BOLDON BOOK 



group, which in turn will be found in these respects inferior to that 

 community. 



In the first place there are a few persons who appear to be holding their 

 scraps of land on sufferance. 



Thus at Stanhope three widows hold 3 tofts of the bishop's alms, and 

 at Lanchester the wife of Geoffrey the priest has i toft and 8 acres on the 

 same terms. At Stanhope again, Ralf has 12 acres at the bishop's pleasure, 

 for which he renders 3-f., and at Witton, Hugh holds 2 acres at the bishop's 

 pleasure without render. 



There are certain persons again having pretty small holdings, for which, 

 however, they give no service, but pay rent only. This land also seems 

 always to be a new intake, or at least to be arable, that lies outside the open- 

 fields of the village. Thus at Lanchester, Orm holds an assart of 8| acres 

 for which he renders 2s. ; at Bedlington, Robert Hugate holds 21 acres 

 which were formerly waste, and renders 4o</. ; at Norham, Isaac has 

 I ' cultura ' l for which he pays a half-mark, and so on. These men would 

 appear to correspond to the ' hospites ' of the French and Norman manorial 

 records, colonists who have been invited or permitted to settle. They 

 transmit their holdings hereditarily, but are shut out from the use of the 

 meadows, pastures, and other commons that form part of the villein's ' Ideal- 

 antheil." Persons of this class were not unknown in other parts of England. 

 In Domesday Book they are recorded as existing on the Welsh Marches, 8 and 

 we should naturally expect to find them in the Scottish Marches as well. 

 Perhaps in the present case we must regard them as something between the 

 duly invited ' hospes ' and the squatter whose presence is tolerated for the 

 sake of the new land which he brings under cultivation. 



Under this second category we may also bring those persons who have a 

 small holding, generally less than a bovate, for which they render a little 

 money and a little service. At first they seem not to differ, either in respect 

 to the size of their holdings or the nature of their obligations, from the 

 normal cottier of whom we have been speaking. But the circumstance that 

 the tenants under consideration are entered in Boldon Book, individually, by 

 name, while the cottiers occur in groups with uniform holdings and duties 

 like the villeins, warns us that there is some distinction, and suggests at the same 

 time that the difference must probably be referred to the origin of the tenure. 

 The conjecture that they began as squatters on uncleared, or at least untilled, 

 land would fit the case well. At Stanhope, a forest vill, where there would 

 be plenty of land to take up in this way, we find a whole group of them. 

 Ralf holds i toft, renders fyd. and does four boon-works. Goda also has a 

 toft, she renders io//. and does four boon-works, and so on. At Wolsingham, 

 Walter Croke holds 6 acres and renders 3^. 2</., he goes on the bishop's 

 errands and superintends the mowing and reaping works as well. At 

 Escomb, Ulf Raning holds 5 acres, and renders 4J. and does 4 boon-works, 

 and so on. 



Although Boldon Book does not record the existence of any entirely 



1 It is difficult to find a good translation for this word or clear proof that it means, as I hare no doubt it 

 does, any arable land not included in the open-fields ; cf. Maitland, Dm. Bk. and Beyond, 380, referring to the 

 Ramsey Cartulary. 



* Cf. M. Kovalevski, Die akonom'uche Eatteicte/ung Ettrofai, ii. 414-418. 



1 Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i. 259 bis, cited by Maitland, Dem. Bk. and BejonJ, 60. 



293 



