A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



Besides the dues already mentioned certain vills or holdings near the 

 great roads were bound to carry the lord's goods, such as wine, herrings, mill- 

 stones, &c., when required. As usual these dues were freely commuted in 

 later times, but other obligations such as thatching the mill, cleaning out the 

 pond or the stream, or working on the roads, lasted as actual tasks till com- 

 paratively modern times. 



The cases of South Biddick and Ryton prove that even the Durham 

 peasants had made some progress towards emancipation in the twelfth century. 

 They farmed their vills from the bishop, and later interpolations in Boldon 

 Book show how Bishop Walter de Kirkham (1249-60) allowed the 

 peasants in the outlying districts of Bedlingtonshire to commute many of 

 their labour services. Probably similar commutations took place elsewhere. 



Most of our knowledge of the mediaeval Durham village is derived from 

 the Halmote Rolls. The halmote was the manorial court of the bishop and 

 prior, but it seems to have been much more powerful than the similar court 

 elsewhere. It met three times yearly and the vills were grouped in sections 

 which afterwards received the name of manors.^ At one, generally the same 

 vill in each group, the steward, or in the case of the prior sometimes the 

 bursar or terrarer, presided at a meeting of the lord's tenants from the vills of 

 that group. Each tenant was fined bd. if absent, but the vill as such was 

 represented by the reeve and a jury, generally of three to five men, who made 

 presentments of offences against the local by-laws and generally carried out 

 the orders of the halmote in their vill. 



The reeve and jury were in theory elected yearly and sworn. The office 

 was naturally not a grateful one, and those chosen often earned only abuse by 

 their attempts at arbitration or at repressing wrong-doing. The jury, besides 

 presenting offenders, valued deterioration of cottages and holdings. The reeve 

 was the lord's agent in procuring that the tenants did their quota of work 

 but his own exemption was dearly purchased by the obloquy he often 

 found. He had also to give notice of the holding of the halmote. 



The halmote served both as court leet and court baron, but although the 

 free tenants often took up their holdings or did homage at the halmote, its 

 power over them was confined to attaching them to appear at the lord's free 

 court.'' Over the bondagers the halmote's power was very great, but its 

 penalties were wholly pecuniary. Here the villein recovered his debts, 

 entered upon his holding, and if a neif, or nativus, swore fealty. Such litiga- 

 tion as was necessary had to be carried out in the halmote, and the lord's 

 tenant was forbidden to seek redress in any other court, ecclesiastical or lay, 

 when he could obtain it from his lord's halmote. The suitors were the 

 judges, and if a tenant disputed the presentment of the jurors he had to bring 

 six compurgators to establish his innocence before them. 



The halmote, especially in later times, often became a scene of disorder, 

 and the peasants appear at times to have been garrulous and litigious, especially 

 the women. It was not, however, merely a petty law court, but it also served 

 as a sort of' district council.' The reeve and jury may be compared with com- 



' In the Halmote Rolls manerium always means the manor-house, but the phrase 'custom of the manor' 

 occasionally occurs ; e.g. Dur. Curs. No. 14, fol. 397. 



' The prior and bishop had each a free court. These courts met at Durham every three weeks, but the 

 existing rolls are late and tell us little of their procedure. We learn from the Inventarium of 1464 that the 

 prior's tenants refused to attend unless distrained ; Feodarium (Surtees Soc. Iviii), 207. 



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