P.S.--Although I have given several entries of the customary payments to
Saham, they are merely given to show the different modes of making those
entries, and not in expectation of your giving all of them, unless you
think any further light can be given on the subject. As before, perhaps the
court books of the manor of Saham would assist.
It was an annual custom for Shipdham people to "Drive the common" (as it
was called) once a year, in a night of an uncertain time, when all the
cattle, &c. found within the limits or boundary of Shipdham were impounded
in a farm-yard adjoining. Upon the common, all those belonging to owners
residing in Shipdham and claimed were set at liberty, while those belonging
to Saham had to be replevied by a small payment, which custom continued up
to the period of the commons being inclosed. Perhaps this custom was by way
of retaliation, by which means the charge of payment of oats and a hen was
recovered by the money paid for replevying their cattle, &c. so impounded.
[Footnote 3: No payment entered in the accounts between 1527 and 1539. The
average tenpence annually.]
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