SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



held his 5 acres free of all works in return for his services as woodward, 

 and also at Paddington, where the woodward had 2 acres free of all 

 services, pasture in the woods, and the loppings of the timber felled for 

 the lord's ploughs. 83 Sometimes the office was, or tended to become 

 hereditary. At Sutton it is particularly stated that the woodward had 

 no hereditary right to the office and its emoluments. His father, it is 

 recorded, had 2%d. a year as stipend, he lost and never recovered the 

 5 acres, and was dismissed from the office. At Harmondsworth, on the 

 contrary, it was hereditary. In 13834 the horn of office was 

 successfully claimed by the cousin and heir of the late forester, 34 and 

 later on it actually passed by inheritance to the second husband of the 

 incumbent's widow. In the time of Henry VIII 3i one William Norton 

 was forester, who held a ' principal tenement ' of 1 60 acres by military 

 tenure and also a small holding, whether bond or free is not stated, called 

 a ' tile-place,' with a ' tile-house.' If the office of woodward was 

 connected with any holding, it must have been with this latter one, as 

 this one only passed at his death to his widow. The widow re-married 

 within a year of her husband's death, and her second husband succeeded 

 to the office of woodward jure uxoris suae. 



At much less length, and with far less detail, than the Harmonds- 

 worth record, a custumal of Westminster Abbey states the rents and 

 services due from the abbot's tenants in his Middlesex estates in the 

 time of Henry III. S6 The Harmondsworth customs are fairly typical of 

 the services rendered on the different manors, though there is some 

 variation in the amount of ploughing and the number of boon-days exacted 

 and in the amount and nature of the extra works and weekly works. 37 

 With few exceptions, such as the holders of half virgates at Teddington, 

 and the operarii at Sutton, who pay no rent, the tenants render money 

 rents as well as services ; tallage is mentioned nearly everywhere and 

 remained nominally constant over very long periods, though sometimes 

 lowered ' by the lord's grace ' in bad times. ' Gersilver ' or ' gerspeni ' 

 or pannage is paid nearly everywhere, generally at the rate of id. or \d. 

 for each pig according to its age ; but at Paddington the tenants pay a 

 round sum, 191., among them, and at Greenford it is \d. for every pig, 

 and at Enfield it is \d. and ^d. per pig. 



Of dues in kind, at Greenford the tenants brought ten eggs at 

 Easter and the Hanwell tenants paid the fourth part of a quarter of 

 wheat once a year. A bushel of barley and five eggs at Easter were 

 exacted from each tenant at Teddington, as well as a hen from every 

 two at Christmas, and they paid a certain number of sheaves of wheat 

 and barley as a composition for trespassing fines. The Kensington 



" Abbey of Westminster Custumal, Hen. Ill, B.M. Add. Chart. 8139. 



" P.R.O. Ct. R. bdle. 191, No. 14, Ric. II. 



Ibid. Hen. VIII, bdle. 191, No. 31. " B.M. AdJ. Chart. 8139. 



v For customs at Paddington, Greenford, Hayes and Teddington B.M. Add. Chart. 8139. For 

 Teddington also P.R.O. Mins. Accts. bdle. 918, Nos. 20, 22 ; bdle. 919, Nos. I, 3, 7, 8. For 

 Drayton and Sutton, see Domesday of St. Paul's Survey of 1222. For Kensington P.R.O. Midd. 

 Hund. R. ; Rentals and Surv. 445 ; Inq. p.m. 48 Hen. Ill, file 31. For Isleworth P.R.O. Mins. 

 Accts. bdle. 916, No. 12 ; bdle. 916, Nos. 17, 18. 



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