Definition
Insucken multures are the tolls in grain paid to a mill owner by those persons who are legally bound to grind their corn at that particular mill. The obligation to grind at a designated mill arose from a feudal arrangement known as thirlage, under which tenants within a defined geographic area — the "sucken" — owed suit to a specific mill. The multure (the toll itself) was typically rendered as a portion of the grain brought for grinding. Insucken multures were thus the payments due from those within the sucken, as distinguished from outsucken multures, which were the (usually higher) tolls charged to those who ground at the mill voluntarily, from outside the obligated area.
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Common Confusion
INSUCKEN MULTURES vs. OUTSUCKEN MULTURES: The distinction turns on whether the person grinding was thirled — that is, legally compelled — to use the mill. Those within the sucken owed insucken multures at the rate fixed by custom or grant; outsiders who chose to use the mill paid outsucken multures, typically at a higher rate. Confusing the two misrepresents both the nature of the obligation and the applicable toll rate. The terms appear together in Scottish legal instruments, and reading one without understanding the other produces an incomplete picture of the mill's legal and economic position.
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Why It Matters in Research
This is an almost exclusively Scottish legal term, rooted in the feudal land law of Scotland. Researchers encountering it will most likely be working with pre-19th century Scottish title deeds, feu charters, barony grants, or agricultural leases. Several practical points apply:
First, insucken multures do not appear in English common law sources except incidentally. Any English-language legal dictionary treating the term is drawing on Scots law, and English authorities are of no help in interpreting its scope or enforcement.
Second, the entire system of thirlage — of which insucken multures were a component — was effectively abolished by the Thirlage Act 1799 (39 Geo. III, c. 55), a Scottish statute. After that date, references to insucken multures in transactional documents are almost entirely historical, appearing in descriptions of abolished servitudes or in disputes over compensation. Researchers working with post-1799 Scottish records should treat the term as a relic rather than a live obligation.
Third, the rate of insucken multures was not uniform. It varied by mill, by charter, and by local custom. Historical instruments must be read on their own terms; there is no standard rate to apply by default.
Fourth, because the system was enforced as a real burden on land rather than merely a personal contract, insucken multures could run with the sucken lands and bind successive owners. This has implications for researchers examining chains of title to Scottish agricultural properties.
The term connects directly to a cluster of related Scots feudal vocabulary — thirlage, sucken, multure, sequels, knaveship — and competent research on any one of these terms generally requires familiarity with the others.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary give identical, highly compressed definitions: "A quantity of corn paid by those who are thirled to a mill." Both cross-reference THIRLAGE without elaboration. This is accurate as far as it goes, but the entries are skeletal. Neither edition distinguishes insucken from outsucken multures, notes the Scottish jurisdictional confinement of the term, explains the nature of thirlage as a real burden, or marks the abolition of the system by statute. For a researcher encountering the term in a primary source, Black's entry functions only as a starting point. The operative sources for understanding insucken multures in any depth are Scottish institutional writers — particularly Erskine's Institute of the Law of Scotland and Bell's Principles of the Law of Scotland — and commentaries on the Thirlage Act 1799.
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Jurisdictional Note
Insucken multures are a term of Scots law exclusively. The concept has no parallel in English common law or in the law of any American jurisdiction. Researchers working outside Scottish legal history will not encounter this term in operative legal contexts.
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