A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



demesne land, just as where farmers occur in connexion with villeins we 

 discern something that resembled rather an offshoot from an older vill than 

 the creation of a new one. Special facilities for the composition of services 

 would have been offered to promote this growth, and when this process 

 'of composition had begun it commonly advanced. In this way the farmers or 

 tenants on the demesne would have been set apart from the other tenants and 

 could easily come to be identified with the malmen, who, from what origin 

 we know not, had already made much progress toward the ultimate goal of 

 freedom by way of the substitution of rent for personal service. Such is the 

 inference suggested by our evidence, but this, it will be observed, either 

 leaves out of account the question of the original personal status of men 

 settled on the lord's demesne or else assumes implicitly that they were unfree. 

 It should be pointed out, therefore, that another conjecture is possible ; this 

 can only be mentioned in passing, since a discussion of it would lead us far 

 afield and bring us into a controversy for which this is scarcely a suitable 

 place. Briefly, then, it is possible to suppose that ' firmarii ' and malmen alike 

 represent earlier freemen who, by a process of personal commendation, or by 

 the acceptance of loans of land, had at an early period been drawn into the 

 complex of the great estate (Gutsverhaltniss) and fallen thereby into economic 

 dependence upon its lord. The similarity of their position to that of the 

 ordinary villein in the twelfth century would account for their being 

 described as unfree. On the other hand, their careful segregation from the 

 villeins in the documents, and their association with the drengs for purposes 

 of taxation would indicate some recollection of their original status. This, 

 then, is another and a possible way of interpreting the evidence before us. To 

 me, I confess, it seems also a probable one. 



The case of the unfree tenants known as cottiers is simpler than that of 

 the ' firmarii.' The cottier formed no part of the villein community. His 

 holding was small and did not lie in the open-fields, or if he had a few acres 

 there it was by exception. 1 Still, the line which divided him from the 

 villeins is an economic rather than a legal one. 2 Cottiers occur in twenty- 

 seven of the bishop's vills. Generally they held a few acres besides their 

 tofts and crofts, but often these are not mentioned. Thus at Boldon twelve 

 cottiers held as many acres, and every man worked two days in the week and 

 rendered twelve hens and sixty eggs. But if these may be taken as marking 

 the normal cottier type, we find variations both above and below it. At 

 Houghton ' half-cottiers ' (dimidii cotmanni) occur ; at Heighington, on the 

 other hand, there are two cottiers holding 1 5 acres (or I bovate) apiece, and a 

 like case occurs at Middridge. These instances are particularly interesting, 

 because in the later recensions of Boldon Book these tenements are involved 

 in some of the villein obligations, and we may infer that in time they were 

 quietly absorbed into the villein community. Then at Norton and at Hert- 

 burn the cottiers' land lies in the open-fields. The twelve Norton cottiers 

 have one acre apiece beside their tofts and crofts, and the two of Hertburn 

 have twelve acres apiece. At both places the cottiers pay a money rent and 

 help in the hay-making. There is an example, too, of a vill peopled only 



1 Vinogradoff, op. at. 148-149 ; cf. Seebohm, op. cit. 24, 29, 34, 69. 



2 Maitland, Dora. Bk. and Beyond, 39. 



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