Does "officer meal" in Kirk Session Accts. refer to ground officer’s allowance?

[SANTUDM]

Hi all! Not sure this is the right group; if not, please redirect me.
I’m attaching a snippet from the Kildrummy kirk session/accts, dated 9 Aug 1804. My rough reading (not fully confident) is:

Then settled Accts [accounts] with Alexr Murdoch & after paying him 2 years officer meal & Cess for Templeton for Lammas, & two years fees to William ...”

Main question: another source lists Alexander Murdoch as ground officer on the estate of Kildrummy. In this context, what exactly did a ground officer do, and how might that relate (if at all) to the term "officer meal" appearing in the account?
Any standard definitions, comparable examples from other parish books, or corrections to my reading would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[eilthireach]

Ground officer was the estate manager.

[SANTUDM]

Ground officer was the estate manager.

Thanks very much! That matches my understanding: a ground officer was essentially the estate’s “man on the ground”, dealing with tenants, day-to-day disputes, rents/entries and boundaries, and carrying out the factor’s (or owner’s) instructions.
What still puzzles me is the kirk session accounts entry I posted. I’d have expected a ground officer to be paid by the estate, so why would this appear in the kirk accounts? Is "officer meal" here a parish/kirk-officer allowance (a stipend in meal), i.e., the same man holding two different offices? Any idea will be very helpful.

[David Nicoll]

Hi,

    I think that this is in reference to him being an officer of the Kirk, not his role as ground officer to the estate. Is there any other reference to him in the minutes of the parish meetings?

[SANTUDM]

Hi, I think that this is in reference to him being an officer of the Kirk, not his role as ground officer to the estate. Is there any other reference to him in the minutes of the parish meetings?

Thanks! Yes, there are several other mentions of Alexander in the parish books. For example (rough reading):

To Cash from A. Murdoch to Acct of a Mill Farmers
To Wm. Gennie 9/2½
To Alexr Garden 9/8½
To Nathaniel Murison 2/1½
To Wm. Brown 10
To Jo. Gibben 10
Due by Templeton 3/8½

I read this as cash handled by A. Murdoch for the mill farmer’s account, with the lines beneath listing payments to individual payees (Gennie, Garden, Murison, Brown, Gibben) and a balance due by Templeton.

[hanes teulu]

I was interested in establishing what a ground officer did. Found a case where a tenant refused to pay  - 4s 3d annually - for his services. Appears nothing laid down - it had been going on since time immemorial. Read through the case but nothing mentioned of the services of the ground officer to justify each tenant's paying for a service.

[hanes teulu]

The Scottish Register, 1794

[SANTUDM]

I was interested in establishing what a ground officer did. Found a case where a tenant refused to pay  - 4s 3d annually - for his services. Appears nothing laid down - it had been going on since time immemorial. Read through the case but nothing mentioned of the services of the ground officer to justify each tenant's paying for a service.

Thanks! I can add a period description from General View of the Agriculture of the Central Highlands (1794). I’ve attached an image of the passage for reference.
In my own case, Alexander Murdoch appears in 1801 and again in 1809 in "to let" notices on the Kildrummy estate, named as the person to show the farms and crofts to prospective tenants.

[SANTUDM]

The Scottish Register, 1794

Thanks! I’d just attached the same passage. One interesting data point: in 1782 a similar "to let" notice of Kildrummy estate names as ground officer the man I believe was Alexander’s father-in-law. That makes me suspect this was a trust-based office that could pass within a family—often father to son, or, as I suspect in this case, father-in-law to son-in-law.