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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III). Includes material from the 1976 and 2005 supplements.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

CROFT, n. Special Sc. usages. Cf. Craft, n.¹

1. A smallholding (Sc. 1782 J. Sinclair Ob. Sc. Dial. 180). Dim. croftie.Sc. 2000 Herald 28 Jun 11:
Demand for crofts has never been higher, despite the crisis engulfing Scottish agriculture, the Crofters Commission said yesterday.Cai. 1992 James Miller A Fine White Stoor 13:
' ... Your great grandad ... Now he got the croft fae his faither but that was before my time. ... ' Abd. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ XV. 111:
The greatest part of the parish consists of crofts, or small holdings.Ags. 1924 A. Gray Any Man's Life 34:
Where the stunted corn Fringes the purple moor which lies Beyond the croft where I was born.Knr. [1886] “H. Haliburton” Horace in Homespun (1925) 252:
An' swallow'd up — it's e'en a sair joke — The bien bit crofties o' the puir folk.

Hence (1) crofter, one who occupies a smallholding; formerly, a sub-tenant; (2) Crofters Commission, a Commission set up to administer the Crofters Holdings Act of 1886.(1) Sc. 1794 W. Marshall Agric. Cent. Highl. 66:
Every man, whether farmer, crofter, cotter, or villager, manufactures and fetches home his own peats.Sc. 1886 Pub. Gen. Acts 49 & 50 Vict. c. 29:
In this Act “crofter” means any person who at the passing of this Act is tenant of a holding from year to year, who resides on his holding, the annual rent of which does not exceed thirty pounds [since 1911, £50] in money, and which is situated in a crofting parish, and the successors of such person in the holding, being his heirs or legatees.Sc. 2000 Herald 28 Jun 11:
Commission chairman Iain MacAskill said Crofters had always had to diversify, with agriculture often contributing no more than 10% of their income.Hebr 1988 Sorley Maclean in Joy Hendry Chapman 52 47:
In the soft smirr of rain.
And heavy on the slumber of the moorland
the hardship and poverty of the thousands
of crofters and the lowly of the lands,
my kin and my own people. Abd. 1718 Fintray Ct. Bk. (S.C.) 34:
The tennants, grassmen and crofters are obleieged to dight the Cothel Miln and New Miln loads. Abd. 1760 A. Grant Dissertation 49:
The lesser farmers, called crofters, have commonly no cottars at all under them.Abd. 1811 G. Keith Agric. Abdsh. Prel. observ. 14:
There cannot be too many day labourers or too few large crofters who hold their grounds of the farmers.Lnk. 1881 D. Thomson Musings 7:
Great tracks o' laun' can noo be seen, Whaur crofters ance dwelt snug an' bien.Rxb. 1914 Kelso Chron. (6 Feb.):
Sma' crofters in a sense ye are, An' better off than some by far.(2) Sc. 1886 Pub. Gen. Acts 49 & 50 Vict. c.29:
With a view to the execution of this Act, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty to appoint three Commissioners, in this Act designated “the Crofters Commission.”Sc. 1928 Scottish Countryside 74:
Under this measure [Small Landholders (Scotland) Act, 1911] the Congested Districts Board and the Crofters Commission were abolished.

†2. (See quot.) Cf. Craft, n.¹, 3.Kcd. 1845 Stat. Acc.² XI. 109:
Weekly markets or crofts, as they are called, for the sale of cattle and grain, also in Auchinblae, are held every Friday during winter.

3. Combs.: (1) croft-land = craft lan', s.v. Craft, n.¹; also found in Cum. dial. (E.D.D.); (2) croft-rig = craft rig, s.v. Craft, n.¹(1) Dmf. 1795 Stat. Acc.¹ I. 161:
Lime and manure were unknown, except on a few acres of what is called croft-land, which was never out of crop.(2) Sc. 1827 Scott Croftangry ii. in Chrons. Canongate I.:
. . . quhilk their first forefathers exercised in labouring the croft-rig.