Working on the margins: Freemen, unfreemen and stallangers in early modern Scotland

Crucial to understanding the hierarchy seen in early modern Scottish society is the phenomenon of ‘corporatism’, where the privileges of a group were prioritised over the rights of the individual. In clanship, religion and commerce, a select few enjoyed benefits, while the great majority were excluded. In this corporate context, the right to work was heavily regulated, and many forms of work required membership of a privileged group. In larger towns if one wanted to make shoes, one first had to purchase burgesship and join the cordiners’ incorporation. To trade abroad, one first had to join the merchants’ guild. Vestiges of this system even operated in some rural areas, as with the Tailors’ Incorporation which covered the entire parish of Tranent, or the Chapmen’s Court of Fife. Traditional forms of domestic production, such as brewing or candlemaking, also came under corporate rules in places. Edinburgh’s women had to stop making beer or candles for commercial gain when men gained legal rights through the Society of Brewers and the Incorporation of Candlemakers. While much has been written about the privileged crafts and guilds, or the illegal work of the unfree, less attention has been paid to tolerated workers who operated on the margins. This chapter will focus on such marginal workers, looking not at the privileged few, or the excluded majority, but instead at those in between who contributed labour, provisions and repairs.