Cotter, cottier, cottar, or is a term for a

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

farmer. Cotters occupied

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...

s and cultivated small

land lot In real estate, a land lot or plot of land is a tract or parcel of land owned or meant to be owned by some owner(s). A plot is essentially considered a parcel of real property in some countries or immovable property (meaning practically the sam ...

s. A cottar or cottier is also a term for a tenant who was renting land from a farmer or

landlord A landlord is the owner of property such as a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate that is rented or leased to an individual or business, known as a tenant (also called a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). The term landlord appli ...

England

The word ''cotter'' is often employed to translate the recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

, a

social class A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class and the Bourgeoisie, capitalist class. Membership of a social class can for exam ...

whose exact status has been the subject of some discussion among historians, and is still a matter of doubt. According to Domesday, the were comparatively few, numbering fewer than seven thousand people. They were scattered unevenly throughout England, located principally in the counties of

Southern England Southern England, also known as the South of England or the South, is a sub-national part of England. Officially, it is made up of the southern, south-western and part of the eastern parts of England, consisting of the statistical regions of ...

. They either cultivated a small plot of land or worked on the holdings of the . Like the , among whom they were frequently classed, their economic condition may be described as free in relation to everyone except their

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...

Scotland

Cottars were between a third and a half of the rural population of the

Scottish Lowlands The Lowlands ( or , ; , ) is a cultural and historical region of Scotland. The region is characterised by its relatively flat or gently rolling terrain as opposed to the mountainous landscapes of the Scottish Highlands. This area includes ci ...

for the 17th and most of the 18th century. They held small amounts of land from lease-holding farming tenants of the traditional fermetouns. They provided labour, especially at the peak times of

plough A plough or ( US) plow (both pronounced ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden ...

ing and

harvest Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...

, in lieu of monetary rent. Many were also engaged in trades, such as

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

, or

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

ing. The agricultural improvement that transformed the rural economy of the Lowlands in the 18th century, created larger farms with fewer tenants. From the 1770s onwards, this left no place for the cottar: many migrated to the nearby developing industrial towns, others became farm servants or day labourers for the new larger farms. Highland Cottars (including on the islands, such as Mull) were affected by the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

. Landowners realized that they could make more money from sheep, whose

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

was spun and processed into textiles for export, than crops. The landowners raised rents to unaffordable prices or evicted entire villages in what became known as the

Highland Clearances The Highland Clearances ( , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulted from Scottish Agricultural R ...

. This resulted in the mass exodus of peasants and cotters, leading to an influx of former cotters into industrial centres, such as a burgeoning

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. Cottars were often idealised in Scottish pastoral poetry of the 18th century, such as " The Cotter's Saturday Night" by

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

and "The Farmer's Ingle" by Robert Fergusson.

Germany

A ''Kö(t)ter'', ''Köt(h)ner'', ''Kätner'', singular and plural forms are identical, or ''Kotsasse''(n l., and especially in

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

and Mecklenburg also ''Kossat(h)e''(n l., (sg./pl.) or ''Kossäte''(n l., was a villager in medieval Europe who lived in a simple dwelling known as a '' Kate''(n l. or '' Kotten'' (sg./pl.) ("cottage"). The term ''Kötter'' is recorded in Germany from the 14th century. The term ''Kossäte'' is derived from

Low German Low German is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language variety, language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide. "Low" ...

and translates "who sits in a cottage".Werner Buchholz, ''Pommern'', Siedler, 1999, pp.66-70, Joachim Herrmann, ''Die Slawen in Deutschland'', Akademie-Verlag Berlin, 1985, pp.421ff Cotter houses (''Kate'' or ''Kotten'') were detached houses near German villages, used as homes and workshops. Many of these ''Kotten''/Cotter houses still remain. The farmsteads of ' were generally sited on the edge of a village or were sub-divisions of an old farm. Because the return on their land was frequently insufficient to sustain their livelihood, they usually supplemented their income with a craft or trade, or by working as day labourers (''Tagelöhner'') on bigger farms or at manor houses. They usually had a plot of land between an eighth and a half an

oxgang An oxgang or bovate (; ; ; ) is an old land measurement formerly used in Scotland and England as early as the 16th century sometimes referred to as an oxgait. It averaged around 20 English acres, but was based on land fertility and cultivation, a ...

