Chapter II (1)

_THE ENGLISH OPEN FIELD SYSTEM TRACED BACK TO THE DOMESDAY SURVEY--IT IS THE SHELL OF SERFDOM--THE MANOR WITH A VILLAGE COMMUNITY IN VILLENAGE UPON IT._

I. THE IDENTITY OF THE SYSTEM WITH THAT OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

That this open field system, the remains of which have now been examined, was identical with that which existed in the Middle Ages might easily be proved by a continuous chain of examples. But it will be enough for the present purpose to pick out a few typical instances, using them as stepping-stones.

«Tusser.»

It would be easy to quote Tusser's description of '_Champion Farming_' in the sixteenth century. In his 'Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry' he describes the respective merits of 'several,' and 'champion' or open field farming. But as he describes the latter as a system already out of date in his time, and as rapidly giving way to the more economical system of 'several' or enclosed fields, we may pass on at once to evidence another couple of centuries earlier in date. [p018]

Of the fact that the open field system 500 years ago (in the fourteenth century), with its divisions into furlongs and subdivision into acre or half-acre strips, existed in England, the 'Vision of Piers the Plowman' may be appealed to as a witness.

«Piers the Plowman.»

What was 'the faire felde ful of folke,' in which the poet saw 'alle maner of men' 'worchyng and wandryng,' some 'putten hem to the plow,' whilst others 'in settyng and in sowyng swonken ful harde'?[11] A modern English field shut in by hedges would not suit the vision in the least. It was clearly enough the open field into which all the villagers turned out on the bright spring morning, and over which they would be scattered, some working and some looking on. In no other 'faire felde' would he see such folk of all sorts, the '[hus]bondemen,' bakers and brewers, butchers, woolwebsters and weavers of linen, tailors, tinkers, and tollers in market, masons, dikers, and delvers; while the cooks cried 'Hote pies hote!' and tavern-keepers set in competition their wines and roast meat at the alehouse.[12]

Then as to the division of the fields into furlongs; remembering that the wide balks between them and along the headlands were often covered with 'brakes and brambles,' the point is at once settled by the _naïve_ confession of the priest who scarce knew perfectly his Paternoster, and could 'ne solfe ne synge' 'ne seyntes lyues rede,' yet knew well enough the 'rymes of Robyn hood,' and how to 'fynde an hare in a _fourlonge_.'[13] [p019]

Further, a chance indication that the furlongs were divided into half-acre strips occurs most naturally in that part of the story where the folk in the fair field, sick of priests and parsons and other false guides, come at last to Piers the plowman, and beg him to show them the way to truth; and he replies that he must first plow and sow his 'half-acre:'

I have an _half acre_ to erye · bi the heighe way: Hadde I eried this half acre · and sowen it after, I wolde wende with you · and the way teche.[14]

And if there should remain a shadow of doubt whether Piers' half-acre must necessarily have been one of the strips between the balks into which the furlongs were divided, even this is cleared up by the perfect little picture which follows of the folk in the field helping him to plow it. For in its unconscious truthfulness of graphic detail, after saying,--

Now is perkyn and his pilgrymes · to the plowe faren: To erie his halue acre · holpyn hym manye,

the very first lines in the list of services rendered explain that--

Dikeres and delueres · digged up the balkes.[15]

«Terrier of Cambridge open fields in the fourteenth century.»

This incidental evidence of 'Piers the Plowman' is fully borne out by a manuscript _terrier_ of one of the open fields near Cambridge, belonging to the later years of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century.[16] It gives the names of the owners and occupiers of all the seliones or strips. They are [p020] divided by balks of turf. They lie in furlongs or _quarentenæ_. They have frequently headlands or _foreræ_. Some of the strips are gored, and called _gored acres_. Many of them are described as _butts_. Indeed, were it not that the country round Cambridge being flat there are no _lynches_, almost every one of the features of the system is distinctly visible in this terrier.

«The system already decaying.»

But this terrier also contains evidence that the system was even then in a state of decay and disintegration. The balks were disappearing, and the strips, though still remembered as strips, were becoming merged in larger portions, so that they lie thrown together _sine balca_. The mention is frequent of iii. seliones which used to be v., ii. which used to be iv., iii. which used to be viii., and so on. Evidently the meaning and use of the half-acre strips are already gone.

It will be well, therefore, to take another leap, and at once to pass behind the Black Death--that great watershed in economic history--so as to examine the details of the system _before_ rather than after it had sustained the tremendous shock which the death in one year of half the population may well have given to it.

«Winslow Manor rolls of Ed. III.»

A remarkably excellent opportunity for inquiry is presented by a complete set of manor rolls during the reign of Edward III. for the Manor of Winslow in Buckinghamshire, preserved in the Cambridge University Library.[17] [p021]

No evidence could possibly be more to the purpose. Belonging to the Abbey of St. Albans, the rolls were kept with scrupulous accuracy and care. Every change of ownership during the long reign of Edward III. is recorded in regular form; and the year 1348–9--the year of the Black Death--occurring in the course of this reign, and occasioning more changes of ownership than usual, the MS. presents, if one may appropriate a geological expression, something like an economic section of the manor, revealing with unusual clearness the various economic strata in which its holdings were arranged.

«The open field.»

Before examining these holdings it is needful only to state that here, as in the later examples, the fields of the manor are open fields, divided into furlongs, which in their turn are made up with apparently almost absolute regularity of half-acre strips. Whenever (with very rare exceptions) a change of ownership takes place, and the contents of the holding are described, they turn out to be made up of half-acre pieces, or seliones, scattered all over the fields.

