dairy farms. D. B. i. 58 b: 'et wika de 10 pensis caseorum.'
On the Glastonbury estates we find persons called _wikarii_,
each of whom has a _wika_. Glastonbury Rentalia, 39: 'Thomas
de Wika tenet 5 acras et 50 oves matrices et 12 vaccas ...
Philippus de Wika tenet unum ferlingum et 50 oves matrices et
12 vaccas.' Ibid. 44: 'A. B. tenet unum ferlingum et 50 oves
matrices et 12 vaccas pro 1 sol. pro wika.' Ibid. 48:
'Ricardus de Wika tenet 5 acras et 50 oves matrices et 12
vaccas. Alanus de Wika eodem modo.' Ibid. p. 51
[481] D. B. i. 350: 'In Osgotebi et Tauelebi 2 bo[vatae] inland et 1
bo[vata] soca huius manerii.' D. B. i. 338 b: 'Hiboldeston est
bereuuita non soca et in Grangeham sunt 2 car[ucatae] inland
et in Springetorp dim. car[ucata] est inland. Reliqua omnis
est soca.'
[482] When therefore, as is often the case, we find that the
occupants of 'the soke' are not sokemen but villeins, this
seems to point to a recent depression of the peasantry.
[483] D. B. ii. 330 b: 'In illo manerio ... sunt 35 liberi
homines.... Tunc valuerunt liberi homines 4 libras. Manerium
cum liberis hominibus valet modo 24 libras.'
[484] D. B. ii. 358 b: 'Hoc manerium exceptis liberis tunc valuit 30
solidos.'
[485] D. B. ii. 289 b.
[486] D. B. ii. 285 b.
[487] D. B. iv. 397; i. 93 b, Ichetoca.
[488] D. B. iv. 411; i. 94 b, Tocheswilla.
[489] D. B. iv. 398; i. 93 b, Pilloc.
[490] D. B. iv. 341; i. 96, Sordemanneford.
[491] D. B. iv. 355; i. 116 b, Labera.
[492] D. B. iv. 367; i. 112 b, Oplomia.
[493] D. B. iv. 338; i. 95 b, Aisseforda.
[494] D. B. iv. 395; i. 93, Terra Colgrini.
[495] D. B. iv. 394; i. 93, Rima.
[496] D. B. iv. 338; i. 95 b, Aisseforda.
[497] As the term _manerium_ is often represented by the mere letter
_M_ or _m_, we will refer to some cases in which it is written
in full. D. B. ii. 295 b: '40 acras pro uno manerio'; Ibid.
311 b: 'In eadem villa est 1 liber homo de 40 acris et tenet
pro manerio.'
[498] The question whether the acreage stated in the Suffolk survey
is real or rateable can not be briefly debated. We hope to
return to it.
[499] D. B. ii. 322 b, 323.
[500] D. B. ii. 323.
[501] D. B. ii. 288.
[502] D. B. ii. 309.
[503] D. B. ii. 297 b.
[504] D. B. ii. 377.
[505] D. B. ii. 333.
[506] D. B. ii. 423.
[507] D. B. ii. 316: 'In Aldeburc tenuit Uluricus sochemannus Edrici
T. R. E. 80 acras pro manerio.' Ibid. 353: 'Nordberiam tenuit
Eduinus presbyter sochemannus Abbatis 30 acras pro manerio.'
[508] We have taken our examples of small manors from the east and
the south-west because Little Domesday and the Exeter Domesday
give details which are not to be had elsewhere. But instances
may be found in many other parts of England. Thus in Sussex,
i. 24, two free men held as two manors land rated at a hide
and sufficient for one team; it is now tilled by four
villeins. In the Isle of Wight, D. B. i. 39 b, five free men
held as five manors land sufficient for two teams; it is now
tilled by four villeins. In Gloucestershire, D. B. i. 170, is
a manor worth ten shillings with two serfs upon it; also a
manor rated at one virgate. In Derbyshire, D. B. i. 274 b,
land sufficient for four teams and rated as four carucates had
formed eight manors. In Nottinghamshire, D. B. i. 285 b, land
sufficient for a team and a half and valued at ten shillings
had formed five manors for five thegns, each of whom had his
hall.
