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BOCLAND. 



BODLEYAN LIBRARY. 



242 



The author of ' A Dissertation on the Folclande and Boclande of the 

 Saxons,' 4to., Lond. 1777, says, " the Boelande and Folclande are 

 first discovered in an ordinance of ^Ethelbert, which informs us that 

 the country was divided into two portions, one of them more imme- 

 diately appertaining to the King and his Thains, the other under the 

 jurisdiction of the Earl, who was annually elected by the freemen of 

 every shire, and was denominated Eorl, Ealdorman, or Gerefa, and in 

 latter tunes Greve, or Reve ; he it was that convened the Folcmote, 

 which was composed of the possessors of Folclande, and together with 

 the bishop administered the oath of allegiance to the freemen, over 

 whom he presided when they sat in their judicial capacity, and whose 

 decrees it was his duty to enforce." 



Mr. Allen, in his ' Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal 

 Prerogative in England, 8vo. Lond., 1830, goes more at length into this 

 subject : he says that Bocland might belong to the church, to the king, 

 or to a subject. It might be alienable and devisable at the will of the 

 proprietor. It might be limited in its descent, without any power of 

 alienation in the possessor. It was often granted for a single life or 

 for more lives than one, with remainder in perpetuity to the church. 

 It was forfeited for various delinquencies to the state. Bocland, more- 

 over, was released from all services to the public, except those which 

 were comprised in the phrase " trinoda necessitas," which were said to 

 be incumbent on all persons : these were the contributing to military 

 expeditions, and to the reparation of castles and bridges. Bocland also 

 might be held by freemen of all ranks and degrees. A ceorl might 

 possess bocland and perform for it military service to the state. If he 

 had five hides of bocland, with the other requisites demanded by law, 

 he was entitled to the privileges of a Thegn. (Wilkin's ' Leg. Anglo- 

 Sax.' pp. 70, 71.) Gesiths (companions or partners) might receive 

 grants of bocland. (Hickes, ' Gramm. Anglo-Sax." p. 139; Bedae, 

 ' Hist. Eccl.' cura Smith, p. 786.) Thegns might also possess bocland. 

 But the estate of a thegn in bocland must not be confounded with the 

 thegn-lauds which he held, by a beneficiary tenure from the king or 

 from a private lord, for military service. Thegn-lands held of the king 

 or state are repeatedly mentioned in Domesday ; and the Saxon laws 

 carefully distinguish the bocland possessed by a thegn, from the land 

 given him by his hlaford (or lord). (' Leg. Can.' p. 75.) It is probable 

 that thegn-lands were originally granted for life, as beneficiary lands 

 were on the Continent ; but before the end of the Saxon period, the 

 possessions given to a man by his hlaford descended in certain cases to 

 his children. (Ibid.) The estates of the higher nobility consisted 

 chiefly of bocland. Bishops and abbots might have bocland of their 

 own, in addition to what they held in right of the church. The Anglo- 

 Saxon kings had private estates of bocland ; and these estates did not 

 merge in the crown, but were devisable by will, alienable by gift, or 

 sale, and transmissible by inheritance in the same manner as bocland 

 held by a subject. 



When bocland was created, it was released from the burthens to 

 which folcland was subjected, and the proprietor, unless fettered by 

 the original grant, or by a subsequent settlement of the estate, appears 

 to have had an unlimited power to dispose of it as he chose (Somner's 

 ' Gavelkynd ') ; in the exercise of that power he might transfer it by 

 grant or bequeath it by will, in such quantities, for such periods, and 

 on such conditions as he was pleased to appoint. If conveyed by a 

 written instrument, whatever might be the stipulations annexed to the 

 grant, the land was still denominated bocland. (See Heming's ' Chartul.' 

 and Smith's ' Bede.') When once severed from the folcland, or property 

 of the community, an estate retained the name of bocland, whatever 

 were the burthens and services imposed on it, provided it was alienated 

 by deed. When transferred on condition of reversion, it seems to 

 have been called lanland. This appears from a transaction recorded 

 in the Chartulary of Worcester. (Heming, p. 158 ; see also ibid, 

 pp. 204, 205.) We are there told that Archbishop Oswald granted to 

 jElfsige a tenement in Worcester, with the croft attached to it, for 

 three lives, to be held as amply in the form of bocland as it had been 

 held before in the form of hcnland. Lajnlaud might be an estate for 

 life, or it might be held at will ; and if the possessor was convicted of 

 felony it reverted to the donor. (Lappenberg and Kemble.) 



Bocland, says Mr. Allen, when alienated by grant or will, might be 

 free, or in the seignory of some church, manor, or individual. It 

 might be subjected to a variety of conditions, but it must be conveyed 

 by a written instrument, though the delivery was symbolised by a 

 staff, an arrow, a drinking horn, &c. ; and a great part of the charters 

 in the ' Codex Diplomaticus JEvi Saxonicum ' relate to the changing of 

 folcland into bocland. Tenants of bocland might be persons of the 

 same description with the lowest and most dependent of the occupiers 

 of folcland. The only difference between them seems to have been, 

 that the tenants of folcland held their lands directly from the public 

 authorities of the state, while the others held their land of some pro- 

 prietor, to whom it had been previously granted as a private inherit- 

 ance. The villain of later times and the copyholder of the present day 

 are not derived from the one more than from the other. 



