210 TIM': DOMKSDAY INOMKST 



r. limn received slightly less than 41 bushels of barley ea< li, 

 and in 1288 the ploughmen and shepherds of Stoughton 

 (Sussex) received 41 J bushels of barley each. The anony- 

 mous writer on Husbandry states Hi.it in his day (/<////>. 

 Henry III.) the average annual allowance to a farm labourer 

 was I quarter of corn every twelve weeks, i.e. about 36 bushels 

 a year, while the dairyman received I quarter in fourteen 

 weeks because of the advantage he received from the mill..' 

 In 12 1 1 arrangements were made for the endowment of a 



piiesl at iVtrrshaii), by which he was to receive ;$ quarters of 

 wliral ami one each of barley and oats every year." So that it 



would appear that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 

 40 bushels of grain or thereabouts were considered ample to 

 support a man and his family ; but out of this allowance 



the labourer had to provide himself with both bread and 

 beer. 



We have seen that Domesday Book enables us to draw 

 a rough-and-ready distinction between the richer and the 

 poorer classes. The tenants-in-chief and the mcsne tenants 

 may be fairly considered to have represented the richer 

 classes in comparison with those whom we have styled the 



humbler folk. Sir Henry Kllis considers thai there were 



about 1400 tenants-in-chief, and 7871 mesne tenants ; these 

 would be the rich, and the remainder of the recorded men- 

 some 260,000 families in round numbers would represent 

 the poorer classes south of Cheshire and Yorkshire. But it 

 must be remembered that some of the tenants-in-chief were 



poor, and held very small areas of land. 



If, then, we leave the richer classes out of consideration, 

 and allow to each recorded member of the humbler classes 

 40 bushels of corn a year, \ve mn-.t allow him the produn <>i 



n> acres of land each producing ,j bushels net a year. I'Yom 



the land he tilled, every tenant had to pay tithe to the 



priest, and certain dues to his lord and the Kin^, which 



1 \\.ilhi .,| llrnlry, |. 75. CutlH, 7 '<!//.// /'//,V, II ',. 



