autem eorum etiam socam suam cum terra vendere poterat.' Comp.
D. B. ii. 230: 'Huic manerio iacent 5 liberi homines ad socam
tantum commend[ati] et 2 de omni consuetudine.'--Ibid. ii. 59:
'In Cingeham tenuit Sauinus presbyter 15 acras ... in eadem
villa tenuit Etsinus 15 acras.... Isti supradicti fuerunt
liberi ita quod ipsi possent vendere terram cum soca et saca
ut hundretus testatur.'--Ibid. ii. 40 b: 'et iste fuit ita
liber quod posset ire quo vellet cum soca et sacha set tantum
fuit homo Wisgari.'
[403] Leg. Henr. 81 § 3: 'Quidam, villani qui sunt, eiusmodi
leierwitam et blodwitam et huiusmodi minora forisfacta emerunt
a dominis suis, vel quomodo meruerunt, de suis et in suos,
quorum flet-gefoth vel overseunessa est 30 den.; cothseti 15
den.; servi 6 (_al._ 5) den.' The _flet-gefoth_ seems to be
the sum due for fighting in a man's _flet_ or house.
[404] Munimenta Gildhallae, i. 66.
[405] Hist. Eng. Law, i. 580-2.
[406] D. B. ii. 424: 'Et dicunt etiam quod istam terram R[anulfus]
calumpniavit supra Radulfum, et vicecomes Rogerius denominavit
illis constitutum tempus m[odo] ut ambo adfuissent; Ranulfo
adveniente defuit Radulfus et iccirco diiudicaverunt homines
hundreti Rannulfum esse saisitum.'--Ibid. i. 165 b: 'Modo
iacet in Bernitone hundredo iudicio hominum eiusdem
hundredi.'--Ibid. i. 58 b: 'unde iudicium non dixerunt, sed
ante Regem ut iudicet dimiserunt.'--Ibid. 182 b: 'In isto
hundredo ad placita conveniunt qui ibi manent ut rectum
faciant et accipiant.'
[407] Above, p. 95.
[408] D. B. ii. 186: 'In Sterestuna tenuit 1 liber homo S. Aldrede
T. R. E. et Stigandi erat soca et saco in Hersam, set nec dare
nec vendere poterat terram suam sine licentia S. Aldrede et
Stigandi.'
[409] D. B. ii. 376.
[410] D. B. ii. 401 b: 'Eodem tempore fuerunt furati equi inventi in
domo istius Brungari, ita quod Abbas cuius fuit soca et saca
et Rodbertus qui habuit commendationem super istum venerunt de
hoc furto ad placitum, et sicut hundret testatur discesserunt
amicabiliter sine iudicio quod vidissed (_sic_) hundret.'
[411] E.g. D. B. ii. 35 b: 'quas tenuerunt 2 sochemanni et 1 liber
homo.'
[412] D. B. ii. 28 b: 'Huic manerio iacent 5 sochemanni quorum 2
occupavit Ingelricus tempore Regis Willelmi qui tune erant
liberi homines.'
[413] D. B. ii. 83: '3 sochemanni tenentes libere.'--Ibid. 88 b:
'tunc fuit 1 sochemannus qui libere tenuit 1 virgatam.'--Ibid.
58: 'in hac terra sunt 13 sochemanni qui libere tenent.'
[414] D. B. i. 212 b, Bedf.: 'Hanc terram tenuerunt 4 sochemanni
quorum 3 liberi fuerunt, quartus vero unam hidam habuit, sed
nec dare nec vendere potuit.'
[415] D. B. i. 35 b, 'Isti liberi homines ita liberi fuerunt quod
poterant ire quo volebant.'--Ibid. ii. 187: '5 homines ... ex
istis erant 4 liberi ut non possent recedere nisi dando 2
solidos.'
[416] Round, Feudal England, 34.
[417] D. B. ii. 59 b, Essex: 'quod tenuerunt 2 liberi homines ...
set non poterant recedere sine licentia illius Algari.'--Ibid.
