A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



worth, among thirty-seven copyholders, only five inclosures of arable are 

 mentioned. 



The thirty-eighth copyhold is the pseudo ' manor ' of Hampton Hall. 

 This estate had no resemblance to a manor save that its lands were all 

 inclosed. These inclosures were held under copies dating from 1536 



to 1553- 



With the inclosure of the strips went a certain amount of inclosure of 

 the waste for arable, and hence an increase in the corn-land of the county. 

 Taking the waste as a whole, presumably the inclosures of arable were 

 progressing among the copyholds as well as on the demesne. 



So eager was the Hertfordshire farmer for corn-land that even in the 

 15th century land was ploughed up for arable, and land-grabbing was 

 common. In this direction it is that the influence of the wars was felt in 

 the shire. They gave an opportunity to such men as Sir Robert 

 Whittingham of Pendley in Tring. In 1448 he had ploughed half an acre of 

 land in the tenure of Richard Gomme, one acre in the tenure of H. Russel 

 and one acre in the tenure of Richard Clement, and had also ploughed up a 

 common way.'* Such methods, no doubt, saved Sir Robert Whittingham 

 much trouble in rounding off his estate. This conversion on a small scale 

 went on. Common lands were ploughed up''; tenants inclosed half-acres 

 and three or four roods.'" 



In 1 59 1 the homage of Astwick ordered that R. Apryce should lay 

 open and cast down a hedge and ditch upon a common cartway, and reported 

 that Apryce had hedged in a garden and hemp-land," The Sawbridgeworth 

 saffron grounds were used for grain,'" so that the saffron trade perished. 

 In 1598 the queen gave licence to a tenant of Watford to convert part of 

 Oxhey Park into tillage.'' 



Pasture was more difficult to handle than arable, just because the rights 

 over it were common and indefinite. Some pasture-land was of course 

 inclosed from of old — for example, such old parks as Berkhampstead. But in 

 other old parks like that at Bishop's Hatfield commoners had rights. Some 

 manors show a considerable increase in their pasture-land. At Little 

 Wymondley the pasture had increased from 60 acres in 1424 to 100 

 acres in 1460.*° But this was a large amount for Hertfordshire, There was 

 not a large amount of natural pasture, except in the woodlands on the west. 

 The thinness of the population and the small size of holdings had 

 prevented a difficulty until the latter part of the 15th century. Before 1471 

 Sir Robert Whittingham had depopulated the hamlet of Pendley in Tring. 

 It had been a place maintaining thirteen ploughs and many craftsmen. But 

 Sir Robert cast down the houses, laid the land to pasture and built himself a 

 great house where the town once stood." Having thus driven off the people, 

 he would of course hold the pasture in severalty. The treatment of the 

 pasture was negotiated between lords and tenants. In 1427-8 the Abbot of 

 St. Albans persuaded the tenants of Tyttenhanger who held the manorial 



^ Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), portf. 176, no. 121. '^ Sess. R. (Herts. Co. Rec.), i, 20-5. 



36 Ibid. 7. " Add. MS. 33575, fol. 13. 



'* Doc. of D. and C. of Westminster, 4, shelf i , Sawbridgeworth, parcel ii. 



33 C.:/. S. P. D:m. 1598-1601, p. 70. 



■iO Chan. Inq. p.m. 2 Hen. VI, no. 27 ; 38 & 39 Hen. VI, no. 42. 



*>■ Ct. R. (Gen. Ser.), portf. 176, no. 120. See F.C.H. Herts, ii, 285. 



214 



