vii] The Tenants and their Land. 1400 — 1575- 9^ 



This bondman left a son, but the later history of this family cannot 

 be traced, as the rolls from 1508 to 1524 are missing. 



In 1524, a few months before his death, the third tenant — Walter 

 — held land to the value of ^^40. At this time he had two married 

 daughters, but no sons, and bargained with his son-in-law, John 

 Crane, with a view to transferring to Crane all his lands and tene- 

 ments. But Walter's other son-in-law, John Roo, felt that he would be 

 injured by this transaction, and tried to prove that the bargain had 

 not actually been effected. A number of servants {servientes) are 

 incidentally mentioned as belonging to the households of Walter and 

 his children. Thus one of the witnesses who testified in the manor 

 court in Roo's behalf and against Crane was a young woman, the 

 ' servant ' of Walter ; a second witness against Crane was ' arrested,' 

 the next year, by two of Crane's * servants.' A third ' servant ' of 

 Crane was charged with striking a woman ' servant ' of Roo. Within 

 a year or two Crane had died and the bailiff was ordered to seize all 

 the lands that his widow held and provide a new tenant. A few 

 months later an entry appears that suggests that serfs might be 

 disseized of their lands on grounds that would not have sufficed 

 had the tenants been of free status : ' Now on this account, because 

 the daughters of Walter Bolitout are bondwomen of blood, it has 

 been ordered by the lord's special command — certain considerations 

 related and declared here in full court by the surveyor moving him 

 thereto — to seize all the lands and tenements (of which Walter died 

 seized).' 



The fourth tenant, William, held at least 30 acres at his death 

 in 1 55 1. One of his sons died in 1538. His goods were valued at 

 ^4. 4$-. 2d} He left two infant sons, who never, apparently, became 

 tenants of the manor. William's second son, a carpenter, held a 

 messuage and three acres. In 1556 he and his descendants were 

 manumitted. 



Many members of this family dwelt outside the manor. Between 

 1400 and 141 1 some four bondmen fled, whom the lord seems to 

 have been unable to attach. During the fifteenth century seventeen 

 bondmen paid chevage, and during the sixteenth century nineteen. 

 In 1556 one of the chevage-paying serfs was manumitted, together 

 with his descendants, some five or six of whom had paid chevage. 



After 1556 the only chevage-paying serfs, and, so far as the court 

 rolls show, the only serfs still connected with the manor, were of the 

 family of Robert Bolitout. In 1575 Robert Bolitout and his children 



1 Appendix XIII. Ixxxvii.-lxxxviii. 



