SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



in common socage. The prior of St. Frideswide's,' 1 at Oxford, held Upper 

 Winchendon of the king by ancient feoffment for the sum of 20 a year. 

 The abbot of St. Albans held land in Oving," paying 5 marks a year, but 

 the jurors, when the inquisition was taken, stated that no one remembered 

 the origin of the grant. Lay lords of manors holding for a money rent are 

 also to be found. Alan Basset held half of Wycombe, including the borough, 

 for 2OJ. a year, and Towersey was also held by socage in chief of the king. 

 Socage tenure was, however, most usually found amongst the smaller free- 

 holders in a manor, and often a few agricultural services were also performed 

 for the lord ; the tenant did fealty and suit at the manorial court. 



The status of a villein brought with it many disabilities, but the con- 

 ditions described in the law-books" of the time seem to have been much 

 mitigated in practice. At Ilmer, in a survey taken of the manor in 13378,** 

 there is a list of the most important burdens laid on a villein. He might be 

 elected to the office of reeve ; on his death his lord received the best four- 

 legged beast or the produce of the best half-acre of his land chosen by the 

 lord in place of the beast. His son could not be clerked nor his daughter 

 married without his lord's consent. He might not sell his horse or ox, nor 

 leave the fee of his lord without permission ; for, in the language of Bracton 

 the chief legal commentator of the thirteenth century, he was asc riptus glebae. 

 That these restrictions were fully enforced the Court Rolls of different manors 

 afford abundant evidence. At Kingsey s * a man was presented at the court 

 and fined for having sold his beast without leave. In theory all the posses- 

 sions used by a villein were said to belong to his lord, but in practice he was 

 recognized as an owner of property, since instances occur of a villein buying 

 his freedom of his lord. At Kingsey there is the following entry at a court 

 held in 1317 18, ' Et predicta Elena dat domine los. pro se et sequela s * sua 

 a servitute liberanda . . . .' 



The legal disabilities of a villein were also very great, since the royal 

 courts only recognized his existence through his lord ; and, except in the case 

 of danger to his life or limb, he had no remedy against any act of his lord. 

 The Assize Rolls 87 of the itinerant justices continually contain cases of land 

 suits being dismissed because one of the litigants was of servile condition, 

 owing to his descent from villein ancestors. 



Up to this point the disabilities enumerated all resulted from the personal 

 status of the villein, but they were even more stringent with regard to his 

 land. Various classes amongst the tenants in villeinage were to be found, but 

 the terms of their tenure were all of the same type ; unlike the free tenants 

 they were distinguished from one another by the amount of land attached to 

 the different tenements. Generally there were two main classes the cus- 

 tomary tenants and the cottagers. The latter appear under various names in 

 Latin, the most common being cotterelli and cottarii, but all refer to the lowest 

 class of tenants. 



There seem to be no records in Buckinghamshire which show how these 

 two classes developed from those found in the Domesday manors. In the 



11 llund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 27. " Ibid. 23. 



* Cf. Bracton. Extracts in Digby's History of tht Lam tf Real Properly. 



" P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. R. 79. " PRO. Ct. R. ptfo. 155, No. 16. 



" Ibid. No. 1 5. * Assize R. Bucks. 54. 



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