i 5 4 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



sowed with their own seed 125 acres, and paid dues amounting 

 to 12 4s. S^d 1 



But as for the bordars, so for the villans, there is no 

 evidence in Domesday Book to show that they had lost their 

 status as freemen, or their wergild of 200.?. The Leges 

 Henrici I. expressly state that the wergild of the villan and 

 of the sokeman was 2Oos. They were still suitors of the 

 hundredmoot, and were capable of giving evidence, as is 

 shown by the record of the lawsuit between Hugh de Forth 

 and Picot concerning Charford (Hants). 2 We may go further, 

 and say that there is positive evidence that the villan of 1086 

 was a freeman. To the manor of South Perrot (Somerset) 

 every freeman in the manor of Crewkerne rendered one bloom 

 of iron ; 3 but at Crewkerne there was no one but villans, 

 bordars, coliberts, and slaves. 4 Again, although in later years 

 the boast of the men of Kent was that they were all freemen, 

 yet, in 1086, 54 per cent, of the population were classed as 

 villans. 



But, however free he might be in the eyes of the law, 

 economically he was annexed to the soil, if, like the pre- 

 Conquest gebur, all his outfit reverted to his lord on his leaving 

 his holding. 



In Hampshire and some other counties the Commis- 

 sioners mention a class of " coliberti," and explain that, as an 

 alternative, they may be called " burs." Thus at Cosham there 

 were, T. R. E., " 8 burs id est Coliberti ; " 5 and Professor 

 Maitland argues from this record, and the explanation thus 

 given, that this small class of coliberti represents the geburs. 

 On the other hand, Professor Vinogradoff considers that the 

 coliberts represent slaves who were enfranchised in a body, 

 and started in life as geburs by the provision of oxen by their 

 lord. 6 And it is remarkable that on eight of the royal manors 

 in Wiltshire they are coupled with the slaves, while in three 



1 D. B., 180 a I. 2 Id., 44 b 2. 3 Id., I. 86 a 2. 



4 Id., I. 86 b 2. 6 Id., I. 38 a I. 6 G. M., 385. 