(''Hufe''); they had few cattle and no more than one horse. In most cases, the cottage or ''Kate'' had a small vegetable garden that also provided a secondary source of income. Most ''Kätner'' had another main occupation. They were e. g. teachers, craftsmen or, if their land was sufficient, farmers. Their land was beyond the fields (''Flur'') allocated to the full-time farmers or '' Hufnern''. The ''Kötter'' usually had a small share in the

common land Common land is collective land (sometimes only open to those whose nation governs the land) in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

. In the social agricultural hierarchy a ''Kötter'' ranked below the full-time farmer or ''Vollbauer'', but above the ''Büdner'', who just owned a house and garden and earned his living as a tradesman, and above the various categories of day labourer (the ''Inste'' and the ''Tagelöhner''). Around the middle of the 15th century, encouraged by a form of

primogeniture Primogeniture () is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn Legitimacy (family law), legitimate child to inheritance, inherit all or most of their parent's estate (law), estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some childre ...

known as the ''Anerbenrecht'' and by the rapid population growth, the ''Kötter'' were divided into ''Erbkötter'' and ''Markkötter''. The former, who normally arose as a result of the division of land, always had a house and garden within the village, or within a farming community, something which was considered essential for reasons of protection and mutual assistance. Now, land that could be farmed, no matter how poor, was cleared elsewhere in the parish; often miles away from the village or nearest settlement, and in its middle, a so-called ''Markkotten'' was built which was allocated to the ''Markkötter'' where he had to live. The ''Markkötter'' was not really given an inheritance proper and he ranked below the ''Erbkötter''. Unlike the heirs or old farmers (''Altbauern''), none of this group inherited the family farm. Both groups of ''Kötter'' - the ''Erbkötter'' and ''Markkötter'' - were still higher in the social hierarchy than the ''Heuerling'', who were, legally and economically, more dependent on the owners of their cottages.

Poland

The Polish equivalent of the cotter (at least to the 19th century) was the '' Pachciarz krów''. The term translates as "Cow tenant". One of the functions of the Pachciarz krów was to supply the landowner with milk and other bovine produce.

Ireland

One definition of cottier in Ireland (c. 1700–1850) was a person who rented a simple cabin and between one and one and a half acres of land upon which to grow potatoes, oats, and possibly flax. The ground was held on a year-to-year basis and rent was often paid in labour. Usually, the land available to the cottier class was land that the owners considered unprofitable for any other use. The cottier existed at subsistence level because of high rents and the competition for land and labour. The more prosperous cottier worked for his landlord and received cash after rent and other expenses were deducted. There was no incentive to improve a land holding, as any such improvement usually prompted a rent increase. During the early decades of the nineteenth century, the situation for cottiers worsened considerably as the population continued to expand. This way of life was brought abruptly to a close by the effects of the potato blight, which resulted in death by starvation and disease of many peasants, with consequent depopulation, of the Great Famine of 1845–49. After the Famine, the cottier class almost completely disappeared.''A Dictionary of Irish History,'' D.J.Hickey & J.E.Doherty, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1980. Pp. 98-99.

Explanatory notes

References

External links

Entry KOTHSASZ,KOTSASZ in Grimm's ''Deutsches Wörterbuch''KÖTER,KÖTHER,KÖTTER
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928004320/http://www.woerterbuchnetz.de/woerterbuecher/dwb/wbgui?lemid=GK11619 , date=28 September 2007 , in: ''Deutsches Wörterbuch'' by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1854-1960

1770s disestablishments in Scotland 1849 disestablishments in Ireland Agriculture in Europe Feudalism in Scotland German feudalism German words and phrases History of agriculture History of the Scottish Highlands Peasants Scottish words and phrases Social class in Germany Social class in Ireland Social class in Poland Social class in the United Kingdom Social history of Scotland