Sc. Law. Obs. exc. Hist. Forms: 5–6 steil-, 6 stele-, 7 steelbow. [f. STEEL sb.1 + BOW3.
It corresponds to the F. cheptel de fer (see Littré), lit. ‘iron farm-stock,’ and to early mod.G. stählin vieh, eisern vieh (in German Law Latin pecora chalybea, ferrea), and obs. Da. jernfæ. These terms denote the quantity of live stock which a farming tenant receives from his landlord on entering, under a contract to restore the same quantity and value at the end of his tenancy. This is precisely the sense of steelbow, exc. that the Sc. term seems to have been extended to apply to dead as well as live stock. The F. cheptel de fer is also used, like steelbow, for the species of tenure or contract under which cattle are so held by a tenant. In early mod.Ger. there were other legal terms containing the adjs. stählin ‘made of steel,’ eisern ‘made of iron,’ in the figurative sense ‘rigidly fixed in amount’: e.g., stähline gült, a fixed regular payment or income: stähline pfründe, a church living subject to no deductions. The figure of speech doubtless comes down from very early Germanic legal formulæ; but evidence is wanting. See Schilter, Glossarium, s.v. Stal; also Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsaltertümer (ed. 4, 1899), II. 131.]
a. A quantity of farming stock, which a tenant received from his landlord on entering, and which he was bound to render up undiminished at the close of his tenancy. Also attrib., as steelbow goods. b. The kind of tenancy or contract by which farming stock is hired on the condition that the tenant renders up on the expiration of his tenancy the same quantity and value that he received; esp. in phrase in steelbow. Also attrib., as steelbow lease, rent, tenant, tenancy.
1434. Exch. Rolls Scot., IV. 596. Pro herbagio 96. vaccarum domini regis, locatarum in steilbow infra domin[i]um de Stewartoun.
1507. Reg. Privy Seal Scot., I. 221/1. His ground and Manys of Dunbar, quhilk the said reverend fader had in tak and stelebow of his hienes.
1532. in Pitcairn’s Crim. Trials, I. 162*. Havand in his possessioune ane hundreth punds worth of gudis, steilbow and ferm of þat ȝere alanerlie except.
1565. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 410. The cornis cattell and gudis being upoun the landis of Baddinhaith, steilbow and utheris.
1566. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 431/1. Prius dicti monast. bonis lie steilbow-gudis occupatas.
1640. in Black Bk. Taymouth (Bannatyne Club), 351. Thair is presentlie on the landis … of steilbow corne, sexteine chalders small aittis; and of steilbow beir, fyve chalders; and of strenth silver and steilbow horss on the forsaids lands [etc.].
1733. in W. R. Mackintosh, Glimpses Kirkwall (1887), 126. And beside there is a steilbow upon the lands of Yairsay of horses, oats, and bear.
1754. Erskine, Princ. Sc. Law, II. vi. (1870), 173. Steel-bow goods, i. e. corns, straw, cattle, or instruments of tillage, delivered by a landlord to the tenant upon his entry.
1805. Forsyth, Beauties Scot., II. 443. The rent was frequently paid in kind, or in what was called half-labour, by the steel-bow tenants, like the metayers of France.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 1321. In such a case the straw and dung are said to be held in steelbow.
1911. A. W. Renton, in Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 104/2. Up to 1848 or 1850 there existed in Scotland ‘Steelbow’ leases … the tenant … paying in addition to the ordinary rent a steelbow rent of 5% on the value of the stock.
Hence Steelbowed pa. pple.
1606. Birnie, Kirk-Buriall, Ded. (1833). For as … Gods Altarmens trauels in his own trueth ought to be steil-bowed.