[509] D. B. ii. 380: 'In Thistledona tenet 1 liber homo Ulmarus
commendatus S. Eldrede 60 acras pro manerio et 5 liberi
homines sub se.'
[510] D. B. i. 127 b: 'Wellesdone tenent canonici S. Pauli.... Hoc
manerium tenent villani ad firmam canonicorum. In dominio nil
habetur.'
[511] D. B. i. 235 b: Billesdone, 'In dominio nil fuit nec est.'
Ibid. 166 b, Glouc.: 'Isdem Willelmus [de Ow] tenet
Alvredestone. Bondi tenuit T. R. E. Ibi 3 hidae geldantes. Nil
ibi est in dominio, sed 5 villani et 3 bordarii habent 3
carucas.'... 'Isdem Willelmus tenet Odelavestone. Brictri
filius Algari tenuit. Ibi nil in dominio nisi 5 villani cum 5
carucis.' D. B. iv. 396: 'Rogerius habet 1 mansionem quae
vocatur P...et reddit gildum pro dimidia virgata; hanc potest
arare 1 carruca. Hanc tenet Anschetillus de Rogerio. Ibi habet
Anschetillus 4 bordarios qui tenent totam illam terram et
habent ibi 1 carrucam et 1 agrum prati, et reddit 10 solidos.'
[512] D. B. ii. 31.
[513] D. B. ii. 59 b.
[514] I leave this sentence as it stood before Mr Round had
published in his Feudal England the results of his brilliant
researches. Of the 'five hide unit' I already knew a good
deal; of the 'six carucate unit' I knew nothing.
[515] Round, Domesday Studies, i. 109.
[516] D. B. i. 35: 'In Driteham tenet Ricardus [filius Gisleberti] 1
hidam et dimidiam. Ælmar tenuit de Rege E. pro uno manerio....
In eadem Driteham est 1 hida et dimidia quam tenuit Aluric de
Rege E. pro uno manerio, et postea dedit illam terram uxori
suae et filiae ad aecclesiam de Certesy, sicuti homines de
hundredo testantur. Ricardus [filius Gisleberti] calumniatur.
Non iacet ulli manerio, nec pro manerio tenet, set liberata
fuit ei et modo 3 hidae geldant pro una hida et dimidia.' To
say of the second of these two plots that it neither is a
manor nor yet belongs to a manor, is to say that it is
shirking the geld. D. B. i. 48: 'Walerannus tenet Dene....
Ista tera non adiacet ulli suo manerio.' Here _suo_ =
_Waleranni_. Waleran seems to be holding land without good
title.
[517] D. B. i. 163 b, Clifort. D. B. i. 58 b: 'In Winteham tenet
Hubertus de Abbate 5 hidas, de terra villanorum fuerunt 4, et
geldaverunt cum hidis manerii.'
[518] The word _wara_ means defence; it comes from a root which has
given us, _wary_, _warrant_, _warn_, _guarantee_, _weir_, etc.
See Vinogradoff, Villainage, 243.
[519] D. B. i. 212.
[520] D. B. i. 340, 366, 368. Is not the last part of the word A.-S.
_notu_, (business, office)?
[521] D. B. i. 132 b: 'Hoc manerium tenuit Heraldus Comes et iacuit
et iacet in Hiz [Hitchin, Herts] sed wara hujus manerii iacuit
in Bedefordscire T. R. E. in hundredo de Maneheue.' D. B. i.
190, 'Haec terra est bereuuicha in Neuport [Essex] set wara
ejus iacet in Grantebrige.' When in the survey of Oxfordshire,
i. 160, it is said, 'Ibi 1 hida de _warland_ in dominio,' the
taxed land is contrasted with the inland, which in this county
has gone untaxed.
