YEOMAN FARMING IN OXFORDSHIRE 187 



to sums redeemed. Accuracy in the exact size of holdings cannot, 

 of course, be attained. The returns, concerned only with pounds 

 and shillings, show rather the relative value of estates in each 

 parish. A comparison with contemporary enclosure awards, how- 

 ever, shows the assessment to have been at the rate of from one 

 shilling and sixpence to two shillings per acre. Small assessments 

 present a considerable difficulty. Later returns show that cottages 

 and houses paid from one to five shillings, while some paid more. 

 The line between landless cottagers and cottagers having an acre 

 or two of land is so vacillating that it must be arbitrarily fixed. In 

 the present study only occupying owners who pay six shillings or 

 more are considered. Cottagers paying less, who may have had 

 an acre or two of land, will be pretty well counterbalanced by the 

 unavoidable inclusion of some landless dwellings which pav six 

 shillings or more. Another troublesome entry is the home farm 

 of the country squire. Often it is so large an item in the parish 

 that to treat it as a yeoman's farm would give misleading results. 

 Hence another arbitrary line has been drawn at twenty pounds, 

 representing about three hundred acres. Any one paying more 

 than this, even though an occupying owner, is excluded from the 

 group presently to be considered. Similarly excluded is the as- 

 sessment of tithes ; the owner and occupier naturally appear as the 

 same person. Again, when certain rates due from woodland are 

 charged against a so-called " occupying owner," usually a nobleman 

 or a gentleman, they are not, when discoverable, admitted among 

 the holdings of yeoman farmers. Lastly, estates which for the 

 moment are in the hands of the owner in default of a tenant are 

 classed as landlords' estates. In short, the term " occupying owner " 

 or "' yeoman farmer " is here used to designate only those who paid 

 in 1785 an annual tax of from six shillings to twenty pounds, 

 representing estates of from about one acre to about three hundred 

 acres. Consideration is first given to the size and distribution of 

 this class, as the most salient feature in the Oxfordshire returns 

 of 1785. 



The results of an examination of the assessments in the several 

 townships are summarized in the table on page 188. Townships 

 are grouped according to the percentage of the total quota paid in 



