crofter

Etymology

croft + -er

noun

1. One who has the tenure of a croft, usually also the occupant and user.
   c. 1795: Sir John Sinclair ...yet even these sub-divisions are diminished by a still lower order of occupiers (if such they may be deemed) under the name of acre men or crofters. This extraordinary class of cultivators appear to have been quartered upon the tenants after the farms were split down into their smallest size: the crofters being a species of sub-tenants on the farms to which they are respectively attached
   The passage is remarkable, as proving that at the end of the eighteenth century the crofters were not only hardly recognized but were at the very bottom of the scale in the rural economy of the Central Highlands. 1885, Lord Colin Campbell, The Crofter in History
   Many of the crofters on Fair Isle and Shetland know as much about the birds as the birders. 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 47