CHAPTER IIGENERAL CONCLUSIONSToC

[730]Cunningham,Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Modern Times, Part I., pp. 112–119.

[731]39 Eliz., c. 2.

[732]4 James I., c. 11.

[733]Original Papers of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society, 1907, pp. 70–73.

[734]Lee,A Vindication of a Regulated Enclosure, 1656.

[735]Holkham MSS., Sparham Bdle., No. 5, see back, p. 374.

[736]Selden Society,Select Cases in the Court of Requests, Customarye Tenants of Bradfordv.Fraunceys: “The seyd defendant seythe that the said bill of complaint ... is mater ... determinable at the comen land and not in this honourable court, whereunto he prayeth to be remitted.” Also Gairdner,L. & P. Henry VIII., i., 334, Earl of Derby to Cromwell; and Leadam,E. H. R., vol. viii. pp. 684–696. For attacks on Wolsey’s land policy see Herbert,History of King Henry VIII., pp. 297–298 (ed. of 1672): “Also the said Cardinal hath examined divers and many matters in the Chancery, after judgment thereof given at the Common Law, in subversion of your laws, and made some persons restore again to the other party condemned that they had in execution by virtue of the judgment in the Common Law.”

[737]Gardiner,History of England, 1603–1642, vol. viii., p. 78. Compare the Instructions for the President and Council of the North, 1603 (Prothero,Statutes and Constitutional Documents, 1558–1625, pp. 363–378), Article XXVIII.: “Further our pleasure is that the said Lord P. and Council shall from time to time make diligent and effectual inquisition of the wrongful taking in of commons and other grounds and the decay of tillage and of towns or houses of husbandry contrary to the laws, ... and leaving all respect and affection apart they shall take such order for redress of enormities used in the same as the poor people be not oppressed and forced to go begging ... and ... if they find any notorious malefactor in this behalf of any great wealth, cause the extremity of the law to be executed against him publicly.”

[738]Gardiner,Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625–1660, pp. 212–213, “Conversion of arable into pasture, continuance of pasture, under the name of depopulation, have driven many millions out of the subject's purses, without any considerable profit to his Majesty.”

[739]Clarendon’sHistory of the Rebellion, I. 204, IV. 63. Clarendon’s account of the Grand Remonstrance suggests that the principal grievance was not depopulation, but the fines exacted for it; see the words “with the vexations upon pretence of nuisances in building ... and of depopulation, that men might pay fines to continue the same misdemeanour.”

[740]Appendix I., No. VIII.

[741]I make this statement on the authority of Dr. Slater,Sociological Review, vol. iv., No. 4, p. 349, but I have been unable to trace his evidence. The only reference I can find bearing on the subject is contained in Article XIII. of the heads of the accusation against Lord Clarendon: “That he hath in an arbitrary way examined and drawn into question divers of his Majesty’s subjects concerning their lands, tenements, goods, chattells, and properties, determined thereof at the Council Table, and stopped proceedings at law by the order of the Council Table, and threatened some that pleaded the Statute of 17 Car. I." (The proceedings in the House of Commons touching the impeachment of Edward, late Earl of Clarendon, 1700.)

[742]Locke,Two Treatises of Government, Book II., chap. xi.

Those who have had the patience to follow the detailed changes in rural organisation which have been described above will naturally ask, “What is the upshot of it all? What are the main landmarks which stand out from the bewildering variety of scenery? How does the agrarian England which is sleepily hunting out old guns and older bows on the eve of the Civil War differ from the England which saw the first Tudor 'with general applause and joy, in a kind of military election or recognition, saluted King?'”

At first sight it differs but little. To see our subject in its proper perspective we must emphasise the continuity of economic life between 1485 and 1642 as much as in the preceding pages we have emphasised the novelty of some of its experiments. We must turn from Fitzherbert and Hales to Arthur Young. We must set Latimer’s lamentations over the decay of the yeomanry side by side with the figures of Gregory King and the boasts of Chamberlayne and Defoe. We must compare our sporadic enclosures with the two thousand six hundred Enclosure Acts which were passed between 1702 and 1810. The outward appearance of many English villages at the Revolution would be quite unrecognisable to-day, but it can have been but little altered from what it had been at the time of the Peasants' Revolt. It could still be said that three-fifths of the cultivated land of England was unenclosed. And if Piers Plowman had dreamed for four centuries on Malvern Hills he might still have woken to plough his half acre between the balks of a still open field, like that “very wide field,” with crooked ways butting upon it and a wicket-gate on its shining horizon, throughwhich Christian sped from Evangelist, crying “Life, Life, Eternal Life.”

Ought we, then, to say that the agrarian revolution of the sixteenth century was insignificant, and that it has been magnified into importance only by the rhetorical complaints of unskilful observers? The answer has been given by implication in the preceding pages. The fact that statistical evidence reveals no startling disturbance in area enclosed or population displaced, is no bar to the belief that, both in immediate consequences and in ultimate effects, the heavy blows dealt in that age at the traditional organisation of agriculture were an episode of the first importance in economic and social development. The barometer which registers climatic variations yields no clue to their influence on the human constitution, and the quantitative rule by which we measure economic changes bends in our hands when we use it to appraise their results. The difference between prosperity and distress, or enterprise and routine, or security and its opposite, is scarcely more susceptible of expression in figures than is the difference between civilisation and barbarism itself. In the infinite complexity of human relationships, with their interplay of law with economics, and of economics with politics, and of all with the shifting hopes and fears, baseless anticipations and futile regrets, of countless individuals, a change which to the statistician concerned with quantities seems insignificant, may turn a wheel whose motion sets a world of unseen forces grinding painfully round into a new equilibrium. Not only our estimate of the importance of social alterations, but their actual importance itself, depends upon what we are accustomed to and what we expect. Just as modern manufacturing nations groan over a reduction in exports, which in the reign of Henry VIII. would have passed unnoticed, or are convulsed by a rise in general prices, which, when expressed in percentages, seems ridiculously small, so the stationary rural society of Tudor England may well have been shaken to its core by agrarian changes which, in a world where rural emigration is the rule, would appear almost too minute to be recorded. If contemporaries, to whom the very foundation of a healthy economic life seemedto be shattered, underestimated the capacity of society for readjustment, they were not mistaken in their supposition that the readjustment required would be so vast and painful as to involve the depression of important orders of men, and the recognition of new responsibilities by the State in the agony of transition. If we are busy planting small holders to-day, it is partly because sixteenth century Governments were so often busy with them in vain. The crude barbarities of tramp ward and workhouse were first struck out in an age when most of those who tramped and toiled, who sat in stocks and were whipped from town to town, were not the victims of trade depression or casual employment, but peasants thrown on the labour market by the agrarian revolution.

