throughout the United Kingdom; initially referring to any popular gathering.

In England, the word folkmoot in time came to mean a more specific local assembly with recognised legal rights. In Scotland the term is used in the literature for want of any other single accepted term.

The Scottish Gaelic place name "Tom a' Mhòid" translates as "the hill of the court". The Gaelic form has the familiar Gaelic word "mòd" in the context of the annual cultural event, a "gathering", but in this context, one for judgement and possible execution. The term is cognate with the English word "moot".[2]

Siting and purpose

Many moot, "mote" or "mute" hills are known by that name today. Others have local names such as Court Hill, Judges Hill, Justice Hill, Judgement Hill, Mount, Munt, Moat Hill, Tandle, Downan, Bonfire Hill, Cuthill, etc. Many are also associated with names such as Knol, knock, knowe, or law.[3]

Many other names are used for prominent earthworks, depending to some extent on their location within the United Kingdom, and some of them are known to have served as moot hills at some point in their existence. Terms include Tumulus, how, howe, low, tump, cnwc, pen, butt, toot, tot, cop, mount, mound, hill, knoll, mot, moot, knol, motte, and druid hill. Often the names are combined, as in Knockenlaw, Law Mount, etc.

Some hills known today as "moot hills" were actually historically mottes (from an unrelated French word meaning "mound"), the remains of a motte-and-bailey castle. (In this fortification, a wooden or stone keep was built atop a small mound, usually man-made, which was in turn surrounded by a ditch and an outer ward called the "bailey".) In some cases a mound built as a motte may have seen later use as a functioning moot hill.[4]

Moots may have met on existing archaeological mound sites such as tumuli or mottes; others on entirely natural mounds such as the one at Mugdock or natural mounds which were modified for the intended purpose. One common aid to identification is size: most moot hills, in addition to lacking signs of defensive walls and ditches, are smaller than most mottes.[5]

Some known moot hill sites are surrounded by water, such as Mugdock, Mound Wood and Court Hill at the Hill of Beith; others may well have been, such as Hutt Knowe. Such inaccessibility would have required the use of a boat or raised walkway. Wood Mound is clearly man-made and therefore the relationship between these sites and water may have had some functional or religious significance.

Cuthills

These were places of assembly in early medieval times, mostly in northern Scotland. The term (also Couthil or Cuthil) is found as a placename element at over sixty sites and many are associated with medieval shires or thanages. The term does not suggest a hill or mound site, being derived from the Gaelic term 'comhdhail', a place of assembly. Such assemblies were non-seignoral burlaw courts and dealt with minor disputes.[6]

Francis Grose

Francis Grose in 1797 published his 'Antiquities of Scotland', and going from the 1789 date of the numerous engravings this was a little over forty years from the abolition of this aspect of the feudal system. Grose states mote hills, or places for administration of public justice, for considerable districts; and courts hills, whereon the ancient lairds held their baronial courts, before the demolition of the feudal system. These mote and court hills serve to explain the use of these high mounts still remaining near our ancient castles.[7] He goes on to say –

Grose records that the last instance of a Baron Baillie sentencing and carrying out a death sentence in Nithsdale was at Barnside Hill in around 1697. Sir Robert Grierson, Bart was the baron concerned and the victim was a sheep stealer.[8]

Origins

It is known that in Scotland, Brehons or Judges administered justice from 'Court Hills', especially in the highlands, where they were called a tomemoid (from Scots Gaelic tom a' mhòid) – that is, the Court Hillock. In ancient times suitable buildings would rarely have existed and there was usually no alternative other than to use an outdoor gathering place. It is said that Irish colonists brought with them Brehon law, the use of Moot hills and the law of tanistry.[9] Every baron had a moot hill and the chartularies of religious houses record that they too used moot hills for holding courts.[10]

The moot hills' part in the practice of law derives from the introduction of feudalism by the Normans in England or in Scotland by the Scottish kings such as David I 1125–1153 who introduced feudalism and delegated very extensive jurisdiction over large areas of land to men like the Walter the Steward (Renfrew & the northern half of Kyle) or de Morville (Cunningham) and they in turn delegated quite extensive powers to their own vassals. These invitees, largely of Norman, Fleming and Breton origin were, under feudal charter, given significant grants of land, were invited and did not come as conquerors as had been the case in England. There were in certain instances a close connection between the old Celtic thaneages (a hereditary non-military tenant of the crown) and the new feudal baronies.

