Chapter II (2)

The date of the earliest MS. is from 12 to 15 Edward I. (1284–7). It is, therefore, almost contemporaneous with the Hundred Rolls. The estates lay in various counties; but wherever situated, the same general phenomena as those already described are found.

Confining attention to the regular grades of holdings in villenage, the following are examples from the Battle Abbey estates.

The abbot had an estate at Brichwolton (or Brightwalton), in Berkshire. In the survey of it 10 holders of a virgate each are recorded as _virgarii_, and in the MS. of Henry VI., 5 holders of half-virgates are in the same way called _dimidii virgarii_.

There was another estate at 'Apeldreham,' in Sussex. Here, under the heading 'Isti subscripti dicuntur _Yherdlinges_,' there is a list of 5 holders of virgates, 4 holders of 1½ virgates each, and one of ½ a virgate.

At 'Alsiston,' in Sussex, a manor nestling under the chalk downs, the holdings were as follows:--

«½ hides and wistas.»

1 wista and 1 great wista. ½ hide. 1 hide. ½ hide and 1 wista. 3 wistas and 1 great wista. ½ hide. ½ hide. ½ hide. ½ hide. 1 wista. ½ hide. ½ hide. ½ hide. 1 wista. ½ hide. The præpositus 1 wista (without services). [p051]

In the description of the services, those for each half-hide are first given, and then there follows a note that each half-hide contains two wistas; wherefore the services of each wista are half those above mentioned.

There is another manor (Blechinton, near the coast), where there were--

2 holdings of half-hides, 9 of wistas, 6 of half-wistas,

and two other manors where the holders were in one case 5, all of half-hides; and in the other case one of a hide and 4 of half-hides.

«The double hide of 240 acres.»

These are valuable examples of hides and half-hides, as still actual holdings in villenage, whilst apparently instead of virgates in some of these Sussex manors a new holding--the wista--occurs. And among the documents of Battle Abbey given by Dugdale there is the following statement, viz., that 8 virgates = 1 hide, and 4 virgates = 1 wista (_great_ wista?). Supposing the virgate here, as mostly elsewhere, to have been, normally, a bundle of 30 acres, it is clear that in this hide of 8 virgates we get another instance of the _double hide of 240 acres_; whilst the '_great_ wista' of 4 virgates would correspond with the single hide of 120 acres, and the wista would equal the ordinary half-hide of two virgates.

«Domesday of St. Paul's, A.D. 1222.»

We pass to another cartulary, and of earlier date. In 1222 a visitation was made of the manors belonging to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, London. The register of this visitation is known as the 'Domesday of St. Paul's.'[47] The manors were scattered in [p052] Herts, Essex, Middlesex, and Surrey--all south-eastern counties.

In the survey of Thorp,[48] one of the manors in Essex, after a list of tenants on the demesne land, and others on reclaimed land (_de essarto_), there follows a list of tenants in villenage who are called _hydarii_. As in the Battle Abbey records the _virgarii_ were holders of virgates, so these _hydarii_ were probably, as their name implies, groups of _villani_ holding a hide. But the holdings had in fact become subdivided and irregular. Nevertheless, those belonging to each original hide are bracketed together; and adding together their acreage, it appears that the hide is assumed to contain 120 acres. The following examples will make it clear that the holdings were once hides of four virgates of 30 acres each.

«Hides and virgates.»

_Holdings._
─┐
xx. _a._ │ ─┐
x. _a._ │ sum = 30 _a._ │
─┘ │
xxx. _a._ = 30 _a._ │
½ hide = 60 _a._ │ sum = hide of 120 acres.
─┘
─┐
xxx. _a._ = 30 _a._ │
xxx. _a._ = 30 _a._ │
─┐ │
xv. _a._ │ │
xv. _a._ │ sum = 30 _a._ │
─┘ │
─┐ │
v. _a._│ │
v. _a._│ │
vii.½ _a._│ │
v. _a._│ │
vii.½ _a._│ sum = 30 _a._ │ sum = hide of 120 acres.
─┘ ─┘
And so on.

«Services reckoned by the hide.»

The services also were reckoned by the hide, and an abstract of them is here given, from which it will be seen that for some purposes the tenants of the now divided hide still clubbed as it were together to [p053] perform the services required for the hide; whilst for others 'each homestead (_domus_) of the hide' had its separate duties to perform.

The following were the services on the manor of Thorp:[49]--

Each of the _hidarii_ ought to plough 8 acres, 4 in winter and 4 in Lent.

Also to harrow and sow with the lord's seed.

After Pentecost each house (_domus_) of the hide has to hoe
thrice.

And to reap 4 acres, 2 of rye (_siligine_), and 2 of barley and
oats.

And find a waggon (_carrum_) with 2 men to carry the hard
grain, and another to carry the soft grain; and each waggon
(_plaustrum_) shall have 1 sheaf.

Each house of the hide has to mow 3 half-acres.

Each house of the hide has to provide a man to reap until the third [day], if aught remains.

Each house of the hide and of the demesne allotted to tenants has to provide the strongest man whom it has for the lord's '_precariæ_' in autumn, the lord providing him meals twice a day.

All men, both of the hide and of the demesne, have to provide their own ploughs for the lord's '_precariæ_,' the lord providing their meals.

And each hide ought to thresh out seed for the sowing of 4 acres after Michaelmas Day.

Each hide must thresh out so much seed as will suffice for the land ploughed by one team in winter and in Lent.

Each house of the whole village owes a hen at Christmas and eggs at Easter.

These 10 hides ought to repair and keep in repair these houses in the demesne, viz. the Grange, cowhouse, and threshing house.

Each of these _hidarii_ owes 2 _doddæ_ of oats in the middle of March.

And 14 loaves for '_mescinga_' (?).

And a '_companagium_' (flesh, fish, or cheese).