For, in truth, the change which was coming upon the world in the guise of mere technical improvements was vaster than in their highest hopes or their deepest despondency the men of the Tudor age could have foreseen, and its immediate effects on the technique of agriculture and the standard of rural prosperity were but the tiny beginnings of movements whose origins are overshadowed by their tremendous consequences. It is a shallow view which has no interest to spare for the rivulet because it is not yet a river. Though many tributaries from many sources must converge before economic society assumes a shape that is recognisable as modern, it is none the less true that in the sixteenth century we are among the hills from which great waters descend. By 1642 the channels which will carry some of them have been carved deep and sure. By that time the expansion of the woollen industry has made it certain that England will be a considerable manufacturing nation, and consequently that the ancient stable routine of subsistence farming will gradually give place to agricultural methods which swing this way and that, now towards pasture, now towards arable, according to the fluctuations of the market. It is certain that, sooner or later, the new and more profitable economy of enclosure will triumph. It is certain that the small holder will have a hard struggle to hold his own against the capitalist farmer. It is certain that, owing to the substitution of variable for fixed fines on admission to copyholds, and the conversion of many copyholds into leases for years, a great part of the fruits of economic progress will no longer be retained, as in the fifteenth century, by the mass of the peasants, but will pass, in the shape of increased payments for land, into the pockets of the great landed proprietors. It is almost certain that to any new developments which may be detrimental to them the peasants will be able to offer a much less effective resistance than they have in the past. For the security of many of their class has been undermined; the gulf which separates them from the landed gentry, though still bridged by the existence of many prosperous freeholders, has been widened; and, above all, the destruction of the absolute monarchy has entrenched the great landlords inexpugnably at the heart of government, both central and local, and has made their power as great as their ambitions. Both from below and from above they are unassailable. For a century and a half after the Revolution they have what power a Government can have to make and ruin England as they please.

If we cast our eye over the agrarian changes of our period, with a view to grouping their main elements under a few easily distinguishable categories, we do not find that they present themselves as a simple series of economic sequences. Behind them all there is, it is true, the fundamental economic fact of the decay of subsistence husbandry. The movement away from the strict communal organisation of the open field village was inevitable as soon as markets were sufficiently developed to make agricultural experiments profitable, because experiments could not easily be undertaken without to some extent individualising the methods of cultivation. In particular, the grand innovation of substituting pasture-farming for tillage, whether carried out on a large scale or on a small, was only practicable if individuals were able to break away from the established course of agriculture. But the relaxation of village customs, which allowed a wider scope to individual initiative, did not necessarily involve that formation of large estates out of peasant holdings, which was the special note of the sixteenth century problem, and in fact the gradual nibbling away of customary restrictions went on to some degree among quitesmall men, long before the enclosure of land by great capitalists became a serious grievance. In the fourteenth century, and even earlier, holdings are becoming partible and unequal, and strips are being interchanged for the purpose of more convenient, because compacter, management. In the sixteenth century there is a good deal of enclosure by the peasants themselves with a view to better arable cultivation or to the more successful keeping of stock. Nor must we forget the example of Kent, Essex, Devonshire, Somersetshire, and Cornwall. Without raising the question whether the predominance of small enclosures in the Western Counties is not partly to be ascribed to peculiarities in their original settlement, we may say without fear of contradiction that the early enclosures of Kent and Essex are the outcome of the spread of commercial forces in those seaboard counties at an earlier date than was possible in the inland districts. Even in the more conservative parts of the country, like the Midlands and Wiltshire, whose geographical position made them the last to respond to the influence of trade its gradual extension was slowly, and in isolated villages, bringing the same departure from the rigid arrangements of mediæval agriculture which in the East of England had developed much more swiftly. How far such enclosure by consent would have proceeded if no other forces had come into play we cannot say. It is not safe, however, to assume that, because in the eighteenth century many villages seemed to observers like Arthur Young to be living in a condition of organised torpor, therefore its effects in facilitating a more economical utilisation of the land are to be dismissed as negligible. Quite apart from the obvious bias given to Young's observations by his questionable doctrine that a high pecuniary return from the soil is the final criterion of successful agriculture, it may well be the case that the decline in the condition of the peasantry, which took place in the sixteenth century, discouraged initiative on the part of small men, and that, since one agent in that decline had been a movement which went by the name of enclosure, its effect was to make them cling all the more closely to the established routine in those parts of the country where they had not been violently shaken out of it.

