A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



the serjeant of Appledram returned his account 90 of autumn expenses, as 



follows : 



d. 



Beer for the bailiff, ' ripereve,' mower, and boys in the kitchen for 4 weeks 

 Fresh meat and fish, butter and cheese for the same 

 Candles. ....... 



Drink and food for 40 customary mowers for one day 



Fresh meat for the ' bederipes ' 



Help for the mowers by day and acre . 



Wages of one ' tassator 'for 12 days . 

 Gloves for the servants 

 Wages for the ' ripereve ' 



s. 

 4 

 4 

 o 



4 

 10 

 18 



2 

 O 



4 



8 



9 

 3 

 4 

 o 

 6 

 o 



12 

 O 



The Black Death, however, put a sudden end to this state of affairs. 

 There can be no doubt that the visitation was both severe and widespread in 

 Sussex. The havoc amongst the clergy and religious has been dwelt upon 

 elsewhere ; 91 in Warding the number of deaths of freemen and villeins 

 recorded at the court held in March, 1349, was twelve, and in the following 

 October over sixty, twenty-five of these left no direct heirs, and the heirs of 

 ten others were minors. 92 In Appledram in 1349-50 the numbers of the 

 customary reapers were reduced from two hundred and thirty-four to one 

 hundred and sixty-eight. 93 These two instances, from almost opposite 

 ends of the county, go far to prove the extent of the calamity, else- 

 where court rolls and ministers' accounts alike are missing for that year, 

 but at Rustington at a later date it was regarded as marking an era 

 in manorial history. 



Possibly nothing shows more clearly the devastating and lasting effects 

 of this plague than the details given for the honour of the Eagle in 1440."* 

 Originally each person in the honour had paid one penny yearly, as a kind 

 of poll-tax ; previous to the plague these payments were compounded for, 

 the eight hundreds 94 within the honour paying various sums, amounting in 

 all to 27 i9.r. 8d., which should imply a population of, roughly, 6,700 ; by the 

 great pestilence nine villages upon the coast were completely destroyed and 

 rendered desolate, and the general population so reduced that to raise the 

 27 19-f. 8d., instead of id. a head some persons had to pay 2s. 8</. or even 

 5-f. As a result many people left the district and went to dwell in other 

 liberties, thereby further reducing the population. Accordingly, in 1440 the 

 old system of paying id. per head was re-introduced, the yield in that year 

 being 6 5-r. ^d. ; so that it would seem that the population had been reduced 

 from about 6,700 to about 1,500. 



The results in different places seem to have been somewhat different. 

 In Appledram in 13523 the cost of extra labour in the harvest field 

 was 38^. 'et tantum propter tenementa existentia in manu domini et propter 

 caristatem laboris,' and there was an immediate and lasting rise in the rate 



90 Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.) bdle. 1016, No. 9. The ripereve was probably the overseer of the workers 

 in the harvest-field. 



91 V.C.H. Suss, ii, Religious Houses.' 

 91 Add. Ct. R. 32656-7. 



** Mins. Accts. (Gen. Ser.) bdle. 1016, No. 10. There were fourteen cases of default of rent this 

 year, and five three years later. Ibid, and bdle. 1016, No. 1 1. 

 ** Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 442, No. 7117. 

 " East Grinstead, Willingdon, Dill, Longbridge, Flexborough, Totnore, Rushmonden, Hartfield. 



182 



