_RESULT OF THE EVIDENCE._
I. THE METHOD OF THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS.
It may perhaps now be possible to sum up the evidence, without
pretending to more certainty in the conclusion than the condition of
the question warrants.
«The tribal system in Wales and Germany.»
At the two extreme limits of our subject we have found, on one side,
the tribal system of Wales and Ireland, and, on the other side, the
German tribal system.
In the earliest stage of these systems they were seemingly alike,
both in the nomadic habits of the tribes, and the shifting about of
the households in a tribe from one homestead to another. Sir John
Davis describes this shifting as going on in Ireland in his day, and
Cæsar describes it as going on in Germany 1,700 years earlier.
«Co-aration of the waste on the early open-field system.»
In both cases, such agriculture as was a necessity even to pastoral
tribes was carried on under the open-field system in its simplest
form--the ploughing up of new ground each season, which then
went back into grass. The Welsh triads speak of it as a [p413]
_co-aration_ of portions of _the waste_. Tacitus describes it in the
words, 'Arva per annos mutant, et superest ager.' In neither case,
therefore, is there _the three-field system_, which implies fixed
arable fields ploughed again and again in rotation.
«The three-field system implies fixed settlements and
rotation of crops, which came probably with Roman rule. The yard-land
or hub implies servile tenants.»
The three-field system evidently implies the surrender of the
tribal shifting and the submission to fixed settlement. Further,
as wherever we can examine the three-field system we find the mass
of the holdings to have been fixed bundles, called _yard-lands_
or _huben_--bundles retaining the same contents from generation
to generation--it seems to follow either that the tribal division
of holdings among heirs, which was the mark of free holdings, had
ceased, _or_ that the three-field system was from the first the shell
of a community in serfdom.
The geographical distribution of the three-field system--mainly
within the old Roman provinces and in the Suevic districts along
their borders--makes it almost certain that, in Germany, _Roman rule_
was the influence which enforced the settlement, and introduced, with
other improvements in agriculture, such as the vine culture, a fixed
rotation of crops.
In Wales the necessity for settlement did _not_ generally produce
the three-field system _with holdings in yard-lands_,[630] because,
as the Welsh tribesmen, though they may have had household slaves,
as a rule held no taeogs or prædial slaves, it produced no serfdom.
But under the German tribal system, even in the time of Tacitus, the
tribesmen in the [p414] semi-Romanised districts, at all events,
already had prædial slaves.
«The Roman villa another factor and grew into the manor.»
The manorial system, however, was not simply a development from the
tribal system of the Germans; it had evidently a complex origin. A
Roman element also seems to have entered into its composition.
The Roman _villa_, to begin with, a slave-worked estate, during the
later empire, whether from German influence or not, became still more
like a manor by the addition of _coloni_ and other mostly barbarian
semi-servile tenants to the slaves.
There may have been once free village communities on the 'ager
publicus,' but, as we have seen, the management of the public lands
under the fiscal officers of the Emperor also tended during the later
Empire to become more and more manorial in its character, so much so
that the word 'villa' could apparently sometimes be applied to the
fiscal district.
«Roman and German elements combined.»
Whichever of the two factors--Roman or German--contributed most
to the mediæval manor, the manorial estate became the predominant
form of land ownership in what had once been Roman provinces. And
the German successors of Roman lords of villas became in their
turn manorial lords of manors; whilst the 'coloni,' 'liti,' and
'tributarii' upon them, wherever they remained upon the same ground,
apparently became, with scarcely a visible change, a community of
serfs.
«Both 'ager publicus' and 'terra regis' manorial.»
On the other hand, the fact that the _terra regis_ also was divided
under Saxon and Frankish kings into _manors_ probably was the natural
result of the growing manorial management of the public lands under
the fiscal officers of the Emperor during the later Empire, [p415]
quickened or completed after the barbarian conquests. The fiscal
districts seem to have become in fact royal manors, and the free
'coloni,' 'liti,' and 'servi' upon them appear as manorial tenants of
different grades in the earliest grants to the monasteries.
The fact that as early as the time of Tacitus, the German chieftains
and tribesmen were in their own country lords of serfs, in itself
explains the ease with which they assumed the position of lords of
manors on the conquest of the provinces.
The result of conquest seems thus to have been chiefly a change of
lordship, both as regards the private villas and the public lands.
The conquered districts seem to have become in a wholesale way
practically _terra regis_. There is no evidence that the modes of
agriculture on the one hand or the modes of management on the other
hand were materially changed. The conquering king would probably at
once put followers of his own into the place of the Roman fiscal
officers. These would become _quasi_-lords of the royal manors on
the _terra regis_. Then by degrees would naturally arise the process
whereby under lavish royal grants manors were handed one after
another into the private ownership of churches and monasteries and
favourites of the king, thus honey-combing the _terra regis_ with
private manors.
