

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



for fuel and repairs in his woods, and exacting such burdensome services that 

 many were reduced to beggary 83 ; nor could they obtain redress, the king's 

 court being only able to give aid to a villein against his lord in cases of bodily 

 injury. It is, therefore, natural that attempts should have been made from 

 time to time to prove that various manors were ancient demesne, the villein 

 tenants of ancient demesne being privileged to hold by fixed customs. An instance 

 occurred in 1280 at ' Cholynton ' one of the manors of Eastbourne when 

 the tenants complained that Roger le Ware had increased their services ; but 

 upon reference to Domesday the manor was shown not to have been in the 

 king's hands after the Conquest. 83a It may possibly have been due to discontent 

 at oppressive exactions that, at Laughton, not only the ordinary tenants but 

 even the reeve himself seems to have been constantly negligent, and it was 

 difficult to get the services performed. In 1376 Reginald Chiselbergh 

 absolutely refused to keep the lord's pigs in Hawkhurst wood, 8 * and two 

 years later there seems to have been a revolt amongst the ploughmen, 

 Henry Whyte was placed in the stocks for refusing to serve, and John 

 son of Reginald Chiselbergh was to be attached to do the work on pain 

 of 6s. 8</. 8 * a 



This is the more remarkable as the ploughmen of Laughton were 

 certainly paid servants in the fourteenth century, the regular staff (famu/i) of 

 ploughmen in 1322 receiving 6d. a week each as wages (vadiai) and 1 2s. a 

 year between them, as a fixed payment, possibly in commutation for part keep 

 or clothing (stipe ndiuni) ^ while the ploughing which was necessary over and 

 above their labour, and that of the customary tenants, was paid at the rate of 

 yd. per acre. 85 There seem generally to have been one or two paid servants 

 on the Sussex manors at this time ; at Laughton, besides the ploughmen, 

 there was the ' parcarius,' who received 45^. 6d. a year, or io^d. a week, and 

 the keeper of the beasts on the lord's pasture outside the park, 86 who received 

 6d. a week from 17 April to 2 October, and zs. ' stipendium? At Rye at a 

 somewhat earlier date the miller received I mark a year and the Serjeant \\d., 

 or later zd., a day. 87 At Maresfield the only regular wages recorded are those 

 of the 'parcarius ' 45-f. 6d. a year, as at Laughton. 88 On Appledram manor, on 

 the other hand, there was a large staff of servants, including a reaper, a carter, 

 four ploughmen, one man who did harrowing in the spring and drove the 

 cart which carried manure in the summer, three shepherds, cowherds and 

 swineherds, and lads who worked in the kitchen and kept the geese and 

 poultry. 89 



In ordinary circumstances the work of the manorial servants and the 

 customary tenants was almost sufficient for the harvest-work; in 1348-9 



83 Coram Rege R. 19, m. i^d. "* Ibid. 51, m. 9 d. 



84 Add. Ct. R. 31894. 



Ma Ibid. 31898. It may be noted in this connexion that it was on this manor that the tenants were 

 forced to accept villein holdings against their will (supra). The system, as might have been expected, was not , 

 always successful, one tenant being relieved of his land in little more than a year, at which time he had nothing 

 to give asheriot ; ibid. 31900. 



86 Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.), bdle. 1147, No. 14. 



86 Ibid. It would seem probable that it was the latter office which Reginald Chiselbergh refused to 

 fulfil in 1376. 



8r Ibid, bdle. 1028, No. 10 ; from 1280-8; the rise in the Serjeant's wages occurs between 1284 

 and 1286. 



88 Ibid. bdle. 1027, Nos. 21 and 22. This was in 1291-2 and 1294-5. 



89 Ibid. bdle. 1016, Nos. 9, 10, and 1 1, and bdle. 1017, Nos. n and 12. 



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