A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



his land was subject to heriot, relief, and the lord's rights of wardship and 

 marriage. He is said to hold by hereditary charter 1 and was clearly a socage 

 tenant. Then there are a few tenants by sergeanty upon the manor of 

 King's Barton, such as Thomas of the Smithy, who rendered 200 barbed arrow- 

 heads, worth 8j. 4*/., for a yardland ; Robert Savage, who paid IQJ. rent for 

 a yardland and had to carry writs for the county ; Geoffrey of the Grove, 

 who held a yardland by archery ; * others, when a monk rode on church 

 business, had to find a squire with a proper horse, to follow him through 

 England and serve him ; this squire had to carry on his own horse the 

 furniture of the monk's bed, also a book, cresset, candles, two loaves, 

 and half a sextary of wine or beer ; when he tarried within the monas- 

 tery on account of such service, he was to receive every day two squires' 

 loaves, with beer and one dish from the kitchen. If his horse died in the 

 service, he was to be allowed los. This service was commuted by a 

 William of Ocholte, in Upton, for attendance with towels when the abbot 

 washed his hands on the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. 3 Yet another curious 

 service was that of Walter Freman of Hartpury, tenant of a messuage and 

 six acres, for which he paid a sheep with twelve pence tied round its neck.* 



Besides these obvious freeholders are others of very doubtful status. 

 Directly following the freeholder of Churcham, in the extent just quoted, 

 comes a Walter Wood, tenant by hereditary charter. For half a yardland 

 he paid IQJ. 3^., did suit to the courts of Gloucester and Churcham, owed 

 pannage, and must do one ploughing called ' peniherthe.' So far he appears 

 a tenant by socage, but the further information that he could not sell his ox, 

 give his daughter in marriage or alienate his son, leaves us doubtful. On 

 most of the extents, before the heading ' consuetudinarii ' there appear a 

 number of tenants, holding by a few services, and subject to heriot and 

 merchet, whose difference from the regular villein is hard to understand. 

 At Eastleach for instance a yerdling held for the term of his life, for 

 5-r.* He did three bederipes and two ploughings, owed suit to the hali- 

 mote, paid pannage and hyndergeld and aid, at the same time as the 

 customary tenants ; gave toll for ox and beer, and the lord had a heriot on 

 his death. Small holdings, e.g. a messuage and curtilage, appear in numbers 

 as liable to work at only hay time and harvest ; these were probably pieces 

 of the demesne, let out to freeholders, who often held by villein tenure with- 

 out losing their own freedom of status. 8 It is impossible definitely to place 

 such men either among the free or the unfree ; they were really in a state 

 of transition, attained in varying degrees and at varying moments in 

 different parts of the county. 



In the foregoing sketch of the manor and the various classes who 

 inhabited it, most stress has been laid upon its economic aspect, and on 

 the opportunities which it offered to the development of its communal, 

 as opposed to its seignorial, elements. When we pass on to matters of 

 law and justice, we find the two in conflict ; before the lord's court 

 the people appear as tenants of a manor ; before the king's as members of 

 a township. Both kinds of justice, however, were brought very close to 

 the life of the ordinary man, and must have influenced his character and 



1 Glouc. Cart, iii, 133. ' Ibid, iii, 69. * Ibid, iii, Introd. p. civ. ' Ibid, iii, 77. 



' Ibid, iii, 188. ' cf. Landboc Man. B.M.V. et S. Cenhelmi de Winchekumba, ed. D. Royce, i, 219-25. 



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