A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



iij hides I J were in demesne, and 2 hides were held by three persons freely, 

 doing only the royal service and suit at the county and hundred courts. The 

 remaining land was held at will, the reeve having 2 virgates at 6s. rent, and 

 one Richard 2 virgates at 30^. ; the holders of the other virgates either paid 

 2s. or else ploughed on Fridays, and did such work as was required on 

 Mondays and Wednesdays. There were also 1 1 ' cotsetles,' or cottars, who 

 ' either worked on Mondays or paid 2J. rent. At Shillington there were four 

 tenants 'freely enfeoffed." Ebroinus had 2 J hides for which he did suit at 

 the county and hundred courts and the abbot's pleas, i virgate for which he 

 paid 2J. rent, and 60 acres of assart apparently rendering no service. Silvester 

 held 2 hides by similar suit of court, and 60 acres for los. ; John Hairum 

 half a hide, for 5J-. and' attendance at the abbot's pleas ; and the church was 

 endowed with 5 virgates, for which the rector had to be ' the fourth man 

 before the justices.' " So also at Cranfield the priest had to attend the county 

 and hundred courts with three other free tenants. An example of free land 

 entailing services somewhat of the nature of a serjeanty occurs at Cranfield, 

 where Ralph the steward held half a hide of the demesne assarts freely by 

 service of attending the abbot's pleas throughout all Bedfordshire." 



Intermediate between the tenements held freely ' by knight's service,' as 

 they are called at a later date, and the villeinage come the lands held at a 

 rent [ad censum). Of these there were at Shillington 30 virgates, each pay- 

 ing 22d., and 5 virgates, each paying i^d. These tenements appear to have 

 been recruited from two sources ; assarts, that is to say woodland which 

 has been cleared and reduced to cultivation, ' which never owed work,' ^* 

 and work lands which had been freed from their services. Of the latter 

 class we find i virgate and 3 cotlands at Cranfield,'" while at Shillington 

 Walter, brother of the prior of St. Ives, had recently acquired for a rent of 

 loj. 2i virgates and 3 crofts, all of which had formerly owed work, besides an 

 assart, a croft and his dwelling house." These rent-paying tenants [censuarit) 

 appear from later evidence to have been sometimes free and sometimes villein. 

 Instances of both occur at Sharnbrook in 1185, William son of Alchetil 

 holding 3 virgates for 6s. and no other service, while Robert son of Turkill 

 and ten other men in addition to their rents had to work on all the ' boon 

 days,' to carry hay and to plough thrice in the year with the same teams 

 they used for their own ploughing, and also to make a ' present ' of hens at 

 Christmas.'" 



When we turn to the servile tenures, the work lands, we find a system 

 simple in outline, but enormously complicated in detail. Originally the 

 villein was a mere slave, bound to do exactly what his master ordered ; and 

 such he remained in theory, except upon the manors of ancient demesne. 

 But it was in theory only, and while the law of the land allowed the lord to 

 extort an indefinite amount of service from his villein and oppress him in 

 any way short of bodily injury, the law of custom at a very early date 

 insisted upon the villein's duties being defined within certain limits, which 

 tended to become more exact and particularized as time went on. The 

 earliest recorded customs for Bedfordshire appear to be those on the abbot of 



^'Ramsey Chartul. (Rolls. Ser.), iii, 

 " Ibid. 302. 

 " Ibid. 308, 



307. 



78 



" Ibid. 301. 

 " Ibid. 303. 

 " Exch. T.R. Misc. Bk. 16. 



'* Ibid. 



