344 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



of the East Anglian system, and the case is strengthened by the 

 divergence manifested in the customs of the manors of Ramsey 

 abbey. No one of the long list of the midland possessions 

 of that abbey possessed the privilege of independent foldage. 

 Yet, as we have seen,^ the two Norfolk manors had it, 

 and the selection of them for such a favor suggests that they 

 were in a condition to take advantage of it as the others were 

 not. 



Pasturage arrangements adopted in East Anglia thus concur 

 with the disposition of the parcels of a tenementum relative to 

 the fields, in pointing to a unique field system. Such descrip- 

 tions of this system as have so far been utilized are, except for 

 certain items in regard to foldage, not earlier than the late thir- 

 teenth century. It remains to inquire whether it is possible to 

 discover at what time the tenementa took form. 



If we were to judge from names alone, we should not assign 

 them to a period earlier than the thirteenth century. It is easy 

 to see that the land which, in the Martham survey of 1291, 

 Thomas Knight is said to have held {quondam tenuit) would soon 

 be known as Knight's tenementum, that the socage land would 

 become Knight's free tenementum, and the eriung Knight's vil- 

 lein or bond tenementum. Thomas Knight, himself, as we have 

 seen, must have lived either in the early thirteenth century or 

 at the end of the twelfth. The names which attached themselves 

 to the tenementa at Wymondham and at Baudsey often included 

 surnames, as in the case of " tenementum Ricardi Aleyn, or 

 " tenementum Alexandri Frebnere." Since villeins seldom bore 

 surnames before the thirteenth century, the nomenclature of the 

 surveys would seem to assign the tenementum to a period not 

 much earlier than this. 



Even if the names of the tenementa did not much antedate 

 1 200, there is reason for thinking that the unit itself was older, 

 though not always, to be sure, under the name " tenemen- 

 tum." This term became usual only in the fourteenth century, 

 and Thomas Knight's holding, though referred to as a tenemen- 

 tum, properly bore the infrequent Anglo-Saxon designation 



* C£. above, p. 342. 



