A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



The total value of such a yerdling's services was i zs. 7^., besides 

 which every customary tenant on the manor had to give a fixed aid 

 of 2os. a year, and carry mill-stones for the lord's mill. 1 The services of a 

 half-yerdling (or holder of half a yardland) were of a similar kind. At 

 Churcham he performed a long tale of services, amounting in money value 

 to i u. \\d,, but his yearly aid was only is. i i\d.* 



In the fourteenth century we still find long lists of services and dues in 

 kind, supposed to be rendered by villein tenants. The following is an 

 example from Minchinhampton, in the reign of Richard II : ' Ralph 

 Deulee holds one yardland and pays ^.s. id. rent. He must work every other 

 week from Michaelmas to Gulaust (i August) ; that is, from Michaelmas to 

 the Feast of the Purification he will have a task of some sort, except that, 

 when there is ploughing of the lady's (of the manor), he will work at the 

 garden, until her oxen come home from ploughing. From the Feast of the 

 Purification (2 February) to Hockday (second Tuesday after Easter), he will 

 work the whole day, and while the lady is sowing he will come with his 

 own horse and harrow her land. From Hockday to Michaelmas he will 

 labour all the day. He will also perform dederip, wynerip, benrip, alerthe 

 and alerip, and will plough twice a year and plough at denerthe, and weed 

 and carry hay from Burnmore ; give pannage and toll, gather nuts (with an 

 allowance from the lady of meat, cheese and bacon, while so engaged), and 

 watch on the vigil of St. John the Baptist. He must also mow with two 

 servants on Monday, and give a cock and eggs. His children must do 

 dederips.' 8 



Rightless, unable to plead in the royal courts the cultivation of his 

 own land continually interrupted by labour on the demesne this typical 

 Gloucestershire villager may perhaps be thought to have led a hard life. 

 Yet the very elaboration with which his duties were defined, the fact that 

 manorial custom was the only standard to which he could appeal, constituted 

 his strength. Customary law was, in some ways, a better defence against his 

 lord than the law of the land could have been ; for, being unwritten, it 

 could only be declared by the suitors of the manor court, who were, 

 at the same time, fellow-tenants of the manor. The villein's time might 

 be portioned out with irksome exactitude ; but, when once he had 

 performed his allotted tasks, he was free to do what he chose, and his 

 holding was attached to him almost as closely as he was to it. ' The very 

 root of villeinage lay in the impossibility for owners and lords to work their 

 dependants at their will and pleasure.' ' At no time was the tradition and 

 authority of customary arrangements greater, nor directed to so close a 

 regulation of all the details of rural life and work, than in the epoch of the 

 theoretical sway of the lord's will. No period has produced such records of 

 customary possession and customary services as the period when the extents 

 and custumals of manorial administration were compiled.' 4 Moreover, 

 commutation of service for money, which, as will appear later, was common 

 by the fourteenth century, relieved the villein of most of the personal incon- 

 veniences of his position. Curiously enough, it was not the yerdlings, the 



1 Gkuc. Cart, iii, 52-3. * Ibid. 137-8. 



* Probably these terms have been confused by the clerk. They imply boon-work where drink is given. 

 Rentals and Surv. R. 238. * Vinogradoff, Growth of (he Manor, pp. 348, 349. 



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