There was therefore no wholesale displacement of native lords in Scotland. In 1200 all the earls north of Forth and Clyde were still of Celtic descent; and as late as 1286, eight of the earldoms in Scotland were still in the hands of those of native stock. Many native lords were granted or confirmed in their lands in feudal form. Within a few generations, regular intermarriage and the Wars of Independence had removed most of the differences between native and incomer, although not those between Highlander and Lowlander.[11]

Burgh courts were held in the open air, round the market cross, a standing stone, a moot hill or a prominent tree. These courts were held three times a year – the chief court after Pasch (Passover or Easter), the next after Michaelmas, when the magistrates or burgh-reeves were elected, and the third after Yule or Christmas. All burgesses were bound to attend.[12]

Baronies

See main article: Feudal barony. A Barony was an area of land, not always contiguous, granted by the Crown to a Tenant. Baronies became a unit in administration and law, however the actual size was variable and they merged or separated from time to time. The holder or Baron had power to hold courts which dealt with civil and criminal cases of less than major importance. Some crimes were reserved for royal courts, namely murder, rape, robbery with violence, fire raising and treason. To come under the jurisdiction of a baronial court, the crime had to have been committed within the barony or concerned its people or property.[13] [14]

In England a Baron was a peerage title. This was not the case in Scotland. He or she held the land directly from the King or Queen. After 1700 the emphasis was on administration, a good neighbourhood and economic and other rules for the benefit of those living within the Barony. In 1747 the criminal jurisdiction of a Baron Court was much restricted. The Barony was largely a self-governing community, however there was a system of appeals to the Sheriff and the Central Courts.[13]

The term baron had simply meant "man" originally; later the term baron came to imply holding the barony lands immediately of the King. Finally baron came to mean one who held such lands "of the King" with accompanying rights and duties and therefore the word came to mean one who held as 'tenant in chief' of the King's lands erected by Charter 'in free barony'. Sir John Skene in his glossary of Scots legal terms defines it as In this Realme he is called ane Barrone quha haldis his landes immediatlie in chiefe of the King and hes power of pit and gallow.[15] The Barons of Scotland continued to have the right to sit in the Scottish Parliament until 1594.[16]

Baronial courts

Baronies were social units and their courts a form of council which enabled the area of the barony to function effectively as an early form of self-government. In mediaeval law the barony required a principal residence at which the legal process could be formally transacted. Many abandoned castles motes therefore continued in use for this purpose.[17] The baron and the baron baillie, his deputy, and the council, were concerned with such matters as: responsibility for repair to ditches and hedges, assessment of damage caused by cattle found on another's ground, under thirlage laws, the maintenance of the mill race in good order and free from weeds and the mending of the mill dam. Even cases of neighbours using "unreasonable language", and "miscalling one another" were brought before the court. The court might also regulate the rotation of crops and the manuring of the ground. Ecclesiastical courts also existed as shown by the example of the Abbot of Kilwinning's court hill near Beith.[15] [16] Three times a year the baron also had the right to clear his lands of evildoers and men of ill repute.[18]

The feudal Baron appointed the Officers of a Baron Court. Barons therefore had public law executive and judicial authority over the public affairs of that Barony. The officers were:

By the Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 the powers of life and death were removed from the Baron Court and the criminal jurisdiction was very significantly reduced but not entirely abolished. The hereditary jurisdictions of Regality Courts and of the Sheriff Courts were abolished and the owners received significant sums in compensation.[15] It can be stated therefore that most moot and gallow hills ceased to have a role in the judicial process at that time.

The Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000 removed all the remaining aspects of the feudal baronial system, apart from the baronial titles themselves. The entire system whereby land was held by a vassal on perpetual tenure from a superior, was, on this appointed day, abolished.[15] [16]

Pit and gallows

It was enacted at the parliament assembled in Forfar in 1057 by King Malcolm Canmore that every baron should erect a gibbet (gallows) for the execution of male criminals, and sink a well or pit, for the drowning of females.[20] The term pit and gallows described the jurisdiction of a baron in criminal cases; in full 'pit and gallows, sake and soke, thane, bluidewite, toll, team, infangthieff and outfangthieff'.[21] 'Sock' was the power to hold courts; 'sack' was the right to enforce fines; 'thane' was the right to possess and dispose of slaves; 'bluidewite' allowed for cases of bloodshed being tried; 'infangthieff' and 'outfangthieff' referred to the punishment of thieves from inside the barony and from other baronies.[22]