This seems to have been what happened in the Frankish provinces, and
in the Alamannic and Bavarian districts, where the process can be
most clearly traced. And the result seems to have been the almost
universal prevalence of the manorial system in these districts. Even
the towns came to be regarded as in the demesne of the king. And
[p416] gradually manorial lordship extended itself over the free
tenants as well as over the various semi-servile classes who were
afterwards confused together in the general class of serfs.
The community of serfs was fed from above and from below. Free
'coloni,' by their own voluntary surrender, and free tribesmen,
perhaps upon conquest or gradually by the force of long usage, sank
into serfs. Slaves, on the other hand, by their lord's favour, or to
meet the needs of agriculture, were supplied with an outfit of oxen
and rose out of slavery into serfdom.
But what was this serfdom? It was not simply the old prædial slavery
of the Germans of Tacitus. Nor was it merely a continuance of the
slavery on the Roman villa.
«Slavery mitigated by Christian humanity.»
For finally, in the period of transition from Roman to German
lordship, a new moral force entered as a fresh factor in the economic
evolution. The silent humanising influence of Christianity seems to
have been the power which mitigated the rigour of slavery, and raised
the slave on the estates of the Church into the middle status of
serfdom, by insisting upon the limitation of his labour to the three
days' week-work of the mediæval serf.
Thus, from the point of view alike of the German and the Roman
'servi,' mediæval serfdom, except to the freemen who by their own
surrender or by conquest were degraded into it, was a distinct step
upward in the economic progress of the masses of the people towards
freedom.
* * * * *
«The pre-Roman _one-field_ system in England.»
Applying these results especially to England, we [p417] have once
more to remember that there was settled agriculture in Belgic Britain
before the Roman invasion: that the fact vouched for by Pliny, that
_marl_ and _manure_ were ploughed into the fields, is proof that
the simplest form of the open-field system--the Welsh co-aration of
the waste, and the German shifting every year of the '_arva_'--had
already given place to a more settled and organised system, in
which the same land remained under tillage year after year. Pliny's
description of the marling of the land, however, points rather to
the _one-field system_ of Northern Germany than to the three-field
system, as that under which the corn was grown which Cæsar found
ripening on British fields when he first landed on the southern
coast.[631]
«Roman introduction of the three-course rotation of crops.»
In the meantime Roman improvements in agriculture may well have
included the introduction into the province of Britain of the
three-course rotation of crops. The open fields round the villa of
the Roman lord, cultivated by his slaves, 'coloni,' 'tributarii,'
and 'liti,' may have been first arranged on the three-field system;
and, once established, that system would spread and become general
during those centuries of Roman occupation in which so much corn was
produced and exported from the island.
The Roman _annonæ_--founded, perhaps, on the earlier tribal
food-rents--were, in Britain, as we know from the 'Agricola'
of Tacitus, taken mostly in corn; [p418] and the _tributum_
was probably assessed during the later empire on that system of
_jugation_ which was found to be so like to the _hidation_ which
prevailed after the Saxon conquest.
«Conquest the rule. The invaders become lords of _hams_
manors.»
Putting aside as exceptional the probably peaceful but at best
obscure settlements in tribal households, and regarding conquest
as the rule, the economic evidence seems to supply no solid reason
for supposing that the German conquerors acted in Britain in a way
widely different from that which they followed on the conquest
of Continental Roman provinces. The conquered territory here as
elsewhere probably became at first _terra regis_ of the English,
Saxon, or Jutish kings. And though there may have been more cases in
England than elsewhere of extermination of the old inhabitants, the
evidence of the English open-field system seems to show that, taking
England as a whole, the continuity between the Roman and English
system of land management was not really broken. The Roman provincial
_villa_ still seems to have remained the typical form of estate; and
the management of the public lands, now _terra regis_, seems to have
preserved its manorial character. For whenever estates are granted to
the Church or monasteries, or to thanes of the king, they seem to be
handed over as already existing manors, with their own customs and
services fixed by immemorial usage.
It is most probable that whenever German conquerors descended upon an
already peopled country where agriculture was carried on as it was in
Britain, their comparatively small numbers, and still further their
own dislike to agricultural pursuits and liking for lordship, and
familiarity with servile tenants in [p419] the old country, would
induce them to place the conquered people in the position of serfs,
as the Germans of Tacitus seem to have done, making them do the
agriculture by customary methods. If in any special cases the numbers
in the invading hosts were larger than usual, they would probably
include the semi-servile dependants of the chieftains and tribesmen.
These, placed on the land allotted to their lords, would be serfs in
England as they had been at home.
«The yard-land shows this,»
At this point, as we have seen, the internal evidence of the
open-field system, at the earliest date at which it arises, comes
to our aid, showing that as a general rule it was the shell, not of
household communities of tribesmen doing their own ploughing like the
Welsh tribesmen by co-aration, but of serfs doing the ploughing under
an over-lordship.