«Half-acre strips.»

The typical entry on these rolls in such cases is that A. B. surrenders to the lord, or has died holding, a messuage and so many acres of land, of which a half-acre lies in such and such a field, and often in such and such a furlong, between land of C. D. and E. F., another half-acre somewhere else between two other persons' land, another half-acre somewhere else, and so on. If the holding be of 1½ acres it is found to be in 3 half-acre pieces, if of 4 acres, in 8 half-acre pieces, and so on, scattered over the fields. Sometimes amongst the half-acres are mentioned still smaller portions, roods and even half-roods or doles [p022] (chiefly of pasture or meadow land), belonging to the holdings, but the division into half-acre strips was clearly the rule.

There can be no doubt, therefore, of the identity of the system seen at work in these manor rolls with that of which some of the _débris_ may still be examined in unenclosed parishes to-day.

II. THE WINSLOW MANOR ROLLS OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD III.--EXAMPLE OF A VIRGATE OR YARD-LAND.

Starting with the fact that the fields of the manor of Winslow and its hamlets[18] were open fields divided into furlongs and half-acre strips, the chief object of inquiry will be the nature of the holdings of its various classes of tenants.

«Demesne and villenage.»

In the first place the land of the manor was divided, like that of almost all other manors, into two distinct parts--land in the _lord's demesne_, and land in _villenage_.

The land in demesne may be described as the home farm of the lord of the manor, including such portions of it as he may have chosen to let off to tenants for longer or shorter terms, and at money rents in free tenure.

«Three-field system.»

The land in villenage is also in the occupation of tenants, but it is held in villenage, at the will of the lord, and at customary services. It lies in open fields. These are divided into three seasons, according to the [p023] three-field system. There is a _west field_, _east field_, and _south field_. The demesne land lies also in these three fields,[19] probably more or less intermixed, as in many cases, with the strips in villenage, but sometimes in separate furlongs or shots from the latter.

Throughout the pages of the manor rolls, in recording transfers of holdings in villenage, the common form is always adhered to of a surrender by the old tenant to the lord, and a re-grant of the holding to the new tenant, to be held by him at the will of the lord in villenage at the usual services. Where the change of holding occurs on the death of a tenant, the common form recites that the holding has reverted to the lord, who re-grants it to the new tenant as before in villenage.

Further examination at once discloses a marked difference in kind between some classes of holdings in villenage and others.

«Virgates and half-virgates.»

In some cases the holding handed over is simply described by the one comprehensive word '_virgata_' (the Latin equivalent for 'yard-land'), without any further description. The 'virgate' of A. B. is transferred to C. D. in one lump; _i.e._ the holding is an indivisible whole, evidently so well known as to need no description of its contents.

In other cases the holding is in the same way described as a '_half-virgate_,' without any details being needful as to its contents.

But in the case of all other holdings the contents are described in detail half-acre by half-acre, each half-acre being identified by the names of the holders [p024] of the strips on either side of it. They vary in size from one half-acre to 8 or 10 or 12 half-acres, and in a few cases more. The greater number of them are, however, evidently the holdings of small cottier tenants. A few cases occur, but only a few, where a messuage is held without land.

«What is a virgate or yard-land?»

But the question of interest is what may be the nature of the holdings called virgates and half-virgates--these well-known _bundles_ of land, which, as already said, need no description of their contents. Fortunately in one single case a virgate or yard-land--that of John Moldeson--loses its indivisible unity and is let out again by the lord to several persons in portions. These being new holdings, and no longer making up a virgate, it became needful to describe their contents on the rolls.[20] Thus the details of which a virgate was made up are accidentally exposed to view.

Putting the broken pieces of it together, this virgate of John Moldeson is found to have consisted of a messuage in the village of Shipton, in the manor of Winslow, and the following half-acre strips of land scattered all over the open fields of the manor.

«The virgate or yard-land of John Moldeson.»