On such conjectures, however, we need not enter. Even if the movement towards the rearrangement of holdings which has been traced among the peasants themselves was insignificant, and if the larger capitalists were the sole agents through whom a more alert and progressive agrarian régime could be introduced, it is none the less the case that the improvements in the technique of agriculture do not by themselves account for the special social consequences which flowed from the agrarian changes of the sixteenth century. The situation then is not at all similar to that which arose at a later date, when small landholders voluntarily threw up their holdings in order to engage in the more profitable urban industries, and when yeomen like the Peels of their own choice decided that the career of a cotton-spinner was more attractive than that of a farmer. In the period which we have been discussing men do not only leave the land; they are forced off it. Not only economic, but legal, issues are involved, and the latter give a decisive twist to the former. What made the new methods of agriculture not simply an important technical advance in the utilisation of the soil, but the beginning of a social revolution, was the insecurity of the tenure of large numbers of the peasantry, in the absence of which they might gradually have adapted themselves to the altered conditions, without any overwhelming shock to rural life such as was produced by the evictions and by the loss of rights of common. The way in which the economic movement towards enclosure and pasture-farming is crossed, and its consequences heightened, by the law of land tenure, is proved by the comparative immunity of the freeholders from the worst forms of agrarian oppression, by the fact that, even in the middle of the eighteenth century, the purely economic conditions of much of England were by no means unfavourable to small scale farming, and by the anxiety of landlords to induce tenants who had estates of inheritance to surrender them for leases. We cannot therefore agree with those writers who regard the decline in the position of the smaller landed classes, which took place in our period, as an inevitable step in economic progress, similar to the decay of one type of industry before the competition of another. If economiccauses made a new system of farming profitable, it is none the less true that legal causes decided by whom the profits should be enjoyed. We have already pointed out that many customary tenants practised sheep-farming upon a considerable scale, and it is not easy to discover any economic reason why the cheap wool required for the development of the cloth-manufacturing industry should not have been supplied by the very peasants in whose cottages it was carded and spun and woven. The decisive factor, which ruled out this method of meeting the new situation created by the spread of pasture-farming, was the fact that the tenure of the vast majority of small cultivation left them free to be squeezed out by exorbitant fines, and to be evicted when the lives for which most of them held their copies came to an end. It was their misfortune that the protection given by the courts since the fifteenth century to copyholders did not extend to more than the enforcement of existing manorial customs. When, in our own day, the same causes which raised the cry of depopulation in sixteenth century England have operated in other countries, their influence has been circumscribed by governmental power, which has stepped ready armed into the field, and has turned customary titles into freeholds and cut back private jurisdictions with a heavy hand. To find a parallel to the sufferings of the English copyholders in the sixteenth century, we must turn to the sweeping invasion of tenant right which at one time made almost every Irishman into a Ket. But the comparison, incomplete in other respects, is most incomplete in this, that even if Tudor Governments, moved by considerations of national strength and order, would have helped the peasants if they could, they could hardly have helped them materially if they would, without a social and administrative revolution which was unthinkable, and which, if carried out, could only have meant political absolutism. Living, as they did, with the marks of villein tenure still upon them, the small cultivators of our period were fettered by the remnants of the legal rightlessness of the Middle Ages, without enjoying the practical security given by mediæval custom, and felt the bitter breath of modern commercialism, undefended bythe protection of the all-inclusive modern State which alone can make it tolerable.

For, indeed, it is as a link in the development of modern economic relationships and modern conceptions of economic expediency, that the changes which we have been considering possess their greatest interest. The department of economic life in which, both for good and evil, the modern spirit comes in the sixteenth century most irresistibly to its own, is not agriculture but foreign commerce, company promoting, and the money market, where the relations of man to man are already conceived of as the necessary parts of a vast and complicated mechanism, whose iron levers thrust the individual into actions for the consequences of which he is not responsible, and under whose pressure unknown is driven by unknown to do that which he did not intend. But if the intoxication with dreams of boundless material possibilities, the divorce of economic from moral considerations, the restless experiment and initiative and contempt for restrictions that fetter them, which are the marks of that spirit’s operations, are never quite so victorious in agriculture as they are in finance, it is nevertheless in transforming agrarian conditions that its nature and characteristics are most impressively revealed, not because it is felt there first or proceeds there furthest, but because the material which it encounters is so dense, so firmly organised, so intractable, that changes, which in a more mobile environment pass unnoticed, are seen there in high relief against the stable society which they undermine. In truth the agrarian revolution is but a current in the wake of mightier movements. The new world, which is painfully rising in so many English villages, is a tiny mirror of the new world which, on a mightier stage, is ushering modern history in amid storms and convulsions. The spirit which revolts against authority, frames a science that will subdue nature to its service, and thrusts the walls of the universe asunder into space, is the same—we must not hesitate to say it—as that which on the lips of grasping landlords and stubborn peasants wrangles over the respective merits of “several” and “common,” weighs the profits of pasture in an economic scale against the profits of arable,batters down immemorial customs, and, regarding neither the honour of God nor the welfare of this realm of England, brings the livings of many into the hands of one. To the modern economist, who uses an ancient field map to trace the bewildering confusion of an open field village beneath the orderly lines of the dignified estate which lies upon it like a well written manuscript on the crabbed scrawl of a palimpsest, the wastefulness of the old régime, compared with the productiveness of the new, may well seem too obvious to leave room for any discussion of their relative advantages; and indeed the accession of material wealth which followed the first feeble approach towards the methods of modern agriculture is unquestionable. But the difference between such a standpoint and that of our peasants is not one of methods only but of objects, not of means but of ends. We can imagine that to an exposition of the advantages of large scale farming and enclosure, such as many stewards must have made to the juries of many manors, they would have answered something after this fashion:—“True, our system is wasteful, and fruitful of many small disputes. True, a large estate can be managed more economically than a small one. True, pasture-farming yields higher profits than tillage. Nevertheless, master steward, our wasteful husbandry feeds many households where your economical methods would feed few. In our ill-arranged fields and scrubby commons most families hold a share, though it be but a few roods. In our unenclosed village there are few rich, but there are few destitute, save when God sends a bad harvest, and we all starve together. We do not like your improvements which ruin half the honest men affected by them. We do not choose that the ancient customs of our village should be changed!" Such differences lie too deep to be settled by argument, whether they appear in the sixteenth century or in our own day.

Good Sir lett me intreat you yf the colledge determyne to make survay this springe of the lands at Kibworth and Barkby to send Mr. Kay or me word a month or 3 weeks before your coming that we may have Beare and other necessaries. And I desire you to gather up all evidences that may be needful for ye Lordshipp, for all testimony will be little enough, the colledge land is soo mingled with Mr. Pochin’s frehold and others in our towne. There is an awarde for the keepinge in of the old wol close in our ffields for [from?] Mr. Pochin’s occupation, very needefulle for the ynhabitants yf that awarde can be founde at the colledge where ytwas loste.

The composition betwixt Mr. Stanford and the towne wold we very gladly see, yt is for tythe willows and partinge grasse, wee thinke that they challenge more than of right they should have. I pray you gather upp what evidence you can for the rents due to the college out of [?], for when some of them are denied I know not where to distraine for them.

I pray you also give order that the evidences may be sought up for the lands lyinge in Barkby Thorpend alias Thurmaston in our parish and parcell of our lordship of the rent per ann. 3/4d. as alsoe the evidences of Peppers frehold rent per annum 1d. This rent is denied and not paidd this 20 yeares, and I cannot learne where I should distraine for the same, neither will he pay it unlesse he may knowe for what he payeth the same; he is towards the land [?], and his frehold lyeth in Thurmaston ut supra. And soe with remembrance of my duty desiringe you to pardon my breach of promise for the lease at last Michaelmas, and I hope before this yeare be ended to be as good as my worde, yf it will please you and the company to spare me with your favours untillthen, ffor God is my judge I did not breake my promise wilfully nor willingly, but necessity hath noe law. I have lost this su[=m]er 6 horses and was forced to buy in these for my carte. Day [?] groweth scant, therefore I must spare to write, only hoping and desiringe your favour at this tyme I humbly take my leave and rest as I have ever beene your wopsat commandment. Henry Sayer.