Each hide owes 5s. by the year, and ought to make of the lord's wood 4 hurdles of rods for the fold.

«_Solanda_, or double hide.»

The instance of another manor of St. Paul's (Tillingham), in Essex,[50] may be cited as further evidence that sometimes, even where the holdings (as at Winslow) were virgates and half-virgates, their original relation to the hide was not yet forgotten. For after giving the list of tenants in demesne, and of 19 [p054] tenants holding 30 acres each, who 'faciunt magnas operationes,' _i.e._ do full service, there is a statement that in this manor 30 acres make a virgate, and 120 acres a hide;[51] so that here also there are 4 virgates to the hide. But there was further in this manor a _double hide_, called a '_solanda_,'[52] presumably of 240 acres. A double hide called a _solanda_ is also mentioned in Sutton in Middlesex,[53] and another in Drayton;[54] and the term _solanda_ is probably the same as the well-known '_sullung_' or '_solin_' of Kent, meaning a 'plough land.'

It will be remembered that in the Huntingdonshire Hundred Rolls a double hide of 240 acres was noticed.

«The Kentish _sullungs_ and _yokes_.»

It may also be mentioned that in Kent[55] the division of the _sullung_, or hide, was called a _yoke_, instead of a yard-land or virgate; suggesting that the divisions of the plough land in some way corresponded with the yokes of oxen in the team.

On the whole little substantial difference appears between the grades of holdings in the south-east of England and those of the midland counties. We may add also that here, as elsewhere, the humbler class of cottier tenants are found beneath the regular holders of hides and virgates, and that on the demesne lands there appears the constantly increasing class of _libere tenentes_. Also passing from the holdings in villenage to the serfdom under which they were held, [p055] and speaking generally, the description obtained from the Hundred Rolls of the services might with little variation be applied to the different area embraced in this section.

VIII. THE RELATION OF THE VIRGATE TO THE HIDE TRACED IN THE CARTULARIES OF GLOUCESTER AND WORCESTER ABBEYS, AND THE CUSTUMAL OF BLEADON, IN SOMERSETSHIRE.

«Gloucester surveys of 1266.»

Further facts relating to the hide and the virgate are elicited by extending the inquiry into the west of England. Turning to the cartulary of the monastery of St. Peter at Gloucester,[56] there are several 'extents' of manors in the west of England of about the year 1266, which give valuable evidence, not only of the existence of the open fields divided into _three fields_ or _seasons_, furlongs, and half-acre strips, but also as regards the holdings.

The virgates in this district varied in acreage, some containing 48 acres, others 40, 38, 36, and 28 acres respectively.[57] In one case it is incidentally mentioned that 4 virgates make a hide.[58] We have thus in these extents evidence both of the prevalence and of the varying acreage of the virgate in the extreme west of England, to add to the evidence already obtained in respect of the midland counties.

«Worcester surveys of 1240.»

So also the register of the Priory of St. Mary, Worcester,[59] dated 1240, affords still earlier evidence for the west of England of a similar kind. [p056]

In the first manor mentioned therein the customary services of the villeins are described as pertaining to each pair of half-virgates, _i.e._ to each original virgate.[60] In the next manor there were 35 holdings in half-virgates, and so in other manors.[61] It is sometimes mentioned how many acres in each field belong to the several half-virgates, thus showing not only the division of the fields into _seasons_, but the scattered contents of the holdings.

Finally, with local variations serfdom in these two western counties was almost identical with that in other parts of England.

Two examples of the services of holders of virgates and half-virgates respectively are appended as before for comparison with others, and also examples of the services of cottier tenants. The list given in the note below of the 'common customs' of the villein tenants of one of the manors of Worcester Priory, describes some of the more general incidents of villenage, and shows how thorough a serfdom it originally was.[62] [p057]

«Custumal of Bleadon, in Somersetshire.»

To this evidence from the counties of Worcester and Gloucester we may add the evidence of the Custumal of Bleadon, in Somersetshire, also dating from the thirteenth century.

The manor belonged to the Prior of St. Swithin, at Winchester. There were very few _libere tenentes_. The tenants in villenage were _virgarii_, or holders of virgates, and _dimidii-virgarii_, or holders of half-virgates. There were also holders of fardels or quarter-virgates, and half-fardels, or one-eighth-virgates, and other small cottier tenants. Four virgates went to the hide. And the services were very similar to those of the Gloucester and Worcester tenants. They are described at too great length to be inserted here. We may, however, notice the importance amongst other items of the _carrying service_ or _averagium_--a service often mentioned among villein services, but here defined with more than usual exactness.[63]

In short, without going further into details, it is obvious that the open field system and the serfdom which lived within it were practically the same in their general features in the west and in the east of England.

The following are the examples of the services in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire:-- [p058]

VILLEIN SERVICES.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE

_Services of a Virgate._[64]

A. B. holds 1 virgate of 48 acres (in the manor of s. d. Hartpury), with messuage, and 6 acres of meadow land.

From Michaelmas till August 1 he has to plough one day a week, each day's work being valued at 3½

And to do manual labour 3 days a week, each day's work being valued at ½

On the 4th day to carry horse-loads (_summagiare_), if necessary, to Preston and other manors, and Gloucester, each day's work being valued at 1

Once a year to carry to Wick, valued at 3

To plough one acre called '_Eadacre_,'[65] and to thresh the seed for the said acre, the ploughing and threshing being valued at 4

To do the ploughing called '_beneherthe_' with one meal from the lord, valued _ultra cibum_ at 1

To mow the lord's meadow for 5 days, and more if necessary, each day's work being valued _ultra opus manuale_ at 1

To lift the lord's hay for 5 days 2½

To hoe the lord's corn for one day (besides the customary labour), with one man, valued at ½

To do 1 '_bederipa_' before autumn with 1 man, valued at 1½

To work in the lord's harvest s. d. 5 days a week with 2 men, from August 1 to Michaelmas, valued per week at 1 3

To do 1 '_bederipa_,' called '_bondenebedripa_,' with 4 men, valued at 6

To do 1 harrowing a year, called '_londegginge_,' valued at 1

To give at Michaelmas an aid of 3 3

To [pay] '_pannage_,' viz. for a pig of a year old 1

For a younger pig that can be separated ½

If he brew for sale, to give 14 gallons of ale as toll.

