A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



but what it brought with it was an attempt on the part of the lord to over- 

 burden or inclose the common pasture. The demesne was not increased by 

 the empty tenements either in arable meadow or pasture. At Walkern there 

 was a difference of 7 acres between the extent of arable in 13 13 and 1379," 

 and this may well be accounted for by lack of accuracy in surveying. The 

 340 acres of the arable in the great demesne of Hifchin was unchanged 

 between 1290 and 1361." The Court Rolls make it very clear that lords 

 were not anxious to farm as capitalists. 



Prices must have risen for a year or two after the Plague. At Pre 

 in 1350 the quarter of wheat ranged from 6s. %d. to loj." Later the 

 average price was lower than the 4J. to 8j. range, but the change is slight. 

 It is true that Lent corn was 12s. at Mecsdcn in 1356," but in other parts 

 of the county the price in that year was only 5J-. to 6s. At Ashwell a little 

 earlier it was 6s. 8d'." 



Barley remained unchanged; 3J-. %d. and 3J-. was the price of a quarter, 

 against 3J. 4^. and 41. in the earlier period. Dragc appears to have been 

 rather higher ; 5/. and 6s. arc quoted. 



Oat^;, dear in 1350, seem to have dropped below the old level, which 

 varied from 2s. 8t/. to 3J-. 4^. At Ashwell in 1352 the quarter was \s. to 

 4J. 6d.^^ Four years later it was zs. at Kelshall, Little Hadham and 

 Bishop's Hatfield and id. dearer at Meesden.*" 



Peas were 6s. Sd. at Ashwell in 1352," 6s. in August and 2s. in Lent at 

 Meesden in 1356," 2s. 6d. at Kelshall and 4J-. at Little Hadham.*' The 

 former price had been about zs. \od. to 3/. 



Many rumours, carried perhaps by some wandering priest or prosperous 

 clothmaker from London or the Kentish shore, must have reached Hertford- 

 shire in the early part of June 1381. On Corpus Christi Day, Thursday, 

 13 June, the insurgent villeins of Kent and Essex, being encamped on Black- 

 heath, marched down into London under John Ball, Jack Straw and Wat 

 Tyler." They fired the Savoy and surrounded the Tower, where the king 

 was." On this day they sent messengers to St. Albans, who arrived in the 

 evening. During the celebration of matins on Friday morning the townsmen 

 went to the abbey to speak with the abbot. Men had come in great haste 

 from Barnet, who said that the commons ordered the best armed men of 

 ' the communes ' of Barnet and St. Albans to hurry to London,''^ adding that 

 in the event of refusal the Londoners would come 20,000 strong and burn 

 the town." On this the abbot commanded his villeins to go to London at 

 once, dispatching them with a band of his own men-at-arms. 



The men of St. Albans went straight to the rebels' head-quarters in Bow 

 Church and began to treat for their enfranchisement.'' It was proposed that 

 new bounds should be fixed round St. Albans, within which the townsmen 

 could pasture their beasts freely ; burgesses should have free fishery in certain 



^•* Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Edw. II, no. 38 ; 2 Ric. II, no. 34. 



** Ibid. 35 Edw. Ill, pt. i, no. 3 ; Exch. Proc. 144, no. 33 (Herts. 18 Edw. I). 



56 Mins. Accts. bdle. 867, no. 23. " Ibid. no. 8. *' Ibid. bdle. 862, no. 6. 



'' Ibid. «« Harl. MS. 6165, fol. 230-2 ; Mins. Accts. bdle. 867, no. 8. 



" Mins. Accts. bdle. 862, no. 6. ^- Ibid. bdle. 867, no. 8. " Harl. MS. 6165, fol. 230-2. 



" Froissart, Chron. (ed. Marzials), I I 7. 65 jj,|j 



66 W'alsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 454-5 ; Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Ser.), iii, 289-90. 



6'' Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum, iii, 296. 68 Walsingham, Hist. Angl. i, 467. 



198 