216 b, Norf.: 'Ibi sunt 5 liberi homines S. Benedicti
commendatione tantum ... et ita est in monasterio quod nec
vendere nec forisfacere pot[uerunt] extra ecclesia set soca
est in hundredo.'--Ibid. i. 137 b, Herts: 'duo teigni ...
vendere non potuerunt.'--Ibid. i. 30 b, Hants: 'Duo liberi
homines tenuerunt de episcopo T. R. E. sed recedere cum terra
non potuerunt.'
[418] Above, p. 103, note 417.
[419] E.g. D. B. i. 129 b: 'In hac terra fuerunt 5 sochemanni de 6
hidis quas potuerunt dare vel vendere sine licentia dominorum
suorum.'
[420] Above, p. 100, note 402.
[421] E.g. D. B. ii. 358: '7 liberos homines ... hi poterant dare
vel vendere terram set saca et soca et commendatio et
servitium remanebant Sancto [Edmundo].'
[422] D. B. ii. 186: 'In Sterestuna tenuit unus liber homo S.
Aldredae T. R. E. et Stigandi erat soca et saco in
Hersam.'--Ibid. 139 b: 'habuit socam et sacam ... de
commendatis suis.'
[423] D. B. i. 141.
[424] Liebermann, Leges Edwardi, p. 72. The most important passage
is Leg. Edw. 12 § 4: 'Manbote in Danelaga de villano et de
socheman 12 oras [= 20 sol.]: de liberis hominibus 3 marcas [=
40 sol.].'
[425] A study of the Hundred Rolls might prepare us for this result.
One jury will call _servi_ those whom another jury would have
called _villani_. See e.g. R. H. ii. 688 ff.
[426] D. B. ii. 189 b, 190.
[427] D. B. ii. 318: 'In Suttona tenet idem W. [de Cadomo] de R.
Malet 2 liberos homines commendatos Edrico 61 acr[arum] et sub
1 ex ipsis 5 liberi [_sic_] homines.'--Ibid. 321 b: 'In
Caldecota 6 liberi homines commendati Leuuino de Bachetuna 74
acr. et 7 liberi homines sub eis commend[ati] de 6 acr. et
dim.'
§ 6. _The Manor._
[What is a manor?]
This brings us face to face with a question that we have hitherto
evaded. What is a manor? The word _manerium_ appears on page after page
of Domesday Book, but to define its meaning will task our patience.
Perhaps we may have to say that sometimes the term is loosely used, that
it has now a wider, now a narrower compass, but we can not say that it
is not a technical term. Indeed the one statement that we can safely
make about it is that, at all events in certain passages and certain
contexts, it is a technical term.
['Manor' a technical term.]
We may be led to this opinion by observing that in the description of
certain counties--Middlesex, Buckingham, Bedford, Cambridge, Huntingdon,
Derby, Nottingham, Lincoln, York--the symbol _M_ which represents a
manor, is often carried out into the margin, and is sometimes contrasted
with the _S_ which represents a soke and the _B_ which represents a
berewick. This no doubt has been done--though it may not have been very
consistently done--for the purpose of guiding the eye of officials who
will turn over the pages in search of manors. But much clearer evidence
is forthcoming. Throughout the survey of Essex it is common to find
entries which take such a form as this: 'Thurkil held it for two hides
and for one manor'; 'Brithmær held it for five hides and for one manor';
'Two free men who were brothers held it for two hides and for two
manors'; 'Three free men held it for three manors and for four hides and
twenty-seven acres[428].' In Sussex again the statement '_X_ tenuit pro
uno manerio[429]' frequently occurs. Such phrases as 'Four brothers held
it for two manors, Hugh received it for one manor[430],'--'These four
manors are now for one manor[431],'--'Then there were two halls, now it
is in one manor[432],'--'A certain thegn held four hides and it was a
manor[433],'--are by no means unusual[434]. A clerk writes 'Elmer
tenuit' and then is at pains to add by way of interlineation 'pro
manerio[435].' 'Eight thegns held this manor, one of them, Alwin, held
two hides for a manor; another, Ulf, two hides for a manor; another,
Algar, one hide and a half for a manor; Elsi one hide, Turkill one hide,
Lodi one hide, Osulf one hide, Elric a half-hide[436]'--when we read
this we feel sure that the scribe is using his terms carefully and that
he is telling us that the holdings of the five thegns last mentioned
were not manors. And then Hugh de Port holds Wallop in Hampshire 'for
half a manor[437].' But let us say at once that at least one rule of
law, or of local custom, demands a definition of a _manerium_. In the
shires of Nottingham and Derby a thegn who has more than six manors pays
a relief of £8 to the king, but if he has only six manors or less, then
a relief of 3 marks to the sheriff[438]. It seems clear therefore that
not only did the Norman rulers treat the term _manerium_ as an accurate
term charged with legal meaning, but they thought that it, or rather
some English equivalent for it, had been in the Confessor's day an
accurate term charged with legal meaning.
