232 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



reduced to a minimum. To obtain a monetary return of 

 12 i?s. lOjdf., the actual payments in wages amounted to 

 only 2 os. iof< True, the farm servants received allowances 

 in corn of the value of 57^ 4d. ; but, on the other hand, the 

 tenants paid 45^. A^d. to be released from works which they 

 were otherwise bound to perform ; so that a corrected state- 

 ment would be that the net expenditure in labour amounted 

 to 2 I2s. lod. to obtain a return of 15 i6.r. 2\d. (the corn 

 given in wages being added to that sold). One hundred and 

 fifty-two acres were sown with corn in that year, so that the 

 net actual expenditure in wages was 4^. an acre ; and the 

 value of the demesne is shown, by deducting the amount 

 spent in wages from the gross return, to be 13 13.$-. 4}^. 

 The bulk of the labour was supplied by the tenants ; the 

 bailiff accounts for 1 1 89 days' work performed by the tenants, 

 say, as much as would be performed by four men working 

 throughout the year. 



It was in some such manner that the values of the land 

 wholly in demesne were calculated by the Domesday jurors. 



"Siward, the Hunter, holds of the King 2\ hides in Chadlington 

 (Oxon.) ; there is land for 2 teams. These he has in demesne with 

 one slave and three bordars. There are 3 acres of meadow. It was 

 and is worth ^os" 1 



Except for the few acres occupied by the bordars, the 

 whole property was cultivated as a demesne farm for the 

 benefit of Siward ; and the only way in which it would be 

 worth 40^. to him, would be that it produced corn and other 

 victuals which, after allowing for the maintenance of the slave, 

 and the wages (if any) paid to the bordars, were worth 40^. 



Now, it is obvious that the lord would not receive the 

 whole of the net produce of the land in the occupation of a 

 villan tenant. The services of a gebur were threefold week- 

 work, boon-work, and gafol and, while the first and second 

 1 D. B., I. 160 b 2. 