To sell neither horse nor ox without licence.

Seller and buyer to give 4d. as toll for a horse sold within the manor.

To redeem son and daughter at the will of the lord.

If he die, the lord to have his best beast of burden as heriot, and of his widow likewise, if she outlive her husband.

_Services of a Lundinarius._[66]

A. B. holds one 'lundinarium' (in the manor of Highnam), to wit, a messuage with curtilage, 4 acres of land, and a half-acre of meadow, and has to work one day a week (probably Monday, Lunæ-dies, Lundi, whence the title of the holding), from Michaelmas to August 1, and each day's work is valued at . . . . s. d.

To mow the lord's meadow for 4 days if necessary, and a day's mowing is valued at 2

To aid in cocking and lifting the hay for 6 days at least, and the day's work is valued at ½

To hoe the lord's corn for 1 day, valued at ½

To do 2 'bederipæ' before August 1, valued at 2

From August 1 to Michaelmas to do manual labour 2 days a week, and each day's work is valued at 1½

To gather rushes on August 1, valued at ½

And in all other 'conditions' he shall do as the customers.

The total value of the service of a 'lundinarius' is 6 8

To give 4d. as aid at Michaelmas.

(15 other 'lundinarii' hold on a like tenure.)

* * * * *

WORCESTERSHIRE

_Services of a Half-virgate._[67]

Of the villenage of Neweham, with appurtenances (or members), and of the villeins' works and customs.

In this manor are 35 half-virgates with appurtenances, exclusive of the half-virgate belonging to the '_præpositus_.'

Each half-virgate _ad censum_ pays on St. Andrew's Day 12d. (November 30); on Annunciation Day, 12d. (March 25); on St. John's Day, 12d. (June 24).

From June 24 till August 1, each villein to work 2 days a week, and, if the serjeant (_serviens_) shall so will, to continue the same work till after August 1.

From August 1 to Michaelmas--

To work 4 days a week.

To do 2 '_benripæ_' (reapings at request), with 1 man.

To plough about Michaelmas a half-acre, to sow it with his own corn, and to harrow it.

Also to plough for winter corn, spring corn, and fallowing, for 1 day, exclusive of the work, and it is called '_benherthe_.'

To give on February 2 one quarter of oats, and 2½d. as '_fisfe_' (fish-fee).

To hoe as [one day's] work after June 24.

All to mow as [one day's] work, and each to receive on mowing day as much grass as he can lift with his scythe, and if his scythe break he shall lose his grass and be amerced.

All to receive 6d. for drink.

In this manor 8 gallons of beer are given as toll, besides the toll of the mills.

Each half-virgate, if _ad operationem_, from Michaelmas till August 1, to work 2 days a week.

To plough and sow with its own corn half an acre, and to harrow the same.

To plough and harrow one day in winter, and the prior to provide the seed; and, if necessary, each virgate to harrow as [a day's work] till ploughing time.

To plough one day in spring.

And to plough for fallowing for 1 day (warrectare) as above.

_Services of a Cottarius._[68]

In the manor of Neweham are 10 cottiers (omitting William the miller and Adam de Neweham), each holding 1 messuage with appurtenances, and 6 acres.

[If _ad operationem_] each to work 2 days a week (excepting Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas weeks).

To drive, take messages, and bear loads.

To give '_thac_,' '_thol_,' aid, and such like.

But they give neither oats nor '_fisfe_.'

If '_ad firmam_,' to render at each quarter-day (_terminum_) 6d.

IX. CARTULARIES OF NEWMINSTER AND KELSO (XIII. CENTURY)--THE CONNEXION OF THE HOLDINGS WITH THE COMMON PLOUGH TEAM OF EIGHT OXEN.

Passing to the north of England, substantially the same system is found, along with customs and details which still further connect the gradations of the holdings in villenage with the plough team and the yokes of oxen of which it was composed.

«Bovates or oxgangs.»

North of the Tees, in the district of the old Northumbria, virgates and half-virgates were still the [p061] usual holdings, but they were called 'husband-lands.' The full husband-land, or virgate, was composed of two _bovates_, or _oxgangs_, the bovate or oxgang being thus the eighth of the hide or carucate.

In the cartulary of Newminster,[69] under date 1250, amongst charters giving evidence of the division of the fields into 'seliones,' or strips,[70] the holdings of which were scattered over the fields,[71] as everywhere else, is a grant of land to the abbey containing 8 bovates in all, made up of 4 equal holdings of _two bovates_ each.

«Husband lands of two bovates.»

«_Stuht_, or outfit of two oxen.»

In the '_Rotulus Redituum_' of the Abbey of Kelso, dated 1290,[72] the holdings were 'husband-lands.' In one place[73]--Selkirk--there were 15 _husband-lands, each containing a bovate_. In another[74]--Bolden--the record of which, with the services of the husband-lands, is referred to several times in the document as typical of the rest, there were 28 husband-lands, owing equal payments and services. The contents are not given, but as the services evidently are doubles of those of Selkirk, it may be inferred that the husband-lands each contained 2 bovates (_i.e._ a virgate), and that so did the usual husband-lands of the Kelso estates. This inference is confirmed by the record for the manor of Reveden, which states that the monks had there 8 husband-lands,[75] from each of which were due the services set out at length at the end of this section; and then goes on to say that formerly each 'husband' took with his 'land' his _stuht_, viz. 2 _oxen_, 1 horse, 3 chalders of oats, 6 bolls [p062] of barley, and 3 of wheat. 'But when Abbot Richard commuted that service into money, then they returned their _stuht_, and paid each for his husband-land 18s. per annum.' The allotment of 2 oxen as _stuht_, or outfit, to the husband-land evidently corresponds with its contents as two bovates.

