A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



have let Shireoaks in 1458 on a twelve years' lease for twelve sheep fod- 

 dered on Shireoaks land, 31 quarters of wheat, 2 bushels of rye for the 

 sheep every third week, and 31 quarters of oats. 109 



Nor do the Nottingham merchants show signs of great wealth. Luxury 

 no doubt crept in ; articles of plate for instance appear, such as five silver 

 spoons which belonged to a Nottingham burgess in 1433:" and there seems 

 to have been considerable activity in building in Nottingham towards the 

 end of the 1 5th century ; while at the same period Nottingham burgesses, 

 following in the footsteps of William de Amyas in the I4th century, appear 

 to have been gradually accumulating land and houses. Still, compared with 

 the traders of the eastern counties, the Nottinghamshire men would probably 

 not have been considered wealthy or luxurious. 



Among the rural classes personal property appears to have been both 

 rude and scanty. The bulk of the goods of various husbandmen outlawed 

 for debt or attainted for felony during the early years of the 1 5th century 

 consisted naturally in farm produce and implements ; growing wheat, barley 

 and peas ; carts, iron-bound or otherwise ; pigs and sheep ; horses and oxen ; 

 occasionally a very little household furniture. A brass bowl, various cooking 

 utensils and a pair of sheets were among the most common possessions. 

 The household goods of one John Shaw of South Leverton, about 1428, 

 were valued at 1 8s. ^d. ; but this was an exceptionally large sum, to be 

 accounted for perhaps by the fact that household goods constituted his whole 

 possession. 111 In other cases the goods (including standing crops and farm 

 stock) were about 40.;., and the household goods about 41. Again, in a list 

 of outlaws in the reign of Edward IV, the value of the goods varies from 



IJ. tO IOJ. 112 





Altogether these inquisitions confirm the other evidence adduced. 

 It appears that Nottinghamshire was still a county drawing its chief wealth 

 from the land, and that this wealth was not great ; the peasant got a living, 

 but not much more than a living, from the soil ; and the townward move- 

 ment was still only beginning. 



With the 1 6th century came changes for Nottinghamshire, as for all 

 England, though at first these changes were less violent than in many parts 

 of the country. The inclosures, which were so marked a feature of this 

 period, were in Nottingham of comparatively slight extent. A little less 

 than 2,500 acres are noted in the Domesday of Inclosures as having been 

 inclosed between the years 1490 and I5i8. m This may perhaps have been 

 partly due to the fact that so large a part of the county was covered by the 

 great forest of Sherwood, where inclosures would be an injury, not to 

 the people, but to the king. Thus the largest inclosures are in the 

 comparatively small hundred of Bingham, where about 100 more acres 

 were inclosed than in the large forest division of Bassetlaw. 



Of the total inclosures, about 100 acres had previously been waste; 

 about 300 had been common, and 300 private pasture; and about 1,500 

 arable. Of this land when inclosed, over 700 acres were made into parks, 

 a higher proportion than in almost any other county ; and almost the whole 



109 J. Holland, Hist, of Worktop, 174. no Rec. of Borough ofNott. ii, 141. 



11 Escheator's Inq. file 1428, no. 6, 4-5 Hen. VI. "' Ibid, file 1451, no. 2, 7-8 Edw. IV. 



111 Trans. ofThoroton Soc. iv, v ; I. S. Leadam, Domesday of Inclosures fir Notts. 



280 



" 



