Boll

The principal Scots dry measure for grain, holding four firlots, and the unit in which rents and stipends were commonly paid.

The boll varied deliberately by commodity, since the point was to measure a worthwhile quantity rather than a fixed volume: a boll of oats was larger than a boll of wheat, oats being lighter. Scottish ministers’ stipends and agricultural rents were frequently expressed in bolls of meal well into the nineteenth century, which meant that clerical incomes rose and fell with the harvest. The Linlithgow firlot served as the physical standard, held by that burgh as the Stirling Jug was held for liquid measure.