_Where situated._ _Between the Land of_

½ acre in _Clayforlong_. John Boveton and William Jonynges. ½ acre in _Brereforlong_. Richard Lif and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Anamanlond_ by the king's highway (juxta regiam viam). ½ acre at _Lofthorn_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _le Wawes_. John Hikkes and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Michelpeysforlong_. Henry Warde and John Watekyns. ½ acre above _le Snoute_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre in _le Snouthale_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre above _Livershulle_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre above _Narowe-aldemed_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre in _Shiptondene_. John Hikkes and John Howeprest. ½ acre in _Waterforough_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. 2 roods below _Chircheheigh_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Fyveacres_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Sherdeforlong_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Thorlong_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre (of pasture) in John Watekyns and Henry Warde. _Farnhamesden_. ½ acre (of pasture) in three parcels. 1 acre (of pasture) below _Estattemore_. ½ acre (of pasture) at John Watekyns and Henry Warde. _Brodemore_. ½ acre (of meadow) at John Watekyns and Henry Warde. _Risshemede_. 2 doles (of meadow) in John Watekyns and Henry Warde. _Shrovedoles_. ½ acre below _le Knolle_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre above _Brodealdemade_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre above _Brodelangelonde_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Merslade_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre above _Langebenehullesdene_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre above _Hoggestonforde_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Clayforde_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Narwelanglonde_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Wodewey_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre _Benethenhystrete_. William Jonynges and Henry Boviton. ½ acre _Benethenhystrete_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Langeslo_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Lowe_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _le Knolle_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre above _Brodealdemede_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Shortslo_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Eldeleyen_. John Watekyns and John Janekyns. ½ acre above _Langeblakgrove_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Blakeputtis_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre above _Medeforlong_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _le Thorn_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre above _Overlitellonde_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre above _le Brodelitellonde_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre above _Overlitellonde_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre above _Medeforlong_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _le Thorn_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Hoggestonforde_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre above _Eldeleyes_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre above _Cokwell_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Brodefarnham_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Langefarnham_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre above _Farnhamshide_. Henry Boveton and Richard Atte Halle. ½ acre at _Howeshamme_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Stonysticch_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Coppedemore_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Brerebuttes_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Wodeforlonge_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Porteweye_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Litebenhulle_. Henry Boveton and Matthew atte Lane. ½ acre at _Michilblakegrove_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Litelblakegrove_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Brodereten_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Brodeliteldon_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Stoteford_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre at _Brodelangelonde_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre above _Litelbelesden_. John Watekyns and John Mayn. ½ acre in _Anamaneslonde_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Litelpeisaere_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. 1 rood in _le Trendel_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Merslade_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Merslade_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre at _Brodelitellonde_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre below _le Knolle_. John Watekyns and Henry Warde. ½ acre above _le Brodealdemede_. John Watekyns and John Mayn.

«Summary of the contents of a virgate or yard-land.»

Thus the virgate or yard-land of John Moldeson was composed of a messuage and

68 half-acre strips of arable land,
3 rood strips of arable land,
2 doles,
1 acre of pasture,
3 half-acres of pasture, and
1 half-acre of meadow,

scattered all over the open fields in their various furlongs.

The normal holding of the villanus, consisting of a messuage and 30 scattered acres coloured red, by way of example on the Map of the open fields of Hitchen.]

«Rotation in the order of the strips.»

But it may be asked, how can it be proved that the other virgates were like the one virgate of John [p027] Moldeson thus by chance described and exposed to view on the manor rolls? Is it right to assume that this virgate may be taken as a pattern of the rest? The answer is, that in the description of its 72 half-acre strips the 144 neighbouring strips are incidentally involved. And as 66 of its strips had on one side of them 66 other strips of another tenant, viz. John Watekyns, and on the other side 43 of the next strips belonged to Henry Warde, and 23 to John Mayn, and 8 of the strips only had other neighbours, it is evident that the virgate of John Moldeson was one of a system of similar virgates formed of scattered half-acre strips, arranged in a certain regular order of rotation, in which John Moldeson came 66 times next to John Watekyns, and two other neighbours followed him, one 43 and the o ther 23 times, in similar succession.

«A virgate or yard-land is a bundle of 30 or 40 acres in scattered acre or half-acre strips.»

Thus the Winslow virgates were intermixed, and each was _a holding of a messuage in the village, and between 30 and 40 modern acres of land, not contiguous, but scattered in half-acre pieces all over the common fields_. The half-virgate consisted in the same way of a messuage in the village with half as many strips scattered over the same fields. The intermixed ownership complained of in the Inclosure Acts, and surviving in the Hitchin maps, need no longer surprise us.

«The normal virgate was of 30 acres.»

We know now what a virgate or yard-land was. We shall find that its normal area was 30 scattered acres--10 acres in each of the three fields. Using again the map of the Hitchin fields, we may mark upon it the contents of a normal virgate by way of impressing upon the eye the nature of this peculiar holding. It must always be remembered that when [p028] the fields were divided into half-acres instead of acres the number of its scattered strips would be doubled.

«Two-thirds of the land held in virgates and half-virgates.»

It is not possible to ascertain from a mere record of the changes in the holdings precisely how many of these virgates and half-virgates there were in the manor of Winslow. But in the year of the Black Death it may be assumed that the mortality fell with something like equality upon all classes of tenants, 153 changes of holding from the death of previous holders being recorded in 1348–9. Out of these, 28 were holders of virgates and 14 of half-virgates. The virgates and half-virgates of these holders who died of the Black Death must have included more than 2,400 half-acre strips in the open fields; and adding up the contents of the other holdings of tenants who died that year, it would seem that about two-thirds of the whole area which changed hands in that memorable year were included in the virgates and half-virgates. It may be inferred, therefore, that about the same proportion of the whole area of the open fields must have been included in the virgates and half-virgates whose holders died or survived. Clearly, then, the mass of the land in the open fields was held in these two grades of holdings.[21]

«They are held in villenage.»

Thus much, then, may be learned from the Winslow manor rolls with respect to the virgates and half-virgates. Not only were they holdings each composed of a messuage and the scattered strips belonging to it in the open fields, not only did they form the [p029] two chief grades of holdings with equality in each grade, but also they were all alike held in _villenage_. They were not holdings of the lord's demesne land, but of the land in villenage. The holders, besides their virgates and half-virgates, often, it is true, held other land, part of the lord's demesne, as free tenants at an annual rent. But such free holdings were no part of their _virgates_. The virgates and half-virgates were held in villenage. Of these they were not _free_ tenants, but _villein_ tenants. So also the lesser cottage holdings were held in villenage. But the holders of virgates and half-virgates were the highest grades in the hierarchy of tenants in villenage. They not only held the greater part of the open fields in their bundles of scattered strips; the rolls also show that they almost exclusively served as jurors in the 'Halimot,' or Court of the Manor; though occasionally one or two other villein tenants with smaller holdings were associated with them.[22]

«The villein holders, 'villani,' are '_adscripti glebæ_.'»