Barkby, February 26th, 1608.To the wllhis very singularffriend Mr. Brent subwardenat Merton College in Oxon.

The said Manor has one lete by the year ... and hath also the Court from 3 weeks to 3 weeks called the 3 weeks Court.

Item.—Every tenant payeth for a cottage ground not buylded if it conteyn 80 ft. every wayItem.—Every tenant payeth for a cottage ground notbuylded if it conteyn 80 ft. every way 1d.Item.—Every tenant payeth for half a cottage whichis 40 ft. every way ½d.Item.—For every curtilage containing 40 ft. or under ½dItem.—For every fyne of every cotage buylded 2/-Item.—For every fyne of every cotage ground unbuilded 1/-Item.—Every tenant that taketh any cotage ground tobuild upon if he build not within three years heforfeiteth the ground by him taken.Item.—Every tenant having a cotage or parcel of a cotagewherein any tenant dwelleth and keepeth a fire,they owe to pay for the same a Russhe hen orelse 2d. which is for the rushes that theygather upon the lord’s common there.Item.—If 2 tenants dwell in one house having 2 severallrooms in the same they to pay yearlie 2 rushhennes or 4d. for them.Item.—Every freeholder having by copy any arable landor pasture ground in the field payeth yearlyfor the same at terms accustomed the rent ofold time due at [Michaelmas & Easter] by evenporcions; and for all fines cessed upon thetenaunts for land in the fields is at the will ofthe lord, as well at the alienations made as atthe death of any tenant.Item.—The tenants and copyholders shall do no wasteupon the lord’s common ne otherwise upon painof forfeiture of their tenements.Item.—All the freeholders shall [pay] double their rentat every death or alienation made, as relief.Item.—Certain freeholders and copyholders pay heriotafter the death of any tenant.Item.—Neither the freeholders nor copyholders shall notsurcharge the lord’s comon but to keep afterthe rate of his tenure. If he otherwise do heshall be amerced.Item.—No man shall encroche on lord’s lands on pain offorfeiture of his tenure.Item.—Every boat going to the sea on fishing and having4 men therein payeth yearly to the lord 8d.,and 6 men 12d., and so after the rate, foreach man 2d., which is by a late composition.Item.—There is a service paid by certain tenants therecalled Oryell, which is for the liberty of thecommon that tenants have in the said lordship.Item.—The lords of Aldeburgh have the moietie of allwreck of the sea being cast on land or foundnear the shore within the limits of the samelordship, and the finder thereof hath the otherhalf.

To the Right Honble. Sir Edward Cooke, Knight, Attorney-Generall unto the King’s Matie.

Humblie sheweth unto your good lord yorpoore and dayley orators Thomas Ffawcett, Thomas Humphry, and Nicolas Farnes [?] yorworshippes tenants of the Manor of Ffulmordeston cum Croxton in the Duchie of Lancaster and the moste parte of the tenants of the same Manor that whereas yorsaid orators in theHillary Term laste commenced suite in the Duchie Courte against Thomas Odbert and Roger Salisbury, Gent., who have enclosed their grounds contrary to the custom of the Manor, whereby your wor. loseth your shack due out of those grounds, common lane or way for passengers is stopped up, and your worshippes poore orators lose their accustomed shack in those grounds, and the said Roger Salisbury taketh also the whole benefit of theire comons from them, keepinge there his sheepe in grasinge and debarringe them of their libertie there which for comon right belongeth unto them:—

Which suite and controversie, forasmuch as the same manor is nowe come unto your lordshippe’s hands by his most excellent Matiesgracious disposinge thereof, youre poore oratours thought it theire duty to impart and lay open unto your worpp, and doe most humblie pray and beseech your worppthat they may have your lawfull favour herein for the furtherance of their proceedings in this theire suite of lawe, so that the greatness of the said parties adversant unto them, on which they much relie, may not be the more strengthened by your worship's favour, whereby your poore orators may have and enjoy theire former liberties in peace, and be the better able to maintaine themselves in their callings rights and dueties which unto your wor. is belonging and due uppon their Tenures in the saide Mannor.

And according to theire bounden duety your sayde poor orators shall dayly pray to God for your wor. in all encrease of prosperitie and worshippe long to continew.

21 Aug. 1604.

I have considered of this peticion, and seeinge I am lord of the mannor I will do my best endeavour upon hearing of both parties to end the controversie and the defendtsneed not appeare nor the cause to proceed in the duchy.

Edw. Coke.

To the Kings most Excellent Matie.

The humble peticoɳ of yorMatepoore and distressed Tennantsof yorMannor of North Wheatley in the Countie of Nottingham belonging to yorMatiesDuchie of Lancaster.

Most humbly shewing. That yorpoore Subiects have tyme out of mynd byn Coppieholders of lands of inheritaunce to them and their heires for ever of the Mannor aforesaid, and paid for every Oxgang of land xvjsviijđ rent, and paid heretofore vpon every Alienacoɳ xijđ for every Oxgang, but nowe of late, about 40Jacobi by an order of the Duchie Court they paie ijss vjdd vpon euery Alienacoɳ for every acre, wchamounteth nowe to 45san Oxgang.

And whereas some of yorTennants of the said Mannor have heretofore held and doe nowe hold certayne Oxganges of lands belonging to the said Manor by Coppie from xxj yeres to xxj yeares, and have paid for the same vpon eⱱy Coppy ijs, and for every Oxgang xvjsviijdᵱ Anɳ; they nowe of late by an order in the Duchie Court hold the same by lease vnder the Duchie Seale, and paie vjlixiijsiiijdfor a Fyne vpon every lease and xvjsviijdrent wthan increase of vjsviijdmore towards yorMatiesprouision.

And whereas in 110Edw: 40yorpetic[o~n]ers did by Copy of Court Roll hold the demeanes of the said Mannor for tearme of yeres att ixlivjsviijdᵱ anɳ, they afterwards in 60Eliz: held the same demeanes by lease vnder the seale of the duchie for xxj yeares, att the like rent; and Tenne yeres before their lease was expired, they ymployed one MrMarkham in trust to gett their lease renewed, whoe procured a newe lease of the demeanes in his owne name for xxj yeres att the old rent, and afterwards contrary to the trust Comitted to him increased and raised the rent thereof vpon the Tenants to his owne privat benefitt to 56liᵱ annư.

