THE KENTISH SYSTEM 293 



far more numerous than are the entries of the survey. At 

 Gillingham and Newchurch, too, the heirs of a defunct tenant 

 frequently appear as his successor. In the half-dola of West- 

 brege the only tenants were three such groups. The custom of 

 transmitting a holding to all the heirs of a tenant rather than to 

 one of them is of course the distinguishing feature of the Kentish 

 tenure known as gavelkind. This usage was in marked contrast 

 with that of the midlands, where the virgate or fractional virgate 

 of a customary tenant passed intact to a single heir or to a new 

 tenant. The antiquity of this Kentish custom, so unusual and so 

 frequently perceptible in the fifteenth century surveys, now 

 deserves consideration. 



In tracing the earlier history of the iugum much depends upon 

 nomenclature. One of our most valuable documents at this 

 point, since it admits of comparison with the fifteenth-century 

 survey, is a Wye rental of 5 Edward II, which records the tenants 

 of all iuga and the rents accruing from them.^ On examination we 

 discover that the names of the iuga are practically the same as in 

 the survey of 150 years later, and that the surnames of tenants 

 are frequently unchanged. In the half -iugum Coklescumbe the 

 heirs of John Hughelyn are tenants in the earlier rental, Simon 

 Hoghelyn and Johanna Hoghelyn in the later survey. While 

 surnames often thus persist in the same iugum, there is also a 

 tendency for them to shift from one iugum to another. In the 

 rental, " Gilbertus Dod et Simon Dod tenent iugum de East- 

 chilton pro Willelmo de Chiltone "; in the survey, tenants by the 

 name of Dod are found in half -iugum Coklescumbe, in iugum 

 Waleweye, and in half-iugum Foghelchilde. 



A pecuHar difference between rental and survey lies in the fact 

 that in the former the tenants, whether few or several, hold 

 " for " {pro) one or more persons. The two Dods held " for " 

 WilHam de Chiltone. The one-and-one-half iugum Chelcheborne 

 is held " pro " Hugo Mogge and " Walter de Chelcheborne et 

 socii " by Richard de Coumbe, Richard de Broke, Stephen Re- 

 naud, the heirs of William de Chilcheborne, Gilbert de Chilche- 

 borne, Stephen Baldewyne, William Mogge, Richard Mogge, 



1 Exch. Aug. Of., M. B. 57, ff. 95-105. 