Here the English evidence points in precisely the same direction
as the Continental. For, as so often repeated, the prevalence, as
far back as the earliest records, of yard-lands and _huben_, handed
down so generally, and evidently by long immemorial custom, as
_indivisible bundles_ from one generation to another, implies the
_absence_ of _division among heirs_, and is accordingly a mark of the
servile nature of the holding.
«and also local names.»
«The earlier 'hams' and 'tuns' manors.»
Further, whenever a place was called, as so many places were, by the
name of a single person, it seems obvious that at the moment when its
name was acquired it was under a _land ownership_, which, as regards
the dependent population upon it, was a _lordship_. We have seen that
in the laws of King Ethelbert the '_hams_' and '_tuns_' of England
are spoken of as in a single ownership, whilst the [p420] mention of
the three grades of 'læts' shows that there were semi-servile tenants
upon them. And in the vast number of instances in which local names
consist of a personal name with a suffix, the evidence of the local
name itself is strong for the manorial character of the estate. When
that suffix is _tun_, or _ham_, or _villa_, with the personal name
prefixed, the evidence is doubly strong. Even when connected with an
impersonal prefix, these suffixes in themselves distinctly point, as
we have seen, to the manorial character of the estate, with at least
direct, if not absolutely conclusive, force.
Whatever doubt remains is not as to the generally manorial character
of the _hams_ and _tuns_ of the earliest Saxon records, or as to
the serfdom of their tenants; as to this, it is submitted that the
evidence is clear and conclusive. Whatever doubt remains is as to
which of two possible courses leading to this result was taken by the
Saxon conquerors of Britain.
As regards the methods of their conquest, there happens to exist no
satisfactory contemporary evidence. They may either have conquered
and adopted the Roman villas, whether in private or imperial hands,
with the slaves and 'coloni' or 'tributarii' upon them, calling
them 'hams,' or they may have destroyed the Roman villas and their
tenants, and have established in their place fresh 'hams' of their
own, which in mediæval Latin records, whether in private or royal
possession, were also afterwards called 'villas.' In some districts
they may have followed the one course, in other districts the other
course. Either of the two might as well as the other have produced
manors and manorial serfdom. [p421]
«Survivals from the Romano-German province prove
continuity, and are inconsistent with extermination»
But when the internal evidence of the Anglo-Saxon land system
is examined, even this doubt as to which of the two methods was
generally followed is in part removed. For it may at least be said
with truth that the hundred years of historical darkness during which
there is a simple absence of direct testimony, is at least bridged
over by such planks of _in_direct economic evidence as the apparent
connexion between the Roman 'jugation' and the Saxon 'hidage,' the
resemblance between the Roman and Saxon allotment of a certain number
of acres along with single or double yokes of oxen to the holdings,
the prevalence of the rule of single succession, the apparent
continuance of the Roman _tributum_ and _annonæ_, and even some of
the _sordida munera_ in the Saxon _gafol_, _gafol-yrth_, _averagium_,
and other manorial services; and, lastly, the fact that in Gaul and
Upper Germany the actual continuity between the Roman _villa_ and the
German _heim_ can be more or less clearly traced.
«unless the invaders were themselves Romanised.»
The force of this economic evidence, it is submitted, is at least
enough to prove either that there was a sufficient amount of
continuity between the Roman villa and the Saxon manor to preserve
the general type, or that the German invaders who destroyed and
re-introduced the manorial type of estate came from a district in
which there had been such continuity, and where they themselves had
lived long enough to permit the peculiar manorial instincts of the
Romano-German province to become a kind of second nature to them.
It is as impossible to conceive that this complex manorial land
system, which we have found to bristle with historical survivals
of usages of the [p422] Romano-German province, should have been
suddenly introduced into England by _un-Romanised_ Northern piratical
tribes of Germans, as it is to conceive of the sudden creation of a
fossil.
The most reasonable hypothesis, in the absence of direct evidence,
appears therefore to be that the manorial system grew up in Britain
as it grew up in Gaul and Germany, as the compound product of
barbarian and Roman institutions mixing together during the periods
first of Roman provincial rule, and secondly of German conquest.
«The large extent of folk-land evidence against extensive
allodial allotments.»
This hypothesis seems at least most fully to account for the facts.
Perhaps, it is not too much to say that whilst the large tracts of
England remaining folk-land or _terra regis_, in spite of the lavish
grants to monasteries complained of by Bede, are in themselves
suggestive of the comparatively limited extent of allodial allotments
among the conquering tribesmen, the existence and multiplication
upon the _terra regis_, not of free village communities, but of
royal manors of the same type as that of the Frankish villas, with a
serfdom upon them also of the same type, and connected with the same
three-field system of husbandry in both cases, almost amounts to a
positive verification when the historical survivals clinging to the
system in both cases are taken into account.
