SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



not bring the money home to hoard, but invested 53/. \d. (about the value 

 of 24 acres of corn) in the purchase of an eighth share of a Harwich vessel. 

 His domestic possessions, if not luxurious, were much above those of a 

 peasant. The movables in his house were worth ^t. Usually he dined off 

 pewter, but he had a silver dish, six silver cups, and some fine earthenware, 

 and linen for festive occasions." As a grazier and a woolgrower and a com- 

 mercial shareholder, Thomas Sampson was a man of the future. Perhaps 

 that was why he was discontented. For he had his roots apparently in the 

 manorial acres of the peasant bondman. 



The steady progress of this economic development might be illustrated 

 at great length from the rentals of the abbey. Of these invaluable sources of 

 social history far too many are extant to allow of any detailed account here, 

 but a comparison of two or three of them of different date will be the most 

 instructive way of carrying on our account of land tenure in Suffolk into the 

 middle of the 15th century. The rental of Elmswell in 1357, which is one 

 of a number drawn up in the same district at the same time, has a great 

 many features in common with the survey of Hadleigh taken half a century 

 earlier. The original uniformity of the customary holdings is carefully pre- 

 served. There are six of 24 acres each, eleven of 12 acres, and eight of 

 6 acres, and each class of holdings of the same size has a uniform set of ser- 

 vices and payments in kind or money rents. The tenant of 24 acres renders 

 twenty eggs yearly, the tenant of 12 acres ten eggs, the tenant of 6 acres five 

 eggs, and so on. These uniform holdings, each with the name of an original 

 holder attached to it, are the legal personalities upon which, in the thought 

 of the surveyor, if not in actual law, the obligations of tenancy are laid. In 

 some cases the actual tenant of whole or part of the holding is a descendant 

 of the original holder. But a single tenant of the entire original holding is 

 exceptional. In most cases it is split up as far as occupation and cultivation 

 are concerned into quite irregular portions, each occupied by a different 

 tenant, who holds at the same time similar portions of some of the other 

 original holdings. The amount of land cultivated by the individual tenant 

 might vary from half an acre to 40 acres, and the rents and services that had 

 to be rendered would vary in proportion from tenant to tenant. The spirit 

 of individualism, with the natural accompaniment of wide diversities of 

 economic condition, has already made considerable encroachment upon the 

 uniformities of a semi-communal tenure in Elmswell and elsewhere by the 

 year 1357, but the rental still sticks to the old uniformities as the basis of its 

 survey. Thus of one of the original uniform holdings we are told John Jake- 

 man held formerly 24 acres. Of these, W. Warde now holds 12, W. Jake- 

 man, sen., 5 a. i r., W. Jakeman, jun., 5 a. i r., T. de Lane 3 roods, and so 

 on ; and the rents and services to be rendered for the whole 24 acres by the 

 eight tenants are stated in the mass as being practically identical with those 

 demanded from each of the other lots of 24 acres. How the tenants are to 

 apportion the burden among them is not stated.''* 



If we turn from this set of rentals to one drawn up for Rickinghall in 

 1387 we find a very significant change. The tradition of a number of 



" E. Powell, The Riling in East Anglia, 143. 



'• B.M. Add. MSS. 14849. The extents in this MSS. are those of Elmswell, Culford, Fornham, Red- 

 grave, Wortham, Burgate, Palgrave, Westhorpe, Rickinghall, Worlingworth, and Soham. 



65s 