[522] D. B. i. 28.
[523] See the cases of the monks of Bury and the canons of S.
Petroc, above, p. 55.
[524] D. B. i. 4 b: 'De terra huius manerii ten[uit] unus homo
archiepiscopi dimid. solin et cum his 6 solins geldabat T. R.
E. quamvis non pertineret manerio nisi de scoto quia libera
terra erat.' The _scotum_ in this context seems to be or to
include the geld. Compare D. B. i. 61 b: 'Haec terra iacet et
appreciata est in Gratentun quod est in Oxenefordscire et
tamen dat scotum in Berchescire.' D. B. ii. 11: 'In Colecestra
habet episcopus 14 domos et 4 acras non reddentes
consuetudinem praeter scotum nisi episcopo.'
[525] See above, p. 85.
[526] Hamilton, Inquisitio, 60.
[527] Above, p. 110.
[528] D. B. i. 35 b.
[529] Northumbrian Priests' Law, 58, 59, (Schmid, p. 369.)
[530] An Act of 1869 (32-3 Vic. c. 41) allowed the owners of certain
small houses to agree to pay the rates which under the
ordinary law would become due from the occupiers, and
authorized the vestries to allow such owners a commission of
25 per cent. See also the instructive recital in 59 Geo. III.
c. 12, sec. 19:--The small occupiers are evading the poors'
rate, and the owners exact higher rents than they would
otherwise get, on the ground that the occupiers can not be
effectually assessed.
[531] See above, p. 24.
[532] E.g. D. B. ii. 389 b, 'Clarum tenuit Aluricus pro manerio 24
car. terrae T. R. E. Tunc 40 villani.... Tunc 12 carucae in
dominio.... Tunc 36 carucae hominum.... Huic manerio semper
adiacent 5 sochemani cum omni consuetudine 1 car. terrae et
dim. Semper 1 caruca et dimidia.'
[533] E.g. D. B. ii. 339: 'In eadem villa 14 liberi homines
commendati, Godricus faber et Edricus et Ulnotus et Osulfus et
Uluricus et Stanmarus et Leuietus et Wihtricus et Blachemanus
et Mansuna et Leuinus et Ulmarus et Ulfah et alter Ulfah et
Leofstanus de 40 acris et habent 2 carucas et valent 10
solidos.'
[534] Above, p. 115.
[535] Rolls of the King's Court, Ric. I. (Pipe Roll. Soc.), p. xxiv.
But apparently there had been considerable rearrangements in
some of the counties.
[536] Hoveden, iv. 46. The important words are these: 'Statutum
etiam fuit quod quilibet baro cum vicecomite faceret
districtiones super homines suos; et si per defectum baronum
districtiones factae non fuissent, caperetur de dominico
baronum quod super homines suos restaret reddendum, et ipsi
barones ad homines suos inde caperent.' The baron's _homines_
we take to be freeholders; he would be absolutely liable for
the tax cast upon his villeinage. As to the tax of 1198 see
Eng. Hist. Rev. iii. 501, 701; iv. 105, 108.
[537] In Dial. de Scac. ii. 14, the author tells us that until
recently if a baron who owed money to the crown was insolvent,
the goods of his knights could be seized. The idea of
subsidiary liability is not too subtle for the time.
[538] Above, p. 108.
[539] D. B. ii. 9: 'set Comes Eustachius 1 ex illis [hidis] tenet
que non est de suis c. [100] mansionibus.'
[540] D. B. ii. 233 b.
[541] D. B. ii. 242 b.
[542] D. B. ii. 258.
[543] D. B. ii. 258.
[544] D. B. ii. 447.
[545] D. B. i. 45 b.
