SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



On the other hand certain payments were made by the lord by custom 

 to his tenants. He paid ' Medram ' at Cippenham " at harvest time, and 

 * dyncr silver ' when the park was mown, but this must have been instead of 

 the food at a boon-day. At Ilmer, 7 * ' Medeship ' and 'Cartlof had been 

 paid, after all carrying had been finished at harvest, to seventeen customary 

 tenants, who received amongst them 6J. worth of cheese, and i()d. in money; 

 the custom, however, had been given up some years before 1343." At 

 Whaddon " medship was given entirely in money, 2s. 6d. being divided 

 amongst all the customary tenants. 



At the time when the manorial records of Buckinghamshire begin, at 

 the end of the thirteenth century, the commutation of all customary services 

 had already taken place to a considerable extent. The change probably 

 arose from motives of convenience, as the old system was unwieldy, and the 

 tenants must have found considerable difficulty in working for the lord and 

 cultivating their own land at the same time, especially on the smaller holdings. 

 The lord, too, must have been served by very half-hearted and unwilling 

 workers, so that the change would be advantageous to both lord and tenants. 

 The effects were, however, far-reaching, and were indeed one of the main 

 causes of the break-up of the manorial system. The tenants had to be 

 replaced by farm servants working for a money wage, and not necessarily 

 holding land. These might be of servile birth, but the restrictions on their 

 liberty were greatly lessened when disconnected with the land. 



To give any exact dates to the process of commutation is difficult, since 

 they varied on each manor and have to be sought for in records drawn up 

 with a different object. The earliest minister's account comes from Brill in 

 the hundred of Ashendon. In 12501 77 the expenses include the payment 

 of all work connected with the harvest, but both winter and autumn boon- 

 work was done by the tenants. The men with definite occupations were not 

 paid with money, but by the remittance of their rents, so that they were 

 tenants, not wage-paid labourers. On this manor there were 33 virgates, 78 

 probably those held by the sokemen of the ancient demesne, from which only 

 five days' service was due to the lord in the year ; hence some other arrange- 

 ment instead of the ordinary system of work must have been made very early. 

 At the beginning of the reign of Edward I, however, 79 all the men but one were 

 paid a yearly wage, extra men being specially hired in harvest-time, and in 

 1313* the entry of operibus custumariis venditis appears amongst the receipts. In 

 other manors in the same district, on one side of the accounts there are payments 

 for work done by labourers, and on the other entries of ' assised rents ' and 

 ' works sold,' and each kind of work in the lists of services has its fixed 

 equivalent in money. At Westcott 81 all the work at harvest was paid for in 

 money in 1336 and 1337, and a tenant held a small holding of a cottage and 

 curtilage in villeinage for a rent of i id. a year and two days' work in autumn. 

 At Ilmer 8 ' the services were valued and many tenants were paying commu- 

 tation money to the lord. In the Aylesbury district the same change had 

 also been taking place. The sum of money paid instead of services was often 



" P.R.O. Mini. Accts. bdle. 760, No. 3. " P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. R. 79. 



' P.R.O. Mint. Accts. bdle. 761, No. ^. n Ibid. bdle. 763, No. 30. 



" Ibid. bdle. 759, No. 28. " Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 34. 



" P.R.O. Mins. Accts. bdle. 759, No*. 29-30. * Ibid. bdle. 759, No. 31. 



' Ibid. bdle. 763, No. 19. " Ibid. bdle. 761, No. 2. 



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