50 The Demesne. 1376 78. [CH. 



within the court-yard, a decided change had taken place in the 

 relation of the occupants to the manorial organization. Formerly, 

 as has been said 1 , the permanent residents in the court-yard consisted 

 of the bailiff and several servants of inferior rank ; but from 1376 to 

 1378 the only demesne servants of this class in the manor were 

 a warrener* and a shepherd. There is no clear evidence as to their 

 place of residence. The money wages of the shepherd were 6s. %d. 

 yearly', or more than twice those of the plowmen or carters in the 

 earlier period ; his wages in kind also a quarter of grain every ten 

 weeks besides a yearly allowance of several bushels of oats for 

 pottage* were liberal, judged even by the standard of the thirteenth 

 century. There was no resident bailiff, at least in the old sense 

 of the term, now exercising the functions of his office in the manor. 

 Most of the duties formerly discharged by the bailiff had no longer 

 to be performed ; those that still remained seem to have devolved 

 chiefly upon an officer named William Gunnyld, a sort of itinerant 

 bailiff, and perhaps to some extent upon the reeve, who is sometimes 

 called the bailiff of the manor 4 . Gunnyld made contracts for the erec- 

 tion of new buildings 5 ; bought, in 1377, sheep to stock the demesne 8 ; 

 arranged for the housing of the sheep in the court-yard 7 , and, in 

 short, introduced the innovations and bore the heavier responsibilities 

 in the management of the demesne 8 . His supervision apparently 

 extended over other of the countess's manors 9 . He did not live in 

 the manor; occasional brief visits are noted 10 . Matters calling for 

 less exercise of discretion than those undertaken by Gunnyld as the 

 repair of buildings and small purchases seem to have been entrusted 

 to the reeve, who accounted for the expenses involved therein as well 

 as for the receipts from most of the principal sources of income. For 

 certain of the receipts, however, the messor was responsible. In 

 selecting the reeve and messor of Forncett, what appears to be a 

 new method was now employed. One large or several small bond 

 tenements were elected by the homage to bear the pecuniary burden 

 of each of these offices. Twenty acres, charged with 2s. an acre, was 



1 See above, pp. aa, 74. Appendix IX. Ix. 



Appendix IX. Ivii. 



4 In 1376-77 the reeve was William Ik-rnynge, Appendix IX. xlii. But William 



Hernynge is also spoken of as bailiff and in a connection that seems to show that the reeve 



Appendix IX. Ixxi. In 1377-78, John ate Lound was reeve, Appendix IX. xlii. 



A John Lound is also spoken of as bailiff of the manor of Forncett, Appendix IX. Ixviii. 



Thus it appears that the distinction earlier made between bailiff and reeve was now obscured. 



Appendix IX. lv., hi. Appendix IX. lix. 



7 Appendix IX. 1. Appendix IX. 1., ft passim. 



9 Appendix IX. Ivii., Iviii., lix. w Appendix IX. Ivii., Iviii. 