[546] Two objections to our theory may be met by a note. (1) Some
manors are free of geld, and therefore to make our definition
correct we ought to say that a manor is a tenement which
either pays its geld at a single place or which would do so
were it not freed from the tax by some special privilege. A
_manerium_ does not cease to be a _manerium_ by being freed
from geld. (2) In later days we may well find a manor holden
of another manor, so that a plot of land may be within two
manors. If this usage of the term can be traced back into
Domesday Book as a common phenomenon, then our doctrine is in
great jeopardy. But we have noticed no passage which clearly
and unambiguously says that a tract of land was _at one and
the same time_ both a _manerium_ and also a part of another
_manerium_. To this we must add that of the distribution of
_maneria_ T. R. E. we only obtain casual and very imperfect
tidings. If T. R. W. a free man has been 'added to' a
_manerium_, the commissioners have no deep interest in the
inquiry whether T. R. E. his tenement was itself an
independent _manerium_. A great simplification has been
effected and the number of _maneria_ has been largely reduced.
§ 7. _Manor and Vill._
[Manorial and non-manorial vills.]
After what has now been said, it is needless to repeat that in Domesday
Book the _manerium_ and the _villa_ are utterly different things[547].
In a given case the two may coincide, and throughout a great tract of
England such cases were common and we may even say that they were
normal. But in the east this was not so. We may easily find a village
which taken as a whole has been utterly free from seignorial domination.
Orwell in Cambridgeshire will be a good example[548].
[The vill of Orwell.]
In King Edward's day this vill of Orwell was rated at 4 hides: probably
it was somewhat underrated for at the date of the survey it was deemed
capable of finding land for nearly 6 teams. The following table will
show who held the four hides before the Conquest:--
H. V. A.
Two sokemen, men of Edith the Fair 2/3
A sokeman, man of Abp Stigand 1-1/3
A sokeman, man of Robert Wimarc's son 1-1/3
A sokeman, man of the King 2/3
A sokeman, man of Earl Ælfgar 1-1/3
A sokeman, man of Earl Waltheof 3
A sokeman, man of the King 1/3
Sigar a man of Æsgar the Staller 1-1/3
Turbert a man of Edith the Fair 3-1/4 5
Achil a man of Earl Harold 1
A sokeman of the King 1
St. Mary of Chatteris 1/3
St. Mary of Chatteris 1/4
----------------
4 0 0[549]
It will be seen that eight of the most exalted persons in the land, the
king, the archbishop, three earls, two royal marshals or stallers, and
that mysterious lady known as Edith the Fair, to say nothing of the
church of Chatteris, had a certain interest in this little
Cambridgeshire village. But then how slight an interest it was! Every
one of the tenants was free to 'withdraw himself,' 'to give or sell his
land.' Now we can not say that all of them were peasants. Achil the man
of Harold seems to have had other lands in the neighbouring villages of
Harlton and Barrington[550]. It is probable that Turbert, Edith's man,
had another virgate at Kingston[551]: he was one of the jurors of the
hundred in which Orwell lay[552]. Sigar the man of Æsgar was another
juror, and held land at Thriplow, Foxton, Haslingfield and Shepreth; he
seems to have been his lord's steward[553]. But we may be fairly certain
that the unnamed sokemen tilled their own soil, though perhaps they had
help from a few cottagers. And they can not have been constantly
employed in cultivating the demesne lands of their lords. They must go
some distance to find any such demesne lands. The Wetherley hundred, in
which Orwell lies, is full of the sokemen of these great folk: Waltheof,
for example, has 3 men in Comberton, 4 in Barton, 3 in Grantchester, 1
in Wratworth: but he has no demesne land, and if he had it, he could not
get it tilled by these scattered tenants. The Fair Edith has half a hide
in Haslingfield and we are told that this belongs to the manor of
Swavesey. Now at Swavesey Edith has a considerable manor[554], but it
can not have got much in the way of labour out of a tenant who lived at
Haslingfield, for the two villages are a long ten miles apart. As to the
king's sokemen, their only recorded services are the _avera_ and the
_inward_. The former seems to be a carrying service done at the
sheriff's bidding and to be only exigible when the king comes into the
shire, while _inward_ seems to be the duty of forming a body guard for
the king while he is in the shire:--if in any year the king did not
come, a small sum of money was taken instead[555].
