Heritor

A heritor was a privileged person in a parish in Scots law. In its original acceptation, it signified the proprietor of an heritable subject, but, in the law relating to parish government, the term was confined to such proprietors of lands or houses as were liable, as written in their title deeds, for the payment of public burdens, such as the minister's stipend, manse and glebe assessments, schoolmaster's salary, poor rates, rogue-money (for preventing crime) as well as road and bridge assessments, and others like public and county burdens or, more generally, cess, a land tax. A liferenter might be liable to cess and so be entitled to vote as an Heritor in the appointment of the minister, schoolmaster, etc. The occasional female landholder so liable was known as an heritrix.

In Scotland the term heritor was used to denote the feudal landholders of a parish until the early 20th century. For example, in the early 20th century the heritors of the Highland Parish of Crathie and Braemar were the estates of Mar Lodge, Invercauld, Balmoral, and Abergeldie.

Historically - land-holding in Scotland is feudal in nature, meaning that all land is technically "owned" by the Crown, which, centuries ago, gave it out - feued it - to various tenants-in-chief in return for specified services or obligations. These obligations became largely financial in time, or ceremonial or at least notional. Similarly, these tenants-in-chief gave parcels of land out to lesser "owners", and the resulting reciprocal obligations too became financial -feudal dues - or notional. Often, though, conditions were imposed by the feudal superior at the time of the transaction - used in the 19th century as a form of planning control. (Most financial obligations were abolished in Scotland in 1974).

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