THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE 37 



relations with the lord, all came before this court and 

 were adjusted from time to time. The lord of the 

 manor or his representative acted as the president of 

 the court, but the peasantry were the judges, and in 

 practice decisions were often left to an appointed 

 committee or jury of six or twelve men. Notwith- 

 standing the fact that in this court the decisions 

 rested with the peasantry, it is important to realize 

 that the absence of any effective right of appeal 

 against arbitrary action of the lord must have given 

 him a predominant influence in all questions that 

 affected his rights and duties. 



It does not appear that the actual management of 

 the husbandry was settled by the halimoot. In large 

 manors containing many communities, such a course 

 could hardly have been followed. It is probable that 

 a 'foreman of the fields' and field juries were 

 appointed by the peasants to look after open arable 

 fields and commons, working in conjunction with the 

 bailiff, hayward and other officials ; and, where there 

 were many communities within the manor, there may 

 have been a corresponding number of such foremen 

 and juries. 



The other local courts were the hundred moot and 

 the shire moot, inherited from Anglo-Saxon times, 

 and various courts of a feudal character ; these latter 

 courts were founded by the owners of the profits of 

 justice, and competed in the administration of judicial 

 business with the older democratic courts, which, 

 indeed, they sometimes superseded. 



With these facts clearly understood, it is not 

 difficult to get an idea of the general character of a 

 manorial estate. The hall or manor house, detached 