It is possible that just as villein tenants could hold in free tenure land in the lord's demesne, so free men might hold virgates in villenage and retain their personal freedom; but those at all events of the holders of virgates who were _nativi_, _i.e._ villeins by descent were _adscripti glebæ_. They held their holdings at the will of the lord, and were bound to perform the customary services. If they allowed their houses to [p030] get out of repair they were guilty of _waste_, and the jury were fined if they did not report the neglect.[23]

Yet the entries in the rolls prove that their holdings were hereditary, passing by the lord's re-grant from father to son by the rule of primogeniture, on payment of the customary heriot or relief.[24]

Widows had dower, and widowers were _tenants by the curtesy_, as in the case of freeholds. The holders in villenage, even 'nativi,' could make wills which were proved before the _cellerarius_ of the abbey, and had done so time out of mind, while the wills of free tenants were proved at St. Albans.[25]

These things all look like a certain recognition of freedom within the restraints of the villenage. But if the 'nativi' married without the lord's consent they were fined. If they sold an ox without licence, again they were fined. If they left the manor without licence they were searched for, and if found arrested as fugitives and brought back.[26] If their daughters lost their chastity[27] the lord again had his fine. And [p031] in all these cases the whole jury were fined if they neglected to report the delinquent.

«But their serfdom is breaking up.»

Their services were no doubt limited and defined by custom, and so late as the reign of Edward III. mostly discharged by a money payment in lieu of the actual service, but they rested nominally on the will of the lord; and sometimes to test their obedience the relaxed rein was tightened, and trivial orders were issued, such as that they should go off to the woods and pick nuts for the lord.[28] In case of dispute a court was held under the great ash tree at St. Albans, and the decision of this superior manorial court at head-quarters settled the question.[29] This villenage of the Winslow tenants was, no doubt, in the fourteenth century mild in its character; the silent working of economic laws was breaking it up; but it was villenage still. It was serfdom, but it was serfdom in the last stages of its relaxation and decay.

Already, any harking back by the landlord upon older and stricter rules--any return, for instance, to the actual services instead of the money payments in lieu of them--produced resentment and insubordination amongst the villein tenants. Murmurs were already heard in the courts, and symptoms appear on the rolls in the year following the Black Death which clearly indicate the presence of smouldering embers very likely soon to burst into flame.[30] The rebellion under Wat Tyler was, in fact, not far ahead. But in this inquiry we are looking backwards into earlier times, in order to learn what English serfdom was when fully in force, rather than in the days when [p032] it was breaking up. In the meantime the practical knowledge gained from the Winslow manor rolls, how a community in serfdom fitted as it were into the open field system as into an outer shell, and still more the knowledge of what the virgate and half-virgate in villenage really were, drawn from actual examples, may prove a useful key in unlocking still further the riddle of earlier serfdom.

III. THE HUNDRED ROLLS OF EDWARD I., EMBRACING FIVE MIDLAND COUNTIES.

The facts thus learned from the Winslow Manor Rolls throw just that flash of light upon the otherwise dry details of the Hundred Rolls of Edward I. which is needful to make the picture they give in detail of the manors in parts of five midland counties vivid and clear.

«Surveys of manors in five counties, A.D. 1279.»

English economic history is rich in its materials; and of all the records of the economic condition of England, next to the Domesday Survey, the Hundred Rolls are the most important and remarkable. The second volume, in its 1,000 folio pages, contains _inter alia_ a true and clear description of every manor in a large district, embracing portions of Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Cambridgeshire, in about the year 1279; and as in most cases the name of every tenant is recorded, with the character of his holding and a description of his payments and services, the picture of each manor has almost the detail and accuracy of a photograph. Turning over its pages, the mass of detail may at first appear confused and bewildering, and in one sense it is so, because [p033] it relates to a system which, however simple when fully at work, becomes broken up and entangled whilst in process of disintegration. But the key to it once mastered, the original features of the system may still be recognised. Even the broken pieces fall into their proper places, and the general economic outlines of the several manors stand out sharply and clearly marked.

«They are of the Winslow type.»

Speaking generally, in its chief economic features every manor is alike, as in the record itself one common form of survey serves for them all. Hence the Winslow example gives the requisite key to the whole. Bringing to the record the knowledge of how the open fields were everywhere divided into furlongs, and acre or half-acre strips, and that virgates and half-virgates were equal bundles of strips scattered all over the fields, the description of the manors in the Hundred Rolls becomes perfectly intelligible.

In the first place the manor consists, as in the Winslow example, of two parts--the land in demesne and the land in villenage.

The land in demesne consists of the home farm, and portions, irregular in area, let out from it to what are called free tenants (_libere tenentes_), some of them being nevertheless villeins holding their portions of the demesne lands in free tenure at certain rents in addition to their regular holdings.

«Virgates and half-virgates.»

The land in villenage, as in the Winslow manor, is held mostly in virgates and half-virgates, and below these cottiers hold smaller holdings, also in villenage.

In describing the tenants in villenage there is first a statement that A. B. holds a _virgate_ in villenage at such and such payments and services, which are often [p034] very minutely described. The money value of each service and the total value of them all is in many cases also carefully given. This description of the holding and services of A. B. is then followed by a list of persons who also _each_ hold a virgate at the same services as A. B.