[The word _manerium_.]
The term _manerium_ seems to have come in with the Conqueror[439],
though other derivatives from the Latin verb _manere_, in particular
_mansa_, _mansio_, _mansiuncula_ had been freely employed by the scribes
of the land-books. But these had as a rule been used as representatives
of the English _hide_, and just for this reason they were incapable of
expressing the notion that the Normans desired to express by the word
_manerium_. In its origin that word is but one more name for a house.
Throughout the Exeter Domesday the word _mansio_ is used instead of the
_manerium_ of the Exchequer record, and even in the Exchequer record we
may find these two terms used interchangeably:--'Three free men belonged
to this _manerium_; one of them had half a hide and could withdraw
himself without the licence of the lord of the _mansio_[440].' If we
look for the vernacular term that was rendered by _manerium_, we are
likely to find it in the English _heal_. Though this is not connected
with the Latin _aula_, still these two words bearing a similar meaning
meet and are fused in the _aula_, _haula_, _halla_ of Domesday Book.
[Manor and hall.]
Now this term stands in the first instance for a house and can be
exchanged with _curia_. You may say that there is meadow enough for the
horses of the _curia_[441], and that there are three horses in the
_aula_[442]; you may speak indifferently of a mill that serves the
hall[443], or of the mill that grinds the corn of the court[444]. But
further, you may say that in Stonham there are 50 acres of the demesne
land of the hall in Creeting, or that in Thorney there are 24 acres
which belong to the hall in Stonham[445], or that Roger de Rames has
lands which once were in the hall of St Edmund[446], or that in the hall
of Grantham there are three carucates of land[447], or that Guthmund's
sake and soke extended only over the demesne of his hall[448]. We feel
that to such phrases as these we should do no great violence were we to
substitute 'manor' for 'hall.' Other phrases serve to bring these two
words very closely together. One and the same page tells us, first, that
Hugh de Port holds as one manor what four brothers held as two manors,
and then, that on another estate there is one hall though of old there
were two halls[449]:--these two stories seem to have the same point.
'Four brothers held this; there was only one hall there[450].' 'Two
brothers held it and each had his hall; now it is as one manor[451].'
'In these two lands there is but one hall[452].' 'Then there were two
halls; now it is in one manor[453].' 'Ten manors; ten thegns, each had
his hall[454].' 'Ingelric set these men to his hall.... Ingelric added
these men to his manor[455].'
[Difference between manor and hall.]
We do not contend that _manerium_ and _halla_ are precisely equivalent.
Now and again we shall be told of a _manerium sine halla_[456] as of
some exceptional phenomenon. The term _manerium_ has contracted a shade
of technical meaning; it refers, so we think, to a system of taxation,
and thus it is being differentiated from the term _hall_. Suppose, for
example, that a hall or manor has meant a house from which taxes are
collected, and that some one removes that house, houses being very
portable things[457]: 'by construction of law,' as we now say, there
still may be a hall or manor on the old site; or we may take advantage
of the new wealth of words and say that, though the hall has gone, the
manor remains: to do this is neater than to say that there is a
'constructive' hall where no hall can be seen. Then again, _manerium_ is
proving itself to be the more elastic of the two terms. We may indeed
speak of a considerable stretch of land as belonging to or even as
'being in' a certain hall, and this stretch may include not only land
that the owner of the hall occupies and cultivates by himself or his
servants, but also land and houses that are occupied by his
villeins[458]: still we could hardly talk of the hall being a league
long and a league wide or containing a square league. Of _manerium_,
however, we may use even such phrases as those just mentioned[459]. For
all this, we can think of no English word for which _manerium_ can
stand, save _hall_; _tún_, it is clear enough, was translated by
_villa_, not by _manerium_.
