Pontage Keeper

[marypryde]

I think I'm seeing a pattern where there may be none.

Fact 1: William Pryde b. 1859, Scoonie, Fife in "Pontage Keeper's House." Father's occupation "Pontage Keeper." (SP birth reg.)

Fact 2: Isabella Pryde (his older sister) b. 1857/8 at "Teuchat's Toll, Ceres, Fife." No occupation given for (same) father. (Ancestry)

I can't find any good references for the occupation "pontage keeper" except in the 14th Century.

I'm trying to force a conclusion that my 2/great-grandfather would have been a kind of toll collector at both places. Would that have been a political appointment? He wound up a coal miner in Largo, Fife by 1861. However, his father was a "feuar," so perhaps there was some family social/political standing that was lost along the way.

All feedback will be gratefully accepted.

Mary Ellen

[AndrewP]

Hi Mary Ellen,

Pontage was a toll fee paid for crossing a bridge to fund its upkeep, so it sounds like he collected the toll fees. As you have assumed, the address at Teuchat's Toll suggests that they lived in the toll-collector's cottage. Teuchat is a Scots word for a lapwing.

I don't think the toll collectors were appointed from any government or council. My understanding is that the tolls were levied by the landowner whose ground the road crossed.

All the best,

AndrewP

[paddyscar]

Hi Marilyn:

These may be of some help.

http://www.scan.org.uk/researchrtools/glossary_f.htm

fee or feu or feuar
one of the four conditions, or tenures, on which lands could be granted by charter. In this case, the superior received (usually annually) a return ('feu duty') in agricultural produce or money, rather than military service. The 'fee' or 'feu' was also the name of the piece of property so conveyed, and the 'feuar' the vassal who held the property by feu tenure.

http://www.dsl.ac.uk/

DSL - DOST Pontage, n. [Late ME and e.m.E. pountage (c 1450), pontage, AF pontage (1292), OF (1401 in Godef.), med. L. pontaticum (Du Cange), (Eng.) pontagium (a 1130), f. L. pons, pont- a bridge.] Pontage, bridge-toll. --- [Liberi de omnibus ... pontagiis muragiis fossagiis stallagiis lastagiis; c 1320 Liber Melros II 332.] That thai [burgesses] salbe quyt of tol and lastage of pontage of passage; Acts I 356/1.