A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



over the rest. When a serf was freed he received a chirograph or half of a 

 piece of parchment torn down the centre in a jagged line. If it did not 

 correspond with the copy in the lord's possession the serf could only vindicate 

 his freedom by appealing to a jury generally of twelve men drawn from 

 the neighbourhood, who were probably serfs themselves. 1 At first the jurors 

 seldom had any difficulty in agreeing upon their verdict. An early and 

 probably thirteenth-century interpolation in Boldon Book tells us how 

 John son of Eustace and Alexander his brother, of West Auckland, were 

 arraigned as serfs but were acquitted by a jury. From entries on the 

 Court Rolls we know that the jury ' said upon their oaths that they were 

 free and of free condition.' ! However, sometimes the jury, perhaps 

 against their will, could not give a verdict for the serf. Then they ' say 

 upon their oaths that John son of Adam is a serf of the lord, and both he 

 and his ancestors were held for such from all time as they have heard from 

 their ancestors.' 8 



In the interval between the accusation and the trial the serf was allowed 

 to go free if he could find a surety * that he would not attempt to escape. If 

 the decision was given against him he had the right, at least in the fourteenth 

 century, of appealing to a second jury drawn probably from a wider area. 6 

 The cost of the appeal was 6s. 8</. and seems to have made the practice 

 uncommon. When all these devices failed the serf had to find pledges that 

 he would do fealty to the prior's or bishop's representative at a given date. 

 He swore upon the Holy Gospels that he would submit himself (justiciabilis 

 erif) to the lord bishop (or lord prior and convent) and his servants both 

 with his body and with his goods, movable and immovable, and with his 

 offspring procreated, or to be procreated, and that he would not take himself 

 from his lord's land. 8 



The serf had then three possible courses to him. He might accept the 

 verdict and make the best of his position, but after the Black Death that position 

 generally drove the more hardy to renewed flight, regardless of what might 

 happen to their sureties. 7 Others, who lacked courage for flight but did not 

 wish to remain in the vill, adopted the third course, they purchased permission 

 to absent themselves by agreeing to pay to the lord a small annual tax called 

 ' Albanaria.' The actual sum paid varied from 2s. upwards, 8 but the con- 

 ditions were, at least on paper, very stringent. In the case of one of the 

 prior's serfs he had to take an oath that he would come yearly in person to 

 Durham at Pentecost and Martinmas to pay his albanaria until the lord should 

 think fit to make some other arrangement or he could prove he ought to be 

 freed. 9 In the bundle of manumissions already referred to is an interesting 

 specimen by Prior Bertram (1244-58). It is the earliest surviving example 



1 Most of the jurors whose names appear on the Dur. Halmote R. (Surtees Soc. Ixxxii.), 137, are known, 

 to have been serfs. 



1 Dur. Halmote R. (Surtees Soc. Ixxxii.), 126. 



' Cf. ibid. 161 with MS. Rolls of 1379 ("0 and MS - Prior's Halmote Book, i, 18. 



4 Dur. Curs. No. 12, fol. 123. * Ibid. fol. 229 d. 



6 Cf. ibid. ; Dur. Halmote R. (Surtees Soc. Ixxxii), 123, 129, 137. 



' The sureties would of course be responsible for the debts of the fugitive, and after the Black Death 

 they were also made responsible for working the vacant holding until they brought back the fugitive ; see 

 Dur. Curs. No. iz, fol. 45. 



8 In one case, however, the serf only paid 6J. a year ; perhaps because his licence entitled him to be 

 absent no longer than six years and he had to find a pledge ; see Dur. Curs. No. 12, fol. 241. 



9 Dur. Halmote R. (Surtees Soc. Ixxxii), 137. 



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