228 Wisco7isin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



that they held these lands on the tenure of a moderate and de- 

 terminate amount of agricultural labor. But nothing so far 

 shows in what manner these lands were distributed among 

 these tenants. So many villani hold so many hides or bovatae 

 of land , but, from all that appears, their estates may have 

 been variable, like those of the liberi tenentes of the Gloucester 

 Cartulary, or uniform, like those of the consuetudinarii. For- 

 tunately weareable to supply the required proof, and to show 

 that the villaniheXdi their lands in equal estates ; from which we 

 may infer with certainty that they were identical with the con- 

 suetudinarii, only with changed name. 



The first link in the argument is supplied by the Boldon 

 Book, a register of the property of the see of Durham, A. J). 

 1183, just about 100 years after Domesday Book, and 100 

 years before the Gloucester Cartulary. This document de- 

 scribes the services of the l'^7Za7^^, very much as those of the 

 consuetudinarii are described a century later ; and what is of 

 more importance, themY/awiare described as holding uniform 

 estates of two bovatae each, amounting to 32 acres. Below the 

 villani is a class of cotmanni, or cottagers, and there are also a 

 number oifirmarii, who hold similar estates to those of the vil- 

 lani, but on a privileged tenure. Here the villani, from the de- 

 scription of the services, appear to have sunk below the posi- 

 tion which they enjoyed when the "Rectitudines " was com- 

 piled, although the services are less burdensome than those of 

 the consuetudinarii of the following century. 



Nearly contemporary with the Boldon Book, we have the 

 rent-roll of a few manors of the Abbey of Abingdon in Berk- 

 shire.' This gives three classes of tenants precisely corres- 

 ponding to the three classes of the Extenta Manerii, except in 

 name. First come a few free tenants, holding estates of vari- 

 ous sizes, by very varying tenures. Next follow the neti, the 

 most numerous class, who hold equal estates of one or two 

 virgates, and pay for them in an equal amount of specified 



J Chronicon Monaeterli de Abingdon, li, p. 302. 