Some historians claimed[23] that a pit was a dungeon or prison cell, not a pit for drowning the condemned. Others take the view that the pit was the drowning pit for women.[13] It is not clear why men were more likely to be hanged and women drowned in a fen, river, pit or 'murder hole'; however, it may relate to ideas of decency. The place name 'Muttonhole' is not infrequently found, and one suggestion is that it is derived from 'mort-toun-hole', another of the names for a drowning pit.[24] [25] At Cumnock in East Ayrshire, women were placed in a sack and the mouth was tied;[26] in other cases the condemned had to walk down a ladder that was then withdrawn. Many moot hills are near rivers or wetlands. It was often the case that barony courts were not keen on imposing death sentences due to the expense of carrying out the sentence and banishment was a cheaper option.[22]

In Norse law, the reason was that men were sent to Wodan, and women were given to Ran (a sea goddess) or Hel. In Norse tradition, the pit and gallows stood on the west of the moot-places or the prince's hall ready for use.[27]

The binomial expressions 'furca and fossa' and 'pit and gallows' refer to the high justice including the capital penalty. The furca was a device of punishment in ancient Rome and refers to the gallows for hanging men; the fossa was a pit for the drowning of women. As previously stated, the hereditary right of high justice survived until 1747, when it was removed from the barons and from the holders of regalities and sheriffdoms, by the Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746.[15]

It is not clear that the moot hill was also the actual site of executions; folklore, tradition and the association of separate 'gallow' places names with moot hills on balance suggests that the usual place of execution was a separate 'gallows hill'. At Gardyne Law (Gardyne Castle's moot hill), however, an eyewitness recalled that judgement and execution took place on the same law. It does seems unlikely that in those superstitious days, meetings would be held at places of death. At Mugdock, separate moot and gallow hills are a good example. Such gallows may have been built of worked timber or a Dule Tree may have been used.[28] RCAHMS records show that human bones have been frequently found in association with 'gallows' place name sites, but not at 'moot' sites. The term 'murder hole' may relate to the drowning sites, bones have been found close to some of these.[29]

The standard of justice

An Ayrshire story tells of how an Ayrshire baron once strung up an innocent man, just because his visitor had never seen a man hanged before.[28] Hopefully this was an isolated example, however the system suffered from many faults due to bias, lack of legal training, etc., etc. As stated, a right of appeal to Regalities and sheriffdoms courts did exist.[16] Details of the sometimes shocking excesses of baron bailies can make painful reading. As their power was great and generally abused, so many of them enriched themselves. They had many ways of making money for themselves, such as (1) the bailie's darak, as it was called, or a day's labour in the year from every tenant on the estate; (2) confiscations, as they generally seized on all the goods and effects of such as suffered capitally; (3) all fines for killing game, blackfish, or cutting green wood were laid on by themselves, and went into their own pockets. These fines amounted to what they pleased almost. (4) Another very lucrative perquisite they had was what was called the Herial Horse, which was the best horse, cow, ox, or other article which any tenant on the estate possessed at the time of his death. This was taken from the widow and children for the bailie, at the time they had most need of assistance. This amounted to a great deal of extra income for the baillie of a large barony.[30]

Summoning people to the moot

At times it would be necessary to summon people to come to the mote for judgement, proclamations, gatherings, etc. This was sometimes done by ringing a bell, which was fitted upon or beside the moot hill, especially when a date for the meeting had not been previously set.[31] At Greenhills near Barrmill in North Ayrshire a different method is said to have been employed, namely that of raising a flag at the Bore stone; a prominent site near the moot hill. It is likely that bonfires would have been lit as a signal, either from the smoke during the day or the light at night. A 'Bonfire hill' place name survives at Stewarton in East Ayrshire and a 'Bonfire knowe' is recorded at Kilmarnock.[32] The Tarbolton moot was still used for lighting bonfires up until the 19th-century at least and the name Shinny Hill is suggestive of traditional bonfires; a 'Shinicle' being a halloween bonfire.

Links with the land

The significance of direct links with the land is shown by the standing on 'home' soil at the Scone moot, the use of soil from each parish in the building of the Tynwald Hill and the discovery of soil from several distant locations at the centre of Silbury Hill.[33] This practice may link with beliefs that lay behind the ceremonies at the petrosomatoglyph footprints on Dunadd and at other sites.

