SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



the 7 wistas held by the villeins. 66 Similarly at Crowmarsh, 66 where at the 

 same date there were 24 wistas in the hands of the villeins, the survey 

 begins by stating that each villein for each wista must plough and harrow an 

 acre for the winter sowing at the food of the lord ; it then adds as a kind of 

 afterthought 



if he have his own plough, but if some only have half or one third or a quarter of a plough 

 each whole plough shall mow an acre (et si non habeat nisi medietatem vel tertiam vel 

 quartam partem unius carucae pro qualibet caruca arabit unam acram). And there are on 

 an average each year eight ploughs, and the work, at 8d. an acre, is worth 6s. 



In this case possibly, and in the case of Bibleham almost certainly, the 

 customary works of the villeins had first been assessed at a time when each 

 villein held the normal holding of I wista ; subsequent subdivisions of land 

 had reduced the tenements in size and multiplied the number of the tenants, 

 and though some of the services were still reckoned on the original unit, in 

 other instances the lord managed to secure some additional service from each 

 new tenant. 



This process may be seen actually in the working in Wartling in 1311 

 when William ate Hole had licence to grant to a fellow villein 2 acres of his 

 native holding in Welfeld, for which the new tenant was to pay to the lord 

 I2d. at the three usual terms, and to do one boon work in autumn, though 

 nothing was to be subtracted from William's services. 67 



The Wartling court rolls afford other instances of this tendency to sub- 

 divide villein tenements : thus, in i 306 William, son of Geoffrey ate Felde, 

 surrendered i acre of his land to the lord, who thereupon admitted John ate 

 Felde to hold it at the usual service 8^/. a year and one boon day in autumn 

 and for one additional boon day. 68 The system, however, had the 

 obvious drawback of introducing into the manorial economy a comparatively 

 indigent class of tenant who was not always able to meet his liabilities in the 

 shape of heriots ; thus, on the death of Lucas Webbe, who held i acre i rod 

 of land in bondage, the lord received no heriot because Webbe had no live 

 stock ; '* and Mabel, the widow of John ate Felde mentioned above, died in 

 1320 seised of a messuage and 3 acres of land, which she had held as her free 

 bench after the death of her husband for \\d. rent and the same services, but 

 paid no heriot apparently for a similar reason. 70 



It is interesting to note that in Wootton, which was an ecclesiastical 

 manor, the virgate and half-virgate villein holdings linger on to the latter part 

 of the fifteenth century, 71 though of course even here they are by no means 

 universal. The same thing is also true of the archbishop's manor of South 

 Mailing in i^6. 73 There is an instance of a 3o-acre villein-holding in 

 Wartling in 1310, but the rarity here, and the obvious instances of sub- 

 division at Bibleham and Crowmarsh, 7 * make it appear possible that the 

 ecclesiastical overlord was more adverse to the admittance to his manors of a 

 class of very small and probably poor holders than was the layman. 76 



"Add. MS. 33189, fol. 49. " Ibid. fol. 50 d. " Add. Ct. R. 32617 in dorso. 



68 Ibid. 32613 ; cf. 32615, m. 4. ** Ibid. 32610, m. 3. 



70 Ibid. 32618. The membrane is much rubbed, but this would seem to be the reason given ; cf. also 

 several cases at the time of the Black Death ; ibid. 32657, also 32610, m. 3< 



71 Eccl. Com. Ct. R. bdle. 33, No. 26. " Add. MS. 33182, fol. 18. 



78 Add. Ct. R. 32615, m. 3. H Add. MS. 33189, fol. 49, $oJ. 



n On Southease manor, which had belonged to Hyde Abbey, services were still assessed on yardlands in 

 the seventeenth century (Suss. Arch. Coll. iii, 250). 



179 