And whereas the woods belonging to the said Mannor hath within the memory of Man byn the only Co[~m]on belonging to the said Towne, paying yerelie for the herbage and pannage thereof vjsviijđ, they nowe alsoe hold the same vnder the Duchie Seale att xvjlili xvjsijđ ᵱ annư.

And whereas the Court Rolls and Records of the said Mannor, have alwaies heretofore byn kept vnder severall Locks and Keys, whereof yorMatsStewards have kepte one key and yorMatiesTennant (in regard it Concerned their ᵱticuler inheritances) have kept an other keye. But nowe they are att the pleasure of the Stewards and Officers transported from place to place, and the nowe purchasers doe demaund the Custody of them, wchmay be most preiudiciall to yorMatepoore Tennants.

Now for asmuch as yorMatie: hath byn pleased to sell the said Mannor vnto the Cittie of London, whoe have sold the same vnto MrJohn Cartwright and MrTho: Brudnell gent: And for that yorpeticon͠ers and Tennants there (beinge in nomber Two hundred poore men, and there being xj of yorMateTennants there that beare Armes for the defence of yorMateRealme, and xij that paie yorMatieSubsidies fifteens and Loanes) are all nowe like to be vtterlie vndon, in Case the said MrCartwright and MrBrudnell should (as they saie they will) take awaie from yorTennants the said demeanes and woods after thexpiracoɳ of their leases, and that yorpoore Tennants should be left to the wills of the purchasers for their Fynes, or that the Records and Court rowles should not be kept as in former tymes in some private place, where the purchasers and Tennants maie both have the custody and viewe of them as occasion shall serve.

Maie it therefore please yorSacred MajtieThat such order may be taken in the premisses for the reliefe of yorpoore Tennants of the Mannor aforesaid That they maie not be dispossessed of the demeanes and leases, and that they may knowe the Certayntie of their Fynes for the Coppieholds demeanes and leases and maie have the Court Rolls & Records safely kepte as formerly they have byn. And that yorMatiewilbe further pleased to referr the Consideracoɳ hearing, ordering and determynacoɳ of the premisses vnto such Noble men, or other 4 gent: of esteeme in the Country whome yorMatieshalbe pleased to appoint, that are neighbours vnto yorTenãnts, and doe best knowe their estate & greevances. That they or any two or three of them may take such order, and soe Cettell the busynes betweene the purchasers & yorpoore Tennants, as they in their wisdoms and discressions shall judge to be reasonable and fitting, or to Certifie yorMatiehowe they fynd the same, and in whose defalt it is they cannot determyne thereof. And yorpoore Tenn͠ts as in all humble dutie bound will daielie pray for yorMatie.

Whitehall this 10 of Novembr1629.

His Ma[~] is graciously pleased to referre the consideration of this request to the Co[~m]issionrsfor sale of his lands, that vpon the report vnto his Ma[~] of their opinion and advise his Ma[~] may give further order therein.Dorchester.

[Endorsed.] Divers Tenants of his Matemañor of North Wheatleyin the Countie of Nottingham.

Right Hole

Uppon the ixthof July and also the 23dof SeptembrI deliⱱd petitions vnto yorLoppdesireinge to shew yegreat hurt ytys done to his Matie& yeland by inclosiers wchdecay tillage, & depopulate townes in ye best naturall corne countryes, wchaffore supplyed the wants of others every way beinge in yemiddle of yeland, for yt their is dearths vppon any vnseasonable seedes tyme or springe, and is a great cause of decayinge of trades and vndoeinge many thousands wchbefore lived well & now for want of Imployment & dearth of corne, yeris multitudes of poor & vagrants complayninge of their miseryes; and are dangerous to yepeacable state of yeland, by yerdesire of troubles to revenge them selves. Ye know what lamentable broyles & bloodshedinges were betwixt ye gileadites & ephramites & Israelites & benjamites for ye levits wife & Abia & Jeroboam & Ahay & Peka where was slaine above 700,000 men of warr & many of other sorts, wchwas more crewell then by any foraigne enymyes, & wee have incrochinge enemyes ytwould take yeradvantage vppon such opertunytyes as yeidid when yeleaguers in France made warrs against theire Kinge ... for many are of oppinyon that ye Kinges Matienor ye lordes doe not truly vnderstand ye secret mischief es wchis done by covetous men by ye cuninge misterie of depopulation nor ye oppressions and causes of dearthes and poverty nor know yereadyest waye for remedyes, yetbeinge as unacquainted in tyllage & husbandrye as in other arts: as appeared by yebooke of orders yelast yere wchshewed that his Matieand the lordes had a good desire to remedy the dearth but yecorn masters & malsters &c. used such closse dealinges ytyedearth was worse as yelike in former tymes: soe that no orders will ease dearthes but by causeing more tyllage & ytwould make plenty & then every man will sell willinglye....

Also many are much deceived by inclosier because there are countries are enclosed & be rich, but these were inclosed when there were but few people & these maintain tyllage husbandry & hospitallyty & sett people on work & have tenements for labourers, these are lyable to musters & all services requirable for ye Kinge & country & taxes & charitable collections but yedepopulatorsin ye champian countryes destroy all meanes of doeinge help or servise for ye Kinge & country what neede soever come.

And although this was the fruitfullest somer that was in many yeares, yet corne holds almost duble price to that which most men expected, because rich men will sell but litle corne before they see the strength of May past & if corne does not prosper then they will keep it expecting a dearth the next yere. Another cause is that all men see how tyllag is yearly decayed in the best champian countryes & people & drunknes increased & no hope of remedy because of yeinyquity of yetyme & gentlemen & other have great friends & favour & may doe what they list. And maltsters & ingrossers buy corn as fast as they can, & doe use wayes to have it brought home what lawes or orders to the contrary expectinge a dearth if ye next spring prove not very fruitfull. And if his Maty& ye lords doe not take some speedy course to cause more tyllage there beinge good ground enough before wete seeds tymes come, then will dearth ensue. And ynye poore hungry people may cry ... where ys corne; And ynit will be too late to remedy dearths by any lawes or orders. And now it might be done there beinge aboundance of old resty fatt ground in yechampian countryes which if it were plowed & sowne wtcorne, no wett seeds tyme could hurt it soe that they would yield corne to supply all wants beinge in yemidle of yeland my lord if you please to give me leave I will give you yenames of many decayed townes in ye counties of Leics& Northampt, &c., and who decayed them & now the Lord hath swept away yeinclosiers & their posterity out of all & strangers have their houses & pastures. And my desire is ytyorLopmight be acquainted with yecountry dissorders & the remydes to reforme yeevills and then ye may better judge of them & acquaint his Matie& yelords, that by his & their good directions, we shall have plenty and bring much more to his matiestreasures & the whole land....