Secondly, there is a similar statement in detail that C. D. holds a _half-virgate_ in villenage, and that such and such are his payments and services, followed by a similar list of persons who also _each_ hold a half-virgate at the same services as C. D.

«Cottier tenants.»

Then follows a list of the little cottier tenants, and their holdings and services. Amongst some of these cottage holdings there is equality, some are irregular, and some consist of a cottage and nothing else.

These holdings are all in villenage, but, as before mentioned, the names of the villein tenants often occur again in the list of free tenants (_libere tenentes_) of portions of the lord's demesne or of recently reclaimed land (_terra assarta_).

This may be taken as a fair description of the common type of manor throughout the Hundred Rolls, with local variations.

«With exceptional variations the manors are all of one type.»

The chief of these is that in many places in Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire the holdings of the _villani_, instead of being described as virgates and half-virgates, are described by their acreage. There are so many holders of 30, 20, 15, 10, or other number of acres each. They are not the less in grades, with equality in each grade, but the holdings bear no distinctive name.

There is also in these counties a class of tenants, partly above the _villani_, called _sochemanni_, which we [p035] shall find again when we reach the Domesday Survey. But upon exceptional local circumstances it is not needful to dwell here.

The fact is, then, that in the Hundred Rolls of Edward I. there is disclosed over the much wider area of five midland counties almost precisely the same state of things as that which existed in the manor of Winslow late in the reign of Edward III. That manor was under the ecclesiastical lordship of an abbey, but here in the Hundred Rolls the same state of things exists under all kinds of ownership. Manors of the king or the nobility, of abbeys, and of private and lesser landowners, are all substantially alike. In all there is the division of the manor into demesne land and land in villenage. In all the mass of the land in villenage is held in the grades of holdings mostly called virgates and half-virgates, with equality in each grade both as to the holding and the services. In all alike are found the smaller cottage holdings, also in villenage; and lastly, in all alike there are the free tenants of larger or smaller portions of the demesne land.

«The open field system is the shell of serfdom.»

If the picture of a manor and its open fields and virgates or yard-lands in villenage--_i.e._ both of the shell and of the community in serfdom inhabiting the shell--drawn in detail from the single Winslow example, has thrown light upon the Hundred Rolls, these latter, embracing hundreds of manors in the midland counties of England, give the picture a typical value, proving that it is true, not for one manor only, but, speaking generally, for all the manors of central England.

They also give additional information on the relation [p036] of the holdings to the _hide_, and reveal more clearly than the Winslow manor rolls the nature of the serfdom under which the villein tenants held their virgates. Before passing from the Hundred Rolls it will be worth while to examine the new facts they give us, and to devote a section to an examination of the _services_.

IV. THE HUNDRED ROLLS (_continued_)--RELATION OF THE VIRGATE TO THE HIDE AND CARUCATE.

Before passing to the villein services described in the Hundred Rolls, evidence may be cited from them showing the relation of the virgate or yard-land--which is now known to be the normal holding of the normal tenant in villenage--to the _hide_ and _carucate_. If to the knowledge of what a virgate was, can be added an equally clear understanding of what a _hide_ was, another valuable step will be gained.

In the rolls for Huntingdonshire a series of entries occurs, describing, contrary to the usual practice of the compilers, the number of acres in a virgate, and the number of virgates in a hide, in several manors.

These entries are given below,[31] and they show clearly--

(1) That the bundle of scattered strips called a virgate did not always contain the same number of acres.

(2) That the _hide_ did not always contain the same number of virgates.

But at the same time it is evident that the hide in [p037] Huntingdonshire most often contained 120 acres or thereabouts. It did so in twelve cases out of nineteen. In one case it contained the double of 120, _i.e._ 240 acres. In six cases only the contents varied irregularly from the normal amount.

«The normal _hide_ four virgates or 120 acres; the double hide of 240 acres: but there are local variations.»

Taking the normal hides of 120 acres, five of them were made up of four virgates of thirty acres each, which we may take to have been _normal_ virgates. In one case there were eight virgates of fifteen acres each in the hide. In other places these probably would have been called half-virgates, as at Winslow.

There were occasionally five virgates and sometimes six virgates in the hide, and the fact of these variations will be found to have a meaning hereafter; but in the meantime we may gather from the instances given in the Hundred Rolls for Huntingdonshire, that the _normal_ hide consisted as a rule of four virgates of about thirty acres each. The really important [p038] consequence resulting from this is the recognition of the fact that as the _virgate_ was a bundle of so many scattered strips in the open fields, the _hide_, so far as it consisted of actual virgates in villenage, was also a bundle--a compound and fourfold bundle--of scattered strips in the open fields.

«The ancient hidage or assessment of taxation.»

Whilst, however, marking this relation of the virgate to the hide, regarded as actual holdings in villenage, it is necessary to observe also that throughout the Hundred Rolls the assessed value of the manors is generally stated in hides and virgates; and that, in the estimate thus given of the _hidage_ of a manor as a whole, the demesne land as well as the land in villenage is taken into account. In this case the hide and virgate are used as measures of assessment, and it does not follow that all land that was measured or estimated by the hide and virgate was actually divided up by balks into acres, although the demesne land itself was in fact, as we have seen, often in the open fields, and intermixed with the strips in villenage. Distinction must therefore be made between the hide and virgate as actual holdings and the hide and virgate as customary land measures, used for recording the assessed values or the extent of manors, just as in the case of the acre.