If the holding of 2 bovates was equivalent to the virgate, and the bovate to the half-virgate or one-eighth of the hide, then the hide should contain 8 bovates or oxgangs; and as the single oxgang had relation to the single ox, and the virgate or 'two bovates' to the pair of oxen allotted to it by way of 'stuht,' or outfit, so the hide ought to have a similar relation to a team of 8 oxen. Thus, if the full team of 8 oxen can be shown to be the _normal_ plough team, a very natural relation would be suggested between the gradations of holdings in villenage, and the number of oxen contributed by the holders of them to the full plough team of the manorial plough. And, in fact, there is ample evidence that it was so.

«Full _caruca_ or plough team of eight oxen.»

In the Kelso records there is mention of a 'carucate,' or 'plough-land'[76] ('plough' being in these records rendered by 'caruca'); and this plough-land turns out, upon examination, to contain 4 husband-lands, _i.e._ presumably 8 bovates.

Further, among the 'Ancient Acts of the Scotch Parliament' there is an early statute[77] headed '_Of Landmen telande with Pluche_,' which ordains that '_ilk man teland with a pluche of viii. oxin_' shall sow at the least so much wheat, &c.: showing that the team of 8 oxen was the normal plough team in Scotland. [p063] Again, among the fragments printed under the heading of 'Ancient Scotch Laws and Customs,' without date, occurs the following record:[78]--

'In the first time that the law was made and ordained they began at the freedom of "halikirk," and since, at the measuring of lands, the "_plew-land_" they ordained to contain _viii. oxingang_, &c.'

Even so late as the beginning of the present century, we learn from the old 'Statistical Account of Scotland' that in many districts the old-fashioned ploughs were of such great weight that they required 8, 10, and sometimes 12 oxen to draw them.[79]

«Four oxen yoked abreast.»

Information from the same source also explains the use of the word '_caruca_' for plough. For the construction of the word involves not 4 yoke of oxen, but 4 oxen yoked abreast, as are the horses in the _caruca_ so often seen upon Roman coins. And the 'Statistical Account' informs us that in some districts of Scotland in former times 'the ploughs were drawn by 4 oxen or horses _yoked abreast_: one trod constantly upon the tilled surface, another went in the furrow, and two upon the stubble or white land. The driver walked backwards holding his cattle by halters, and taking care that each beast had its equal share in the draught. This, though it looked awkward, was contended to be the only mode of yoking by which 4 animals could best be compelled to exert all their strength.'[80]

«So also in Wales.»

The ancient Welsh laws, as we shall see by-and-by, also speak of the normal plough team as consisting from time immemorial, throughout Wales, of 8 [p064] oxen yoked 4 to a yoke. The team of 8 oxen seems further to have been the normal manorial plough team throughout England, though in some districts still larger teams were needful when the land was heavy clay.

In the 'Inquisition of the Manors of St. Paul's'[81] it is stated of the demesne land of a manor in Hertfordshire, that the ploughing could be done with two plough teams (_carucæ_), of 8 head each. And in another case in the same county 'with 2 plough teams of 8 heads, "cum consuetudinibus villatæ"--with the customary services of the villein tenants.'[82] In another, 'with 5 ploughs, of which 3 have 4 oxen and 4 horses, and 2 each 6 horses.' In another, 'with 3 ploughs of 8 heads.'

In manors in Essex, on the other hand, where the land is heavier, there are the following instances:[83]--

4 plough teams, 10 in each. 2 plough teams, 8 in each. 1 plough team, 10. 3 plough teams, 8 oxen and 2 horses. 2 plough teams, 10 oxen and 10 horses for the two. 2 plough teams, 12 oxen and 8 horses the two. 2 plough teams, 4 horses and 4 oxen in each. 2 plough teams, 10 each. 1 plough team, 6 horses and 4 oxen.

In two manors in Middlesex the teams were as under:[84]--

1 of 8 heads. 2 of 8 oxen and 2 horses. [p065]

In the Gloucester cartulary[85] there are the following instances:--

To each plough team 8 oxen and 4 over. To each plough team 12 oxen and 1 over. To each plough team 12 oxen and 1 over.

«Normal English plough team of eight oxen.»

All these instances are from documents of the thirteenth century, and they conspire in confirming the point that the normal plough team was, by general consent, of 8 oxen; though some heavier lands required 10 or 12, and sometimes horses in aid of the oxen.

Nor do these exceptions at all clash with the hypothesis of the connexion of the grades of holdings with the number of oxen contributed by the holders to the manorial plough team of their village; for as the number of oxen in the team sometimes varied from the normal standard, so also did the number of virgates in the hide or carucate.

«Connexion between the oxen and the holdings.»

So that, summing up the evidence of this chapter, daylight seems to have dawned upon the meaning of the interesting gradation of holdings in villenage in the open fields. The hide or carucate seems to be the holding corresponding with the possession of a full plough team of 8 oxen. The half-hide corresponds with the possession of one of the 2 yokes of 4 abreast; the virgate with the possession of a pair of oxen, and the half-virgate or bovate with the possession of a single ox; all having their fixed relations to the full manorial plough team of 8 oxen. And this conclusion receives graphic illustration when the Scotch chronicler Winton thus quaintly describes [p066] the efforts of King Alexander III. to increase the growth of corn in his kingdom:--

Yhwmen, pewere karl, or knawe That wes of mycht an ox til have He gert that man hawe part in pluche: Swa wes corn in his land enwche: Swa than begouth, and efter lang Of land wes mesure, ane oxgang. Mychty men that had mâ Oxyn, he gert in pluchys ga. Be that vertu all his land Of corn he gert be abowndand.[86]

Not that Alexander III. was really the originator of the terms 'plow-land' and 'oxgate,' but that he attained his object of increasing the growth of corn by extending into new districts of Scotland, before given up chiefly to grazing, the same methods of husbandry as elsewhere had been at work from time immemorial, just as the monks of Kelso probably had done, by giving each of their villein tenants a 'stuht' of 2 oxen with which to plough their husband-lands.

