A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



appear that the townsmen were not very demonstratively grateful, for the 

 chronicler adds : ' Sed nota quod alibi scribitur ' : — 



Pessimus est hostis, qui cum benefeceris illi 

 Fortius insurgit,' &c. 



In July 1 38 1, justices were appointed to investigate the complaint of 

 William Croiser that the insurgents had plundered and despoiled his manors 

 in Bedfordshire ; ^^^ but this seems to be the only recorded instance of local 

 trouble except that at Dunstable. 



The poll-tax, which was made the occasion of Wat Tyler's insurrection, 

 affords us the only official data for arriving at a rough estimate of the popu- 

 lation of the county during the 14th century. Allowance has to be made 

 for the effects of the several plagues from which the population had not had 

 time to recover, and also for the fact that the numbers entered on these rolls 

 are very unreliable. In 1377, the number charged to a poll-tax was 20,239, 

 to which are to be added the clergy, children and paupers.*"* 



The Peasants' Rising was an incident rather than an important factor 

 in the progress of the peasantry towards liberty. That progress, which may 

 be said to have received its first impetus from the economic conditions fol- 

 lowing the Black Death, continued steadily if slowly. Money payments 

 more and more replace renders of work, and more and more of the demesne 

 lands are leased to the villeins. An example of the gradual process of com- 

 mutation of labour services may be obtained by analysing the constitution of 

 the thirty-six virgates of villein land in Shillington in three different 

 years : — 



By 1406 no services appear to have been exacted at Shillington, and the 

 demesnes, even including the garden and manorial buildings, had been recently 

 let to the tenants.*" At Cranfield all mention of works had disappeared 

 as early as 1386,*"' and at Sutton all works were commuted by 1394.'"** 

 Tenure ' by copy of court roll ' was replacing the old bond tenures. Copy- 

 hold appears to have been introduced at Shillington early in the 1 5th 

 century,*"' and is mentioned at Northill in 1460."" At the same time 

 it must be remembered that the customs of adjacent manors might differ 

 very widely, some being far more advanced than others. The works 

 which appear to have lingered longest were the boon works ; at Souldrop 

 there were tenants who held as late as 1530 by rendering ' bederyp and 

 lovebone,' or ' two ploughings,' *" while at Northill the shadow of these 

 services outlived their substance in payments of 4^. in lieu of ' a Bedreth ' as 

 late as 1 602."" Still more remarkable is the fact that the unfree status was 

 recognized down to the middle of Elizabeth's reign. In 1575, and again 



'" Ca/. Pat. 1381-S, p. 76. '" Lysons, Magna Britannia, i, 7. 



'" Mins. Accts. bdle. 741, no. 21. '" Ibid. no. 22. "' Ibid. no. 23. 



"° The reeve was ' ad censum ' this year. 



'" Ibid. no. 25. "» Ibid. bdle. 740, no. 19. 



"*' Ibid. bdle. 2, no. 4. "' Exch. Spec. Com. 341, 342. 



"° Ct. R. bdle. IS3, no. 38. "' Ibid. no. 31. '" Ibid. no. 38. 



90 



