SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



1464^ in a picture of universal desolation and decay. In 1446 at Shields the 

 revenue from the vill had shrunk by £^ 5J. Sd. to £12 6s. %d. in a few years. 

 The malting house returned 8j. instead of 40J-., and there were fifteen tene- 

 ments lying in the hands of the lord, and the vill lay for the most part 

 desolate and uninhabited. It would be tedious to quote similar instances 

 from the later account, but it may be said that at Shields, and in practically 

 every vill, there is the same tale of a fall of rent and population, and some- 

 times we get a hint, as at Southwick, how some powerful lay-lord oppressed 

 the prior's tenants till they either fled away in despair from their lands or 

 agreed to become his retainers.^ 



The prior was driven to make still greater concessions, and so we get 

 the third arrangement between him and his tenants — the whole vill was leased 

 to all the tenants, or the more important of them, in equal shares as the 

 demesne lands had been before. The first case in the rolls is at Wallsend in 

 1435. The record runs : The tenants among themselves, viz. John Punchon 

 (and six others) took from the lord all the vill of Wallsend with the demesne 

 lands there and appurtenances to hold from the Feast of St. Martin, 1436, for 

 six years paying yearly £12 js. 3^^^. , . . and the aforesaid tenants among 

 themselves shall sustain eight messuages with appurtenances and five cottages 

 with appurtenances lately built and deliver them up in good repair at the 

 end of the term. The Wallsend arrangement was repeated in 1441, and at 

 intervals in the century following.' 



At first the system of leasing the whole vill to the tenants was tentative, 

 and there are indications that the lord did retain a direct control of some of 

 the smaller holdings,* but by 1492 this was the usual arrangement for all the 

 prior's vills according to the Halmote Books. The only alteration was that 

 each tenant took singly a fractional part of the vill, corresponding to the 

 number of lessees, but all the leases were taken at the same meeting of the 

 court and for the same number of years. The system probably lasted in its 

 main outlines as long as the convent did, and the arrangements disclosed by 

 the Bursar's Rental of 1539^ prove that the prior's vills were at that time 

 held under a system very similar. Harton, for instance, was held in ten 

 equal portions, as it was in 1492, but the rent payable had risen by 3.3'. to 

 54J. jd} 



The Halmote Books are silent as to the reason for this change, and it is 

 impossible to fix the actual date. There are, however, a few interesting en- 

 tries as to the conditions of the lease apart from the usual obligation to 

 repair. After several leases we find — 



The condition of these preceding leases is that if the aforesaid lessees from now and 

 henceforth keep peace and concord among themselves the leases of the said land shall stand 

 effective. Otherwise if any controversy or discord shall arise among them, then the aforesaid 

 leases shall be of no virtue, strength or moment, etc' 



Under Wallsend the condition was attached that whenever the lord pleased 

 the tenants would build the aforesaid five cottages at their own expense (e.g. 

 besides the eight messuages).^ An entry under Billingham seems to show 



' Feod. (Surtees Soc. Iviii), 302. ' Ibid. 119 ; MS. Prior's Halmote Bks. i, 51 (under ' Sheles '). 



' MS. Prior's Halmote Bks. i, fol. I 33. The number of lessees varied from six to eight. 

 * Ibid, iii, fol. 124 a'. ' Printed in FeoJ. (Surtees Soc. Iviii), 302. 



^ The rise took place in 15 10. MS. Prior's Halmote Bks. iii, fol. iz\ J. 

 ' MS. Prior's Halmote Bks. iii, fol. 2. 



227 