Also I doe humbly intreate yorLopsfavor to let me shew how there may be ymploymtfor people & wealth to ye Kinge & ye Kingdome & plenty & cheapnes & have ingrossers frustrated of their game & have lesse wast of corne in ale & beer & less sinninge: & lesse dangers & soe ye lorde keepe you: wthmy humble sute, to accept of my poore desires for ye deede, with my attendance vpon your Lopspleasure.

Your Lopsto Co[~m]and[Endorsed:—]Richard Sandes.Sandes touching Indigence.

Most Honorble

Wee have caused a view to bee made according to yorLopsLate Lr[~e]s of allInclosures and convrsions of Arrable Land to meadow and pasture, wchare now in hand or haue beene made wthin two yeares Last past, And wee haue signifyed yorLopsdirec[c~o]ns vnto such ᵱsons as are causers of any such Inclosures & Conⱱtions and have given them notice that they ought not to ᵱcede wthhedgeing or dytchinge in of any such grounds but to Let them so rest vntill wee shall have furder orders from yor: honors: And wee further conceaue that if depopula[c~o]ns may bee reformed it will bring a great good to the whole Kingƌ: for where houses are pulled downe the People are forced to seeke new habitations. In other townes & cuntryes by meanes whereof those Townes where they get a setling are pestred so as they are hardly able to live one by an other, and it is likewise the cause of erecting new Cottages vppon the wasts and other places who are not able to releive themselves nor any such townes able to sustaine or set them on worke wchCauses Rogues & vagabonds to encrease. Moreover it doth appeare that in those townes wchare depopulated the People being expelled There are few or none Left to serve the King when Souldjours are to bee lodged to appeare at Musters for his Mateseruice wchis also a cause that poore Townes where many people are, are put to greater charg in setting forth of souldjours & depopulated Townes are much eased and the Subsidie decayed. All wchwee humbly submit to yorLopsgreat wisdome. And will eⱱ rest.

At yorhonbleservice humbly to bee comaunded Fran: Thornhagh Ro: Sutton vic. Wee doe herewthMatth Palmer ᵱsent vnto yorW. Cooper Gervas Fevery Honrsthe names of Tym: Pilsy Gilƀt Millington all such as have Wil̴l Coke Will Moseley made any Inclosures Jo: Woods or conⱱsions wthin two yeares Last past or that were in hand to make the same.[Addressed:] To the right honblethe Lords of his MatshonblePrivy Counsell humbly present these. [Endorsed:] Feb. 1630. From the County of Nottingham touching Inclosures. The inconveniencies of Depopulation. [No Enclosures]

[This letter is printed by Miss Leonard,Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., New Series, vol. xix. She refers it to Norfolk, which is apparently a mistake.]

Lincoln

An abstract of such depopulators as have bene hetherto dealtwithall in Lincolnshyre, & receyued their pardon.

Sir Charles Hussey Knt.Fyne, 80ɫ. Bond of 200 ᶆkes, wthCondicoɳto sett up in Homingtoɳ 8 farmhouses wthBarnes &c. andto lay to eⱱye house 30 acres of land, and to keepe 10 acresthereof yearlye in tyllage.SrHenry Ayscough Knt. Fyne, 20ɫ.Bond 200 ᶆkes. To sett vp 8 farmhouses in Blibroughewth30 acres to eⱱy farme, and 12 thereof to be keptyearlie in tylthe.SrHamond Whichcoote Knt. Fyne, 40ɫ.Bond 200 ᶆkes. To set up 8 farmhouses &c. in Harpswell,wth40 acres to eưy house; and 16 thereof intyllage.SrEdward Carre Kt. Fyne, 30ɫ.Bond 100ɫ. To sett vp 2 Farmhouses in Branswell, and1 in Aswarby wth40 acres to eưy house, 16 in tyllage.SrWillᶆaye, Knt.Fyne, 30ɫ.Bond 100ɫ. To sett up in Graynesby 2 farmhouses wth2acres at least to either, 10 in tyllage & to contynue 2farmes more in Grainsby & 3 in Newbell & Longworth,wththe same quantity, as is now used them, a third ᵱtein tylthe.SrEdmund Bussye Kt.Fyne, 10ɫ.Bond 100ɫ. To set vp one farmhouse in Thorpe wth40acres, 14 thereof in tyllage, And to contynue 14 farmesin Hedor, Oseby, Aseby, & Thorpe, as they now are, wthathird ᵱte in tyllage.Richard RosetorEsqr.Fyne, 10ɫ.Bond 50ɫ. To set vp one farme in Lymber wth40 acres,16 in tyllage, and to continewe 1 farme in Limber, and 2in Sereby, vt supa.Robert Tirwhilt Esqr.Fyne, 10ɫ. Bond 50ɫ.To set vp one farme in Camtringtaun wth40 acres. 16 intyllage.John Fredway gent. Fyne, 10ɫ. Bond 40ɫ.To set up one farme in Gelson wth30 acres, 10 thereof intyllage.[Endorsed:] Lincolɳ Depopulatoɽ Fyned & pardoned and thereformacons to bee made.[No date]

That vpon the Commission of enquiry after depopulacoñ The Lord Archbishopp of Canȶ and other the Commissioners at the solicitacoñ of Tho: Hussey gent. did direct a leɽ nature of a Coᶆission to certain persons wthin the County of Wilts to certifie what number of Acres in South Marston in the ᵱish of Highworth were converted from arable to pasture and what number of ploughes were laid downe &c.

Wherevpon the Archdeacon with two others did retourne Certificate, to the Lord Archbishopp &c.

Upon this Certificate, MrAnth: Hungerford, MrSouthby with 15 others were convented before his Grace and the other Commissioners at the Councell Board, where being charged with Conversion.

