SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



(1407-8) from a tenant of the same manor before he could marry a widow 

 with a messuage and two acres of land. 1 



Another way in which the lord's property might suffer loss was by the 

 flight of a villein from the manor ; hence the reiterated, though usually 

 fruitless, attempts of the manor courts to recover such fugitives by distraining 

 their relatives. 



Besides these restraints upon his personal liberty, the villein's time was 

 greatly occupied by labour services to his lord, which, together with dues in 

 kind at certain seasons and ' pannage ' (the money paid for pasturing his pigs 

 in the woods), were all acknowledgements of the lord's superior rights over 

 his land. Some description of these services (which were nicely adjusted to 

 the value of the holding) may prove not uninteresting. At Cirencester, in 

 the extent of Stephen's reign already quoted, besides the thirteen tenants 

 who merely ' laboured,' we read that ' there is no man so free but he is bound 

 to plough and carry with a waggon, if he has one, or with a cart.' Some 

 tenants are described as bound to ' work among the swine,' or to do a day's 

 haymaking. By 1 187 the services are somewhat more defined. Some hold 

 by 'keeping the lord's oxen,' others 'by fork and flail' ; others work on three 

 days every week for their lord, besides three days at harvest and three at 

 haytime ; they pay toll, and cannot give their daughters in marriage without 

 the lord's licence. 1 



Cirencester, however, was in c Ancient Demesne,' * and its tenants had 

 special privileges. The chartulary of St. Peter's Abbey, which contains an 

 unrivalled series of manorial extents, provides more typical examples of the 

 labour services of a villein.* On the manor of Clifford Chambers the 

 tenant of a yardland (here 36 acres) was bound to pay the following services, 

 or their equivalent in money. 



To plough J acre in winter and again in Lent, and harrow the same at seedtime. 

 Value 4</. 



To work four days a week with one man from Michaelmas to I August, at \d. a day. 



To do summage or carry loads by cart to Gloucester twice a year. Value 8d. 



To wash and shear sheep for two days. Value id. 



To carry hay for one day (value id.} and three other days at \d.^ besides manual labour, 

 (value </.) 



To carry brushwood (counted as a day's work). 



To do two bederipes ' with two men before I August. Value %d. 



From I August to Michaelmas he had to reap five days a week with one man -t 

 I \d. a day. 



To do eight bederipes with two men. Value 2s. . 



To carry the lord's corn twice a week for four weeks, at I ^d. a day. 



To carry mows of corn to the lord's grange for one day. Value \d. 



To give an aid according to the quantity of his land and of his beasts. 



If he brewed beer for sale, he must give to the lord 12 gallons, or the price thereof. 



He paid pannage id. for a full-grown pig, ^d. for a young one. 



He could not sell his ox or horse without the lord's licence. 



He must ' redeem ' his son and daughter.* 



His best beast must go to the lord as heriot on his death. 



1 Ct. R. portf. 175, No. 25, m. 9, and No. 26, m. 4. ' E. A. Fuller, op. cit 



' i.e. land which belonged to the crown at the time of the Domesday Survey. 



4 There were about a hundred and five manor* in Gloucestershire (Hund. R. pp. 166-83). The twenty- 

 five manors for which these extents exist are scattered all over the county. The services do not appear to 

 have differed much in different parts. Representative examples have been chosen for quotation. 



* i.e. reaping performed at lord's bidding. 



' i.e. pay a fine for their marriage or admission into holy order*. 



131 



