THE TWO- AND THREE-FIELD SYSTEM 27 



arable between two large fields, the other among three. The 

 former tilled one-half of the arable each year, the latter two- 

 thirds, the parts which remained fallow being respectively one- 

 half and one-third. In consequence of having an additional field, 

 the three-field township subdivided each copyhold into three ap- 

 proximately equal parts. This feature is emphasized in another 

 survey, abstracts from which follow the Kington descriptions in 

 Appendix I. 



Handborough in central Oxfordshire is a large township which 

 from the thirteenth century has formed a part of the manor of 

 Woodstock.^ In 1606 it was surveyed as royal property, and the 

 resultant supervisus is an excellent illustration of the work of the 

 royal commissioners. The freeholders, who were of the curious 

 sort said to hold '' Hbere per copiam," were much more numerous 

 than the freeholders at Kington. About fifty are named. The 

 two who held most land were persons of quality, viz., George Cole, 

 Gent., with three messuages and 11 j acres, and the heirs of M. 

 Culpepper, Kt., with two messuages and 16 j acres. In both 

 instances most of the acres did not lie in the open fields, and an- 

 other freehold of ten acres was partly woodland. Sometimes the 

 freeholder was without a messuage, and he might also, as inspec- 

 tion shows, be a copyholder (in the strict sense of the term) who, 

 in addition to a substantial copyhold, held a small parcel of land 

 freely. Such was Roger Brooke, the first on the fist. For the 

 most part, however, the " liberi tenentes per copiam " were per- 

 sons who held merely a messuage and a small close or parcel of 

 land attached. The entire fifty had not a dozen acres in the open 

 fields, and in no instance was there a distribution of acres among 

 fields. At Handborough, as at Kington, the holdings of free 

 tenants are of little value for the study of field systems. 



With the customary holdings the case is strikingly different. 

 Almost every one of these supplies information about the open 

 fields. There were forty customary tenements held by thirty-six 

 persons, all tenements except three having messuages. Apart 

 from a half-dozen instances the virgate equivalent of the acreage 



1 A.Ballard, " Woodstock Manor in the Thirteenth Century," Vierteljakrschrift 

 fur Sozial-und Wirlschaflsgeschichte, 1908, vi. 424, 



