Sc. Law. Forms: 5–8 few, 6– feu. [a. OF. feu, fieu, fiu; see the variant FEE sb.2]
1. = FEE sb.2 1; also, a tract of land held in fee. (Used by modern Scottish jurists indiscriminately with fee as a rendering of med.L. feudum.)
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., Table, s. v., Gif the vassall committis ane trespas aganis his overlord: he tines his few halden of him. lib. 2. c. 63, 4. [The word is not in the text, which renders feudum by ‘lands.’]
1754. Erskine, Princ. Sc. Law (1809), 136. Allodial goods are opposed to feus; by which are understood, goods enjoyed by the owner, independent of a superior.
a. 1768—Instit. Sc. Law (1773) I. 209. When mention is made of a feu or subfeu, we are not necessarily to understand a grant of lands holden in feu-farm, but a feudal grant in general … unless where the subject treated of naturally confines it to a feu-holding.
2. A feudal tenure of land in which the vassal, in place of military service, makes a return of grain or money (opposed to WARD or military holding and BLANCH or holding at a nominal rent); a grant of lands on these conditions; in mod. use, a perpetual lease for a fixed rent (= FEU-FARM). Phrases: In, upon feu: subject to such payments or performance of duties; also to hold feu, set into feu.
1497. Ld. Treas. Accts. Scot., I. 315. I resauit fra the Lard of Teling, schireff deput of Forfar, of the releif of few and blanchferme of the entre of Johne Lord Glammys, thretj thre lib. x s. viij d.
1535. Lyndesay, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, 2685.
| Set into few ȝour temporall lands | |
| To men that labours with thair hands. |
1570. Satir. Poems Reform., xxiii. 30.
| Thocht thair was sum that tuik thy rowmis in few, | |
| Ȝit he to the gat thame, as is maist cleir, | |
| To preif he was to the ane Maister trew. |
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5866/3. A small Part holding Few of the Earl of Strathmore.
1759. Robertson, Hist. Scot. (1817), II. III. 73–4. By granting feus and perpetual leases of lands and tithes, gave, to the utmost of their power, some colour of legal possession to what was formerly mere usurpation.
1826. Scott, Provinc. Antiq., II. 110. At the time of King David’s grant, the common was waste and forest land; and the imprudence of the magistrates was afterwards induced to obtain a grant for disposing of it, in feu, for such sums as they could obtain.
1892. Gladstone, in Daily News, 25 March, 3/4. To hold land upon feu from the landlord.
b. A piece of land held ‘in feu’; a holding.
1791. T. Newte, Tour Eng. & Scot., 375. A small piece, or feu of ground in Fifeshire.
1820. Scott, Monast., i. The vassals of the church, on the other hand, were only liable to be called to arms on general occasions, and at other times were permitted in comparative quiet to possess their farms and feus.
1864. A. M‘Kay, The History of Kilmarnock, 313. On the other side some feus were unoccupied.
3. attrib. and Comb.; simple attrib., as feu-grant, -parchment, -rent, -system; special comb., as feu-annual (see quot. 1710), hence -annualer; feu-charter = next; feu-contract, the contract regulating the giving out of land in feu, between the superior and vassal; feu-duty, the annual rent paid by a vassal to his superior for tenure of lands; feu-holding, a tenure of lands in feu; feu-right, the right of holding land, etc.) in feu.
1597. Skene, De Verb. Sign., s. v. Annuell, In the Actes of Parliament maid be Queene Marie 4 Parlia. 29. Maij c. 10 mention is maid of ground annuell, *few annuell and top annuell, quhairof I … am incertaine quhat they do signifie.
1710. J. Dundas, View Feud. Law, Gloss., 127. Few-annuals, that which is due by the Reddendo of the Property of the Ground, before the House was built within Burgh.
1551. Sc. Acts Q. Mary (1597) § 10. 134 b. The *few annuellaris.
a. 1768. Erskine, Instit. Sc. Law (1773) I. 207. The word *feu-charter is never made use of but to denote the special tenure by feu-farm.
1832. Austin, Jurispr. (1879), II. lii. 879, note. The *feu-contract is in the nature of a perpetual lease, and is in Scotland the usual mode of letting ground for building purposes.
1597. Sc. Acts Jas. VI., § 246. Incase it sal happen in time cumming ony vassall or fewar … to failzie in making of payment of his *few dewtie to our Soverain Lords Comptroller.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xvi. (1857), 356. Paying a large arrear of feu-duty to that venerable corporation.
a. 1768. Erskine, Instit. Sc. Law (1773), I. 222. The vassal’s loss of his *feu-grant.
1748. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit., IV. 39. The tenure of Wardholding in Scotland is taken away, and converted into Blanch and *Feu-holdings.
1873. Burton, Hist. Scot., V. lxiv. 444. Some of the beneficial interests thus conveyed were mere leases, others were feu-holdings.
1825. Scott, Fam. Lett., 12 Oct. (1894), II. xxiii. 353. He was a grim old Antiquary of the real Scottish cast, all *feu-parchment, snuff, and an occasional deep glass of whisky toddy.
1856. Miss Mulock, Noble Life, xv. 267. Acre after acre of moorland disappeared, and became houses, gardens, greenhouses; the *feu-rents of which made the estate of Cairnforth more valuable every year.
1774. Petit., in A. M‘Kay, The History of Kilmarnock (1880), App. iii. 305. The reddendo of this *feu-right is £7 Scots yearly.
1891. Labour Commission, Gloss. The *feu system is a custom (in use in Scotland) under which a piece of land is purchased by a perpetual yearly payment.
