394 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



specified in 3 Henry III as one-half of a messuage, " with the 

 field called Wudelehe, and with a moiety of Smithescroft." ' At 

 Laver, in 5 John, the half of a virgate consisted of " all the 

 land which lies between Bredenewell and the wood towards the 

 west, and 3 acres of land which lie between the road {cheminum) 

 of the same town and the wood towards the north." ^ Lastly, 

 at Havering in the southwest 50 acres were in 15 John taken from 

 one and one-half virgates and located in such a way as to be- 

 speak complete enclosure.^ 



Thirteenth- as well as sixteenth-century accounts of Essex vir- 

 gates thus describe them as being largely consolidated; nowhere, 

 except in the northwestern part of the county were they com- 

 posed of small scattered parcels. Mention of them in the fines 

 and charters becomes so infrequent after the first quarter of the 

 thirteenth century as to render generalization somewhat unsafe, 

 but the evidence at hand points unanimously and unmistakably 

 to the largely consolidated virgate as characteristic of much of the 

 county. The case is strengthened by the descriptions of numer- 

 ous holdings which were not virgates. These, too, were composed, 

 not of small scattered strips, but of larger areas which may 

 have been little separated. Certainly the impression carried 

 away from a perusal of the Essex fines is very different from that 

 given by the fines of most other English counties. One feels that 

 they resemble rather closely the equally unusual fines of Kent. 

 If, whether in terrier or survey, we trust to the appearance of the 

 virgate holdings or even to the aspect of holdings of any sort, we 

 shall be inclined to ally the greater part of Essex with its southern 

 neighbor in respect to its field arrangements. 



' Kirk, Essex Fines, i. 52 (no. 29). 



2 Ibid., i. 32 (no. 146). 



' Ibid., i. 46 (no. 257). The locations were as^follows: — 



2 acres in the croft called Hamstall 

 18 acres in the croft called Nortfeld 



5 acres in the croft called Laiacre 

 II acres in the croft called Phistelcroft 



5 acres in the croft called Brigfeld 



Q acres in the croft called La Dune. 



