PREFACE 177 



between manorial lords and the tenants, and among the latter 

 there were some substantial men who were not alarmed at: the 

 cost of legal proceedings. Taverner writing in 1653 remarks 

 of Haddenham that " many of the inhabitants had competent 

 estates, who wanting a full imployment in tillage, they of ancient 

 custom make it a part of their recreation to discourse of law 

 cases. " l The frequency of such legal proceedings in this district 

 has been the occasion for putting on record a mass of details 

 that would otherwise have been likely to pass out of mind al- 

 together. When a difference of opinion arose between the lord 

 and the tenants the usual course appears to have been to submit 

 the matter to arbitration, and then to obtain a decree in Chancery 

 which might make the award binding on the successors of those 

 who signed the agreement ; or the difficulties might be settled by a 

 commission from the Court of Exchequer. Every decision which 

 enabled either the lord or any of the tenants to hold more land in 

 severalty was a permanent step in the progress of enclosure ; 

 but this was not the only matter in dispute, as difficulties arose 

 about the levying of tithe, and gave occasion to acrimonious litigation. 

 Very full information has been preserved in regard to affairs at 

 Cottenham, and it is possible to trace the course of the successive 

 disputes which arose ; the story goes back to the Tudor period 

 when sheep farming was the most profitable use to which pasturage 

 could be put. Sir Francis Hinde of Madingley, the lord of the 

 manors of Lyles and Crowland and of the moiety of the manor 

 of Sames in Cottenham, came to an agreement with the u greatest 

 number of welthiest and substancyalist inhabitants and tenants 

 of Cottenham in the behalfe of themselves and of all the rest 

 of the inhabitants of the said town," at Easter 1580; he and 

 his tenants were to enjoy sheep-walk for 2000 sheep in severalty, 



1 They failed in their attempt to establish common rights over the Delfs and 

 Ouse-delfs, an area of about 800 acres which had been kept as severalty and let 

 for grazing by the Bishop of Ely from the time of Edward III. F. Taverner. 

 A Vindication of the Jurie who upon the twelfth day of May 1653 gave their verdict 

 in the Upper Bench at Westminster against the inhabitants o/Hadenham, pp. 18-22. 