One point more, however, still remains to be explained before the principle of the open field system can be said to be fully grasped, viz. why the strips of which the hides, virgates, and bovates were composed were scattered in so strange a confusion all over the open fields.

«Services on _Kelso_ manors.»

In the meantime the following examples of the services of the villein tenants of _Kelso_ husband-lands and bovates are appended for the purpose of comparison with those of other districts:-- [p067]

BOLDEN[87]

At Bolden--

The monks have 28 'husbands'-lands in the villa of Bolden, each of which used to render 6s. 8d. at Pentecost and Martinmas, and to do certain services, viz.:

To reap in autumn for 4 days with all his family, himself and
wife.

To perform likewise a fifth day's work in autumn with 2 men.

To carry peat with one waggon for one day from Gordon to the
'pullis.'

To carry one waggon-load of peat from the 'pullis' to the abbey
in summer, and no more.

To carry once a year with one horse from Berwick.

And to have their meals from the abbey when doing this service.

To till 1½ acre at the grange of Neuton every year.

To harrow with one horse one day.

To find one man at the sheepwashing and another man at the
shearing, without meals.

To answer likewise for foreign service and for other suits.

To carry corn in autumn with one waggon for one day.

To carry the abbot's wool from the barony to the abbey.

To find him carriage over the moor to Lessemahagu.

REVEDEN[88]

At Reveden--

The monks have 8 'husbands'-lands and 1 bovate, each of which performed certain services at one time, viz.:

Each week in summer the carriage with 1 horse to Berwick.

The horse to carry 3 '_bollæ_' of corn, or 2 '_bollæ_' of salt,
or 1½ '_bollæ_' of coals.

In winter the same carriage, but the horse only carried 2
'_bollæ_' of corn, or 1½ '_bollæ_' of salt, or 1 '_bolla_' and
'_ferloth_' of coal.

Each week, when they came from Berwick, each land did one day's
work according to order.

When they did not go to Berwick, they tilled 2 days a week.

In autumn, when they did not go to Berwick they did 3 days'
work.

At that time each 'husband' took with his land '_stuht_,' viz.:

2 oxen, 1 horse,

3 'celdræ' of oats,

6 'bollæ' of barley,

3 'bollæ' of corn.

And afterwards, when Abbot Richard commuted that service into
money, they returned their '_stuht_,' and each one gave for his
land 18s. a year. [p068]

X. THE BOLDON BOOK, A.D. 1183.

We are now in a position to creep up one step nearer to the time of the Domesday Survey, and in the Boldon Book to examine earlier examples of North Country manors.

The Boldon Book is a survey of the manors belonging to the Bishop of Durham in the year 1183, nearly a century earlier than the date of the Hundred Rolls.

«Survey of _Boldon_.»

The typical entry which may be taken as the common form used throughout the record relates to the village of Boldon, from which the name of the survey is taken.

It is as follows:[89]--

«The services of villani.»

In Boldon there are 22 villani, each holding 2 bovates, or 30 acres, and paying 2s. 6d. for 'scat-penynges' [being in fact 1d. per acre], a half '_shaceldra_' of oats, 16d., for 'averpenynges' [in lieu of carrying service], 5 four-wheel waggons of 'woodlade' [lading of wood], 2 cocks, and 10 eggs.

They work 3 days a week throughout the year, excepting Easter week and Pentecost, and 13 days at Christmas.

In autumn they do 4 dayworks at reaping, with all their family except the housewife. Also they reap 3 roods of '_averype_,' and plough and harrow 3 roods of '_averere_.'

Also each villein plough-team ploughs and harrows 2 acres, with allowance of food ('_corrodium_') once from the bishop, and then they are quit of that week's work.

When they do '_magnas precationes_,' they have a food allowance (_corrodium_) from the bishop, and as part of their works do harrowing when necessary, and '_faciunt ladas_' (make loads?). And when they do these each receives 1 loaf.

Also they reap for 1 day at Octon till the evening, and then they receive an allowance of food.

And for the fairs of St. Cuthbert, every 2 villeins erect a booth; and when they make '_logiæ_' and 'wodelade' (load wood), they are quit of other labour. [p069]

There are 12 '_cotmanni_,' each of whom holds 12 acres, and they work throughout the year 2 days a week except in the aforesaid feasts, and render 12 hens and 60 eggs.

Robertus holds 2 bovates or 36 acres, and renders half a mark.

The _Punder_ holds 12 acres, and receives from each plough 1 '_trave_' of corn, and renders 40 hens and 500 eggs.

The _Miller_ [renders] 5½ marks.

The '_Villani_' are, if need be, to make a house each year 40 feet long and 15 feet wide, and when they do this each is quit of 4d. of his 'averpenynges.'

The whole 'villa' renders 17s. as '_cornagium_' (_i.e._ tax on horned beasts), and 1 cow '_de metride_.'

The demesne is at farm, together with the stock for 4 ploughs and 4 harrows, and renders for 2 ploughs 16 'celdræ' of corn, 16 'celdræ' of oats, 8 'celdræ' of barley, and for the other 2 ploughs, 10 marks.

«They hold yard-lands of two bovates, or single bovates.»

