80 Some Account of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh. 



up, at five to each family of tenants, and ten to the lord, a popu- 

 lation of perhaps seventy souls. 



The servi, or serfs, were little, if at all, better than slaves, towards 

 whom the lord's only obligation was to provide food. 



The villani were customary tenants, of the nature of copyholders, 

 paying rent for their lands, but also supplying the Lord with a 

 certain amount of food and labor. 



The bordarii were cottagers, whose cottages, furniture, and im- 

 plements were found by the lord, and were resumable on the tenant's 

 death, and who held a certain quantity of land of the lord, paying 

 rent in kind, in the shape of food for his table. 1 



Our community, therefore, in A.D. 1086 was made up of the 

 lord, as sole proprietor, paying a geld or quit rent to the king ; of 

 certain families absolutely slaves to the lord, and of certain other 

 families practically dependent upon him but with a leaven of freedom 

 in the villani, who held subject only to certain customary services. 



The second period of which I have any record is the twenty-second 

 Edward I. — A.D, 1294 — when I find the following detailed descrip- 



tion of the manor, viz. : — 



Jardino et Columbas, valued at 20/- 



6 Liberi tenentes [freehold] 64/4 



3 Villani, who pay per annum, 8/- 

 and whose labor, festivals 



excluded, is worth 13/- 

 7724 acres of arable land at 3 d 9.13. 1. 



36J of meadow-prati at 2/- 73/- 



384 j) of woodlands valued at 40/- 



Total 847 acres and the above items valued at £20 . 11 . 5. 



This valuation was made when Edward I. was casting about for 

 money, and when he was absorbing alien Priories, such as our own, 

 on the pretext of their paying substantial allegiance to foreign 

 houses in countries with which he was at war. 



1 Jones's Domesday, introduction, p. lxi. 



