SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



ing to the size of their holdings. The usual cottar's heriot here 

 was 3</. 



At Kempton a money payment was made in the absence of live stock, 

 and the amount would seem to be proportioned to the rent ; in one case 

 where the rent was %d. the heriot was the same sum, and in two others, 

 a virgate and a two-virgate holding paid 5-r. id, and los. id. respectively, 

 which would be roughly equal to the usual rent. 



The history of the process by which the services on the Middlesex 

 manors were commuted for money payments aptly illustrates the wisdom 

 of Dr. Maitland's warning against facile generalizations from the history 

 of particular manors to the history of ' the manor.' In Middlesex at 

 any rate it is impossible to generalize at all as to commutation ; each 

 manor went its own way, some commuted earlier, some later, some by 

 the gradual sale of services, some by a formal agreement, some by the grant 

 of leases at money rents. One would expect a priori the neighbourhood 

 of London, by providing the tenants with a market and the landlords with 

 a source of supply for free labour, to accelerate the process of commuta- 

 tion, and tempt the tenants to desert the manors. As a matter of fact 

 commutation in Middlesex on the whole was later instead of earlier than 

 in other counties, and there are very few cases in the manor rolls of either 

 fugitive tenants or tenants fining to remain away. 



The earliest commutation of which the writer has found a record 

 occurred on the manor of Harmondsworth shortly before irio ii. 40 

 One of the seven tenants who rendered weekly works between Michael- 

 mas and Martinmas was released from his six days' work by the prior 

 then in office, in return for a yearly rent of izd. Another early, but 

 only temporary, commutation on the same manor is mentioned in 1390," 

 in a dispute as to the rent and status of a tenant whom the abbot 

 claimed as his villein and attached for withholding izd. a year rent 

 as well as for ' diverse rebellions.' Walter atte Nasshe, on the other 

 hand, asserted that he was free as were his predecessors, and that he held 

 a virgate of land as heir to a certain Roger de Fraxino, who came to the 

 manor as a stranger and took from the lord a messuage and virgate for 

 an annual rent of 6s. and all the custumary services. At what date the 

 said Roger came to Harmondsworth is not stated, but it is clear that 

 there was more than one tenant between him and Walter atte Nasshe. 

 Subsequently Roger obtained the land ' per cartam ' at a composition 

 rent of js. in lieu of all services and customs. Roger's heirs, however, 

 reverted after his death to the original tenure, paying 6s. rent and per- 

 forming the services due from a virgate of land according to the custom 

 of the manor. And by this tenure Walter atte Nasshe claims and 

 apparently desires to hold the virgate, unless indeed the alternative sought 

 to be imposed on him by the lord was the payment of the higher rent 

 and the performance of the services as well. After this there were 

 practically only a few temporary commutations at Harmondsworth until 



40 P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. n, No. 20 (n Hen. I). 



41 P.R.O. Ct. R. 14 Ric. II, bdle. 191, No. 15. 



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