74 The Tenants and their Land. 1376 — "]%. [cH. 



with the consent of the lord. The manor was overcrowded at this 

 period^ and the non-tenant serfs represented the surplus servile 

 population. On the other hand, the fugitives of the late fourteenth 

 century left the manor against the will of the lord. The labouring 

 population had diminished. The lord wished to retain his bond 

 tenants within his domain, but the bondmen were attracted from the 

 manor by new opportunities of gain, and the manorial officers could 

 not be depended upon to execute the lord's orders^. 



Of the bondmen that remained within the manor some seem to 

 have prospered. At this period real estate was the form of invest- 

 ment that bondmen would be most likely to make. It therefore 

 throws light upon the condition of the bondmen to inquire to what 

 extent they were renting or buying land. 



Of the 73 lessees of land in the years i^']6-Z, 16 bore surnames 

 that were borne by bond families of the manor, and it may therefore 

 be assumed were serfs. The average amount of land, not including 

 the demesne or the manor of Williams, farmed by the 73 lessees, was 

 3^^ acres. Of the serfs that leased land, nine farmed small amounts 

 of not more than 2^ acres; one farmed i^ acres of arable, a croft, 

 and the cart-house ; another, 2 J acres of arable, the orchard, close, 

 stotts' stable ; another, some 6 acres, the chamber west of the gate, 

 and the grange ; another, 8^ acres. Of the remaining three, Robert 

 Herberd and Robert Houlot farmed the demesne arable and meadow, 

 besides a few acres of other arable land. Together with William 

 Hernyng, Houlot also farmed the manor of Williams, for which a 

 yearly rent of £Z was paid. Hernyng also farmed the market tolls, 

 and jointly with another tenant — whom we have no reason to suppose 

 a bondman — he farmed some 25 acres in Redelyngfeld. With the 

 exception of the joint lessee of Redelyngfeld, all the lessees of 

 considerable quantities of land were bondmen. With two excep- 

 tions the farmers of all the demesne lands and buildings were also 

 bond men ^ 



At this period the bondmen were also purchasing * soiled land.' 

 Thus between 1358 and 1376 different members of the Bolytoute 



1 Evidence for this is the small size of the holdings, see above, p. 17 ff., and the relatively 

 large population at this period, see below, chapter Viii. 



^ Moulton Court Rolls, MS. 1354. ' Misericordia vi. d. De praeposito et messore quia 

 non levaverunt c. s. de Willelmo filio Roberti, Milone Springald, Roberto Elbald et Waltero 

 Bee, manucaptoribus Willelmi Elbald carucarii qui se elongavit a servitio domini sicut 

 habuerunt in praecepto.' For instances from the Forncett rolls see footnotes on p. 75. 



3 This may perhaps be explained by the fact that most of the tenants who lived near the 

 manor house were bondmen. See above, p. i3ff. and Map. 