[A Cambridgeshire hundred.]
Lest it should be thought that in picking out the village of Orwell we
have studiously sought a rare case, we will here set out in a tabular
form what we can learn of the state of the hundred in which Orwell lies.
The Wetherley hundred contained twelve vills: it was a land of true
villages which until very lately had wide open fields[556]. In the
Confessor's day the lands in it were allotted thus:--
CAMBRIDGESHIRE. WETHERLEY HUNDRED[557].
I. COMBERTON. A vill of 6 hides.
H. V. A. C. B.
1. Seven sokemen of the King 1 1 0}
A sokeman, man of Earl Waltheof} 3 0} 4 0
A sokeman, man of Abp Stigand } }
2. A man of Earl Waltheof 1 15 1 0
3. A sokeman, man of the King 1 0}
A sokeman, man of Abp Stigand 1 15} 2 0
A sokeman, man of Earl Waltheof 1 15}
4. The King 2 2 0 5 0
--------- ------
5 3 15[558] 12 0
II. BARTON. A vill of 7 hides.
1. Two sokemen, men of Earl Waltheof 1 1 15 }
A sokeman, man of Earl Waltheof 3 15[559]} 5 0
A sokeman, man of Earl Waltheof 1 0 }
2. Juhael the King's hunter 1 0 0 1 0
3. A sokeman, man of Edith the Fair 2 0} 6 0
4. Twenty-three sokemen of the King 3 0 0}
--------- ------
7 0 0 12 0
III. GRANTCHESTER. A vill of 7 hides[560].
H. V. A. C. B.
1. Five sokemen, men of the King 3 0 1 0
2. Two sokemen, men of the King 2 1 0} 6 0
A sokeman, man of Æsgar the Staller 2 0}
3. A sokeman, man of Earl Ælfgar 3 0}
Three sokemen, men of Earl Waltheof 2 0 0} 4 0
4. Godman a man of Edith the Fair 1 15 1 0
5. Juhael the King's hunter 1 0 4
6. Wulfric, the King's man 15 3
--------- ------
7 0 0 12 7
IV. HASLINGFIELD. A vill of 20 hides.
1. The King 7 1 0 8 0
2. Five sokemen, men of the King 3 0 0}
A sokeman, man of Æsgar the Staller 1 3 0} 4 0
3. Ealdred a man of Edith the Fair 1 0 15 1 4
4. Edith the Fair, belonging to Swavesey 2 0 4
5. Sigar a man of Æsgar the Staller 5 0 0 6 0
6. Two sokemen of the King 1 1 3 2 0
7. Merewin, a man of Edith the Fair 12 0 0
---------- ------
20 0 0 22 0
V. HARLTON. A vill of 5 hides.
1. Achil, a King's thegn and under him
five sokemen of whom four were
his men while the fifth was the
man of Ernulf 4 0 0 6 0
2. Godman a man of Æsgar the Staller 1 0 0 1 0
--------- -----
5 0 0 7 0
VI. BARRINGTON. A vill of 10 hides.
1. Eadric Púr a King's thegn 3 0}
Fifteen sokemen, men of the King 4 1 15}
Four sokemen, men of Earl Ælfgar 2 0 15}
Three sokemen, men of Æsgar the } 11 0
Staller 1 0 0}
Eadric Púr, holding of the Church }
of Chatteris 15}
2. The Church of Chatteris 2 0 0 4 0
3. Ethsi, holding of Robert Wimarc's son 20 3
4. Achil the Dane, a man of Earl Harold 40 6
5. A sokeman, man of the King 15 2
---------- ------
11 0 0[561] 17 3
VII. SHEPRETH. A vill of 5 hides.
H. V. A. C. B.
1. Four sokemen, men of the King} 2 0 15 2 2
A sokeman, man of Earl Ælfgar}
2. The Church of Chatteris 1 1 15 1 4
3. Sigar a man of Æsgar the Staller 1 0 0 1 0
4. Heming a man of the King 1 15 4
5. The Church of Ely 15 2
--------- -----
5 0 0 5 4
VIII. ORWELL. A vill of 4 hides.
1. Two sokemen, men of Edith the Fair 20}
A sokeman, man of Abp Stigand 1 10}
A sokeman, man of Robert Wimarc's son 1 10} 1 4
A sokeman, man of the King 20}
A sokeman, man of Earl Ælfgar 1 10}
2. A sokeman, man of Earl Waltheof 3 0} 1 0
