EARLY BREADSALL CHARTERS. 1 65 



or a horse. The Church takes the second best, and his rehrt 

 shall remain in his manse for 30 days, performing no work for 

 the lord. After that lime she shall begin to work, as is fitting, 

 for the land. 



" He must not sell an ox or iiorse of his own rearing without 

 his lord's licence, and if his lord need them, he shall have them 

 at 4d. less than any other purchaser. 



" If his rattle are taken for the lord, as long as they are 

 detained even for a month, he shall do no work besides plough- 

 ing, which shall never be hindered. 



" But if he is poor, that he has not wherewithal to plough his 

 own land, he shall work on Fridays for his lord, for the plough 

 service (done for him by his lord)." 



After a long list of villains, each holding a virgate of land, it 

 is added : — 



"And it is not lawful for any of these above written (the lord 

 being unwilling, or not knowing) to train his sons in the clerical 

 state." 



This was in conformiiy with the sixteenth article of the Council 

 of Clarendon, which provided that "The sons of villains {i.e., 

 Saxons) ought not to be ordained without the consent of their 

 lords in whose lands they are known to have been born." 

 (Cotton MS., Claud. 13, fo. 26 ; Thierry II., 68). 



Of the third class of tenants in the Breadsall charter, amongst 

 whom we find a cook, a miller, a millwright, a shepherd or sheep- 

 folder, a tanner, and a butcher— at least if we may infer their 

 occupation from their surname — we have an interesting parallel 

 in the Shillington Survey. They were more exempt from task 

 work, nor were they conveyed as part and parcel of the land or 

 its incidents. 



The Breadsall charters afford an interesting example of the 

 manumission of a villain. There are two documents relating to 

 this transaction. The first dated Wednesday in the Vigil of All 

 Saints, anno 39, Edward III. (October 31, a.d. 1365), is as 

 follows : — 



