800 An Uw/lia/i Manor in the. time of Elizabeth. 



Middlefield, eleven acres ; in Westfield, thirteen acres one rod ; with 

 pastnre for sixty-five two-tooth sheep, three beasts, and three horses 

 with the tenant of Stoford ; and he holds for military service and 

 suit to the court, and the lord has ward, marriage, and relief. He 

 pays per annum in money 9.s. 8d. But some of those tenants for 

 military service compounded by a money payment for all services, 

 thus Hugo Keete, at Bullbridge had a close in South Ugford near 

 the Vennel, where formerly was a cross, and opposite to which the 

 Chapel of St. James stood ; with pasture for two beasts in the 

 common pastures, and he paid fur all services, exactions, and de- 

 mands 10s., according to a charter of Matilda, the Abbess of 

 Wilton. 



The Vennel was Burcumlje Lane, the continuation of the Nether- 

 hampton Road througli Washerne. The Chapel stood in Earthpit 

 Field, on the left-liand side before conung to the present dairy. 

 The cross stood on the right-hand side. 



But further, this entry says " The lord has ward, marriage, and 

 relief," and these three feudal incidents of tenure deserve a word 

 of explanation. Of wardship we had an instance in the early life 

 of the first Earl of Pembroke. Charles Somerset had the wardship 

 of William Herbert ; he had the care of his person and received 

 the profits of his estate. It was this right to the guardianship of 

 his vassals' heirs that belonged to the lord of the manor, and he 

 always made all he could out of their estates while they were 

 minors. In this survey William Unyon of Staunton is " now in 

 wardship of the lord." 



The next feudal incident the lord had was " marriage." He was 

 not above bargaining with likely suitors for the hand of his female 

 ward, and she could not refuse any gentleman of her own rank 

 whom her guardian selected merely because she did not like him. 

 If she did she forfeited to her lord a sum equal to what he might 

 have received from the proposed husband for his consent to the 

 alliance. This was really a vestige of the old bride-price. 



The third feudal incident, " relief," was a fine paid by the heir 

 to the lord when he took up his feof ; from relevarc, to take up 

 again. There were other things to which a lord was entitled, such 



