SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



virgate and wista as interchangeable, 15 while on the Battle Abbey lands the 

 magna wista seems to have been regarded as almost equal to half a hide. 16 

 The ' ferthingelonde,' apparently a quarter of a virgate, occurs at Rustington 

 in speaking of a period prior to the Great Pestilence. 17 The 'helve' or 

 ' hylf ' (half an acre) and ' stytch ' (quarter of an acre) are also found 

 occasionally. 17 * 



The Sussex rapes have been the subject of comment and discussion ever 

 since the days when Camden first drew attention to their physical complete- 

 ness. 18 They have, however, a special social significance, which must form 

 the background of any survey of the economic conditions of mediaeval Sussex, 

 for each rape formed a large private franchise almost analogous to the 

 imperium in imperio of continental feudalism, and, moreover, the very hundreds 

 were all in private hands. 19 Doubtless the centralizing policy of Henry II 

 did much to combat consequent abuses, but the hundred and assize rolls of 

 the reign of Edward I show how far such privilege could run riot in times 

 of disorder such as the reigns of Henry III and John. Some of the grievances 

 recited before the justices were primarily judicial, but cannot fail to have 

 reacted upon the social condition of the county such, for example, was the 

 frequent release of felons for a bribe by the seneschal of the earl of Gloucester 

 and others, and the interference of the earl of Arundel and the bailiff of the 

 honour of Pevensey with the holding of the sheriff's tourn. 20 Others, on the 

 contrary, were more strictly economic, involving a menace to privileges of 

 status and tenure, and the abuse of the lord's power of exacting fines and 

 distraints. Thus freemen were put upon their oath without the king's writ ; 21 

 Earl de Warenne and William de Braose distrained freemen and villeins to follow 

 them with arms wherever they went on pain of a heavy fine ; sub-bailiffs in 

 the rape of Arundel made ' scot ales ' and ' fulst ales ' in order to extort money 

 from the men of their bailiwicks. 23 As this offence was coupled with the 

 exaction of sheaves from the tenants' harvest in autumn, 23 it seems probable 

 that these ' scot ales ' were ales brewed from malt obtained as a compulsory 

 contribution from the tenants. The serjeant of the castle of Pevensey 

 distrained freemen of his bailiwick for carrying services to which they were 

 not bound, 24 the earl of Surrey appropriated to himself free warren through- 

 out his barony in the rapes of Bramber and Lewes, so that no knight nor 

 freeman could have free chase there, and the men of the country-side dared 

 not inclose their fields, nor though the beasts of the chase were much 

 increased by this system of preserving dared they drive them out of their 

 corn. 25 



Richard de Mundeville, who held the hundreds of Easebourne and 

 Rotherbridge, farmed them at an excessive sum, which the farmer could only 



15 Chron. Man. de Bella (Angl. Christ. Soc.), 17 ; Add. MS. 33189, fol. 46 &c., and 6348 (an eighteenth- 

 century note at the beginning). 



16 Custumal of Battle Abbey (Camd. Soc.), 29 ; for criticisms of the famous passage where the wista is 

 said to contain 4 virgates see Engl. Hist. Rev. xviii, 705 et seq. 



17 Cunningham, Growth of Engl. Industry, \, 586. 



"* Add. MS. 5701, fol. 158 ; Feet of 'F. (Suss. Rec. Soc.), No. 238. 



18 Camden, Britannia (ed. Gough, from ed. of 1607), i, 185 ; and cf. V.C.H. Suss, i, 384-5. 



19 V.C.H. Suss, i, 502-4 ; Hand. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, passim. 



20 Hmtd. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 205, 214. " Ibid. 203 ; Assize R. 912, m. 40. 

 M Assize R. 924, m. 620"., 63, and 912, m. 7. " Ibid. m. 7, ii. 

 " Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 207. " Ibid. 201, 210. 



171 



