“the revenues of the property are carried out of the county and appropriated to purposes wholly unconnected with Orkney.” – Orkney Commissioners of Supply, 1853.
A Taxing Problem.
Part 1 of this series covered the publishing of an account of the grievances of the Orkney Commissioners of Supply in a ‘Memorial’ which was sent to the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasurer. They based this on their assessment of the present situation and the historical background.
The Commissioners of Supply were certainly not a bunch of radicals, but the most powerful landowning men in Orkney who were aggrieved at the amount of tax, sometimes double, that they were paying into the UK Treasury, with no benefit to the islands.
The Historical Account Provided by the Orkney Commissioners of Supply.
The published Memorial sent to the UK Treasury outlined the historical context with which the Orkney landowners were basing their claims and are recorded as follows with added information to explain how the land tax system had evolved since the Treaty of Union in 1707.
When Orkney was under the rule of Denmark and of Norway it paid a heavy Scat of Land Tax to the Danish King.
The Scat was payable to the Scottish King from 1468 (In 1468 Orkney and Shetland was pledged by Christian I, in his capacity as King of Norway, as security against the payment of the dowry of his daughter Margaret, betrothed to James III of Scotland. However, the money was never paid, and Orkney was absorbed by the Kingdom of Scotland in 1472.) After the Union of Parliaments it was payable to British sovereigns and their donatories, (1707).
In 1653, Scotland revalued and revised all its land tax. In Orkney the Norwegian Scat (land tax) continued to be levied. Orkney was paying both of these taxes.
Land Tax rolls (often called cess rolls or valuation rolls) were compiled by the Commissioners of Supply in each county to enable the collection of the Land Tax from 1667 onwards. Poll taxes were imposed in the 1690s to pay off the debts due to the country and arrears of the Army and Navy. – Scotland’s People.
Norwegian Scat was payable in kind, products such as grain, butter, etc. They were measured using Norwegian weights which over time had risen from what would have been 8 ounces to almost 20 ounces in Orkney.
A Private Act of King George II in the now United Kingdom Parliament authorised and sanctioned the sale of two thirds of the Norwegian Scat of Orkney and Zetland (Shetland) payable to the Earl of Morton.
Dissolving and disannexing from the Crown and its patrimony the Earldom of Orkney and Lordship of Zetland and vesting them irredeemably in James Earl of Morton and his heirs, discharged from any right or power of redemption in his Majesty, heirs or successors.
The Earl of Morton paid the Crown £50 per annum for this source of income. You can read more about the selling off of Orkney in, When Orkney was Bartered for the Treaty of Union, and the exploits of the previous Earl of Morton.
Morton then sold the rights to the Scat to Sir Lawrence Dundas, however, the Crown continued to receive its share, £50 per annum – this amounted to 1/3 of the Scat from the Bishopric with Dundas keeping 2/3.
In 1825 the Crown (Board of Woods and Forests) took back management of its lands in Orkney.
In Scotland the Teinds had been valued by law after there had been a lot of legal cases contesting it. It was felt by the Commissioners of Supply in Orkney that the new valuation was too much. The Heritors were having to pay this.
The situation in England, Scotland, and in Orkney was all very different when it came to land. In 1690 the Episcopacy was abolished in Scotland. As a consequence the land and estates of the Bishops of Orkney was annexed to The Crown. The Commissioners of Supply claimed that at the time it was ‘expressly understood’ that payments to support the clergy in the islands would continue as before. It was now the case, they said, that since the start of the 19th century the burden of supporting the clergy was falling on the Heritors – that’s themselves.
The Orkney Commissioners cited as evidence of how the islands were being short changed by the Government in London and by the Crown – a Royal Warrant to the Barons of Exchequer in Scotland by King George IV in 1825 which stated that the rents and duties collected by the Crown should go to the improvement of the “Crown Property and of the County of Orkney, by assisting in making roads, building of bridges, and by the establishment of fishing villages and schools.”
This was not happening.
The Law in Scotland and England was different. In England, all Crown property, however acquired, was exempt from taxation. In 1790 King George III had revoked his claim to income from Crown Estates in England in return for being funded through the Civil List. In Scotland the Crown retained the incomes from its lands until 1830. Before 1837 the Commissioners of Supply were to collect the land tax from the Bishopric Estate.
In Orkney the Advocate General (Lord Advocate) took out an action against the Commissioners of Supply, for arrears in the period 1835 -36 – and won. The Heritors paid up with the exception of the Crown Officers of the Board of Woods (The Bishopric Estate). Faced with legal action The Orkney Commissioners paid the debts owed by the Crown Officers. The Commissioners had further grievances with the Crown Officers who were not paying their share of poor rates and prison upkeep. They were also not paying for building and repairing churches and manses. This was a considerable sum because the Bishopric Estates made up about one eighth of the valuation of Orkney.
“and the revenues of the property are carried out of the county and appropriated to purposes wholly unconnected with Orkney.”
The Orkney Commissioners had further complaints that the system of funding roads and bridges for the north of Scotland through a Parliamentary grant, excluded Orkney.
They were worried that Orkney had no defences against foreign invasion or if there was considerable unrest with the civilian population in the islands. Remember these are men of considerable wealth and lands which they had been enclosing leading to many evictions.
“there is not a single man of war, or guardship, or a deputy lieutenant, or one soldier, or even a police constable, stationed within the country; the islands are totally defenceless. “
This had not always been the case. During the wars with France earlier on in the century soldiers had been stationed in Orkney and there was increased coastal defences with the building of Martello Towers. Some of the Commissioners would also have in mind the fear during the American War of Independence for attacks on shipping.
Communication then, as now, was vital for all aspects of island life. Post was carried by open boat across the Pentland Firth. The Commissioners used the opportunity presented in their list of grievances to lobby for a mail steamer.
To summarise their demands:
- The double Land Tax abolished, or remit the Scats paid to the Board of Woods.
- The annual quit rent paid by Lord Zetland to the Crown (£500) to be applied to improvements in Orkney.
- All arrears etc due by the Bishopric property of Orkney to be paid.
- A grant of £6,000 [worth about £482,000 today ] out of the price of the Crown Lands sold in Orkney this year to be used for making roads, building small bridges, forming small harbours, erecting piers, and for establishing schools.
- To put the islands on a proper state of defence. Establishing the Police and the Postal service.
Their demands were intended to put Orkney on an equal footing with rUK.
“the proceeds and rents of the Bishopric property should be applied in the manner and for the purposes and uses for which they were originally destined, and to which, until a comparatively late period, they had always been applied.”
Did they succeed in all their demands? Find out what happens next in Part 3.
Reference: Memorial of the Commissioners of Supply 1853, Orkney Room, Orkney Archive, 323Y.
Fiona Grahame