A sokeman, man of the King 10}
3. Sigar, a man of Æsgar the Staller 1 10 4
4. Turbert, a man of Edith the Fair 3 12-1/2 1 4
5. Achil, a man of Earl Harold 1 0 2
6. A sokeman, man of the King 1 0 3
7. The Church of Chatteris 10 1
8. The Church of Chatteris 7-1/2 1/2
--------- ---------
4 0 0 5 2-1/2
IX. WRATWORTH. A vill of 4 hides.
1. A sokeman, man of Edith the Fair 3 10}
A sokeman, man of Abp Stigand 3 0}
A sokeman, man of Earl Ælfgar 1 10} 3 0
A sokeman, man of Robert Wimarc's son 10}
A sokeman, man of the King 20}
2. A sokeman, man of Earl Waltheof 2 20} 1 0
A sokeman, man of Robert Wimarc's son 10}
3. A sokeman, man of Edith the Fair 1 10 4
4. A sokeman, man of the King 1 0 3
5. Two sokemen, men of the King 2 0 4
---------- -----
4 0 0 5 3
X. WHITWELL. A vill of 4 hides.
1. A sokeman, man of Earl Ælfgar 1 20}
A sokeman, man of Robert Wimarc's son 1 0} 1 4
A sokeman, man of the King 2 0}
2. A sokeman, man of Abp Stigand 15}
A sokeman, man of Edith the Fair 10} 4
[A sokeman] 15}
3. Six sokemen, men of the King 1 1 0}
A sokeman, man of Robert Wimarc's son 2 0} 2 0
A sokeman, man of Earl Ælfgar 1 0}
4. Godwin a man of Edith the Fair 2 0 1 0
--------- -----
4 0 0 5 0
XI. WIMPOLE. A vill of 4 hides.
H. V. A. C. B.
1. Edith the Fair 2 2 15 3 0
2. Earl Gyrth 1 1 15 2 0
--------- -----
4 0 0 5 0
XII. ARRINGTON. A vill of 4 hides.
1. Ælfric, a King's thegn 1 1 10}
A sokeman, man of Earl Waltheof 1 0 0}
A sokeman, man of the Abbot of Ely 1 0 0} 8 0
A sokeman, man of Robert Wimarc's son 20}
2. A man of Edith the Fair 2 0 4
--------- -----
4 0 0[562] 8 4
[The Wetherley sokemen.]
Now if by a 'manor' we mean what our historical economists usually mean
when they use that term, we must protest that before the Norman Conquest
there were very few manors in the Wetherley hundred. In no one case was
the whole of a village coincident with a manor, with a lord's estate.
The king had considerable manors in Comberton and Haslingfield. Sigar
had a manor at Haslingfield; the church of Chatteris had a manor at
Barrington besides some land at Shepreth; Wimpole was divided between
Edith and Earl Gyrth; Harlton between Achil and Godman. But in Barton,
Grantchester, Shepreth, Orwell, Wratworth, Whitwell and Arrington we see
nothing manorial, unless we hold ourselves free to use that term of a
little tenement which to all appearance might easily be cultivated by
the labour of one household, at all events with occasional help supplied
by a few cottagers. Indeed it is difficult to say what profit some of
the great people whose names we have mentioned were deriving from those
of their men who dwelt in the Wetherley hundred. We take the Mercian
earl for example[563]. One of the sokemen of Grantchester, four of the
sokemen of Barrington, one of the sokemen of Shepreth, one of the
sokemen of Orwell, one of the sokemen of Wratworth, two of the sokemen
of Whitwell were Ælfgar's men. That Ælfgar got a little money or a
little provender out of them is probable, that they did some carrying
service for him is possible and perhaps they aided him at harvest time
on some manor of his in another part of the county; but that they were
not the tillers of his land seems clear[564].
