Poll Tax returns of 1693 for North Ronaldshay, Orkney, Scotland

This table shows the pollable inhabitants of North Ronaldshay (then spelt "Northranaldsha") as shown in the returns for 1693. It is based on "The Orkney Poll Taxes of the 1690s" by James M. Irvine, published in 2003. Only those under the age of 16 or in receipt of poor aid were exempt from the tax and therefore they are a useful census substitute for this time period. ^[1]

Analysis by surname

The analysis of the people named in the returns is given in the following table. Irvine's study estimates that including minor children and paupers (who were exempt from the tax), the population was around 1.6 x the number listed in the records - in this case around 220.

The origins of these surnames are split between Norse origins and Scottish origins. Norse origins include partonymics such as Swannie, from Swaneson (Swein's son) and Turfisone (Thorfinn's son) whilst Scottish names include distinctive place-derived surnames like Tulloch and Muir.

The islands were initially owned by "odallers", small-holders of Norse origin whose families pre-dated the transfer of the Orkneys to Scotland in 1468. A hundred years later, in 1595, North Ronaldsay was granted as a feudal grant to Margaret Bonar, the first feudal lord. The landholdings became tenant farms, held on a short lease from the proprietor on payment of rents mostly in kind and rights of labour. The surname origins of the tenant farmers recorded another hundred years later, in 1693, indicate that the tenant farmers were descended from a mixed stock of part odal families and part Scottish settlers brought in by the new feudal overlords.

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Purple names shows farms included in 1693; grey names show additional farms by the time of the 1851 census. Click here for full resolution version