A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



rare exceptions. In 1398 the ordinary Halmote Rolls of the prior cease, and 

 in their stead we have three manuscript volumes of Halmote Books, which 

 are all the record we possess of the transactions of the halmote court till 

 I 528 — on the eve of the dissolution of the monasteries. A careful examination 

 proves that almost without exception the lettings of land under the prior, 

 whether whole bondages or isolated acres, were for a term of years at a 

 definite money rent, but the tenant apparently renewed his lease just before 

 each term was up by paying a fine and renewing the obligation to repair. 



We can trace three well-defined stages in the relations of the prior and 

 his tenants. In the early part of the fifteenth century there are a certain 

 number of lettings for life, apparently to the heirs of the original holders ^ or 

 to persons for whom the latter surrender the land.** Side by side we find 

 other tenants renewing their leases for another three, six, nine, or twelve 

 years, often with licence to tabernate for at least part of their term.' The 

 rent was generally the same during the new term as in the old, but sometimes 

 the licence to tabernate had to be bought. At ' Sheles ' in 141 6 we find an 

 interesting limitation to a life-tenure which John Robinson had inherited fi-om 

 his father. ' And if the said John with any other lord be a retainer or 

 payment make to any other lord then his term ceases at the will of the lord.'* 

 It must be remembered that during this time the bishop's tenants generally 

 held for life, although leases for a term of years are not unknown. 



The second period is about the middle of the century, when the old 

 bondages seldom appear. Their place is taken by composite holdings made 

 up of varying amounts of bond and demesne lands, taken for a term of years 

 with the usual stipulations as to giving up the original holding in a sufficient 

 state of repair at the end of the lease.' Licences to tabernate became 

 common, and as the lord had always a number of tenements without a holder 

 he never refused to renew a lease. It is plain from the entries in volume ii 

 that during the latter part of the fifteenth century rents were falling in 

 sympathy with the obvious decrease of population. The number of tenants 

 in some vills shrank considerably, to judge from the number of leases issued, 

 and some of the smaller vills were let to a few holders, generally about three 

 or four, on the most ample terms with licence to lease, and sometimes at a 

 reduced rent.* Sometimes the demesne of a vill was let to tenants in frac- 

 tional parts, as when eight men at East Rainton each took one-eighth of the 

 demesne lands for six years.'' Tenants became very scarce in the prior's vills, 

 and he not only forgave arrears of rent if the lessee ' promised to be a good 

 and faithful tenant,' but he also partially or wholly stocked the holding, a 

 practice which had apparently died out in the early part of the fifteenth 

 century.* About 1440 the prior offered extraordinary inducements to attract 

 tenants, but the last lease for life I have found was at Shields in 1445.' 



Towards the end of the century the economic state of the Palatinate was 

 very bad, especially in the prior's vills. The ' Inventory ' made when William 

 de Ebchester became prior in 1446^° agrees with a similar inventory dated 



' MS. Prior's Halmote Bks. ii, fol. 51. ' Ibid, i, fol. 49. » Ibid, i, fol. 78. * Ibid, i, fol. 51. 



' Ibid, i, fol. 135^. (under Coupon). ^ Ibid, i, fol. 121, 12J d. ' Ibid, i, fol. l^iti. 



* Cf. entries at end of vol. i MS. Prior's Halniote Bl<s. and beginning of vol. ii. 



' MS. Prior's Halmote Bks. ii, 19 </. 



'° Printed in the App. to Scri/>tores Jres. (Surtees Soc. ix), cclxxxv. 



226 