[Size of the _maneria_.]
If now we turn from words to look at the things which those words
signify, we shall soon be convinced that to describe a typical
_manerium_ is an impossible feat, for on the one hand there are enormous
_maneria_ and on the other hand there are many holdings called
_maneria_ which are so small that we, with our reminiscences of the law
of later days, can hardly bring ourselves to speak of them as manors. If
we look in the world of sense for the essence of the _manerium_ we shall
find nothing that is common to all _maneria_ save a piece of
ground--very large it may be, or very small--held (in some sense or
another) by a single person or by a group of co-tenants, for even upon a
house we shall not be able to insist very strictly. After weary
arithmetical labours we might indeed obtain an average manor; we might
come to the conclusion that the average manor contained so many hides or
acres, possibly that it included land occupied by so many sokemen,
villeins, bordiers, serfs; but an average is not a type, and the
uselessness of such calculations will soon become apparent.
[A large manor.]
We may begin by looking at a somewhat large manor. Let it be that of
Staines in Middlesex, which is held by St Peter of Westminster[460]. It
is rated at 19 hides but contains land for 24 plough-teams. To the
demesne belong 11 hides and there are 13 teams there. The villeins have
11 teams. There are:--
3 villeins with a half-hide apiece.
4 villeins with a hide between them.
8 villeins with a half-virgate apiece.
36 bordiers with 3 hides between them.
1 villein with 1 virgate.
4 bordiers with 40 acres between them.
10 bordiers with 5 acres apiece.
5 cottiers with 4 acres.
8 bordiers with 1 virgate.
3 cottiers with 9 acres.
13 serfs.
46 burgesses paying 40 shillings a year.
There are 6 mills of 64 shillings and one fish-weir of 6_s._ 8_d._ and
one weir which renders nothing. There is pasture sufficient for the
cattle of the vill. There is meadow for the 24 teams, and in addition to
this there is meadow worth 20_s._ a year. There is wood for 30 pigs;
there are 2 arpents of vineyard. To this manor belong four berewicks.
Altogether it is worth £35 and formerly it was worth £40.--This is a
handsome manor.--The next manor that is mentioned would be a fairer
specimen. It is Sunbury held by St Peter of Westminster[461]. It is
rated at 7 hides and there is land for but 6 teams. To the demesne
belong 4 hides and there is one team there. The villeins have 4 teams.
There are:--
A priest with a half-virgate.
8 villeins with a virgate apiece.
2 villeins with a virgate.
5 bordiers with a virgate.
5 cottiers.
1 serf.
There is meadow for 6 teams and pasture enough for the cattle of the
vill. Altogether it is worth £6 and has been worth £7. Within this one
county of Middlesex we can see wide variations. There are manors which
are worth £50 and there are manors which are not worth as many
shillings. The archbishop's grand manor at Harrow has land for 70
teams[462]; the Westminster manor of Cowley has land for but one team
and the only tenants upon it are two villeins[463].
[Enormous manors. Leominster.]
But far larger variations than these are to be found. Let us look at a
few gigantic manors. Leominster in Herefordshire had been held by Queen
Edith together with sixteen members[464]. The names of these members are
given and we may find them scattered about over a wide tract of
Herefordshire. In this manor with its members there were 80 hides. In
the demesne there were 30 teams. There were 8 reeves and 16 beadles and
8 radknights and 238 villeins, 75 bordiers and 82 male and female serfs.