The virgate and the hide were probably, like the acre, actual holdings before they were adopted as abstract land measures. It may be even possible to learn or to guess what fact made a particular number of acres the most convenient holding.

«The scutage.»

In the Hundred Rolls for Oxfordshire there is frequent reference to the payment of the tax called _scutage_. The normal amount of this is assumed [p039] to be 40s. for each _knight's fee_, or _scutum_. And it appears that the knight's fee was assumed to contain four normal hides. There is an entry, 'One hide gives scutage for a fourth part of one scutum.' And as four virgates went usually to each hide, so each virgate should contribute 1/16 of a scutum. There are several entries which state that when the scutage is 40s. each virgate pays 2s. 6d., which is 1/16 of 40s.[32]

«Connexion between acreage of holdings and the coinage.»

And these figures seem to lead one step further, and to connect the normal acreage of the hide of 120A., and of the virgate of 30A., with the scutage of 40s. per knight's fee; for when these normal acreages were adhered to in practice the assessment would be one penny per acre, and the double hide of 240 acres would pay one pound. In other words, in choosing the acreage of the standard hide and virgate, a number of acres was probably assumed, corresponding with the monetary system, so that the number of pence in the 'scutum' should correspond with the number of acres assessed to its payment. We shall find this correspondence of acreage with the coinage by no means confined to this single instance.

But there remains the question, why the acreage in the virgate and hide as actual holdings, and the [p040] number of virgates in the hide, were not constant. Their actual contents and relations were evidently ruled by some other reason than the number of pence in a pound.

«_Carucate_, or land of a plough team, used instead of the hide for later taxation,»

A trace at least of the original reason of the varying contents and relations of the hide and virgate is to be found in the Hundred Rolls, as, indeed, almost everywhere else, in the use of another word in the place of _hide_, when, instead of the anciently assessed hidage of a manor, its more modern actual taxable value is examined into and expressed. This new word is 'carucate'--_the land of a plough or plough team_,--'caruca' being the mediæval Latin term for both plough and plough team.

«and varied according to the soil.»

The Hundred Rolls for Bedfordshire afford several examples in point. In some cases the carucate seems to be identical with the normal hide of 120 acres, but other instances show that the carucate varied in area.[33] It is the land cultivated by a plough team; varying in acreage, therefore, according to the lightness or heaviness of the soil, and according to the strength of the team.

V. THE HUNDRED ROLLS (_continued_)--THE SERVICES OF THE VILLEIN TENANTS.

«Services often commuted into money payments.»

In the Hundred Rolls for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire the services of the villein tenants [p041] are almost always commuted into money payments. From each virgate a payment of from 16s. to 20s. is described as due, or services to that value (_vel opera ad valorem_), showing that the actual services have become the exception, and the money payments the rule. But in many cases distinguishing marks of serfdom still remained in the fine upon the marriage of a daughter, the heriot on the death of the holder, and the restraint on the sale of animals.[34]

In Huntingdonshire and Oxfordshire, on the other hand, the services, whilst often having their money value assigned, are mostly given in great detail, as though still frequently enforced.

«Of three kinds.»

Speaking generally, the chief services, notwithstanding variations in detail, may be classed under three different heads.

«Week work.»

(1) There is the _weekly work_ at ploughing, reaping, carrying, usually for two or three days a week, and most at harvest-time. In other cases there are so many days' work required between certain dates.

«Precariæ.»

(2) There are _precariæ_, or 'boon-days,' sometimes called _bene works_--special or extra services which the lord has a right to require, sometimes the lord providing food for the day, and sometimes the tenant providing for himself.

«Fixed dues in money or in kind.»

(3) There are _payments in kind or in money_ at specified times, such as Christmas, Easter, Martinmas, and Michaelmas dues; _churchshot_, an ancient ecclesiastical [p042] due; besides contributions towards the lord's taxes in the shape of _tallage_ or _scutage_.

Sometimes the services are to be performed with one or two labourers, showing that the cottier tenants were labourers under the holders of virgates, or indicating possibly in some cases the remains of a slave class.

The chief weekly services were those of ploughing, the tenants sometimes supplying oxen to the lord's plough team, sometimes using their own ploughs, two or more joining their oxen for the purpose. This co-operation is a marked feature of the services, and is found also in connexion with reaping and carrying.

The cottier tenants in respect of their smaller holdings often worked for their lord one day a week, and having no plough, or oxen, their services did not include ploughing.

Annexed are typical instances of the services of both classes of tenants. They are taken from three counties, and placed side by side for comparison.

EXAMPLES OF VILLEIN SERVICES.

OXFORDSHIRE

_Of a Villanus holding a Virgate._[35]

A. B. holds a virgate, and owes--

82 days' work [about 2 days a week] between Michaelmas and s. d. June 24, valued at ½d. = 3 5

11½ days' work [rather more than 2 days a week] between June 24 and s. d. August 1, valued at 1d. = 11½

19 days' work [2½ days a week] between August 1 and Michaelmas, valued at 1½d. = 2 4½

6 precariæ, with one man, valued at 12

1 precaria, with 2 men, for reaping, with food from the lord, valued at 2

Half a carriage for carrying the wheat 1

Half a carriage for the hay 1

The ploughing and harrowing of an acre 6

1 ploughing called '_graserthe_' 1½

1 day's harrowing of oat[land] 1

1 horse [load] of wood ½

Making 1 quarter of malt, and drying it 1

1 day's work at washing and shearing sheep, valued at ½

1 day's hoeing ½

3 days' mowing 6

1 day's nutting ½

1 day's work in carrying to the stack ½

Tallage once a year at the lord's will.

