A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



of the manor-house or the park received at the rate of i \d. a day." Carters 

 seem to have received from 4J. to bs. a year, plus food and lodging, or 

 2 5 J. bd. a year, at the rate of 6d. a week, \d. for each working day, without 

 shelter or rations. In the De Lacy Compotus three carters are entered as costing 

 £1 i6s. 6d. for a year's allowance, and their wages, including keep, were 

 \js. Sd. for all three.^"* In another part of the same roll two carters' wages 

 are entered as 8/., probably meaning at the rate of 41. each for the year, 

 including keep and lodging. Again, in another part the food and wages of a 

 wagoner leading carts and carrying hay and fencing are entered at 

 £1 5J. 5^^.,"* all which entries go to prove that the average pay of a carter 

 was at the rate of id. a day during a week of six working days. 



Similarly the wages of two men keeping the marches of the forest was 

 at the same rate of ^^i 6s. each for the year."' Shepherds and ploughmen, 

 an inferior class of labourers, received the lowest pay ; the average rate was 

 2ld. per week, or just a trifle over a halfpenny {^d.) a day in a week of six 

 days."' But now and again a higher wage was given, as in the demesne 

 manor of Woolton, where two ploughmen and one shepherd each received at 

 the rate of ^d. a week, and a shepherd boy was paid 2ld. a week."* 



Some miners are mentioned on the De Lacy estate (where precisely is 

 not stated, though it is under the heading of Clitheroe), but they worked on 

 their own account, and the lord's overseer was paid at the rate of is. a 

 week."^ 



Next we come to the rented price of land in Lancashire. Land was 

 plentiful in the Middle Ages,"' and, allowing for the difference between the 

 value of the penny then and now, could be had for the almost nominal rent of 

 ^d. an acre for arable and Sd. an acre for meadow land."^ It was usually 

 rented out in oxgangs of varying size, from 4 to 24 customary acres each."' 



For the convenience of quite small holders the oxgang was itself divided 

 into twelve ridges,^*^ which might be rented at 2d. each ; this, at the calcu- 

 lation of 6 acres to the oxgang, gives a rent of ^d. per acre. 



But although from /\J. to id. was the general average per acre, rents 

 varied very strangely in different places. Obviously land near a town was 

 more valuable than land at a distance from a market. Thus at Worston, 

 near Clitheroe in Blackburnshire, land was let to tenants at will at the stiff 

 price of 6d. an acre,"" though the bondmen in the same place "* paid only 2s, 



" ' For one servant keeping the manor for the said time, taking i J</. by the day ' ; L. T. R. Misc. Enr. 

 Accts. Wapentake of Salford, 14, m. 76 a'. (second skin) (manor of Hope). See also ibid, manor of Hale, 

 ' wages I \d. a day to Park-keeper, for food and wages— collecting rents and keeping the Park there.' 



'"> De Lacy Compotus (Chet. Soc. cxii), 1 70. '" Ibid. 118. 



"" Ibid. The receiver of Clitheroe renders his account at Ightenhill. 



"^ Cf. L.T.R. Misc. Enr. Accts. Wapentake of Salford, m. 76 d. (second skin) (manor of Hope). ' In 

 delivery to 3 ploughmen going with the plough . . . each by the week, 3f</.' 



"" L.T.R. Misc. Enr. Accts. John de Lancaster ; for manor of Woolton. Also ibid, manor of Hale ; 

 ' 5;. to four ploughmen for 24 days.' 



"* De Lacy Compotus, 116, 186. 



"* C£ T. Rogen, jigric. and Prices, i, 62 ; ' it (land) was the cheapest commodity of the Middle Ages.' 



'"' Cf. Inq. p.m. Hen. de Lacy, E. of Line. 4 Edw. II, No. 51, 131 1, Standen and Pendleton, &c. 

 The customary acre of 7 yds. to the perch must be understood. 



"* Very generally 6 customary acres might be reckoned for the oxgang, the rent being from 2/. to 3/. an 

 oxgang. 



"» Cf. at West Derby. 



"" Inq. p.m. 4 Edw. II, 1311, No. 51. Five acres of meadow in the same place fetched \zd. per acre. 

 Cf. also at Downham, where 10 acres of meadow were let for 20/. (ibid.). "' Ibid. 



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