70 ENCLOSURES OF THE FIFTEENTH III 



that the abolition of this service in no way affected their 

 tenures. Thus for a time the position of those copyholders 

 was secured. Elsewhere, however, the struggle continued, 

 notably on the manors of the Earl of Northumberland, 

 where on the whole the earl appears to have had the best 

 of it. 1 



The question was evidently a burning one in the North 

 for some time. On December 16, 1642, we find the Long 

 Parliament, sitting at Westminster, declaring the report 

 that they intend to take away the tenant-right of the in- 

 habitants of Westmoreland, Cumberland, Durham, New- 

 castle, Northumberland, to be entirely false, ' they never 

 intended to weaken or infringe any of the said tenants' 

 rights, or prejudice the inhabitants in their customs in the 

 least particular/ 2 As late as 1676 Roger North tells us 

 that the struggle was still going on in Cumberland. ' The 

 people/ he says, l had formed a sort of confederacy to 

 undermine the estates of the gentry by pretending a tenant- 

 right, which there is a customary estate not unlike our 

 copyholds, and the verdict was sure for the tenant's right, 

 whatever the case was. The gentlemen finding that all 

 was going, resolved to put a stop to it by serving on the 

 common juries/ ' I could not but wonder to see pantaloons 

 and shoulder knots crowding among the common clowns ', 

 remarks the Tory writer with satisfaction. 8 



Professor Vinogradoff, 4 in a note given in the History 



1 Hodgson, Hist, of Northumberland, pt. iii, vol. ii, 245-6 ; Hist, 

 of Northumberland, viii. 231, 234, 238. In July, 1606, the Earl 

 issued commissions to Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Robert Delaval, and 

 others, to compound with the copyhold tenants in Cumberland for 

 fines, and so also for Northumberland and Tynemouth ; Northumber- 

 land MSS., communicated by Mr. Cra'ster. 



2 Rushworth, Collections, pt. iii, vol. ii. 86. 



3 North, Life of Lord Guildford, p. 140. 



4 Hist, of Northumberland, viii, p. 238. 



