A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



But it was impossible for the old personal relation between the lord of 

 the manor and the customary tenant to give place to the impersonal relation 

 involved in the payment of fixed money rents to pass away entirely, without 

 even at this late date some difficulties arising. Even as late as 1597, on the 

 sale of the manor of Monk Soham,"* an item of ' 14 days' divers works to be 

 done upon the demesne in harvest at i id. a day,' figures as one of the assets 

 of the property, 'which at 10 years' purchase amounteth to ^Ti 4' ; also i y. 9^. 

 of palfrey silver and lbs. %d. of knowledge money due to every lord at his first 

 entrance into the manor, and amounting at five years' purchase to £b ly. \d. 

 The barter of ancient rights could not always be effected with such an 

 exact computation of their value. A curious and typical case is exemplified 

 in the history of the same manor."' Upon the surrender of some portion of 

 the land about 1595, a dispute arose about the fine, whether or not it 

 were certain, i.e. ' \s. the acre for Molland and is. the acre for Workland 

 according to the pretended prescription.' "' The Court Rolls showed, it was 

 alleged, that fines had been taken at several rates, sometimes \s., sometimes 

 3J-. 4^/., sometimes is. an acre ; there was, therefore, no prescribed fine, and 

 further, ' it is not known at this day which land is molland and which is 

 workland,' in the copies land being taken up by the names of so many acres 

 of molland and workland generally, without specifying how much of each 

 sort. ' Of late time,' the statement concludes, ' since about primo Elizabeth, 

 no fine is set down in the Court Rolls, but the steward left the copyholder to 

 compound with the lord himself.'"^ But from the close of the century the 

 most striking feature of the agrarian records is the eagerness for the acquisition 

 of landed property, by advantageous purchase or by less questionable methods. 

 Rcycc (16 1 8) complains"' that in this latter age, 'through the immoderate 

 desire of the next bordering lords,' the very highways are ' straitened and 

 narrowed in many places.' In the same year a commission was appointed to 

 adjust the boundaries of the freehold and copyhold lands of one John Haughfen, 

 lying at Slaughden End in Sudbourne. 



The defendant held certain copyhold lands under the manors of Sud- 

 bourne, Dunningworth, and Staverton-cum-Bromeswell, and was accused 

 of having defaced the ancient abuttalls and boundaries of these freeholds, 

 and under colour of certain deeds of feoffment claimed the same as his own 

 freehold property, and refused to the lord of the manor, Sir John Stanhope, 

 his due of rent."' 



The extraordinarily complicated condition of Haughfen's property may 

 perhaps be urged in extenuation, if not as an excuse, for his attempt to enrich 

 himself at his neighbour's expense. By a survey of 1577 brought forward 

 in evidence, he owned partly in bond, partly as freehold, thirty-five pieces of 

 land (farmed jointly by two tenants), thirty-four of which are between i acre 

 1 rood and \ a rood in size, while one is 2 acres 2 roods. 



The surveyor of the manor of Ixworth in 1616^'"' complains to the 

 lord that ' the revenue of the manor is much diminished by late encroach- 

 ments made by the lord of Wyken, and by inclosures and intrusions upon 



'" Add. MS. 23959, fol- 3+- '" Ibid. fol. 40. 



"' ' Molland,' land in villeinage with largely commuted services ; ' workland ' with services uncomffluted. 



"' Add MS. 23959, fol. 41. "» Breviary, 53. 



"' B.M. Add. MS. 21054. '" Harl. MS. 98, fol. 28. 



666 



