A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



eleventh century there were generally sokemen, who often might leave or sell 

 their land at pleasure, ' villeins,' ' bordars,' ' cottars,' and ' serfs.' In the 

 earliest thirteenth-century records 38 only villeins and cottagers are to be 

 found, the other classes having entirely disappeared. A fairly numerous 

 class of small freeholders had arisen, developed apparently from the sokemen 

 and some of the Domesday villeins. 



In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the villein tenements were held 

 at the will of the lord, and in the latter period also according to the custom 

 of the manor. Each tenement was granted in full court to the new tenant by 

 the lord or steward, some outward token passing from hand to hand. 39 The 

 rent and services were agreed upon, but the tenant had no other security 

 against ejection or the demand for increased services than the custom of the 

 manor. None of the royal writs and assizes, which protected the freeholder, 

 could be used by a villein to recover possession of his land. In practice, 

 however, the rents, fines, and services in each manor were fixed all tenants 

 of the same size of holdings performed the same services, and no change 

 took place in them year after year for it was of no advantage to the lord, 

 who depended on his tenants' labour, to make the terms of their tenure 

 impossible. 



One of the most usual forms of grant for customary land is to be found 

 continually in the Fawley Court Rolls. A messuage and tenement were 

 granted to a man, his wife, and his son, according to the custom of the manor, 

 a heriot being taken on the death of each of them. 



At other times customary tenements were practically hereditary ; at 

 Ilmer 40 the eldest son possessed the tenement in which his father died on 

 payment of a fine, and subject to the widow's interest. The tenement, of 

 course, still had to be surrendered into the lord's hand, but custom decreed 

 that the son should have it back on payment of a fine for entry. 



The tenant in villeinage could not demise or sell his land without leave. 

 In a roll" of 1331 at Westcott, Richard Audren was fined for having demised 

 his land at firm without his lord's consent. A few years later Thomas 

 Benhul 43 had exchanged i acre of land for another, and it was ordered that 

 the land should be seized into the lord's hand. 



The new tenant in some manors did fealty to the lord,* 8 though in theory 

 this was only due from free tenants. 



Generally the widow of a villein was entitled to the whole of his tene- 

 ment for life on payment of the heriot ; this was called her 'free-bench,' 44 

 but the phrase does not appear frequently. At Ilmer * she held the whole 

 tenement only so long as she remained a widow ; on her re-marriage she was 

 entitled to have a house and 4 acres of land of the second-best quality in the 

 tenement in place of her ' dower.' ' Dower,' properly speaking, was only used 

 in connexion with freehold, but the similarity of the conditions led to the misuse 

 of the term in reference to a villein tenement. The similarity, indeed, was 

 so great that at Beaumond 45 the widow of a villein had a customary right to 

 one-third only of her husband's land, the regular rule for a tenement held by 

 knight's service. In a few manors another kind of tenancy existed that of 



38 Inq. Hen. Ill, passim. 39 B.M. Add. R. 27030. "" P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. R. 79. 



41 P.R.O. Ct. R. ptfo. 155, No. 28. lbid. no. 28, m. 7. 



43 B.M. Add. R. 27026. " P.R.O. Ct. R. ptfo. 155, No. 15. 46 Ibid. No. 2. 



46 



