eastern Scotland north of the forth. Seventy-one thanages are on record from the Middle Ages, sixty-nine of which are in the eastern part of Scotland-proper, and two in Lothian. Kinship Groups Behind the offices of toísech and mormaer were kinship groups. Sometimes these offices were formalized, but mostly they are informal. The head of the kinship group was called capitalis in Latin and cenn in medieval Gaelic. In the Mormaerdom of Fife, the primary kinship group was known then as Clann MacDuib ("Children of MacDuff"). The head of the group seems to have borne the right to use the title MacDuib, which is why some of the heads of the Fife kin-group are known only by that name. Similarly, the Lords of the Isles could and would call themselves simply MacDomhnaill. In Fife, the Mormaer was usually the head of Clann MacDuib, but not always. After the introduction of primogeniture, many mormaers succeed as minors; invariably though in this scenario, the leadership of the kin-group did not fall to a minor, but to another senior figure. Other kin-groups which are famous from medieval Scotland are Cennedig (from Carrick) and Morggain (from Buchan). Lower freemen and serfs The highest non-noble rank was, according to the Laws of Brets and Scots, called the ócthigern (literally, little or young lord), a term the text does not bother to translate into French. Although the exact status of these men in uncertain, it seems likely that this would refer to the freeman equivalent of the early Gaelic Bóaire (i.e. "Cattle lord") or Ócaire. The Anglo-Saxon equivalent was perhaps the sokeman. The highest rank of the serf on monastic estates, and beyond, was called a scoloc. The latter term literally meant scholar, and was derived from the usage of the term for the lowest rank of pupil in a monastic school. The Anglo-Saxon equivalent was probably the gerseman. In the earlier period, the Scots kept slaves, and many of these were foreigners (English or Scandinavian) captured during warfare. Large-scale Scottish slave-raids are particularly well documented in the eleventh century. Notes , Grant, "Thanes and Thanages", (1993), p. 42 , Kelly, Early Irish Law. , Barrow, Robert Bruce, (1998), p. 7. , Barrow, Kingship and Unity, p. 34. , Grant, "Thanes and Thanages", pp. 43–44. Barrow, Kingship and Unity, pp. 16–17. References Bannerman, John, “The Kings Poet”, in The Scottish Historical Review, V. LXVIII, (1989) Barrow, G.