EARLY IRREGULAR FIELDS IN THE MIDLANDS 95 



survey of the large manor of Maiden,^ although this is irritatingly 

 complicated. The freehold entries number 35, the copyhold 141, 

 nearly all recording small areas. ^ There were about 70 messuages 

 in the hands of some 57 independent householders.^ The manor 

 comprised several townships,* each apparently with its own fields, 

 although in some cases there may have been no sharp division of 

 common fields among them.^ The following holding is charac- 

 teristic of the survey, and serves to emphasize the feature in which 

 we are for the moment interested — the break-up of traditional 

 tenements : — 



" Ricardus Grene tenet per copiam datam anno regni regine 

 Elizabethe xxxiv unum mesuagium, pomerium et clausam adia- 

 centem continentem i acram nuper Thome Stead 



per copiam . . . Ehzabethe ii, i acram in Holbach feild in 



villata de Venne nuper Hugonis Lane 

 per copiam . . . Elizabethe xxix, ii acras in Lake feild 

 per copiam . . . Elizabethe xH, ii acras in Fromanton [another 

 villata] in quodam campo ibidem vocato Holbach feild nuper 

 Thome Wootton 

 per copiam . . . Elizabethe xxv, dimidiam acram de Socke- 



land iacentem in Nashill feild 

 per copiam . . . Elizabethe xl, ii rodas in Ashill feild nuper 



Johanis Parsons 

 per copiam . . .Elizabethe xxv, dimidiam acram in Ashill . . . 



in occupatione Johanis Mathie 

 per copiam . . . Ehzabethe xxxv, unam acram terre custumarie 

 de Soakeland in Odich feild nuper Willehni Stephens 



1 Land Rev., M. B. 217, ff. 194-292. 



2 Sometimes the subdivision of the holdings (especially of the larger ones) among 

 the fields is not given. A few of the tenants were gentlemen. 



^ Seven cottages were held by a single person, and six messuages by tenants 

 each already possessed of a messuage 



* " Item that there are within the said Lordshippe of Marden viii severall 

 villages or Towneshipps viz. Marden, Fromanton, Sutton, Freene, Wisteston, 

 Vauld, Verne, Fenne, and Marston and that they and everie of them are to doe 

 suyte to the said Courte of the said Mannor . . ." (Land Rev., M. B. 217, 

 f. 290). 



* Venne and Fromanton, two of the townships which appear in the following 

 holding, seem to have shared in Holbach field. 



