‘Every tenant of the three vills aforesaid (Alderton, Debden, and
Loughton) shall come with his team to the boon-ploughing twice in winter.
Every tenant of five acres shall come and harrow twice in Lent, if he has
horses, and shall have his food. Every tenant of 10 acres, whether he
has horses or not, shall come in like manner. So all shall come to mow,
to lift hay, to weed, and to gather nuts. If, owing to bad weather, they
have to give up work, they shall return on the morrow to finish. If any
man’s daughter is seduced while in his house, her father shall pay a fine
to the lord. No one may marry his daughter without the lord’s licence.
No one may sell horse or ox, except such as he himself has bought,
without showing it to the bailiff. No one may sell a tree. The lord may
appoint anyone to be his reeve, and can take tallage (tax) at his will.
Everyone belonging to Luketune or Tipeden shall bind the oats he reaps
without having food found him; they of Alwartune shall bind only those
which they reap at the great boon-day; and every brewer of that vill owes
an offering of beer from each brewing. William de Broc and Kathale, who
are from Alwartune, owe carrying service, and it should be known that the
men of each vill engaged in harrowing, are to have in the field a handful
of oats; but if they carry it away they are liable to punishment.’ Just
imagine what it must have been for the steward who had to exact, and the
tenant who had to remember to render these services. Others there were
whose services were still more complicated; and if their days were spent
in working, their nights must have been passed, one would think, in a
sleepless endeavour to remember where and how the next day was to be
employed. Certain days, called boon-days, were supposed to be given to
the lord at his request, and not under compulsion—and these again were
divided into ‘dry’ and ‘beery,’ according to whether beer was provided or
not. Acorn-gathering, weeding, harrowing, hay-carrying, and a host of
other employments are specified. One tenant in Debden paid thirty feet
of candle by way of rent—at least such appears to be the meaning of the
mediæval Latin in which the service is mentioned.
Certain provisions relating to timber and carriage lived on. I have in
my possession a licence, dated November 6, 1851, to cut down 20 pollards
to use on the premises, and five ash trees to be sold, one-third of the
proceeds to be paid to the lord ‘according to the custom of the manor,’
with a receipt for 19s. 4d. in the margin. And the tenant of Alderton,
in 1832, still undertook to do two days’ carting yearly with a good team.