Here then at Boldon were 22 villani, each holding two bovates or 30 acres, equivalent to a virgate or yard-land. In another place (Quycham) there are said to be thirty-five '_bovat-villani_,' each of whom held a bovate of 15 acres, and performed such and such services.[90] These correspond with holders of half-virgates.

Below these villani, holding one or two bovates, as in all other similar records, were cottage holdings, some of 12 acres, some of 6 acres each. There seems to have been a certain equality in some places, even in the lowest rank of holdings.

Here then, within about 100 years of the Domesday Survey, are found the usual grades of holdings in villenage. The services, too, present little variation from those of later records and other parts of England.

From the Boldon Book may be gathered a few points of further information, which may serve to complete the picture of the life of the village community in villenage. [p070]

«Manor sometimes farmed by villani.»

The unity of the 'villata' as a self-acting community is illustrated by the fact that in many instances the services of the villani are _farmed_ by them from the monastery _as a body_, at a single rent for the whole village[91]--a step in the same direction as the commutation of services and leasing of land to farm tenants, practices already everywhere becoming so usual.

«Village officials: the faber.»

The corporate character of the 'villata' is also illustrated by frequent mention of the village officials. The _faber_,[92] or blacksmith, whose duty it was to keep in repair the ironwork of the ploughs of the village, usually held his bovate or other holding in respect of his office free from ordinary services. The carpenter[93] also held his holding free, in return for his obligation to repair the woodwork of the ploughs and harrows.

«The punder.»

«The præpositus.»

The _punder_[94] (pound-keeper) was another official with a recognised position. And, as a matter of course, the villein tenant holding the office of _præpositus_ for the time being was freed by virtue of his office from the ordinary services of his virgate or two bovates,[95] but resumed them again when his term of [p071] office ceased, and another villein was elected in his stead.

«Cornage.»

In addition to the ordinary agricultural services in respect of the arable land, there is mention, in the services of Boldon and other places, of special dues or payments, probably for rights of grazing or possession of herds of cattle. This kind of payment is called 'cornagium,' either because it is paid in horned cattle, or, if in money, in respect of the number of horned cattle held.

«Drengage.»

There are also services connected with the bishop's hunting expeditions. Thus there are persons holding in 'drengage,' who have to feed a horse and a dog, and 'to go in the great hunt' (_magna caza_) with two harriers and 15 'cordons,' &c.[96]

«Hunting services.»

«Booths at the fairs of St. Cuthbert.»

So of the villani of 'Aucklandshire'[97] it is recorded that they are 'to furnish for the great hunts of the bishop a "cordon" from each bovate, and to make the Bishop's hall (_aula_) in the forest, sixty feet long and sixteen feet wide between the posts, with a buttery, a steward's room, a chamber and "privat." Also they make a chapel 40 feet long by 15 wide, receiving two shillings, of charity; and make their portion of the hedge (_haya_) round the lodges (_logiæ_). On the departure of the bishop they have a full tun of beer, or half a tun if he should stay on. They also keep the eyries of the hawks in the bailiwick of Radulphus Callidus, and put up 18 booths (_bothas_) at the fairs of St. Cuthbert.'

The last item, which also occurs in the services of Boldon, is interesting in connexion with a passage in a letter of Pope Gregory the Great to the Abbot [p072] Mellitus (A.D. 601), in which he requests the Bishop Augustine to be told that, after due consideration of the habits of the English nation, he (the Pope) determines that, 'because they have been used to slaughter many oxen in the sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for them on this account, as that on the day of the dedication, or the nativities of the holy martyrs, whose relics are there deposited, they may build themselves huts of the boughs of trees, about those churches which have been turned to that use from temples, and celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting, and no more offer beasts to the devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating, it being impossible to efface everything at once from their obdurate minds: because he who tries to rise to the highest place rises by degrees or steps, and not by leaps.'[98]

The villeins of St. Cuthbert's successor are found 500 years after Pope Gregory's advice still, as a portion of their services, yearly putting up the booths for the fairs held in honour of their patron saint--a fact which may help us to realise the tenacity of local custom, and lessen our surprise if we find also that for the origin of other services we must look back for as long a period.

XI. THE 'LIBER NIGER' OF PETERBOROUGH ABBEY, A.D. 1125.

Fifty or sixty years earlier than the Boldon Book, was compiled the 'Liber Niger'[99] of the monastery of St. Peter de Burgo, the abbey of Peterborough. [p073]

This record is remarkably exact and full in its details. Its date is from 1125 to 1128; and its evidence brings up our knowledge of the English manor and serfdom--the open field and its holdings--almost to the threshold of the Domesday Survey, _i.e._ within about 40 years of it.

The first entry gives the following information:[100]--

In Kateringes, which is assessed at 10 hides, 40 villani held 40 yard-lands (_virgas terræ_, or virgates), and there were 8 cotsetes, each holding 5 acres. The services were as follows:

The holders of virgates for the lord's work plough in spring 4 acres for each virgate. And besides this they find plough teams (_carucæ_) three times in winter, three times for spring plowing, and once in summer. And they have 22 plough teams, wherewith they work. And all of them work 3 days a week. And besides this they render per annum from each virgate of custom 2s. 1½d. And they all render 50 hens and 640 eggs. One tenant of 13 acres renders 16d., and [has] 2 acres of meadow. The mill with the miller renders 20s. The 8 cotsetes work one day a week, and twice a year make malt. Each of them gives a penny for a goat, and if he has a she-goat, a halfpenny. There is a shepherd and a swineherd who hold 8 acres. And in the demesne of the manor (_curiæ_) are 4 plough teams with 32 oxen (_i.e._ 8 to each team), 12 cows with 10 calves, and 2 unemployed animals, and 3 draught cattle, and 300 sheep, and 50 pigs, and as much meadow over as is worth 16s. The church of the village is at the altar of the abbey church. For the love-feast of St. Peter[101] [they give] 4 rams and 2 cows, or 5s.

