VILLEIN SERVICES.

VILLEIN SERVICES.GloucestershireServices of a Virgate.64A. B. holds 1 virgate of 48 acres (in the manor of Hartpury), with messuage, and 6 acres of meadow land.s.d.From Michaelmas till August 1 he has to plough one day a week, each day's work being valued at312And to do manual labour 3 days a week, each day's work being valued at12On the 4th day to carry horse-loads (summagiare), if necessary, to Preston and other manors, and Gloucester, each day's work being valued at1Once a year to carry to Wick, valued at3To plough one acre called 'Eadacre,'65and to thresh the seed for the said acre, the ploughing and threshing being valued at4To do the ploughing called 'beneherthe' with one meal from the lord, valuedultra cibumat1To mow the lord's meadow for 5 days, and more if necessary, each day's work being valuedultra opus manualeat1To lift the lord's hay for 5 days212To hoe the lord's corn for one day (besides the customary labour), with one man, valued at12To do 1 'bederipa' before autumn with 1 man, valued at112To work in the lord's harvest 5 days a week with 2 men, from August 1 to Michaelmas, valued per week at13To do 1 'bederipa,' called 'bondenebedripa,' with 4 men, valued at6To do 1 harrowing a year, called 'londegginge,' valued at1To give at Michaelmas an aid of33To [pay] 'pannage,' viz. for a pig of a year old1For a younger pig that can be separated12If 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.66A. 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 at2To aid in cocking and lifting the hay for 6 days at least, and the day's work is valued at12To hoe the lord's corn for 1 day, valued at12To do 2 'bederipæ' before August 1, valued at2From August 1 to Michaelmas to do manual labour 2 days a week, and each day's work is valued at112To gather rushes on August 1, valued at12And in all other 'conditions' he shall do as the customers.The total value of the service of a 'lundinarius' is68To give 4d.as aid at Michaelmas.(15 other 'lundinarii' hold on a like tenure.)WorcestershireServices of a Half-virgate.67Of 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-virgatead censumpays 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, and212d.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, ifad 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.68In the manor of Neweham are 10 cottiers (omitting William the miller and Adam de Neweham), each holding 1 messuage with appurtenances, and 6 acres.[Ifad 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.

GloucestershireServices of a Virgate.64A. B. holds 1 virgate of 48 acres (in the manor of Hartpury), with messuage, and 6 acres of meadow land.s.d.From Michaelmas till August 1 he has to plough one day a week, each day's work being valued at312And to do manual labour 3 days a week, each day's work being valued at12On the 4th day to carry horse-loads (summagiare), if necessary, to Preston and other manors, and Gloucester, each day's work being valued at1Once a year to carry to Wick, valued at3To plough one acre called 'Eadacre,'65and to thresh the seed for the said acre, the ploughing and threshing being valued at4To do the ploughing called 'beneherthe' with one meal from the lord, valuedultra cibumat1To mow the lord's meadow for 5 days, and more if necessary, each day's work being valuedultra opus manualeat1To lift the lord's hay for 5 days212To hoe the lord's corn for one day (besides the customary labour), with one man, valued at12To do 1 'bederipa' before autumn with 1 man, valued at112To work in the lord's harvest 5 days a week with 2 men, from August 1 to Michaelmas, valued per week at13To do 1 'bederipa,' called 'bondenebedripa,' with 4 men, valued at6To do 1 harrowing a year, called 'londegginge,' valued at1To give at Michaelmas an aid of33To [pay] 'pannage,' viz. for a pig of a year old1For a younger pig that can be separated12If 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.66A. 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 at2To aid in cocking and lifting the hay for 6 days at least, and the day's work is valued at12To hoe the lord's corn for 1 day, valued at12To do 2 'bederipæ' before August 1, valued at2From August 1 to Michaelmas to do manual labour 2 days a week, and each day's work is valued at112To gather rushes on August 1, valued at12And in all other 'conditions' he shall do as the customers.The total value of the service of a 'lundinarius' is68To give 4d.as aid at Michaelmas.(15 other 'lundinarii' hold on a like tenure.)

Services of a Virgate.64

A. B. holds 1 virgate of 48 acres (in the manor of 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

312

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

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

Once a year to carry to Wick, valued at

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

To do the ploughing called 'beneherthe' with one meal from the lord, valuedultra cibumat

To mow the lord's meadow for 5 days, and more if necessary, each day's work being valuedultra opus manualeat

To lift the lord's hay for 5 days

212

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

To do 1 'bederipa' before autumn with 1 man, valued at

112

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

To do 1 'bederipa,' called 'bondenebedripa,' with 4 men, valued at

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

To give at Michaelmas an aid of

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

For a younger pig that can be separated

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 . . . .

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

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

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

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

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

112

To gather rushes on August 1, valued at

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

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

To give 4d.as aid at Michaelmas.

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

Services of a Half-virgate.67

Services of a Cottarius.68

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 twobovates, oroxgangs, the bovate or oxgang being thus the eighth of the hide or carucate.

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

Husband lands of two bovates.

Stuht, or outfit of two oxen.

In the 'Rotulus Redituum' of the Abbey of Kelso, dated 1290,72the holdings were 'husband-lands.' In one place73—Selkirk—there were 15husband-lands, each containing a bovate. In another74—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,75from 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' hisstuht, viz. 2oxen, 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 theirstuht, and paid each for his husband-land 18s.per annum.' The allotment of 2 oxen asstuht, 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 thenormalplough 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.

Fullcarucaor 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 statute77headed '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 followingrecord: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 containviii. 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 thecarucaso 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 horsesyoked 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'81it 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.'82In 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 followinginstances:83—

In two manors in Middlesex the teams were asunder:84—

In the Gloucester cartulary85there 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 hiskingdom:—

Yhwmen, pewere karl, or knaweThat wes of mycht an ox til haveHe gert that man hawe part in pluche:Swa wes corn in his land enwche:Swa than begouth, and efter langOf land wes mesure, ane oxgang.Mychty men that had mâOxyn, he gert in pluchys ga.Be that vertu all his landOf corn he gert be abowndand.86

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 onKelsomanors.

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

Bolden87AtBolden—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 till112acre 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.Reveden88AtReveden—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, or112'bollæ' of coals.In winter the same carriage, but the horse only carried 2 'bollæ' of corn, or112'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.

AtBolden—

AtReveden—

[p068]

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 ofBoldon.

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 asfollows: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 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.90These 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 arefarmedby them from the monasteryas a body, at a single rent for the whole village91—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. Thefaber,92or 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 carpenter93also held his holding free, in return for his obligation to repair the woodwork of the ploughs and harrows.

The punder.

The præpositus.

Thepunder94(pound-keeper) was another official with a recognised position. And, as a matter of course, the villein tenant holding the office ofpræpositusfor the time being was freed by virtue of his office from the ordinary services of his virgate or two bovates,95but 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'97it 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.

Fifty or sixty years earlier than the Boldon Book, was compiled the 'Liber Niger'99of 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 followinginformation: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.112d.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. Peter101[they give] 4 rams and 2 cows, or 5s.

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.112d.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. Peter101[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 thevillani.

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]

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 thevillata,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.104But 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,bordarii105(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.

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