A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



as a rule ; and the fact that it was more general in 1066 than twenty 

 years later is significant of its former prevalence. The most striking 

 cases no doubt are those in which the change in the number of serfs 

 corresponds with that in the number of teams on the lord's demesne. 

 At Writtle the ploughs in demesne had diminished from 12 to 9, and 

 the serfs from 24 to 18 ; at (Saffron) Walden the ploughs in demesne 

 had, on the contrary, increased from 8 to i o and the serfs from 1 6 to 

 20. At Stanstead Mountfichet and at Moreton we read of a decrease in 

 these ploughs from 3 to 2 and in the serfs from 6 to 4 ; at Latton, 

 Bobbingworth and Newport alike these ploughs have decreased from 2 

 to i and the serfs from 4 to 2. Of manors where the number of the 

 serfs as well as of demesne ploughs was the same in 1086 as in 1066, 

 we find 1 2 serfs and 6 ploughs at Debden with 6 serfs and 3 ploughs at 

 Amberden in Debden ; on two of the Bumpstead manors we have re- 

 spectively 4 demesne ploughs and 8 serfs and 3 demesne ploughs and 6 

 serfs. At Bendish (Hall), Great Bardfield and Castle Hedingham there 

 are in each case 8 serfs and 4 demesne ploughs, while each of two 

 manors at Gestingthorpe has 6 serfs and 3 such ploughs, a proportion 

 which is found also at Strethall, Chreshall, Chishall, Newham, Stanway, 

 Great Braxted, Ramsey, Dovercourt, Great Baddow and Tilbury-by- 

 Clare. At Greenstead the proportion on the two manors is 6 to 3 and 

 4 to 2. At Hockley, where the lord is credited with 2\ plough teams, 

 we find 5 serfs. There are twenty-eight cases in which the proportion, 

 in 1086 and in 1066, is 2 demesne ploughs and 4 serfs, so that one need 

 hardly dwell on the numerous examples of a proportion of i to 2. Yet 

 more striking is the great number of cases in which the ratio existed 

 at the death of Edward the Confessor, although it had changed since 

 then. At Thaxted there then had been 1 6 serfs to 8 demesne ploughs, 

 at Elmdon 1 2 to 6, at Great Easton and at Hatfield Peverel i o to 5 ; 

 at one of the Layers, at Panfield, at Hempstead, at Henham and at 

 Clavering 8 to 4. At fifteen other places it had been 6 to 3, and 

 at thirty-five 4 to 2. Here again the number might be swollen by 

 adding examples of 2 to i ; but, after the scores of examples given, this 

 can hardly be needful. It has been sufficiently demonstrated that the 

 ' serfs ' before the Conquest were normally men of whom two had charge 

 of each plough-team on the lord's demesne. 



Although at the time of the great Survey we find these ' serfs ' 

 disappearing, or at least diminishing in number, their work had still to 

 be done, and one can hardly doubt that in many cases they had become, 

 or had been replaced, in 1086, by ' bordars.' At Little Thurrock, for 

 instance, we read : ' Then i bordar ; now 6. Then 6 serfs ; now i ' 

 (fo. ii b). 'And in the next entry but one we find at Little Burstead : 

 'Then i bordar; now 6. Then 4 serfs ; now i.' So also at Good 

 Easter (fo. 20^), where the villeins were stationary in number, there 

 were 5 more bordars and 5 fewer serfs. At Stambridge (fo. 23^) we 

 have an extreme case, in which all the 7 villeins and 3 serfs have dis- 

 appeared, the bordars increasing at the same time from 5 to 10. This, 



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