This entry may be taken as a typical one.

«Holdings, virgates and half-virgates.»

Here, then, within forty years of the date of the Domesday Survey is clear evidence that the normal holding of the villanus was a virgate. Elsewhere there were semi-villani with half-virgates.[102] [p074]

«The manorial plough team of eight oxen.»

Further, throughout this record fortunately the number of ploughs and oxen on the lord's demesne happens to be mentioned, from which the number of oxen to the team can be inferred. And the result is that in 15 out of 25 manors there were 8 oxen to a team; in 6 the team had 6 oxen, and in the remaining 4 cases the numbers were odd.

«Smaller teams of the _villani_.»

So far as it goes, this evidence proves that, as a rule, 8 oxen made up the full normal manorial plough team in the twelfth as in the thirteenth century. But it should be observed that this seems to hold good only of the ploughs on the lord's demesne--_in dominio curiæ_. The villani held other and apparently smaller ploughs, with about 4 oxen to the team instead of 8, and with these they performed their services.[103] [p075]

But this fact does not appear to clash with the supposed connexion between the hide of 8 bovates and the manorial plough with its team of 8 oxen. It probably simply shows that the connexion between them on which the regular gradation of holdings in villenage depended had its origin at an earlier period, when a simpler condition of the community in villenage existed than that to be found in those days immediately following the Domesday Survey. There were, in fact, many other symptoms that the community in villenage had long been losing its archaic simplicity and wandering from its original type.

«Symptoms of the breaking up of serfdom.»

One of these symptoms may be found in the fact observed in the later evidence, that the number of irregular holdings increased as time went on. In the 'Liber Niger,' with the exception of the peculiar and local class of 'sochmanni' found in some of the manors, these irregular holdings seldom occur--a fact in itself very significant.

Another symptom may be noticed in the circumstance mentioned in the Boldon Book, and also in other cartularies, of the land in demesne being as a whole sometimes let or farmed out to the villani. Another was the fact, so apparent in the Hundred Rolls and cartularies, of the substitution of money payments for the services. There is no mention in the 'Liber Niger' of either of these practices.

All these are symptoms that the system was not a system recently introduced, but an old system gradually breaking up, relaxing its rules, and becoming in some points inconsistent with itself. [p076]

XII. SUMMARY OF THE POST-DOMESDAY EVIDENCE.

«Manors everywhere.»

«Land in demesne and in villenage.»

«Open field system.»

To sum up the evidence already examined, and reaching to within forty years of the date of the Domesday Survey, it is clear that England was covered with manors. And these manors were in fact, in their simplest form, estates of manorial lords, each with its village community in villenage upon it. The land of the lord's demesne--the home farm belonging to the manor-house--was cultivated chiefly by the services of the _villata_, _i.e._ of the village community, or tenants in villenage. The land of this village community, _i.e._ the land in villenage, lay round the village in open fields. In the village were the messuages or homesteads of the tenants in villenage, and their holdings were composed of bundles of scattered strips in the open fields, with rights of pasture over the latter for their cattle after the crops were gathered, as well as on the green commons of the manor or township.

The tenants in villenage were divided into two distinct classes.

«Villani with yard-lands, &c.»

First, there were the villani proper, whose now familiar holdings, the hides, half-hides, virgates, and bovates, were connected with the number of oxen allotted to them or contributed by them to the manorial plough team of 8 oxen, the normal holding, the virgate or yard-land, including about 30 acres in scattered acre or half-acre strips.

And further, these holdings of the villani were indivisible bundles passing with the homestead which [p077] formed a part of them by re-grant from the lord from one generation of serfs to another in unbroken regularity, always to a single successor, whether the eldest or the youngest son, according to the custom of each individual manor. They possessed all the unity and indivisibility of an entailed estate, and were sometimes known apparently for generations by the family name of the holders.[104] But the reason underlying all this regular devolution was not the preservation of the family of the tenant, but of the services due from the yard-land to the lord of the manor.

«Bordarii, or cottiers.»

Below the villani proper were the numerous smaller tenants of what may be termed the cottier class--sometimes called in the 'Liber Niger,' as it is important to notice, _bordarii_[105] (probably from the Saxon 'bord,' a cottage). And these cottagers, possessing generally no oxen, and therefore taking no part in the common ploughing, still in some manors seem to have ranked as a lower grade of villani, having small allotments in the open fields,--in some manors 5 acre strips apiece, in other manors more or less.

«Slaves.»

Lastly, below the villeins and cottiers were, in some districts, remains, hardly to be noticed in the later cartularies, of a class of _servi_, or slaves, fast becoming [p078] merged in the cottier class above them, or losing themselves among the household servants or labourers upon the lord's demesne.

«Open field the shell of serfdom.»

Thus the community in villenage fitted into the open field as into its shell--a shell which was long to survive the breaking up of the system of serfdom which lived within it. The _débris_ of this shell, as we have seen, still remains upon the open fields of some English villages and townships to-day; but for the full meaning of some of its features, especially of the scattering of the strips in the yard-lands, we have to look still farther back into the past even than the twelfth century.

«Analysis of the services.»

Passing from the shell to the serfdom which lived within it, we have found it practically alike in the north and south and east and west of England, and from the time of the Black Death back to the threshold of the Domesday Survey. Complicated as are the numerous little details of the services and payments, they fall with great regularity under three distinct heads:--

«Week-work.»

1. _Week-work_--_i.e._ work for the lord for so many days a week, mostly three days.

«Boon-work.»

2. _Precariæ_, or _boon-work_--_i.e._ special work at request ('ad precem' or 'at bene'), sometimes counting as part of the week-work, sometimes extra to it.

«Gafol.»

3. Payments in money or kind or work, rendered by way of rent or 'Gafol'; and various dues, such as _Kirkshot_, _Hearth-penny_, _Easter dues_, &c.