These in all had 230 teams; so that with the demesne teams there were no
less than 260. Further there were Norman barons paying rents to this
manor. Ralph de Mortemer for example paid 15_s._ and Hugh de Lacy 6_s._
8_d._ It is let to farm at a rent of £60 and besides this has to support
a house of nuns; were it freed from this duty, it might, so thinks the
county, be let at a rent of £120. It is a most interesting manor, for we
see strong traces of a neat symmetrical arrangement:--witness the 16
members, 8 reeves, 8 radknights, 16 beadles; very probably it has a
Welsh basis[465]. But we have in this place to note that it is called a
manor, and for certain purposes it is treated as a single whole. For
what purposes? Well, for one thing, it is let to farm as a single whole.
This, however, is of no very great importance, for landlords and farmers
may make what bargains they please. But also it is taxed as a single
whole. It is rated at the nice round figures of 80 hides.
[Berkeley.]
[Tewkesbury.]
No less handsome and yet more valuable is Berkeley in
Gloucestershire[466]. It brought in a rent of £170 of refined money. It
had eighteen members which were dispersed abroad over so wide a field
that a straight line of thirty miles would hardly join their uttermost
points[467]. 'All the aforesaid members belong to Berkeley.' There were
29 radknights, 162 villeins, 147 bordiers, 22 coliberts, 161 male and
female serfs, besides some unenumerated men of the radknights; on the
demesne land were 54-1/2 teams; and the tenants had 192. Tewkesbury also
is a splendid manor. 'When it was all together in King Edward's time it
was worth £100,' though now but £50 at the most can be had from it and
in the turmoil of the Conquest its value fell to £12[468]. It was a
scattered unit, but still it was a unit for fiscal purposes. It was
reckoned to contain 95 hides, but the 45 which were in demesne were quit
of geld, and matters had been so arranged that all the geld on the
remaining 50 hides had, as between the lord and his various tenants,
been thrown on 35 of those hides. The 'head of the manor' was at
Tewkesbury; the members were dispersed abroad; but 'they gelded in
Tewkesbury[469].'
[Taunton.]
No list of great manors would be complete without a notice of
Taunton[470]. 'The bishop of Winchester holds Tantone or has a mansion
called Tantone. Stigand held it in King Edward's day and it gelded for
54 hides and 2-1/2 virgates. There is land for 100 teams, and besides
this the bishop in his demesne has land for 20 teams which never
gelded.' 'With all its appendages and customs it is worth £154. 12_d._'
'Tantone' then is valued as a whole and it has gelded as a whole. But
'Tantone' in this sense covers far more than the borough which bears
that name; it covers many places which have names of their own and had
names of their own when the survey was made[471]. We might speak of the
bishop of Exeter's manor of Crediton in Devon which is worth £75 and in
which are 264 villeins and 73 bordiers[472], or of the bishop of
Winchester's manor of Chilcombe in Hampshire where there are nine
churches[473]; but we turn to another part of England.
[Large manors in the midlands.]
If we wish to see a midland manor with many members we may look at
Rothley in Leicestershire[474]. The vill of Rothley itself is not very
large and it is separately valued at but 62_s._ But 'to this manor
belong the following members,' and then we read of no less than
twenty-one members scattered over a large area and containing 204
sokemen who with 157 villeins and 94 bordiers have 82 teams and who pay
in all £31. 8_s._ 1_d._ Their rents are thus reckoned as forming a
single whole. In Lincolnshire Earl Edwin's manor of Kirton had 25
satellites, Earl Morcar's manor of Caistor 16, the Queen's manor of
Horncastle 15[475]. A Northamptonshire manor of 27 hides lay scattered
about in six hundreds[476].
[Town-houses and berewicks attached to manors.]
It is common enough to see a town-house annexed to a rural manor.
Sometimes a considerable group of houses or 'haws' in the borough is
deemed to 'lie in' or form part of a manor remote from its walls. Thus,
to give but two examples, twelve houses in London belong to the Bishop
of Durham's manor of Waltham in Essex; twenty-eight houses in London to
the manor of Barking[477]. Not only these houses but their occupants are
deemed to belong to the manor; thus 80 burgesses in Dunwich pertain to
one of the Ely manors[478]. The berewick (_bereuita_)[479] also
frequently meets our eye. Its name seems to signify primarily a wick, or
village, in which barley is grown; but, like the barton (_bertona_) and
the grange (_grangia_) of later days, it seems often to be a detached
portion of a manor which is in part dependent on, and yet in part
independent of, the main body. Probably at the berewick the lord has
some demesne land and some farm buildings, a barn or the like, and the
villeins of the berewick are but seldom called upon to leave its limits;
but the lord has no hall there, he does not consume its produce upon the
spot, and yet for some important purposes the berewick is a part of the
manor. The berewick might well be some way off from the hall; a manor
in Hampshire had three berewicks on the mainland and two in the Isle of
Wight[480].
