LATER HISTORY OF THE MIDLAND SYSTEM II7 



it is natural that most of the township should, as the petition 

 states, have been in the possession of the lord of the manor before 

 the purchases of 1768. 



Enclosure by agreement did not necessarily involve the buy- 

 ing out of the tenants. Before the days of parhamentary activ- 

 ity the enclosure of open fields in the large parish of Charlbury 

 was made possible by a deed of agreement drawn up in 1715.^ 

 It bears fifty-seven signatures with seals, and sets forth that the 

 interested parties are possessed of " several parcells of freehold, 

 leasehold and coppyhold lands lyeing and being in Certain Com- 

 mon fields of Charlbury aforsaid and commonly called or known 

 by the name of the Homefield lands in which said common fields 

 the owners and occupyers of lands therein upon each others 

 Lands there every other year have right of common." There- 

 upon it is agreed that " each party [is] to enclose his or her own 

 parcel or parcells of land in the said Comon fields at his or her 

 own costs and Charges and to enjoy the same soe Inclosed in 

 Severality." 



This deed may have been enrolled in chancery, as Miss Leonard 

 found was the case during the seventeenth century with several 

 similar ones from various parts of England.^ It is pretty clear, 

 if we may rely upon the notes written on the glebe terriers, that 

 chancery sanction was given to the enclosure of Middleton Stony 

 at ahnost the same time. Of that parish a terrier records in 

 1679 that the glebe lay in sixty-four parcels in the open fields. In 

 1 701 a second terrier states that " Part of the Glebe Lands . . . 

 was taken out of the common Field about 15 years agoe and In- 

 clos'd by a generall consent of the inhabitants." Finally a terrier 

 of 1 7 16 explains that the glebe is " all inclosed and. a Decree in 

 chancery for a Rate Tythe pap'd Anno 1714 — all parties con- 

 senting."^ Though chancery is said to have authorized only the 

 " Rate Tythe," it is likely that all matters connected with the 

 enclosure were thus sanctioned. There is no later information 

 about open fields at Middleton Stony. 



1 This deed is with the clerk of the peace at Oxford. 



2 " Inclosure of Common Fields," pp. io8-iio. 



^ Bodleian, Oxfordshire Archdeaconry Papers, ff. 36, 37. 



