vii] The Tena7its and their Land. 1400 — 1575. 97 



Elizabeth by compelling them to buy their freedom. Thus, in 1575, 

 serfdom came to an end in Forncett. 



Many of the serfs who left the manor went to neighbouring 

 villages. From 1400 to 1575 serfs are named in the extant rolls 

 as having withdrawn to 64 different places. Sixty-seven serfs dwelt 

 in 36 places, which were all within a radius of 10 miles from Forn- 

 cett ; 38 bondmen remained in 16 places, from 10 to 20 miles from 

 Forncett ; and 21 were in 12 places, more than 20 miles distant. 



Twenty-two serfs dwelt in Norwich — about 12 miles from Forn- 

 cett ; and of the 21 who had travelled furthest, 14 remained in towns 

 along the eastern coast — Martham, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Somerton, 

 Scratby, Hemesby, and Eccles. 



The occupations followed by these fugitive serfs can be learned in 

 only a few instances. One at least was a weaver ; four are described 

 as tailors ; three as tanners ; a saddler, shoemaker, smith, and car- 

 penter are also mentioned. In a number of cases there is evidence 

 that they were servants or agricultural labourers ; and some who had 

 ceased to be tenants of Forncett became tenants of other manors and 

 cultivators of the soil. 



How the serfs who left the manor prospered cannot be easily 

 determined, though an occasional will, inventory, or valuation of their 

 goods throws some light on this point. As for those who remained 

 in Forncett, many certainly acquired holdings that were very large as 

 compared with the tenements of their ancestors of the fifteenth 

 century — amounting in a few cases to as much as a hundred acres. 

 And their wills — all of which date from the fifteenth or from the 

 sixteenth century — show that at this period some of the serfs were in 

 comfortable circumstances \ 



^ For an admirable study of the economic condition of serfs in the Tudor period, see 

 A. Savine's ' Bondmen under the Tudors,' Transactions of the Royal Historical Society^ 

 N. S. xvii. 1903. 