[Manor and soke.]
Then again in the north and east the manor is often the centre of an
extensive but very discrete territory known as its soke. One says that
certain lands are 'soke' or are 'the soke,' or are 'in the soke' of such
a manor, or that 'their soke belongs' to such a manor. One contrasts the
soke of the manor with the 'inland' and with the berewicks[481]. The
soke in this context seems to be the territory in which the lord's
rights are, or have been, of a justiciary rather than of a proprietary
kind[482]. The manor of the eastern counties is a discrete, a dissipated
thing. Far from lying within a ring fence, it often consists of a small
nucleus of demesne land and villein tenements in one village, together
with many detached parcels in many other villages, which are held by
'free men' and sokemen. In such a case we may use the term _manerium_
now in a wider, now in a narrower sense. In valuing the manor, we hardly
know whether to include or exclude these free men. We say that the manor
'with the free men' is worth so much[483], or that the manor 'without
the free men' is worth so much[484], that the manor is worth £10 and
that the free men pay 40 shillings[485], that Thurmot had soke over the
manor and over three of the free men while the Abbot of Ely had soke
over the other three[486].
[Minute manors.]
From one extreme we may pass to the other extreme. If there were huge
manors, there were also tiny manors. Let us begin in the south-west of
England. Quite common is the manor which is said to have land for but
one team; common also is the manor which is said to have land for but
half a team. This means, as we believe, that the first of these manors
has but some 120 acres of arable, while the second has but 60 acres or
thereabouts. 'Domesday measures' are, it is well known, the matter of
many disputes; therefore we will not wholly rely upon them, but will
look at some of these 'half-team' manors and observe how much they are
worth, how many tenants and how much stock they have upon them.
(i) A Somersetshire manor[487]. Half the land is in demesne; half
is held by 7 bordiers. The only plough beasts are 4 oxen on the
demesne; there are 3 beasts that do not plough, 20 sheep, 7 acres
of underwood, 20 acres of pasture. It is worth 12_s._, formerly it
was worth 10_s._
(ii) A Somersetshire manor[488]. A quarter of the land is in
demesne; the rest is held by 2 villeins and 3 bordiers. The men
have one team; apparently the demesne has no plough-oxen. No other
animals are mentioned. There are 140 acres of wood, 41 acres of
moor, 40 acres of pasture. It is worth 12_s._ 6_d._ and has been
worth 20_s._
(iii) A Somersetshire manor[489]. All the land, save 10 acres, is
in demesne; 2 bordiers hold the 10 acres. There is a team on the
demesne; there are 2 beasts that do not plough, 7 pigs, 16 sheep, 4
acres of meadow, 7 of pasture. Value, 6_s._
(iv) A Somersetshire manor[490]. The whole of the arable is in
demesne; the only tenant is a bordier. There are 4 plough-oxen and
11 goats and 7 acres of underwood. Value, 6_s._
(v) A Devonshire manor[491]. To all seeming all is in demesne and
there are no tenants. There are 4 plough-beasts, 15 sheep, 5 goats,
4 acres of meadow. Value, 3_s._
(vi) A Devonshire manor[492]. Value, 3_s._ All seems to be in
demesne; we see no tenants and no stock.
We have been at no great pains to select examples, and yet smaller
manors may be found, manors which provide arable land for but two oxen.
Thus
(vii) A Somersetshire manor[493] occupied by one villein. We read
nothing of any stock. Value, 15_d._
(viii) A Somersetshire manor[494] with 3 bordiers on it. Value,
4_s._
(ix) A Somersetshire manor[495] with one bordier on it. Value,
30_d._