SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



the cottars, were subject to the servile ' leer wyte ' ; in this case 2s. : the 

 ' merchet,' curiously enough, is not mentioned. As for the sixteen cottars, 

 they did no ploughing. They made one day's hay and stacked it ; they each 

 found one man for three days at harvest, each reaper in this case, as in that 

 of the other classes of tenants, receiving two loaves worth \d. a day. Further, 

 each cottar had to weed for one day, and to make 3 perches of hedge ; 

 but harrowing and sowing were not demanded of this class of tenants. 



On the whole, this Wheatley survey appears to give a fairly typical 

 account of the work demanded from the various classes of tenants in Notting- 

 hamshire. There is, however, in this case no mention of the small special 

 dues which occur elsewhere. At Gringley, 29 for instance, the bondars and 

 cottars were expected to mend walls and gather apples, to pay id. for every 

 five sheep which they possessed, and to give to the lord every seventh pig. 

 If they kept bees they paid id. per hive ; and they also owed the tribute of 

 eggs which was common in other places, such as Blyth. The Gringley 

 holdings, however, which were usually one toft and 18 acres of arable, must 

 have been larger than those at Wheatley. The latter (reckoning the bovate 

 at 1 6 acres) must have been below the average, to judge by details given 

 elsewhere. At Kingston, 80 for instance, the holdings appear to have 

 averaged about i virgate with a payment of i os. for all service ; at Warsop sl 

 I bovate was the average ; and at Elton about the same time the ' bondi ' had 

 from one to two bovates. 32 



These Elton ' bondi,' tenants holding of the abbey of Blyth, had a heavy 

 labour rent two days' work a week for each bovate ; the work days falling 

 either on Monday and Thursday, or Monday and Saturday. These days, 

 however, might be remitted for certain special pieces of work : ploughing 

 half an acre meant the remission of one day's work ; so did harrowing and 

 weeding the same quantity of land, and reaping, and carrying its produce. 

 The carriage of half a quarter of corn three times a year was held as 

 equivalent to two days' work in summer, or to three in winter : and carrying 

 half a cart-load of wood from Sherwood stood for another day. The holders 

 of each bovate were also to bring half a cart-load of hay from each of two 

 neighbouring villages, and were to harrow wheat for one day, and peas or 

 barley for one day. The free labourers on the other hand merely provided 

 two labourers for three days in harvest. 



This kind of proportion between the labour rents of the free and unfree 

 tenants appears in most of those surveys where details of the rents are given : 

 but these details are often incomplete. In the majority of cases, especially with 

 the later extents, the rents are given simply in money. Occasionally the 

 amounts due for work and due for rent are separated, but frequently the rents 

 of all three classes, free tenants, bondars, and cottars, are lumped together. 

 These estimates of labour in money value must have greatly facilitated the 

 commutation of labour into cash, and probably indicate that such a commu- 

 tation was already taking place at the beginning of the I4th century, the 

 period when money estimates begin to be common. What proportion of the 

 produce of the land was consumed by these rents, it is difficult to say ; but it 

 is worth noting that in eleven extents dating from 1272 to 1325 the average 



19 Rent, and Surv. R. 504, 25 Edw. I. ' Inq. p.m. 17 Edw. II, no. 64. 



" Inq. p.m. 2 Edw. I, C, file 5, no. i. 3 ' J. Raine, Hut. of Blyth, 34 ; Harl MSS. 3759 



269 