In the 15th century the Tinwald Mote near Dumfries was still the legal head of the barony, where sasine (possession) was given by the ceremony of handing the grantee, before witnesses, a handful of earth and stone from the head messuage called the Mote near the church of Tynwald.[34] In mediaeval law the barony required a principal residence at which the legal process could be formally transacted, which explains why many such motes as that at Ellon were retained, here by the earls of Buchan, when little else remained of their possessions in the district. The mote still carried the dignity of the earldom.[35]

The sasine is the legal act of register of land ownership, pronounced sayseen. In the context of the significance of the physical aspect of soil and stone, the act of conferring sasine was originally (for example in 1615[36]) effected by the handing over of a bowl full of earth from the land and / or a stone of the house by the proprietor or seller to his heir or the buyer, who was then said to be seized of the land or house.[37] Likewise the land rent payable was symbolised by the passing of a bowl of grass and the tithe as a bowl full of grain.[36] [38] The act of homage for holding a fief also involved the act of investiture. enacted by the delivering of a turf or a handful of earth to the individual to whom the land was being granted.[39]

The demise of moot hills

In Scotland feudalism and its bonds of allegiance to the local laird was associated with the Jacobite risings with the result that the Hanoverian Government took steps to undermine the system. After 1747 the moot hill was not used as a part of the baronial court process and the requirement for a gathering place for soldiers was also a thing of the past. The construction of Moot halls did away with the need to meet in the outdoors. Moot hills gradually ceased to have any significant role and many have suffered the final ignomy of being ploughed out and their existence almost or actually forgotten. Place names and local folklore have preserved the memory of a few, however records suggest that the majority have been destroyed. A few moot hills ended up with unlikely secondary uses, such as Knockenlaw, which was used as the 'blast wall' for a gunpowder magazine and Chapel Hill which was used as a viewing point for watching horse racing.

A few, notably the Tynwald Hill in the Isle of Man, continue to have a function in the 21st century. Some were built on and took on a new role, such as the moot hill at Riccarton near Kilmarnock, which had a kirk (church) built on it in 1823.

Locating old moot hills

Many barony lands were merged with other baronies at one time or other and therefore some of the associated moot hills would have ceased to have a role well before the demise of the baronial courts in 1747. Moot hills in this category may have remained as features of the landscape, but often without any local traditions relating to them being recorded. Place names are a guide, especially if local traditions have survived as well. Written records often survive, such as in 1346 a William Baillie, the Baillie of Lambistoun or Lambimtoun, vulgarly called Lamington is listed by Dalrymple[40] amongst the prisoners taken by the English at the Battle of Durham which had taken place on 17 October of that year. He was in the company of a Thomas Boyd of Kilmarnock and Andrew Campbell of Loudoun. This helps to confirm that modern day Lambroughton was a barony. Pre-reformation and other old gravestones often recorded the occupation of the individual, especially if they had held important roles such a baron baillie.

A list of moot hills, gallows hills, murder holes, their associated baronies and other details

Records of these sites have often been lost & therefore the barony and other associations have only been made where the evidence is credible, backed up by written records, place names or by oral folklore.

Scotland

Aberdeenshire

Angus

Argyll and Bute

Ayrshire (East)

Ayrshire (North)

Ayrshire (South)

Some Ayrshire moot hills

Borders

Carrick

Smith states that there were no moot hills in Carrick.[91]

Dumfries and Galloway

East Dunbartonshire

Fife

Glasgow

Highland

Inverclyde

Moray

Perth and Kinross

East Renfrewshire

Renfrewshire

Ross and Cromarty

Stirling

England

Buckinghamshire

Cumbria

Northumberland

Nottinghamshire

Wiltshire

Yorkshire

Isle of Man

See also

External links

Notes and References

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  3. Love, Dane (2009). Legendary Ayrshire. Custom: Folklore: Tradition. Auchinleck: Carn Publishing. . pp. 91–100
  4. Strawhorn, John (1994). The History of Irvine. Edinburgh: John Donald. . p. 31.
  5. Web site: The Early Medieval Landscape of Struan. www.electricscotland.com. 21 January 2022. 18 April 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210418234204/https://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/dtog/donnachaidh/article9.htm. live.
  6. Web site: Baronies & Regalities. Accessed: 2009/12/03 . 2 December 2009 . 5 October 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111005111229/http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/633/1/Grant_Franchises.pdf . live .
  7. Grose, Francis (1797). The Antiquities of Scotland. High Holborn: Hooper and Wigstead. p. iv.
  8. Grose, Francis (1797). The Antiquities of Scotland. High Holborn: Hooper and Wigstead. p. 154.
  9. [Wikibooks:A Researcher's Guide to Local History Terminology|A Researcher's Guide to Local History terminology]
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