84 The Tenants and their Land. 1400 — 1575. [ch. 



more than 125 acres were customers' lands rendering winter week- 

 work, while the remaining 875 acres, or thereabouts, were held by 

 sokemen and were lightly burdened. The 1000 acres of terra nativa 

 were divided into some 135 tenements, each of which had been 

 charged with certain dues and bore a name, evidently the name of 

 a quondam tenant, which in many cases persisted unchanged from 

 the fourteenth through the sixteenth century. The customers' tene- 

 ments numbered about 25 \ 



Now 32 family names of serfs are known to us^, but doubtless 

 more than 32 servile families had been tenants of the manor. We 

 can be sure that our list is complete only for the last few generations 

 of serfdom. For the period before 1400 we have to depend upon 

 a few incidental references in the scanty rolls, so that it is practically 

 certain that the names of many of the old servile families are not 

 included in the enumeration. 



Comparing the number of servile families with the number of 

 customers' tenements, it appears that the customers' tenements were 

 too few to maintain the servile families, and that there must have 

 been serfs among the occupants of sokemen's tenements, or in other 

 words that there were bond sokemen. This conclusion is supported 

 by the fact that while 28 of the 32 surnames of serfs appear also 

 as names of tenements, a large proportion of these 28 are the names 

 of sokemen's tenements. Hence, we conclude that the serfs of 1400 

 represent both the customers and the bond sokemen of 1 270-1 307, 



But there are reasons for believing that some of the sokemen 

 were free, for 



(i) In the account rolls of 1273 and 1275 there is an apparent 

 reference to free sokemen in the entry ' de vi^^ precariis de sokne et 

 non plus quia alii sunt liberi omnes et nichil dabunt.' 



(2) Of the 24 surnames of native tenentes {i.e. freemen holding 

 bondland) doing homage in 1400, six are also names of sokemen's 

 tenements. 



(3) If the native tenentes of 1400 were not as a class representa- 

 tive of a former class of free sokemen it is difficult to explain 

 their origin. Some of them may have been descendants of libere 

 tenentes that had ceased to be freeholders and had acquired bond 

 land ; others may have been serfs or descendants of serfs who had 



1 p. 67 fif. 



2 These are: Abbott, Aunfrey, Avelyn, Backefenne, Baldwyn, Eartrani, Baxter alias Hill, 

 Bole, Brakest, Bullitout, Clerk, CuUiour, Dosy, Drill, Edwards, Elfleet, Forncett, Galgrym, 

 Gray, Haughne, Herl)erd, Hillyng, Hirnyng, Ploulot, Hulle, Lound, Mors, Palle, Pelet, 

 Roweye, Rugge, Wronge. 