The first two of these may be said to be practically quite distinct from the third class, and intimately connected _inter se_. The boon-work would seem to be a necessary corollary of the _limitation_ of the week-work. If the lord had had unlimited right to the whole work [p079] of his villein tenant all days a week, and had an unrestricted choice as to what kind of work it should be, week-work at the lord's bidding might have covered it all. But custom not only limited the number of days' work per week, but also limited the number of days on which the work should consist of ploughing, reaping, and other work of more than usual value, involving oxen or piece-work, beyond the usual work of ordinary days.

The _week-work_, limited or otherwise, was evidently the most _servile_ incident of villenage.

The payments in money or kind, or in work of the third class, to which the word _gafol_, or tribute, was applied, were more like modern rent, rates, and taxes than incidents of serfdom.

Comparing the services of the villani with those of the cottiers or bordarii, the difference evidently turns upon the size of the holdings, and the possession or non-possession of oxen.

«Cottiers' services.»

Naturally ploughing was a prominent item in the services of the villanus holding a virgate, with his 'stuht,' or outfit of two oxen. As naturally the services of the bordarius or cottager did not include ploughing, but were limited to smaller services.

But apparently the services of each class were equally servile. Both were in villenage, and _week-work_ was the chief mark of the serfdom of both.

Besides the servile week-work and '_gafol_,' &c., there were also other incidents of villenage felt to be restrictions upon freedom, and so of a servile nature. Of these the most general were--

«Other servile incidents.»

The requirement of the lord's licence for the marriage of a daughter, and fine on incontinence. [p080]

The prohibition of sale of oxen, &c., without the lord's licence.

The obligation to use the lord's mill, and do service at his court.

The obligation not to leave the land without the lord's licence.

It was the week-work of the villanus, and these restrictions on his personal liberty, which were felt to be serfdom.[106]

«All limited by custom.»

But these servile incidents were limited by custom, and this limitation by custom of the lord's demands, as well as the more and more prevalent commutation of services into money payments in later times, were, as has been said, notes and marks of a relaxation of the serfdom. The absence of these limitations would be the note and mark of a more complete serfdom.

Thus, in pursuing this economic inquiry further back into Saxon times, the main question will be whether the older serfdom of the holder of yard-lands was more or less unlimited, and therefore complete, than in the times following upon the Norman conquest.

«The evidence has led up to the Domesday Survey.»

In the meantime the Domesday Survey is the next evidence which lies before us, and judging from the tenacity of custom, and the extreme slowness of economic changes in the later period, it may be approached with the almost certain expectation that no great alteration can well have taken place in the English open-field and manorial system in the forty [p081] years between its date and that of the _Liber Niger_ of Peterborough Abbey.

If this expectation should be realised, the Domesday Survey, approached as it has been by the ladder of the later evidence leading step by step up to it, ought easily to yield up its secrets.

«and must give the key to it.»

If such should prove to be the case, though losing some of its mystery and novelty, the Domesday Survey will gain immensely in general interest and importance by becoming intelligible. The picture it gives of the condition of rural England will become vivid and clear in its outlines, and trustworthy to a unique degree in its details. For extending as it does, roughly speaking, to the whole of England south of the Tees and east of the Severn, and spanning as it does by its double record the interval between its date and the time of Edward the Confessor, it will prove more than ever an invaluable vantage-ground from which to work back economic inquiries into the periods before the Norman conquest of England. It may be trusted to do for the earlier Saxon records what a previous understanding of later records will have done for it.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] _Prologus_, lines 17 to 21.

[12] _Prologus_, 216 to end.

[13] _Passus_, v. 400 to 428.

[14] _Passus_, vi. 4 to 6.

[15] _Passus_, vi. 107–9.

[16] I am indebted to Mr. Bradshaw for having called my attention to this MS., which is now in the Cambridge University Library.

[17] MS. Dd. 7. 22. I am much indebted to Mr. Bradshaw for the loan of this MS. from the Library.

[18] The MS. is headed 'Extracta Rotulorum de Halimotis tentis apud Manerium de Wynselowe tempore Edwardi tercii a Con uestu' and it embraced _Wynselowe_, _Horelwode_, _Greneburgh_, _Shipton_, _Nova Villa de Wynselowe_, _Onyng_, and _Muston_.

[19] See entry under 44 Ed. III.

[20] Sub anno 35 Ed. III.

[21] The number of tenants with smaller holdings was considerably larger than the number of holders of virgates and half-virgates, but their holdings were so small that in the aggregate they held a much smaller acreage than the other class.

[22] Out of 43 jurymen who had served in 1346, 1347, and 1348, 27 died of the Black Death in 1348–9. Out of these 27 who died, and whose holdings therefore can be traced, 16 held virgates, 8 held half-virgates, and of the other 3 one held 1 messuage and 2 cottages, another a messuage and 15 acres in villenage (equivalent to a half-virgate), and the third 8 acres arable and 2½ of meadow.

[23] Cases of this are numerous after the Black Death. See in 27 Ed. III. one case, in 28 Edward III. 11 cases, in 30 Ed. III. five cases.

[24] All the 153 holdings which changed hands on the death of the tenants of the Black Death were re-granted to the single heir of the deceased holder or to a reversioner, or in default of such were retained by the lord. In no case was there a subdivision by inheritance. The _heriot_ of a virgate was generally an ox, or money payment of its value. But the amount was often reduced 'propter paupertatem;' and sometimes when a succeeding tenant could not pay, a half-acre was deducted from the virgate and held by the lord instead of the heriot.

[25] See under 23 Ed. III. a record of the unanimous finding of the jury to this effect.

[26] The instances of fugitive villeins are very numerous for years after the Black Death; and inquiry into cases of this class formed a prominent part of the business transacted at the halimotes.