THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



are mentioned on a manor of Osbern Fitz Richard. ' Francigenas,' who 

 occasionally occur, as at Haselor, are men of French birth, but I claim the 

 ' francones homines,' who had weathered the Conquest at Birdingbury, as 

 English franklins. The actual term ' francolanus ' (franklin) does not, it 

 would seem, occur in Domesday, 1 nor indeed are ' francones homines ' met 

 with elsewhere in the record except in a reference to the * placita 

 franconum hominum' in the adjoining county of Worcestershire (fo. 175) ; 

 but there can be little doubt that the ' franci homines ' of Domesday has 

 the same meaning. Another term employed in the Warwickshire survey 

 is * taini,' applied, as at Pillerton and Lower Eatington, to members of the 

 agricultural community. Knights (milites) are similarly found grouped 

 with the peasant classes in a way that makes their real status very doubtful. 

 The priest again is regularly found (except in the case of some special 

 tenancies which will be dealt with separately) occupying the same position ; 

 but the fact that it is also occupied by men who were clearly above peasants 

 modifies any conclusion that might be drawn from the fact, and leads us 

 to doubt whether the plough-teams assigned to these groups of classes can 

 have been held by them as members of a village community. Some types 

 of these groups will illustrate their mixed character 



LOWER EATINGTON PILLERTON ASTON CANTLOW 



32 villeins 13 villeins 9 Flemings 



i priest 23 bordars 16 villeins 



25 bordars i 'francigena' i priest 



1 knight 3 ' taini' i o bordars 



2 ' taini ' 



61 40 36 



COMPTON STRETTON BARFORD 



45 villeins 8 villeins 2 knights 



1 priest 3 bordars i priest 

 13 bordars i priest 4 villeins 



2 knights i knight 1 1 bordars 



61 13 18 



We may compare this grouping with the frequent statement in Domesday 

 that a manor had been held by several sokemen, who prove, when details 

 are elsewhere available, to have varied not only in their tenure, but in the 

 extent of their holdings. 



When we turn to the peasantry proper, we find not only the normal 

 villeins, bordars and serfs, but six of ' the small but interesting class of 

 buri, burs, or colibert? ' (of whom the status is undetermined) at Nuneaton. 

 We have also a ' brruarius ' at Chesterton, and bondwomen (ancilltz) at several 

 places. The bovarius and ancilla are of frequent occurrence in the adjoin- 

 ing county of Worcestershire, and I have shown that the former was the 

 servant who had charge of the oxen in the lord's plough-team, two of them 



1 Monastic cartularies show it us in use in the twelfth century. 



3 Maitland_'s Domesday Book and Beyond, p. 36. 



285 



