10 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arls^ and Letters. 



together. The status and the tenures had now reached their 

 fully developed form. Bat in the earlier rent-rolls we find these 

 classes clearly distinguiseJ. Thus the Abingdon Cartulary/ 

 after enumerating the free-holders and customary tenants of the 

 manor, adds (manor of Boxole) : in eodeni hamel sunt xv cotseiV 

 ad ojjus, etc. ; and then goes on : Hi extracti sunt a dominio, giving 

 the names of twenty -six petty tenants. A few years later (1222) 

 is the Domesday of St. Paul's, edited with learning and judgment 

 by Archdeacon Hale. This contains the rent-rolls of twenty-two 

 manors ; and in nearly every case the roll begins with Isti tenent' 

 de dominico, to which follows a list of petty holdings upon the 

 demesne; then come the free holders and other tenants. Cotarii, 

 when there are any, are put after the freeholders and customary 

 tenants, that is, upon the tenement lands. I cannot find any 

 direct evidence to support the view, in itself shown to be prob- 

 able, that these tenants in the demesne were the descendants of 

 slaves. It is noticeable, however, that the handicraftsmen are 

 generally found here ;" and upon the continent it is an established 

 fact that the handicraftsmen were of unfree origin ; whether it 

 was so as a rule in England or not, I cannot say. 



The same document enables us to maka a comparison between 

 the tenants of the same manor at two different periods which, so 

 far as it goes, confirms the view here taken. It must be ob- 

 served that the period between Domesday Book (1086) and the 

 Domesday of St. Paul's (1222) was full of convulsions, social as 

 well as political. Daring this time the class of free holders came 

 into existence, and the class of slaves went out of existence. It is 

 difficult, therefore, to trace any clear connection between the 

 classes of the peasantry in the two documents. The following 

 will serve as examples. The manor of Sandun in Middlesex had, 

 according to Domesday Book,' 2-1 villari^ 12 hordarii, 16 cotanii, and 



'Vol.11, p. 301. 



2 Thus, in Ihe manor of Beaucbamp, p. 33, I ^nd te.vto?- {tailor), pell ipan'iis 

 (tanner) faber (smith) caipentarius (carpenter) and picior (painter). So in the 

 manor of Boxole, given above, there were a tanner and a miller upon the 

 demesne. 



3Vol. i. f. 13G. 



