SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



the payment of the firm of the said Margaret from the term of St. Cuthbert in March, the 

 Nativity of St. John the Baptist and St. Cuthbert in September which occur this year and 

 for the satisfaction of the firm of 4 acres of wheat sown 261. 8J. Total of the allocations 

 401. And to John son of the said Richard for his third share 451. 8J. which are delivered 

 to John Bene the Reeve to keep safe until he receives another command from the Lord 

 Bishop or his steward. And to Thomas Watson executor of the will of the said Richard 

 for paying his debts, for his third share 451. Sd. 1 



If the nativus could make a will which the lord acknowledged, and if 

 the rights of the widow and son were thus clearly recognized, wherein lay the 

 disabilities of the class ? His great difficulty was that he had no legal status 

 outside the halmote, at least in respect to civil cases, until he received a charter 

 of manumission. When Thomas de Melsanby (123344) freed one of his 

 serfs he used practically the same formula as his predecessors and successors : 



Know ye that we have manumitted and quit-claimed and freed from every yoke of 

 servitude Henry le Orselin of Dalton a born neif (nativus). Wherefore we will, and : 

 having regard to charity and his servile estate, do grant that the said Henry and all his 

 offspring shall have power of departing and returning wheresoever they please as freemen. 

 So that neither we nor our successors shall have power in the future to make good any claim 

 upon them, based on their servile condition. In witness whereof etc. 



However, the ' wherefore ' or definitive clause was made more explicit when 

 the freeman's rights were unsettled. Hence we find Prior Hugo in 1265 

 introducing a slightly altered form : 



Wherefore we will and do order as far as lies in our power that the said Gamell of 

 Jarrow and all and singular of his descendants in defending themselves or in bringing suits 

 against others and in bearing witness (in giving a gage for wager of battle) and in all causes 

 and contracts named and unnamed, be received as free men for ever, wherever free men and 

 freeborn men have been able freely to obtain a place. 



These charters show us the serf fixed in his native village, unable to 

 defend himself in the law courts of the king, or to enter into any valid legal 

 contract. Perhaps in the earliest times little inconvenience was felt when all 

 or nearly all his fellow villagers were no better off, but even by 1 183 we can 

 see that village life in Durham was in a state of transition. How many of 

 the twenty-two villeins of Boldon were personally free we have no means of 

 learning, but it is probable that Robert, who held two oxgangs of 37 acres 

 was not only free but had also commuted his labour services. Some of the 

 twenty-two villeins, however, must have been serfs, as we meet with their 

 descendants in the fourteenth-century Court Rolls. In the thirteenth 

 century the serfs seem to have become dissatisfied with their lot. When 

 bailiff-farming began to die out on most manors it would be difficult to 

 prevent the serfs from leaving their native village and posing as free labourers 

 in other parts. Sometimes they fled to Hartlepool, Newcastle, or other 

 accessible towns, for by remaining there for a year and a day they secured 

 their freedom. Sometimes the prior or the bishop granted letters of manu- 

 mission, generally in return for a money payment which the charter forgets 

 to mention. And so by flight or by payment the serfs began to disappear 

 rapidly in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The surviving 

 manumissions all date between 1233 and 1318. 



The bishop and prior at last realized what was happening, and made 

 strenuous efforts to recover control over the runaways and to keep a firm hold 



1 Dur. Curs. No. 14, fols. 332, 402. 

 207 



