190 History of the English Landed Interest. 



agent that tlie reader will scarcel}'- credit that the information 

 is contained in a thirteenth-century MS. Long ages before the 

 Georgian legislation on the powers of Factors, and Addison 

 or Chitty had written their learned treatises on the Laws of 

 Contracts, the seneschal's limits of power had been clearly 

 defined. Thus we read that he could not dismiss any servant of 

 his lord who was kept and clothed by him, without his special 

 orders ; and any dereliction of a bailiffs duties had to be re- 

 ported to the lord in council. Nor could the seneschal sell ward- 

 ships, marriages, or escheats, nor dower any woman, nor take 

 homage or suit, nor sell or make free a villein, without special 

 warrant from liis employer ; a proviso Avhich savours strongly 

 of the later power of attorney, whereby alone the limited 

 authority of agency can be legally enlarged. In the words of 

 this early writer, " the seneschal ought not to be chief account- 

 ant for the things of his office, for he ought on the account of 

 each manor to answer for his doings and commands and im- 

 provements, and for fines and amerciaments of the courts 

 where he has held pleas as another, because no man can or 

 ought to be judge or justice of his own doings."^ But the 

 great baron himself, if fond of a rural life, would sometimes 

 superintend his seneschal's management.- He had his own 

 peculiar Estate Roll from which that of the seneschal's was 

 taken, and even the heads of each manor possessed copies of 

 those portions referring to their particular bailiwick. If the 

 baron were ever in doubt (and he must needs have often been 

 so in cases where his manors were far off and seldom visited) 

 his resource was the king's writ, which empowered him to 

 employ the sworn evidence of twelve men chosen out of the 

 wisest and most loyal freeholders and villeins, who inquired 

 into the difficulty and embodied the results of their survey 

 in the roll. This purported to supply information concerning 

 the customs, usages, services, franchises, fees, tenements, and 

 areas pertaining to all the parcels of land which composed 

 each manor. But besides this, there was another kind of roll 

 which contained the names and description of each manor, 

 both the actual and possible number of its ploughs, the 



' Scneschancie, p. 87. ' Itohert Grosstcste, p. 121. 



