A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



of Merton. The influence of the lords was, however, so great that only certain 

 restrictions were placed on their powers of inclosure ; each incloser was 

 forced to leave a sufficiency of pasture for the tenants of the manor, but as he 

 was generally also the lord of the manor, he had the right to settle what 

 was a sufficiency for the greater number of his tenants. 



In most manors of which records remain in Buckinghamshire the lord 

 had inclosed a park, which generally contained pasture, meadow, and often 

 a warren. The increase of hunting rights was a further grievance, which 

 interfered with the tenants' common rights. At Newport Pagnel 13 ' 

 complaints were made in the Hundred Rolls that there was a warren in the 

 common field of the town, but that was a case of rare and excessive oppression. 

 At Fawley, Langley Marish, Cippenham, Princes Risborough, Hanlee in 

 Beachampton, and Olney there were inclosed parks, but on all these manors 

 the bailiff still cultivated part at least of the demesne as arable land, for the 

 sale of corn continually forms part of the receipts in the bailiff's accounts, and 

 it is improbable that much land at this time was turned into pasture, but only 

 that commons were inclosed. 



In the parks themselves the tenants generally had pasturage on payment 

 of a yearly sum of money, but if previous to the inclosure they had had free 

 common rights, this would naturally entail a considerable loss to the tenants. 



Licence to inclose, after the statute, had to be obtained from the king. 

 In 1337 uo Sir John de Molins had leave to impark his woods in Ilmer with 

 100 acres of pasture in Beaconsfield, Burnham, and Cippenham. Eight years 

 later he had leave to inclose more woods with the 300 acres of pasture 

 adjoining them. 



The movement was followed not only by the lords of the manor but by 

 the freeholders, and more especially by the firmors, to whom the lords leased 

 the demesne lands. Still in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries 

 sheep-farming was carried on to a large extent by the bailiffs of the manors, 

 for the sale of wool and fleeces was frequently entered in their accounts. 



From a survey 141 of various manors, assigned to the reign of Henry III, 

 the number of sheep is given on three royal manors, Brill, Aylesbury, and 

 Lectun ; but there is no account of the sale of the wool. In Stoke Hundred, 

 at Cippenham, Langley Marish, and Ditton, the bailiff sold considerable 

 quantities of wool ; at Islehampstead Chenies the lord had a fulling mill, 

 the rent of which had been increased in 13245, but in the hundreds of 

 Ashendon practically no wool appears in the accounts, except at Brill in the 

 thirteenth century. In the hundred of Aylesbury not much wool was sold, 

 but at Wendover there was a fulling mill in 133940, and about three 

 hundred sheep belonging to the lord. 



The greatest quantities of wool were sold on three manors in Cottesloe 

 Hundred at Whaddon, Cheddington, and Weedon. 



The sheep-farming was probably accompanied by an increase in the 

 manufacture of cloth within the county. Elsewhere efforts were made to 

 improve the kinds of cloth made in England, and in Wycombe, 142 at least, 

 amongst the Buckinghamshire towns, the burgesses were anxious to induce 

 weavers to settle in the town, by granting them immunity from certain fines 



139 Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 40. 14 Lipscomb, Hist, of Bucks, iv, 546. 



141 P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. R. 74. 10 Ledger of borough, 1316. 



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