Growth of the Manor 23 



lords and by their dependents in much the same way all over the 

 country. The lord had his demesne land, and this might lie all 

 together in one compact farm round the manor-house, like a 

 home-farm to-day, or it might lie in the common, open fields, 

 divided into a number of strips scattered among the strips of the 

 villains. On the larger manors there might be a church, the 

 priest in charge of which would hold a certain amount of land, 

 and there would be one or more mills. The most numerous class 

 of cultivators were the villains. They were not free. They were 

 bound to stay on the lord's land at his will. On an average their 

 holdings extended to thirty acres. Instead of rent they generally 

 gave two days' labour in the week on the demesne from the end of 

 September to the end of July, and during the two months, August 

 and September, they gave three days' labour. Another class, the 

 bordars, were numerous. They had smaller holdings for which they 

 also performed some services. The days which were given in service 

 to the lord during seed-time and harvest were called ' boon-days '. 



The total population mentioned in Domesday Book was 

 283,242, but it is not possible to make any close estimate of the 

 population of eleventh-century England from the Domesday 

 record. It did not include the women and children, while the 

 four northern counties were left out of the survey. Of the 

 different classes there were 108,407 villains, 82,609 bordars (490 

 of whom were paupers), 25,156 slaves, 23,072 sokemen, 10,097 

 freemen, 7,871 ' mesne lords ' or sub-tenants, holding manors on 

 the estates of the greater lords, and just under 1,400 tenants-in- 

 chief who held land directly from the king. The sokemen may 

 be counted as free, for the only difference between them and 

 freemen was that their legal troubles came under the jurisdiction 

 of a lord, and he received any fees which arose from this. There 

 were, therefore, at least 216,172 men engaged in the cultivation 

 of the land who were not free. 



In apportioning the land of the country to its new possessors 



