A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



on the hills worth I mark, a pasture in ' Linche' (? the Links) worth 2s. 6d., 

 and another pasture on the hills which the shepherds held, also worth i mark 

 a year. 178 Later in the same century, in 1287, the sheriff seized 2,150 sheep 

 belonging to Earl de Warenne as a distraint. 17 * John de St. John was 

 evidently a considerable sheep-farmer, for in 1284 he impleaded Isabel 

 Mortimer for imparking 1,405 sheep in a place called ' Molecombe in 

 Havernake in Westhampton ' which he claimed as his several pasture, 175 and 

 in 12991300 the earl of Cornwall died seised of a sheep-market in 

 Chichester. It is clear, moreover, that in the fourteenth century several of 

 the tenants of Bishopstone manor were small sheep-farmers and leased 

 pasture from the lord for a term of years. 176 At a rather later date the 

 tenants of Iford and Northease had some 230 acres of sheep-down, each 

 yardland having the right to support twenty-six sheep. 177 In view of this 

 evidence it would seem probable that new inclosures for sheep were not 

 extensively made in the sixteenth century. 



At the same time it must not be supposed that the movement left the 

 county undisturbed. In the latter years of the reign of Henry VIII there 

 were armed riots in the neighbourhood of Waldron, Laughton, and Hoathly, 

 and at Lordington and elsewhere, in which inclosures were destroyed, hedges 

 burned, and animals taken out of pound. 178 About the same time the copy- 

 hold tenants of the manor of Ecclesden in West Angmering complained that 

 John Palmer, who had of late purchased the property from the king, 

 immediately after his entry, took from them their pastures and inclosed them 

 together with other lands, converting them to his own use, and turning their 

 commons into fishponds ; that he seized their houses and drove them away 

 from their holdings by force and violence, obliging them to take other lands 

 in other places, ' being worse lands and not like in value nor number of acres 

 nor the title thereof and lease, and to some of the said poor tenants he hath 

 appointed no lands nor recompense to their impoverishment and utter undoing.' 

 When some of the bolder spirits refused to leave their homes Palmer came 

 with more ' evil disposed persons, having staves and other weapons,' and beat 

 upon the doors until they came out, whereupon he riotously broke open the 

 doors of the houses, frightened some so that they lost their reason, and said 

 to others, when they expostulated, ' Do ye not know that the king's grace hath 

 put down all houses of monks, friars, and nuns, therefore now is the time 

 come that we gentlemen will pull down the houses of such poor knaves as 

 ye be?' 179 Palmer, however, succeeded in showing that the copyholders had 

 been removed to other places in Angmering by agreement, and the case was 

 dismissed. In 1 545 a complaint was made against Richard Elderton that 

 he had engrossed several farms in Preston and Patcham, and was keeping 

 more than 2,000 sheep, contrary to the form of the statute ; 180 and in the reign 

 of Elizabeth there were several suits about inclosures of waste or common 

 in Framfield, Petworth, Plumpton, and Lancing Marsh, 181 while in 1611 



m Chan. Inq. p.m. Hen. Ill, file 2, No. 7. '" Assize R. 924, m. 38 d, 



174 Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 206. "' Add. Ct. R. 31258-9 ; cf. also 31250-1-2. 



177 Sias. Arch. Coll. xxix, 123. 



178 Proc. of Ct. of Star Chamber, bdle. 24, No. 193 ; bdle. 19, Nos. 306 and 315 ; bdle. 26, No. 208. 



179 Ibid. bdle. 6, No. 1 8 1. 18 Memo. R. Mich. 37 Hen. VIII, r. 109-10. 

 181 Chan. Enrolled Decrees, 33 Eliz. pt. 74, No. I ; 37 Eliz. pt. 92, No. 14 ; 38 Eliz. pt. 90, No. II ; 



and Exch. Dep. Mich. 34 & 35 Eliz. No. 17. 



190 



