A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE 



going to each team. 1 They were consequently closely connected with the 

 demesne portion of the manor, as were also the ancillce. In Warwickshire 

 the place of the bovarius is taken by the serf, who is normally spoken of 

 as on the demesne. The proportion, however, of the serfs to the lord's 

 plough-teams is by no means regular, although the opening entry for the 

 county shows us six ploughs and twelve serfs 'indominio.' An analysis of 

 all the entries, which I have made for this purpose, reveals the following cases 

 in which the proportion of ploughs to serfs is correct : 6 to 1 2, one ; 5 to 

 i o, one ; 4 to 8, one ; 3 to 6, three ; 2 to 4, twelve ; i \ to 3, three ; i to 

 2, thirty-three. This gives us a total of fifty-four cases as against 107 in 

 which the number of serfs is either above or below that which is required. 

 Students will recognize that, even so, the number of cases in which the 

 required proportion occurs is significantly large ; and there are several in 

 which it is closely approached. 2 



The bondwomen are closely connected with the serfs, and indeed in 

 one entry (at Haselor) we find them grouped together. 3 They are men- 

 tioned in seventeen entries, relating to eighteen places scattered about the 

 county, and were about three dozen in number. At Thurlaston and at 

 Marston Jabbet on the fief of the Count of Meulan, there were respectively 

 one plough and two bondwomen, and one bondwoman and two ploughs 

 on the demesne, and there were no serfs. 



Agriculture dominated so completely all other industries, that save 

 for a ' burgess' here and there who is entered as appendant to a manor, and 

 for the ' two smiths ' at Wilnecote, we have no other occupations outside 

 Warwick. It must be remembered, however, that Domesday gives us 

 only a partial picture of the national life ; it ignores Tamworth and 

 Alcester at least, and it tells us nothing of the urban life that must have 

 existed at Coventry. 



Of priests we find mention in some fifty-five entries, and in a very 

 few instances two are spoken of. As I have said above, they are nor- 

 mally grouped with the peasants, but at ' Uptone ' two priests with their 

 two ploughs are entered separately. Apart from these parish priests, 

 Ansgot the priest had a hide at Bentley as a tenant of Geoffrey ' de Wirce,' 

 Robert de Stafford's tenant Ludichel is styled a priest in a charter, and 

 an unnamed priest held a virgate of land, under Turchil of Warwick, at 

 Ladbroke. 



The Warwickshire survey does not throw much light on questions 

 of tenure, though under Harbury we have the strange statement that the 

 two Englishmen who had held the 4* hides ' had power to sell, but 

 could not depart (discedere) with the land.' This appears to imply that 

 they could not commend ' themselves with the land to another lord, 

 although they could sell it without obtaining the lord's leave, subject to 



1 See the Introduction to the Domesday Survey in V.C.H. Wort. \. 



1 In this analysis I have only counted those serfi who are quite clearly connected with the lord's 

 demesne. 



' 'v inter servos et ancillas ' (244). I have explained in the Worcestershire Domesday, where the 

 phrase is common, how it should be read. 

 See p. 278, note 4. 



286 