[The sokeman and seignorial justice.]
What is more, our analysis of this Wetherley hundred enables us to drive
home the remark that very often a sokeman was not the sokeman of his
lord or, in other words, that he was not under seignorial justice[565].
Ælfgar had ten sokemen scattered about in six villages. Did he hold a
court for them? We think not. Did they go to the court of some distant
manor? We think not. The court they attended was the Wetherley
hundred-moot. One of the sokemen in Arrington was in a somewhat
exceptional position--exceptional, that is, in this hundred. Not only
was he the man of the Abbot of Ely, but his soke belonged to the Abbot;
and if he sold his tenement, and this he could do without the Abbot's
consent, the soke over his land would 'remain' to the Abbot[566]. He was
not only his lord's man but his lord's justiciable and probably attended
some court outside the hundred. But for the more part these men of
Wetherley were not the justiciables of their lords. It was a very free
hundred when the Normans came there: much too free for the nation's
welfare we may think, for these sokemen could go with their land to what
lord they pleased. Also be it noted in passing that the churches have
little in Wetherley.
[Changes in the Wetherley hundred.]
In 1086 there had been a change. The sokemen had disappeared. The Norman
lords had made demesne land where their English _antecessores_ possessed
none. Count Roger had instituted a seignorial court at Orwell. He had
borrowed three sokemen 'to hold his pleas' from Picot the sheriff and
had refused to give them up again[567]. Apparently they had sunk to the
level of _villani_. Two centuries afterwards we see the hundred of
Wetherley once more. There is villeinage enough in it. The villein at
Orwell, for example, holds only 10 acres but works for his lord on 152
days in the year, besides boon-days[568]. And yet we should go far
astray if we imposed upon these Cambridgeshire villages that neat
manorial system which we see at its neatest and strongest in the
abbatial cartularies. The villages do not become manors. The manors are
small. The manors are intermixed in the open fields. There are often
freeholders in the village who are not the tenants of any lord who has a
manor there. A villein will hold two tenements of two lords. The villein
of one lord will be the freeholder of another. The 'manorial system' has
been forced upon the villages, but it fits them badly[569].
[Manorialism in Cambridgeshire.]
In the thirteenth century the common field of a Cambridgeshire village
was often a very maze of proprietary rights, and yet the village was an
agrarian whole. Let us take, for example, Duxford as it stood in the
reign of Edward I.[570] We see 39 villein tenements each of which has
fourteen acres in the fields. These tenements are divided between five
different manors. Four of our typical 'townsmen' hold of Henry de Lacy,
who holds of Simon de Furneaux, who holds of the Count of Britanny, who
holds of the king. Two hold of Ralph of Duxford, who holds of Basilia
wife of Baldwyn of St George, who holds of William Mortimer, who holds
of Simon de Furneaux, who holds of the Count of Britanny, who holds of
the king. Eight hold of the Templars, who hold of Roger de Colville, who
holds of the Earl of Albemarle, who holds of the king. Nine hold of
William le Goyz, who holds of Henry of Boxworth, who holds of Richard de
Freville, who holds of the king. Sixteen hold of John d'Abernon, who
holds of the Earl Marshal, who holds of the king. Three of the greatest
'honours' in England are represented. Three monasteries and two
parochial churches have strips in the fields. And yet there are normal
tenements cut according to one pattern, tenements of fourteen acres the
holders of which, though their other services may differ, pay for the
more part an equal rent[571]. The village seems to say that it must be
one, though the lords would make it many. And then we look back to the
Confessor's day and we see that a good part of Duxford was held by
sokemen[572].
[The sokemen and the manors.]