SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



of the remainder was converted into pasture ; in other words, the growing 

 tendency towards sheep-farming, which had marked the whole of the 

 1 6th century, was accelerated. 



To judge by the Domesday of Inclosures^ however, this acceleration 

 did not cause the misery that might have been anticipated ; altogether about 

 19 ploughs were said to be put down ; forty houses were ruinous, or pulled 

 down (of which thirty-one were in Nottingham itself), and about 120 persons 

 evicted. Of these eighteen were rehoused by the landlord at Wollaton ; 

 probably the existence of the coal-mine there made their labour valuable. 

 The two really startling cases of eviction were at Wiverton, where Sir George 

 Chaworth converted practically the whole township into park-land and 

 private pasture, evicting about twenty-six persons ; and at Holme, where 

 William Pierpoint evicted thirty-six persons from about 220 acres of arable 

 and meadow, converting the whole into pasture. Another curious instance 

 was at Cropwell Butler, where the inclosure of 6 acres of common meadow 

 apparently meant the displacement of six persons. The whole of the 

 evictions, however, apparently took place on less than 700 acres ; whence it 

 seems that the bulk of the inclosures were made on land which the inhabitants 

 had already deserted. The conversion of arable into pasture may have been 

 partly necessitated by the difficulty of procuring labour. Another circum- 

 stance which probably diminished the misery caused by this change was 

 that Nottingham was evidently still a county of small holders. 114 The 

 inclosures were made by about a hundred and fifty individuals, and 

 ' closes ' of one or two acres were common. Thus the class which in other 

 places might have been dispossessed, in Nottinghamshire probably shared 

 the spoil. 



The small freeholders were, however, gradually becoming a less 

 important class ; the large inclosures were naturally made by the large 

 owners, and the abbey lands also fell for the most part into their hands. 



The monastic lands in Nottinghamshire, according to Dugdale, 

 amounted in yearly value to something over 2,000 (a low estimate) ; and 

 the inquisitiones post mortem on the estate of about a hundred landowners for 

 the period from 1470 1540 115 give an average value of about 20 for the 

 ordinary estate of a tenant-in-chief. Hence the distribution of the monastic 

 lands added vastly to the wealth and power of the lay landholders. The 

 prizes fell naturally to the more powerful among them. The families of 

 Stanhope, Byron, Strelly, Cowper, and Hussey were amongst those enriched 

 at this time. A new class of landowners appeared also in the persons of 

 London citizens, many of whom received grants from Henry VIII. Three 

 London aldermen acquired a large part of the land of Newstead ; 116 and much 

 of the possessions of Worksop passed into the hands of a London mercer. 117 

 These grants seem to have been made generally as a means of liquidating the 

 king's debts ; but the eagerness of the successful merchant to invest in land is 

 a well-known feature in English life, and the phenomenon recurs throughout 

 the reign of Elizabeth and during the earlier part of the I7th century. 



14 Such is the opinion of Mr. Leadam, as given in the article previously quoted. 



116 W. P. W. Phillimore, Abstracts of Inj. p.m. relating to Notts. The estimate above is taken from an 

 average of about a hundred surveys ranging from 1476 to 1546. Exceptionally large estates such as those 

 of the Archbishop of York are omitted. 



m L. and P. Hen. nil, xix (2), g. 166 (55). " 7 Ibid, xv, 1032. 



2 281 36 



