A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



brought before the justices in eyre had been summoned to the local courts. 

 The Constable of Tickhill was at feud with the men of Blyth, and attacked 

 the town with armed men. It was plain that Nottinghamshire was suffering 

 heavily from the disorganization caused by the recent civil war. 67 



This disorganization, however, does not appear to have seriously affected 

 the prosperity of the county, as is witnessed by the Inquisitiones nonarum. The 

 Subsidy Roll of i Edward III seems to be incomplete for Nottinghamshire, 

 since only 240 places are mentioned ; but so far as it goes it suggests a con- 

 siderable distribution of capital. About four thousand persons are mentioned 

 who pay altogether a little under 400 : that is, the average property of the 

 Nottingham tax-payer was about 4Of. 68 Such a fact harmonizes tolerably 

 with the tendency already noticed towards the greater distribution of land 

 among the upper classes, and the increase of freedom among the lower. It 

 also confirms the conclusion that Nottinghamshire in the early I4th century 

 was a fairly prosperous county. At the same time it had as yet no special 

 industry but agriculture, and its population was still somewhat scattered, and 

 in character perhaps primitive. 



During the next century and a half however, Nottinghamshire appears 

 to have shared in some degree in the general tendency in England towards 

 the growth of town life and the accompanying increase of commerce. 

 This tendency must have received a certain impetus from the period of 

 agricultural depression which, in Nottinghamshire, marked the close of the 

 1 4th century. The causes of this depression were probably various. In 1390 

 Nottinghamshire was cited as one of the counties in which no ' farm ' could 

 be gathered, by reason not only of the amount of land exempted from taxation, 

 but of the ruinous effects of the war. 69 



Probably the Black Death and the subsequent plague of 1360 also con- 

 tributed to the fall in the value of land which this statement implies, and 

 which the evidence of the ' extents ' of this date confirms. The fact that 

 this fall is by no means universal suggests that it was partly the effect of a 

 disease, which might possibly desolate one township and leave another 

 untouched. Thus some manors, like Langar, 70 absolutely increase in value ; 

 others, like Warsop, fall from about 17 to 4 i 5-f. 4</. 71 Altogether out of 

 about twelve cases in which surveys exist for years shortly before and shortly 

 after the Black Death, six show a marked decrease in value a decrease both 

 in the amounts of the rents paid and in the actual value of the demesne lands. 73 



In regard to the rents, labour rents are rarely mentioned, though they 

 must still have existed. The tenants of Blyth, for instance, in 1379 had 

 among them to do 120 days' work, valued at i, and the services of the 

 bondars to the manor of Elton seem to have been similar to those they 

 performed 100 years before. 73 



On the other hand, the labour dues were in some places highly recom- 

 pensed. At Norwell, for instance, the tenants of the Southwell chapter in 

 the reign of Henry IV each possessed a messuage or a bovate of land, for which 

 in winter and at Lent they must plough one day, receiving wheaten bread and 



" Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), ii. w Lay Subs. I Edw. Ill, vol. 159, no. 4. 



69 Par!. R. (Rec. Com.), iii, 280. 



70 Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. II, C, file 37, no. 2 ; 46 Edw. Ill, no. 64 (i). 



" Ibid. 2 Edw. I, C, file 51 ; 26 Edw. Ill, no. 53. " Sec Inq. p.m. for period 1300-1400. 



" Raine, Hist, of Parish of Blyth, 42. 



274 



