CROFTER, a term used, more particularly in the highlands and islands of Scotland, to designate a tenant who rents and cultivates a small holding of land or "croft." This O.E. word, meaning originally an enclosed field, seems to correspond to the Dutch kro f t, a field on high ground or downs. The ultimate origin is unknown. By the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) act 1886, a crofter is defined as the tenant of a holding who resides on his holding, the annual rent of which does not exceed £30 in money, and which is situated in a crofting parish. The wholesale clear ances of tenants from their crofts during the 19th century, in violation of, as the tenants claimed, an implied security of tenure, has led in the past to much agitation on the part of the crofters to secure consideration of their grievances, which have been the subject of royal commissions and of subsequent amending acts to the Crofters' Act of 1886.