You will ask me, perhaps, where and how all these people lived. It is
probable that there were clusters of rude hovels round Debden Green,
Loughton Hall, and Alderton Hall, and that the tillers of the soil dwelt
there. Some few copyholders, if such they can be called, may have lived
on their own small estates away from the villages. But the strip system
of cultivation probably prevailed, though the traces of it in later times
are very slight.
Before passing on, I must just mention that, by some curious accident,
one or two Court-rolls of very early date have been preserved. 13th
century rolls of that sort are rare—and this is dated 1270. The entries
are brief and mainly concerned with land; but they tell us that one man
insulted the official in the court; that another thievishly took of the
lord’s corn in the lord’s barn; and that Walter Linge stole sheep all
over the country and was seen at the lord’s fold; ‘and when the shepherds
would take him, he fled from them.’