SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



considerable number of cases, burdened with small services : thus, Robert de 

 Creule, in the early years of the century, held lands freely at Warding for 

 two suits of court, suit at the king's writ, and foreign service ; and William 

 Tristram held 4^ acres on the same manor quit of all save foreign services. 47 

 On Laughton manor in 1338 the services of the freemen 48 are set out at some 

 length: twenty-seven of them, who held thirty-six holdings, were bound to 

 carry from Seaford to Laughton, or Maresfield, one measure of wine before 

 Easter and one after Easter, and to plough with four ploughs for the Lenten 

 sowing ; and for each of their thirty-six holdings they were bound to harrow 

 with one horse for one day in Lent ; they had also to carry twelve loads of 

 hay from the manor to Maresfield, and to reap, apparently for one day in 

 autumn, with thirty-six men, each with his whole household, excepting his 

 wife and shepherds. They had three meals for the wine carrying, two meals 

 a day for every two ploughmen, one meal a day for each man who harrowed, 

 one meal for all the hay-carrying. Seventeen other freemen had, likewise, to 

 reap for one day at the food of the lord. The lord provided for all the reapers 

 free and bond alike bread made of corn, and beer for their midday meal, and 

 one ox which must have been worth IQJ. at Hokeday, and had since been 

 fatted on the lord's pasture the entire hide was to remain to the lord. One 

 draught of beer was allowed to each man in the field after dinner, and for his 

 supper he had a wastel worth </., one herring, and one draught of beer. 



It is difficult to see in what respect the position of these men differed 

 from some of the less onerous instances of unfree tenure, indeed there are 

 cases where villeins, and even cottars, held on what would appear to be freer 

 conditions than these Laughton freemen, though of course merchet and tenure 

 at will would certainly have been regarded as incident to villeinage by the 

 fourteenth century. Nor within the ranks of the customary tenants them- 

 selves is it easy to follow the distinctions of status. Domesday Book represents 

 the county as being mainly occupied by villeins, with a small population of 

 cottars or bordars (apparently equivalent terms used in different districts), and 

 about three hundred and fifty serfs found chiefly on the lay fees in the rapes 

 of Arundel, Lewes, and Bramber, though the abbot of Battle had twelve on 

 Alciston manor. 49 



As early as 1080 the burdens incident to unfree tenure might differ 

 considerably in amount ; for instance, each member of the privileged villein 

 community within the vill of Battle owed a small money rent, and was bound 

 in return for a loaf and a half and a ' companagium ' to find one man for one 

 day only for the hay-harvest in Bodiham meadow, and likewise for mending 

 the mill any further service in these respects which might be necessary being 

 regarded not as a matter of duty, but as a courtesy which a man ought not, if 

 possible, to neglect. He was also bound to make a seam of malt, if required, 

 the requisite grain being brought to his house by a servant of the hall, though 

 he himself must bring the malt back to the court with a measure, in return 

 for two loaves cum bono companagio. The villein tenants within the leuga, 

 but outside the vill, on the other hand, were bound to do whatever work they 

 were told throughout the whole of every fourth week, and on Saturday to go 



47 Add. Ct. R. 32613, 32615 ; cf. 32618. 



48 Add. MS. 33189, fol. 72. Cf. Mr. Round's remarks on the services of freemen in his article on the 

 Burton Abbey Surveys, Engl. Hist Rev. xx, 285 et seq. 



49 y.C.H. Suss, i, 368, 394*. M Chron. Man. de Bella (Angl. Christ. Soc.), 12 et seq. 



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