A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



amount of stacking hay that was formerly done by the five. This com- 

 mon liability is illustrated by an Isleworth inquisition M into the status of 

 a certain Nicholas Est of Heston, who complained that being of free 

 status he had been presented at the court not by his lord but by the 

 villein tenants of the manor for failing to render villein services. 



Though there are many cases in the records of tenants being not 

 ' heriotable,' as a general rule heriots were paid by free and bondage 

 tenants alike. Even on the same manor there would seem to be a certain 

 variation in the heriots, and sometimes special classes of tenants paid 

 special heriots, as we have seen was the case with some of the Isleworth 

 tenures. At Harmondsworth it is stated to be the 'custom of the manor' 

 that no heriot accrued when there was neither live stock nor chattels on 

 the holding ; but nevertheless there are a great many instances of money 

 heriots paid because there is no animal on the holding, and often heriots 

 are paid in money without any reason being assigned. In a few cases 

 the heriot consisted of clothing, as for instance a * russet kirtle ' and a 

 tunic ' blodii coloris ' lined with white lambskin. In one case a table 

 and a scythe were given because there was no beast on the holding. 

 There would seem to be no fixed amount here for the money heriots, but 

 in one or two cases the amount of the heriot was specified when 

 the holding was granted to the tenant. A heriot of 6</. is accepted 

 from one tenant, ' quia pauper,' and in the time of Edward IV an 

 apparently accepted heriot of a ' horscolt ' is stated to be of no value 

 because it is dead. According to the custom of the manor, when a 

 holding was held jointly by husband and wife the heriot only accrued at 

 the death of the survivor, because on the death of the first co-tenant the 

 holding does not change hands. Nevertheless instances occur in the rolls 

 of heriots paid at the first death, and there is at least one of heriots paid 

 at both deaths. At Harmondsworth, where disputes were always plenty, 

 there was a good deal of trouble in obtaining the heriots from the 

 tenants in the fifteenth century, and orders to distrain for them are 

 frequent, though more often made and repeated than executed. 



It is more than once stated that according to the custom of the 

 manor a widow's free bench consisted of a fourth part of her husband's 

 holding, and in the fifteenth century a widower claimed the fourth part 

 of his late wife's holding, ' per legem Anglic,' and ' according to the cus- 

 tom of the manor.' In many instances, however, the wife would seem 

 to inherit the entire holding. 



At Fulham the heriot for every holding on which there was no 

 stock was 3J. ^d. Here a widow had a third of her husband's holding 

 as free bench. 



At Drayton and at Stepney the rule no animal, no heriot, applies, 

 though there are two cases at Drayton, in a court roll at St. Paul's, 

 where there being no animal a payment was made ' tam per finem quam 

 per heriot.' We have already noted the special heriots paid by 

 holders of Bordlond and ' unfre lond ' at Isleworth of zs. or is. accord- 



P.R.O. Inq. I Ric. II, No. 146*. 

 72 



