The Hoswick Whale Case, 1888

In September 1888 a school of 340 caaing whales was driven ashore by the men of Hoswick — a windfall worth thousands of pounds at a time when most families lived on the edge of poverty. The local laird, Henry Cheyne, claimed two-thirds of the catch under feudal rights stretching back to Norse udal law. The case went all the way to the Court of Session in Edinburgh and the villagers won. It was a turning point: the old rights of the lairds over their tenants began to fray, and three years later the Crofters Commission arrived in Shetland.