MrAnth: Hungerford & MrSouthby with some others did averre that they had made noe conversion, other then they had when they came to be owners thereof.

His Grace said that they were to looke noe further then to the owners, And Certificate was retourned that soe many Acres were converted and soe many ploughes let downe.

They alladged that this Certificate was false & made without their privity, and therefore MrHungerford in the behalfe of the rest did desire that they might not be iudged upon that Certificate. But that they might haue the like favour as MrHussey had, to have Ceɽf the same nature directed to other Commissioners, or a Commission if it might be granted to examine vpon oath whereby the trueth might better appeare.

His Grace replyed to MrHungerford since you desire it & are soe earnest for it you shall not have it.

They did offer to make prove that since the conversion there were more habitacoɳs of men of ability & fewer poore. And that whereas the King had before 4 or 5 souldiers of the Trayned Band he had nowe 9 there. That the Impropriacoɳ was much better to be lett.

His Grace said to the rest of the Lords, wee must deale with these genȶ as with those of Tedbury to take 150ɫ fine, and to lay open the inclosures.

Which they refusing to doe they were there threatned with an informacoɳ to be brought agtthem in the Starrchamƀ And accordingly were within a shorte tyme after by the said MrHussey served with sub penas at MrAttorney his suite in the Starr chamber: And this as MrHussey told MrHungfdwas done by my Lo: Archbp his command.

[Endorsed:] Depopulation—MrHungerford & MrSouthby [1641].

This table is based on documents relating to the following manors:—

1. Northumberland.

Acklington (1567,Northumberland County History, vol. v. pp. 367–8); Buston (1567,ibid., vol. v. p. 209); Thirston (1567,ibid., vol. vii. pp. 305–6); Birling (1567,ibid., vol. v. pp. 200–1); Amble (1608,ibid., vol. v. p. 281); Hexham (1608,ibid., vol. iii. pp. 86–104).

2. Lancashire.

Warton (Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 19, No. 7, ff. 79–87); Whyttington (Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 19, No. 7, ff. 47–9); Ashton (Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Portf. 19, No. 7, ff. 69–72); Overton (4 Eliz. R.O. Duchy of Lanc., Special Commission, No. 67); Widnes (10 Eliz. R.O. Duchy of Lanc., Special Commission, No. 181); Cartmel (Hen. VIII.(?) R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 22, No. 75); Rochdale (1626, from information kindly supplied by Lieut.-Colonel Fishwick of Rochdale, from a Survey in the Chetham Library, Manchester), Lands of Cockersand Abbey (1501,Chetham Miscellanies, vol. iii.).

3. Staffordshire.

Barton (Ph. and M.(?) R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 14, No. 70); Burton Bondend (1597, R.O. Land Rev. Misc. Bks., vol. 185, ff. 70–74); Drayton Basset (1579, R.O. Land Rev. Misc. Bks., vol. 185, ff. 54–68); Wotton in Elishall (1 Ed. VI., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 14, No. 83); Agarsley (1611, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Duchy of Lancs., Bdle. 8, No. 29).

4. Leicestershire.

Ulverscroft Priory (31 Hen. VIII., R.O. Land Rev. Misc. Bks., vol. 182, f. 35); Broughton Astley (Eliz. R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Bdle. 10, No. 4); Barkby (Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Roll 382); Stapleford (10 Eliz., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Duchy of Lanc., Portf. 6, No. 15); Priory of Launde (31 Hen. VIII, R.O. Land Rev. Misc. Bks. 182, f. 1); College of St. Mary, Leicester (1595, R.O. Rentals, Duchy of Lanc. 6/12); Garradon Abbey (Hen. VIII., R.O. Augm. Off., Misc. Bks. 403, f. 123); Kibworth Beauchamp (1 & 2 Ph. and M., R.O. Land Rev. Misc. Bks. 182, f. 284); Kibworth Harcourt (1636, Merton MSS., Book labelled Kibworth and Barkby, 1636).

5. Northamptonshire.

Duston (3 Eliz., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Portf. 13, No. 23); Yelvertoft (11 Eliz., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Portf. 13, No. 52); Warmington and Eaglethorpe (30 Eliz., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Portf. 13, No. 21); Brigstock (4 James I., R.O. Land Rev. Misc. Bks., vol. 221, f. l); Higham Ferrers (8 James I., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Portf. 13, No. 34); Paulspurie,aliasWestpury (32 Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, vol. 419, f. 3).

6. Norfolk.

Ormesby (7 Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 22, No. 18); Barney (29 Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 26, No. 57); Great Walsingham (29 Hen. VIII.,ibid.); Gunthorpe (29 Hen. VIII.,ibid.); Skerning (Ed. VI., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 3, No. 23); Metherwolde (1575, R.O. Duchy of Lanc., Rentals and Surveys, Bdle. 7, No. 29a); Brisingham (31 Eliz., R.O. Misc. Bks., Land Rev., vol. 220, f. 220); Aylsham (James I., R.O. Misc. Bks., Augm. Off., vol. 360, f. 1); Scratbye Bardolphes (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 12, No. 52); Burghe Vaux (1620, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 12, No. 52); Castons (c.1620(?), R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 12, No. 52 p. 10d); Massingham (Hen. VIII.(?), R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 30, No. 25); Northendall (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Roll 478, m. 3); Drayton Hall (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 20, No. 53); East Dereham (1649, R.O. Parliamentary Surveys, Norfolk, No. 10); West Lexham (1595,Holkham MSS., West Lexham MSS., No. 87); Longham Hall and Gunton (1611, Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 62); Longham and Watlington (1611, Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 62); Watlington and Priors (1611, Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 62); Billingford (1565, Holkham MSS., Billingford and Bintry MSS., Bdle. No. 9); Foxley (1568, Holkham MSS., Billingford and Bintry MSS., Bdle. No. 9); Peakhall (1578, Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 12); Wellingham (1611, Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 62); Tittleshall Newhall (Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 62). I have included one manor (R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 3, No. 21), of which I have mislaid the name.