_Of a Cotarius._[36]

A. B. holds one croft, and owes from Michaelmas to August 1, each workable week, one day's work of whatever kind the lord requires.

At Martinmas gives 1 cock and 3 hens for churchshot, and ought to drive to certain places, and to carry writs,[37] his food being found by the lord; also to wash and shear sheep, receiving a loaf and a half, and being partaker of the cheese with the _servi_; and to hoe. In the autumn, to work and receive like as each _servus_ works and receives for the whole week.[38]

(10 cottiers do like services).

* * * * *

HUNTINGDONSHIRE

_Of a Villanus holding a Virgate._[39]

A. B. holds 1 virgate in villenage--

By paying 12d. at Michaelmas.

By doing works from Michaelmas to Easter, with the exception of the fortnight after Christmas, viz. 2 days each week, with one man each day.

Item, he shall plough with his own plough one selion and a half on every Friday in the aforesaid time.

Item, he shall harrow the same day as much as he has ploughed.

He shall do works from Easter to Pentecost, 2 days each week, with one man each day.

And he shall plough one selion each Friday in the same time.

He shall do works from Pentecost till August 1, for 3 days each week, with one man each day, either hoeing the corn, or mowing and lifting (_levand_).

He shall do works from August 1 till September 8, for 3 days each week, with two men each day.

He shall make 1 '_love-bonum_' with all his family except his wife, finding his own food. And from September 8 to Michaelmas he works 3 days each week, with one man each day. He shall carry [with a horse or horses] as far as Bolnhurst, and from Bolnhurst to Torneye.

Also he gives ½ bushel of corn as '_bensed_' in winter-time.

Also 10 bushels of oats at Martinmas as '_fodderkorn_.'

Also 7d. as '_loksilver_,' that is for 2d. a loaf, and 5 hens.

Also 1d. on Ash-Wednesday, as '_fispeni_' (fishpenny).

Also 20 eggs at Easter.

Also 10 eggs on St. Botolph's Day (June 17).

Also in Easter week 2d. towards digging the vineyard.

Also in Pentecost week 1d. towards upholding the mill-dam (_stagnum_) of Newetone.

If he sell a bull calf he shall give the lord abbot 4d., and this according to custom.

He gives '_merchetum_' and '_herietum_,' and is tallaged at Michaelmas according to the will of the said abbot.

He gives 2d. as '_sumewode silver_' at Christmas.

_Of a Cotarius._[40]

A. B. holds 1 acre at 12d., and works 4 days in autumn with one man.

He is tallaged '_quando Rex talliat burgos suos._'

He gives '_garshaves_' each year for pigs killed and sold, viz. for a pig a year old, ½d.

And when there is pannage in the wood he gives for pig of a year old, 1d.

And if he keeps his pigs alive beyond a year, he gives nothing.

* * * * *

CAMBRIDGESHIRE

_Of a Villanus holding ½ Virgate of 15 acres._[41]

A. B. holds a ½ virgate of customable land containing 15 acres, and does 3 days' work each week throughout the year, and 3 precariæ, with meals found by the lord, and gives at Martinmas 1d., and a hen at Christmas, and 8 eggs at Easter; and the same works and customs if '_ad firmam_' are valued at 9s. per annum.

(20 others each hold 15 acres with like services.)

_Of a Cotarius._[42]

A. B. is a cotarius, and holds 1 cottage and 1 acre, for which he gives--

1 day's work on Monday in every week unless a festival prevents him.

1 hen at Christmas

5 eggs at Easter.

VI. DESCRIPTION IN FLETA OF A MANOR IN THE TIME OF EDWARD I.

«Landlords view of a manor.»

Contemporary in date with the Hundred Rolls is the anonymous work bearing the title of '_Fleta_,' which may be described as the _vade mecum_ of the landlords of the time of Edward I. It was designed to put them in possession of necessary legal knowledge; and mixed up with this are practical directions regarding the management of their estates. The writer advises landlords on taking possession of their manors to have a survey made of their property, so that they may know the extent of their rights and income.

If in the Hundred Rolls we have photographic details of hundreds of individual manors surveyed [p046] for purposes of royal taxation, so here is a picture of an ordinary or typical manor--a generalisation of the ordinary features of a manor--drawn by a contemporary hand, and regarding all things from a landlord's point of view.

The manor as described in Fleta is a territorial unit, with its own courts and local customs known only on the spot. Therefore the extent is to be taken upon the testimony of 'faithful and sworn tenants of the lord.' And inquiry is to be made[43]--

«Survey of a manor.»

(1) Of castles and buildings in the demesne (_intrinsecis_) within and without the moat, with gardens, curtilages, dovecotes, fishponds, &c.

(2) What fields (_campi_) and _culturæ_ there are in demesne, and how many acres of arable in each _cultura_ of meadow and of pasture.

(3) What common pasture there is outside the demesne (_forinseca_), and what beasts the lord can place thereon [he, like his tenants, being as to this limited in his rights by custom].

(4) Of parks and demesne woods, which the lord at his will can cultivate and reclaim (_assartare_).

