A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



held by villeins, who ' belonged to Falmer ' ; of ' Felesmere ' also we 

 read that ' villeins held ' it. Lastly at Westmeston, to the north of 

 Brighton, lying at the foot of the South Downs, we have the noteworthy 

 entry : ' Gueda comitissa tenuit, et sub ea tenebant villani ; non fuit ibi 

 halla.' Here we have the same absence of a 'hall' (i.e. demesne) as in 

 the villein-held estates of Millbrook, Hants,' and of Willesden, Middle- 

 sex.' Between Sussex and Middlesex we have, in Surrey, two examples 

 of estates held by villeins.' 



Nor did the Conquest entirely put an end to this state of affairs, for 

 under Ninfield 'a certain villein' is mentioned as one of the subtenants. 

 It is just possible that in this last instance we may have the former 

 English tenant reduced from freedom to villeinage and holding on 

 sufferance a small portion of the manor of which he has previously 

 held the whole. 



Next below the villeins came the bordars, who are called by the 

 equivalent name of cottars* in all the hundreds of Hastings rape except 

 Ninfield and Staple' and in West Easwrith, Risberg,'' Benestede, Bury 

 and Bosgrave. About them nothing beyond their number is recorded, 

 save for a single entry in the hundred of Hawksborough where Osbern 

 had ' one cottar who pays twelve pence' (fo. 19). Nor can we learn 

 anything of the lowest class — the serfs — who were not very numerous 

 in this county, the largest number on any manor being twenty at 

 Hastings ; there were also seventeen on the royal manor of Bosham, 

 but otherwise they in no case exceeded ten on any estate, being rarer 

 than in Surrey. Burgesses occur several times, but will be considered 

 under the boroughs ; ' ten shepherds ' are mentioned in Patcham, and 

 ' a fowler ' was fortunate enough to retain a small estate near Marden 

 which he had held in King Edward's time, and Chetel ' the huntsman ' 

 was allowed to retain land in ' Lodesorde,' which, although surveyed 

 under Surrey, is probably Lodsworth in Sussex. 



A class that might in some ways be regarded as almost intermediate 

 between the peasantry and the landowner was the priests, for while they 

 were of course freemen they were yet, in their association with and 

 dependence on their churches, almost ' adscripti glebs.' Domesday not 

 concerning itself with things ecclesiastical, we hear nothing of parishes, 

 but find the priest spoken of as ' the priest of the manor ' ; nor is there 

 any particular method in the mention or omission of the church and its 

 minister ; usually the church alone is mentioned, sometimes the church 



' ' Non est ibi aula.' 2 ' Jn domimo nil habetur.' 



3 V.C.H. Surrey, i. 290, 291. 



* A similar phenomenon has been observed in Surrey, where in three hundreds ' the cotarii are 

 nearly universal, to the exclusion of bordarii, vi'hile in the others the bordarii are nearly or quite 

 universal, to the exclusion of the cotarii' (Domesday Studies, ^6()-jo; F.C.H. Surrey, i. 292). It 

 should be observed that these Sussex cottars are classed with the villeins in connexion with the ploughs, 

 which is the regular position of the bordarii (J. H. R.) 



"i Under the abbey of Fecamp's manor of ' Rameshe ' in Guestling Hundred we find bordars instead of 

 cottars, but cottars are duly entered under the same abbey's manor of Bury. 



8 In the case of the holdings of the Archbishop and Bishop of Chichester in this hundred bordars 

 are returned, but in that of the abbot of Westminster cottars. 



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