A HISTORY OF DORSET 



shepherd had the use of the lord's plough.'^ This being the case with the 

 demesne servants, it seems probable that the 5-acre tenant also served as 

 farm labourer on the 30-acre villein holding, or had some trade such as 

 carpentering or thatching in addition to farming his own land. 



Wages in Dorset prior to the Black Death appear to have been 

 rather low. For while in Oxfordshire in the early years of the fourteenth 

 century the ploughman received 5J. bd. and in Buckinghamshire from 5J. 

 to 6j.,^* in this county he appears to have received only 4^. bd}^ Similarly 

 in Dorset between 1320 and 1327 carters, drivers Q'ugatores), and shep- 

 herds received 4^. 6d. or 5J. a year each, while at about the same time in 

 both Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire the first shepherd earned 6s. and in 

 Sussex he received 5J. 6d., 4J-. being the wage of his junior ; in Buckingham- 

 shire the carter received 5J. 6d. or 6^. 8^., in Sussex he received 6^. 6d., and 

 in Oxfordshire \.he. fugator received 6j.^* The Dorset cowherd in 1327 

 apparently received 3J. as compared with 4J. in Oxfordshire, and the dairy- 

 man 3^. as compared with a possible 4;-. in Buckinghamshire.'' At Cran- 

 borne the more responsible servants, such as the park keeper and messor, 

 on the other hand, were paid at the rate of \id. or 2d. a day, which 

 compares favourably with Sussex.'^ 



On the Shaftesbury Abbey lands the manorial servants seem to have 

 been paid in kind. The shepherd of Handley held 5 acres for keeping the 

 sheep, and had a lamb and a fleece and one sheep at Martinmas, and the milk 

 of sixteen sheep until lambing season, together with a measure of corn and 

 another of oats ; the ploughmen had one sheaf of ' rengo ' during the reaping 

 season and two sheaves when the corn was carried ; the smith was bound 

 to do certain repairs, in return for which he held 2 acres of land at a rent of 

 bd. and was entitled to the old iron and 'a cheese on a Sunday.'" At 

 Iwerne Minster the men who led the ploughs had 3d', and a cheese, while the 

 herdsman was entitled to have two animals freely in the pasture and a sheaf 

 in August, the swineherd had a pig, and the shepherd a sheep, a fleece, and 

 the milk of one sheep.'' At Cheselbourne the payments were chiefly in corn — 

 2 acres in August — and flour — one bushel (ambrd) for six weeks, or in the case 

 of Elietis qui servit in aula, one bushel for four weeks. In addition the 

 herdsmen all received milk from the demesne from Hockday to Michaelmas," 

 and the oxherd, according to another survey, was entitled to have two 

 animals freely in the pasture and twenty sheep in the sheep-fold, together 

 with the ploughing of 4 acres with the demesne plough.*" 



With these may be compared the ' liveries of seven servants ' accounted 

 for at Spettisbury in 1324, when each had a quarter of barley for twelve 

 weeks, while the dairyman, ' hogherd, and porter ' had a bushel for two 

 weeks." A similar system was also pursued at Steeple in the thirteenth 



'' Harl. MS. 61, fol. 56; cf. also fol. 59. 



" I'.C.H. Oxon. ii, 182, note i ; ibid. Bucks, ii, ' Soc. and Econ. Hist.' 



" Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 832, No. 26, and bdle. 834, No. 28. 



^ Ibid. bJle. 832, Nos. 3, 5, 26 ; bdle. 834, No. 28 ; y.C.H. Oxon. ii, 182 note ; Bucks, ii, 'Soc. and 

 Econ. Hist.' ; and Sussex, ii, 83, note 95. 



'^ Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 833, No. 5. There seems to have been some doubt as to what 

 was really due to them ; it was, however, certainly not more than 3/. ; F.C.H. Oxon and Bucks, loc. cit. 



' Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 832, No. 3 ; cf. bdle. 1027, No. 22, and bdle. 1 147, No. 14. 



" Harl. MS. 61, fol. 56. '" ILid. iol. 45 d. &c. " Ibid. fol. 44 d. &c. *" Ibid. fol. 59. 



*' A deed quoted by Hutchins, Hist, of Dorset, iii, 517. Pcrhap'i this should be shepherd and swineherd. 



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