tacksman

plural tacksmen

1. ScotlandA person who holds a tack from another; a tenant.

   MacLeod from Dunvegan, his tacksmen big with vengeance, caught up with the raiders by Ardmore Bay, and none of the MacDonalds was spared.

   2009, John Sadler, Glencoe, Amberley, published 2009, page 13

   2 more examples

   An old dry-looking fellow then reminded them of the miserly, as he styled him, tacksman of Auchriachan, and how he cheated them out of their lawful share of his property, by using some charms taught him by his old grandmother.

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 390

   ... a numerous class of occupiers who cultivated what would now be considered fair-sized crofts, have entirely disappeared, as well as the tenants and tacksmen who were still higher in the scale.

   1885, Lord Colin Campbell, The Crofter in History

plural tacksmen

1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of taxman.