SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



roll. The tenants might muddle along, amid endless difficulties and dis- 

 putes, with their antique open-field system ; the lord's demesne, where it 

 was enclosed, was managed on more economic lines. The following rules 

 for the management of the manors of St. Peter's Abbey, in the thirteenth 

 century, seem to show that the religious orders, at any rate, made business- 

 like landowners. Once a month the reeve was to cause these articles to be 

 recited openly before himself and his companion, the reaper. 



(1) A month before Michaelmas the bondmen were to be summoned each to the 

 manor where he was born, and there, before the sergeant of the place, it was to be ascer- 

 tained who were fit to be kept in the lord's service, and at what work, where, and at what 

 wages, it being understood that whenever the bailiff of the place chose, they could be 

 removed to another place, at the lord's convenience, saving to them their former wages. 



(2) The servants were to take care of the horses, and perform such services as should 

 be assigned to them on feast days ; and not to absent themselves without special licence. 



(3) Servants in any way related to sergeant, reeve, bedel, or other superior, were not to 

 serve under them, but elsewhere. 



(4) The servants were to be at their ploughs at the proper hours, and to plough 

 without injuring or distressing their beasts. 



(5) No iron or nails were to be delivered to carters and ploughmen, without 

 due inquiry by the reeve. 



(6) Within each oxstall were to be mangers of equal length, containing a night's 

 food for one team. 



(7) No useless or unprofitable beasts were to be kept throughout the winter, to the 

 waste of hay and fodder. No bullock was to be used for riding without good cause. 



(8) No corn was to be sold, horse hired, servant engaged, or building begun with- 

 out permission. 



(9) Salt and flour were to be distributed to servants in proper quantities, and also to the 

 ' deye ' (dairy-maid), who was to swear to keep and distribute it properly. 



(10) The deye was to account to the reeve every fortnight for the fowls, eggs, 

 chickens, geese and ducks, in her charge. 



(n) All calves, colts, lambs, and young pigs were to be marked. 



(12) All labourers were to come early to work with proper tools, to perform their 

 work faithfully, and go away at the appointed hours. None were to be allowed to work 

 who were under age, or not of sufficient strength. 



(13) No money was to be delivered to any but the reeve, who was to have entire charge 

 of receipts and expenses. He was to have due regard for economy. His accounts 

 were to be kept on a roll of parchment, with the proper title. 



(Other rules follow as to boundaries, manure, reclaiming waste places, and collecting 

 stubble for thatch.) 



The reeve was to be elected by the * community of the halimote,' 

 which was to be answerable for his conduct to the bailiff. 1 The cellarer, 

 who apparently acted as general steward to the monastery, was to audit the 

 accounts of the lesser officers, and inquire as to their diligence, and as to the 

 reverence and respect paid them by the workmen.* 



Manorial officials must thus have formed a distinct class of the rural 

 population of mediaeval Gloucestershire. Of another class, the freeholders, 

 we have hitherto said little. In the twenty-five manorial extents of the 

 Gloucester Chartulary, from which so many calculations have already been 

 drawn, not more than a quarter of the tenants can possibly be considered 

 free, and of these a large number seem to lie upon the border line. Of the 

 clearly free tenant a Ralph Brun of Churcham may be taken as a type. For 

 two yardlands of 48 acres each he paid i as rent, owed suit to the 

 Churcham halimote and the courts of Gloucester, the hundred and the shire ; 



1 Ghiu. Cart, iii, 213-21. ' Ibid. 1 08. 



2 137 18 