Bocland might be forfeited for, various offences, and when forfeited, 

 it escheated to the king, as the representative of the state. (' Leges 

 ^Ethelredi Regis,' 2 ; ' Leg. Cnuti/ 12, 75 ; ' Text. Roff.,' pp. 44, 130 ; 

 Hickes, ' DISH. Ep.) Land held of a subject, when forfeited for the 

 same delinquency, escheated to the lord. (' Leg. Cnuti.') When boc- 

 land was granted on lives, it was usual to insert a clause in the charter, 



ARTS AND scr. mv. VOL. ii. 



declaring that whatever offence the tenant might commit, his land 

 should revert without forfeiture to the grantor. (' Monasticon Augl.,' 

 vol. iii.) 



From the view that has been taken of the distinction between folc- 

 land and bocland, it follows that the folcland, or land of the community, 

 like the fisc of the Continental nations, was the fund out of which the 

 boclands, possessions or estates of inheritance, were carved. At what 

 time the folcland, or land of the public, began to be converted into 

 bocland we are not informed. It was probably soon after the establish- 

 ment of the Saxons in England ; for though a more rude and unculti- 

 vated people than the nations which had enjoyed greater opportunities 

 of intercourse with the Romans, they must have found private property 

 in land among the Britons whom they expelled or subdued, and could 

 not long remain insensible to the advantages arising from it. Certain 

 it is, that in one of the earliest charters giving land to the Church, it 

 is implied, though not expressly asserted in the grant, that the land 

 contained in the donation had been previously the private property of 

 the donor. (Between A.D. 665 and 694, see Smith's ' Bede,' p. 748.) 

 But though commenced at an early period, the conversion of folcland 

 into bocland seems to have been slowly and gradually effected. Every 

 charter creating bocland is a proof that the land had formerly been 

 folcland. A charter of Archbishop Wilfred, who died about 830, 

 asserts in direct terms, that the land which he gives away had never 

 been any man's bocland before it became his, and appeals to general 

 practice, whether a proprietor of boclaud might not sell it or dispose of 

 it as he pleased. (Somner's ' Gavelkynd.') 



Folcland being the property of the community, could not be con- 

 verted into bocland except by an act of government. In early times 

 this was probably done in the gemot or public assembly of the tribe, 

 as temporary allotments to individuals were made in the gemot or 

 assembly of the district. But when the king came to be considered as 

 the representative of the state, all charters of bocland ran in his name, 

 and appeared to emanate from his bounty. The power of creating 

 allodial property, by which was meant an estate of inheritance, is 

 enumerated in the ' Textus Roffensis,' cap. xxvii., among the pre- 

 rogatives of the crown. But though bocland could not be created 

 without the authority of the king, it was not in his power to convert 

 folcland into bocland without the consent of his witan, principes, 

 seniores, optimates, magnates, or other persons, by whatever name 

 they were called, who assisted him in the administration of his king- 

 dom. There is hardly a Saxon charter creating bocland which is not 

 said to have been granted by the king with consent and leave of his 

 nobles and great men. If that consent was withheld, his grant was 

 invalid. 



When the king became the representative of the state, the folcland, 

 >r land of the public, began to be called and considered his property. 

 It was his land in the same sense that the servants of the public were 

 \UB servants, the laws his laws, and the army his army. In his politic 

 capacity he was the state, and whatever belonged to the state belonged 

 to him. If folcland was assigned to any one for life, or for a shorter 

 term, it was given by his authority, and apparently for his service. 

 When it was converted by charter into bocland, or land of inhe- 

 ritance, the deed was executed in his name, and though the grant was 

 of no validity without the concurrence of his witan, the donation 

 seemed in form the spontaneous act of his munificence. 



In fact, there seems but little doubt that the folcland of our Saxon 

 ancestors, which, in contradistinction to bocland, has so long puzzled 

 English antiquaries, was no other than the public land, which in the 

 lapse of time ultimately received aother appellation, that of Terra 

 Regis, or crown land. The term Bocland, as has been already noticed, 

 was appropriated to such portions as from time to time had been 

 severed from it, and granted out by written instrument. These 

 severances increased rapidly towards the close of the Anglo-Saxon 

 period. Mr. Kemble says, " I should imagine nearly every acre of land 

 in England had become bocland." As in many cases, particularly in 

 grants to the Church, even the usual burthens for military defence 

 were remitted, it evidently enfeebled the nation, and in some degree 

 accounts for the successes of the Danes and Normans in their invasions. 



It is remarkable that in the Domesday Survey the term Bocheland 

 occurs but once in its proper acceptation (' Domesd.' torn. i. fol. 11 b.) : 

 though as the name of a place it frequently occurs. (See Ellis's 

 ' General Introd. to Domesd. Book,' vol. i. p. 230, note.) Mr. Allen, 

 Inquiry, &c.,' observes that numerous entries in Domesday distin- 

 guish lands which in Saxon tunes must have been bocland into free 

 lands and lands in seignory. (See ' Domesd.,' torn. i. fol. 72 a, col. 2, 

 80 a, col. 1, 84 b, col. 2, &c.) 



BODLEYAN, or BODLEIAN LIBRARY. The public library of 

 the University of Oxford was founded in 1597 by Sir Thomas Bodley, 

 in the year in which he retired altogether from public employment 

 [BODLET, SIR THOMAS, in Bioo. DIV.] 



The first public library in Oxford was established in what was then 

 called Durham (since Trinity) College, by Richard de Bury, or Aunger- 

 ville, bishop of Durham and lord treasurer of England, in the time of 

 Edward III. He died in 1345, and left his books to the students of 

 Durham College, who preserved them in chests, until the time that 

 Thomas de Hatfield, his successor in the see of Durham, built the 

 library in 1370. Chalmers, however, in his ' History of the Colleges, 

 , and Public Buildings of Oxford,' vol. ii. \>. 458, says, it is not 



B 



