44 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



field names. In such cases we may conclude that the field system 

 is correctly indicated. 



Many extents are to be found in a group of documents which 

 for this reason are of significance in the study of field systems. 

 These documents are the inquisitions post mortem, preserved in 

 large numbers among the public records. During a period of 

 about a century (c. i27c»-i37o) we find inserted in many such 

 enumerations of the property of deceased fief-holders or free- 

 holders extents of their manors. Nearly always the extents are 

 brief, dismissing the demesne acres with an estimate of their an- 

 nual value; but occasionally a note of explanation is added, and 

 this is the item which relates to field systems. It states that one- 

 half or two-thirds of the demesne may be sown each year, and that 

 when so sown the acres are worth a certain amount. The re- 

 maining one-half or one-third, the extent continues, is worth 

 nothing since it lies fallow and — the phrase is sometimes added 

 — " since it lies in common." ^ Thus we are introduced to what 

 might at first sight seem an equivalent of the two- or three-field 

 system, namely , the two- or three-course rotation of crops. Much, 

 however, depends upon keeping the two subjects distinct. 



Let it be at once admitted that the existence of a system of two 

 or three fields in any township implies that a two- or three-course 

 method of tillage was there followed. If one-half or one-third of 

 the common arable open-field area lay fallow each year, the parts 

 successively tilled were undoubtedly sown with nearly the same 

 crops year after year. Any series of bailiffs' accounts will make 

 this clear.2 The reverse of the generalization, however, is not 



1 For example, at Corby, Northants, there was a messuage with i8o acres of 

 arable, " unde vi " possunt seminar! per annum quarum quelibet acra valet . . . 

 iii d. . . . et residuum iacet ad Warectam et tunc nihil valet quia in communi " 

 (C. Inq. p. Mort., Edw. Ill, F. 44 (6)). Cf. the phraseology in Appendix II. 



' At Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire, for instance, the demesne lay in three open 

 fields (Merton College map of 1 601). A series of bailiffs' accounts from the end of 

 the thirteenth century records the sowing of grains during four years, as follows 

 (Merton Col. Recs., nos. 5355-58): — 



Year Frumentumfet] Siligo Dragetumfet] Pisalet] Avena 



21-22 Edw. I (illegible] 10 qr. 7 bu. 20 qr. 5 bu. 2 qr. 4 qr. 



22-23 " 14 gr- 4ibu. 10 7 20 3i 2 4 ibu. 



23-24 " 12 4i II 4 18 6 I 7bu. 3 71 



24-25 " 16 I 92 2S 2 2262 



More spring corn than winter corn was required to sow an acre. 



