180 PREFACE 



doth not Common but is excluded by composition, some say this is 

 for his life onely. The Fenns of Cottenham be at least 4 miles 

 long Est and West, and about a mile di. broad or more one place 

 with an other, and have the River of Owse all the way on the North. 

 They be all imbancked and provision made to convey there water 

 away, more then any Fenne towne theraboute, yet be the banckes in 

 many places defective, in so much as Charefen lyeth [waste] and 

 long drowned and overfloweth into Chitteringes. Note that in 

 Awbrose Fenne, ther is a pece of high ground about 200 acres, it 

 hath a pece adioyning to it called Cuttes lying betwene yt and 

 Topham more. Memorandum, a pece of an 100 acres of Common 

 for which the Towne gave S r William Hynde 200//. Item the 

 Calves pasture there aboute 20 acres nere to the Cote in Stretham 

 called the white house, there is a were called poole were 16 foote 

 deepe etc., and below the same within a stones cast there is a 

 grave[l] layd by Stretham men to cart ther foder l out of willow 

 fenne, where the water commeth not above 2 foot deepe, a great 

 cause of drowning those Fenns. 



Some sixty years later the dispute broke out again ; Sir William 

 Hinde had disposed of his rights at Cottenham to Hobson, the 

 Cambridge carrier ; he died in 1630, and the representatives of this 

 family endeavoured to set the award of 1596 aside. Katharine, 

 the widow of Thomas Hobson (the carrier's grandson) and her son, 

 denied that the commoners in Cottenham had any right of common 

 whatsoever within the marshes, fens or waste grounds of Cottenham. 

 As a result of the litigation which ensued, a decree was issued 

 from Chancery in 1669 confirming once more the award which 

 had been made by Lord North, and establishing the position 

 which had been maintained by the owners of common right. 



Beside the conflict with the manorial lords there were other 

 legal proceedings which throw additional light on the economic 

 and social conditions of Cottenham. The Rectory was a valuable 

 piece of preferment, especially after Lord North's award had 

 come into effect ; and the claims of the clergy in regard to tithes, 

 especially in regard to small tithes, were frequently resisted. A 

 certain Walter Male had subtracted tithes of apples and of hay in 



1 Compare Sir Clement Edmunds, Report on Badeslade. op. cit. p. 30. 