(5) Of woods outside the demesne (_forinsecis_), in which others have common rights, how much the lord may approve.

(6) Of pannage, herbage, and honey, and all other issues of the forests, woods, moors, heaths, and wastes.

(7) Of mills [belonging to the lord, and having a monopoly of grinding for the tenants at fixed charges], fishponds, rivers (_ripariis_), and fisheries several and common.

(8) Of pleas and perquisites belonging to the county, manor, and forest courts.

(9) Of churches belonging to the lord's advowson.

(10) Of heriots, fairs, markets, tolls, day-works (_operationes_), services, foreign (_forinseci_) customs, and gifts (_exhenniis_).

(11) Of warrens, liberties, parks, coneyburrows, wardships, reliefs, and yearly fees.

Then regarding the tenants,--

«Free tenants.»

(1) _De libere tenentibus_, or free tenants, how many are _intrinseci_ and how many _forinseci_; what lands they hold of the lord, and [p047] what of others, and by what service; whether by _socage_, or by _military_ service, or by fee farm, or 'in eleemosynam'; who hold by charter, and who not; what rents they pay; which of them do suit at the lord's court, &c.; and what accrues to the lord at their death.

«Villein tenants»

(2) _De custumariis_, or villein tenants; how many there are, and what is their suit; how much each has, and what it is worth, both _de antiquo dominico_ and _de novo perquisito_; to what amount they can be tallaged without reducing them to poverty and ruin; what is the value of their '_operationes_' and '_consuetudines_'--their day-works and customary duties--and what rent they pay; and which of them can be tallaged '_ratione sanguinis nativi_,' and who not.

«Officers.»

Then there follows a statement of the duties of the usual officials of the manor.

«The seneschal, or steward;»

First there is the _seneschal_,[44] or steward, whose duty it is to hold the Manor Courts and the View of Frankpledge, and there to inquire if there be any withdrawals of customs, services, and rents, or of suits to the lord's courts, markets, and mills, and as to alienations of lands. He is also to check the amount of seed required by the _præpositus_ for each manor, for under the seneschal there may be several manors.

«who arranges the ploughing and the plough teams.»

On his appointment he must make himself acquainted with the condition of the manorial ploughs and plough teams. He must see that the land is properly arranged, whether on the three-field or the two-field system. If it be divided into _three parts_, 180 acres should go to each carucate, viz. 60 acres to be ploughed in winter, 60 in Lent, and 60 in summer for fallow. If in _two parts_, there should be 160 acres to the carucate, half for fallow, half for winter and Lent sowing, _i.e._ 80 acres in each of the two 'fields.' [p048]

Besides the manorial ploughs and plough teams he must know also how many tenant or villein ploughs (_carucæ adjutrices_) there are, and how often they are bound to aid the lord in each manor.

He is also to inquire as to the stock in each manor, whereof an inventory indented is to be drawn up between him and the serjeant; and as to any deficiency of beasts, which he is at once to make good with the lord's consent.

«The _præpositus_.»

The seneschal thus had jurisdiction over all the manors of the lord. But each single manor should have its own _præpositus_.

The best husbandman is to be elected by the _villata_, or body of tenants, as _præpositus_, and he is to be responsible for the cultivation of the arable land. He must see that the ploughs are yoked early in the morning--both the demesne and the villein ploughs--and that the land is properly ploughed (_pure et conjunctim_) and sown. He is a villein tenant, and acts on behalf of the villeins, but he is overlooked by the lord's bailiff.

«The bailiff.»

The _bailiff's_[45] duties are stated to be--To rise early and have the ploughs yoked, then walk in the fields to see that all is right. He is to inspect the ploughs, whether those of the demesne or the villein or auxiliary ploughs, seeing that they be not unyoked before their day's work ends, failing which he will be called to account. At sowing-time the bailiff, _præpositus_, and reaper must go with the ploughs through the whole day's work until they have completed their proper quantity of ploughing for the day, [p049] which is to be measured, and if the ploughmen have made any errors or defaults, and can make no excuses, the reaper is to see that such faults do not go uncorrected and unpunished.

Such is the picture, given by Fleta, of the manorial machine at work grinding through its daily labour on the days set apart for service on the lord's demesne.

The other side of the picture, the work of the _villani_ for themselves on other days, the yoking of their oxen in the common plough team, and the ploughing and sowing of their own scattered strips; whether this was arranged with equal regard to rigid custom, or whether in Fleta's time the co-operation had become to some extent broken up, so that each villein tenant made his own arrangements by contract with his fellows, or otherwise--this inferior side of the picture is left undrawn.

In the meantime, returning to the question of the holdings in villenage, an additional reason for the variations in their acreage is found in the statement already alluded to, viz. that the extent of the actual carucate, or land of one plough team, was dependent, among other things, upon whether the system of husbandry was the two-field or the three-field system, each plough team being able to cultivate a larger acreage on the former than on the latter system.

VII. S.E. OF ENGLAND--THE HIDE AND VIRGATE UNDER OTHER NAMES (THE RECORDS OF BATTLE ABBEY AND ST. PAUL'S).

«Battle Abbey Records.»

Passing now to the south-eastern counties, there are in the Record Office valuable MSS. relating to the [p050] estates of Battle Abbey.[46] There are two distinct surveys of these estates, made respectively in the reigns of Edward I. and Henry VI.

«Surveys of 1284–7.»