7. Suffolk.

Snape (Hen. VIII., R.O. Misc. Bks., Treas. of Receipt, vol. 163, f. 187); Ashfield (Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 14, No. 85); Otley (Hen. VIII., R.O. Misc. Bks., Treas. of Receipt, vol. 163, f. 145); Rodstrete and Brimdishe (Ed. VI., R.O. Misc. Bks., Augm. Off., vol. 414, f. 19–22); Dennington (Ed. VI., R.O. Misc. Bks., vol. 414, f. 22b); Harrolds in Cretingham (Ed. VI., R.O. Aug. Off., vol. 414, f. 25b); Stratford juxta Higham (17 James I., R.O. Duchy of Lanc., Rentals and Surveys, 9/13); Denham (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32); Dunstall (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32); Dalham (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32); Kentford (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32); Nedham (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32); Desnage Talmaye, and Cressness[?] in Gaseleye (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32); Higham (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32).

8. Wiltshire, Somerset, and Devon.

All are contained in theSurveys of the Lands of William, Earl of Pembroke, published by the Roxburgh Club, and edited by Straton, 1565–1573. There are twenty-seven manors in Wiltshire, four in Somersetshire, and one in Devonshire.

9. Hampshire.

Crondal, and Sutton Warblington (Crondal Records, Part I., Baigent).

10. Ten other manors in the South of England.

Castle Combe (Wilts, 1454, Scrope,History of Castle Combe); Ibstone (Bucks, 1483, Merton MSS., No. 5902); Cuxham (Oxford, 1483, Merton MSS., No. 5902); Malden (Surrey, 1496, Merton MSS., Survey of Malden); Aspley Guise (Bedford, 1542, from information kindly supplied by Mr. G.H. Fowler, of Aspley Guise); Ewerne (Dorset, 1568,Topographer and Genealogist, vol i.); Edgeware (Middlesex, 1597, All Souls Estate Maps); Kingsbury (Middlesex, 1597, All Souls Estate Maps); Gamlingay Merton (Cambridge, 1601, Merton Estate Maps); Gamlingay Avenells (Cambridge, 1601, Merton Estate Maps).

The chief criticisms which may be made upon this table are:—

(i) Some of the documents from which the figures are taken are separated from each other by a very long interval of time, so that they do not all represent approximately the same stage of agrarian development. This is a disadvantage. It is possible, for example, that, if the manor of Rochdale could be examined in 1526 instead of in 1626, it would be found that the proportion of copyholders to leaseholders was higher than it is at the later date. This defect, however, is perhaps not so great as to outweigh the value of the general picture of the relative proportion of different classes given by the table. A great majority of the documents from which it is compiled belong to the sixteenth century, and are dated as follows: Those of 10 manors are of an uncertain date, those of 3 fall between 1450 and 1485, of 2 in the reign of Henry VII., of 19 in that of Henry VIII., of 5 in that of Edward VI., of 3 in that of Philip and Mary, of 60 in that of Elizabeth, of 13 in that of James I., of 2 in that of Charles I., of 1 in 1649.

(ii) The lists of tenants given by the surveyors may sometimes not be exhaustive. I am not sure, for example, that all the freeholders on the manor of Crondal, or all the leaseholders at Gamlingay Merton and Gamlingay Avenells, are recorded.

(iii) It is sometimes not clear under what category a tenant should be entered. When there is no clue at all I have entered such tenants as “uncertain.” In some cases, however, though there is no entry by the surveyor, there are indications that the tenants are freeholders, customary tenants, or leaseholders, and, when that is so, I have grouped them in the table according to the probabilities of the case. But I do not doubt that I have made some mistakes.

(iv) A special word must be said about Norfolk and Suffolk. In these counties it is quite common to find the same tenant holding both by free and by customary tenure. When this is so, I have entered him both under “freeholders" and under “customary tenants" in the table. This means, of course, that the numbers entered for these two counties in the table exceed the number of individual landholders. As, however, my object was to ascertain the distribution of different classes of tenures, this course, though not satisfactory, seemed the best one to follow. In other counties a similar difficulty hardly ever occurs, a fact which is of some interest as showing the relatively advanced agrarian conditions of Norfolk and Suffolk. In the few cases in which it does occur I have followed the same plan as I have for those two counties.

This table is based on documents relating to the undermentioned manors. The sources from which the information is taken are given in the explanation of Table I., and I therefore do not repeat them.

1. Norfolk.

Metherwolde, Northendall, Brisingham, Massingham, Skerning Billingford.

2. Suffolk.

Ashfield, Stratford juxta Higham, Kentford, Dunstall.

3. Staffordshire.

Drayton Basset, Barton, Burton Bondend.

4. Lancashire.

Warton, Overton, Widnes.

5. Northamptonshire.

Paulespurie, Brigstock, Higham Ferrers, Duston.

6. Wiltshire.

South Newton.

7. Leicestershire.

Barkby.

I have thought it worth while to insert this table, but I am not satisfied with it. (i) I am inclined to think that, as statedin the text, fuller information would show that medium-sized holdings of between 20 and 60 acres were more common than it suggests. It is plain that surveyors often could not locate the properties of freeholders, and the larger the property the harder their task. (ii) Even where the holding is set out by the surveyor, one cannot always form an accurate judgment of its size. For example, rights of common, though often expressed in acres, are often expressed in some other way,e.g.in the terms of the number of beasts which the tenant may graze; and, again, a man is sometimes said to hold so many acres “cum pertinentiis.” What I have done is simply to enter the acreage as given in the surveys. In some cases, therefore, the size of the holding is certainly underestimated.

The figures in this table are an analysis of the figures given under the heading of “Customary Tenants" in Table I., and the source from which they are taken will be found by looking at the explanation of that table given above. As I have pointed out in the text, it is probable that not all the “Tenants at Will" should have been entered as “Customary Tenants" in that table. I hope that any error which may have arisen through their inclusion under that heading there may be neutralised by setting them out here. It will be seen that they are not numerous.

This table is based on documents relating to the undermentioned manors. The sources from which the information is taken are given, with a few exceptions (see below), in the explanation of Table I.

1. Wiltshire and Somerset.

South Newton, Byshopeston, Washerne, Knyghton, Donnington, Estoverton and Phipheld, Wynterbourne Basset (all in Wilts), South Brent and Huish (Somerset).

2. Suffolk.

Stratford juxta Higham, Ashfield, Snape, Desnage Talmaye, Chaterham Hall (the last Hen. VIII. R.O. Misc. Bks., Treas. of Receipt, vol. 163, ff. 109–114).

3. Norfolk.

Barney, Great Walsingham, Gunthorpe, Brisingham, Aylsham, Ormesby, Northendall, and one manor, the name of which I have mislaid (see explanation of Table I.).

4. Staffordshire.

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