«The invaders either adopted the natives as serfs or
brought serfs with them.»
Even on the supposition that the Saxons really exterminated the old
population and destroyed every vestige of the Roman system, it has
already become obvious that it would not at all follow that they
generally introduced free village communities; for in that case the
evidence would go far to show that they most likely brought slaves
with them and settled [p423] them in servile village communities
round their own dwellings, as Tacitus saw the Germans of his time
doing in Germany. But, again, it must be remembered that however
naturally this might produce the manor and serfdom, still the
survivals of minute provincial usages hanging about the Saxon land
system would remain unaccounted for, unless the invaders of the fifth
century had already been thoroughly Romanised before their conquest
of Britain.
«English history begins not with free communities but with
serfdom.»
We cannot, indeed, pretend to have discovered in the economic
evidence a firm bridge for all purposes across the historic gulf
of the fifth century, and to have settled the difficult questions
who were the German invaders of England, whence they came, and what
was the exact form of their settlements in one district or another.
But the facts we have examined seem to have settled the practical
economic question with which we started, viz. whether the _hams_ and
_tuns_ of England, with their open fields and yard-lands, in the
earliest historical times were inhabited and tilled in the main by
free village communities, or by communities in villenage. However
many exceptional instances there may have been of settlements in
tribal households, or even free village communities, it seems to be
almost certain that these 'hams' and 'tuns' were, generally speaking,
and for the most part from the first, practically _manors_ with
communities in _serfdom_ upon them.
«The yard-land not the allodial allotment of a free
tribesman.»
It has become at least clear, speaking broadly, that the equal
'yard-lands' of the 'geburs' were not the 'alods' or free lots of
'alodial' freeholders in a common 'mark,' but the tenements of serfs
paying 'gafol' and doing 'week-work' for their lords. And this is
[p424] equally true whether the manors on which they lived were
bocland of Saxon thanes, or folk-land under the 'villicus' of a Saxon
king.
II. LOCAL EVIDENCE OF CONTINUITY BETWEEN ROMAN AND ENGLISH VILLAGES.
There yet remains one test to which the hypothesis of continuity
between the British, Roman, and English village community and
open-field system may be put.
«Doubts as to the extermination of the British population
by the English invaders.»
It has sometimes been inferred, perhaps too readily, that the English
invaders of Roman Britain nearly exterminated the old inhabitants,
destroying the towns and villages, and making fresh settlements of
their own, upon freshly chosen sites. If this were so, it would, of
course, involve the destruction of the open fields round the old
villages, and the formation of fresh open fields round the new ones.
The passage in Ammianus Marcellinus has sometimes been quoted,
in which he describes the Alamanni, who had taken possession of
Strasburg, Spires, Worms, Mayence, &c., as encamped outside these
cities, shunning their inside 'as though they had been graves
surrounded by nets.'[632] But this was in time of war, and no proof
of what they might do when in peaceable possession of the country.
Mr. Freeman also has drawn a graphic picture of Anderida, with the
two Saxon villages of Pevensey and West Ham outside of its old Roman
walls, and no dwellings within them. But it would so obviously be
[p425] much easier to build new houses outside the gates of a ruined
city, or, perhaps, we should say rather fortified camp, than to clear
away the rubbish and build upon the old site, that such an instance
is far from conclusive. Nor does the fact that in so many cases the
streets of once Roman cities deviate from the old Roman lines prove
that the new builders avoided the ancient sites. It proves only
that, instead of removing the heaps of rubbish, they chose the open
spaces behind them as more convenient for their new buildings, in
the process of erecting which the heaps of rubbish were doubtless
gradually removed.
«Is there evidence of continuity in the rural villages?»
But, in truth, cases of fortified cities are not to the point. What
we want to find out is whether, in the _rural_ districts, the British
villages, with their open fields around them, were generally adopted
by the Romans, and whether, having survived the Roman occupation, the
Saxons adopted them in their turn.
«_e.g._ in the Hitchin district.»
It may be worth while to recur to the district from which was taken
the typical example of the open fields, testing the point by such
local evidence as may there be found.
«The Icknild way and other ancient roads.»
Among the ancient boundaries of the township of Hitchin, or rather
of that part which included the now enclosed hamlet of Walsworth,
was mentioned the Icknild way--that old British road which, passing
from Wiltshire to Norfolk, here traverses the edge of the Chiltern
hills. It sometimes winds lazily about uphill and down, following
the line of the chalk downs. In many places it is merely a broad
turf drift way. Here and there a long straight stretch of a mile or
two suggests a Roman improvement upon [p426] its perhaps once more
devious course. Here and there, too, are fragments of similar broad
turf lanes leading nowhere, having lost the continuity which no doubt
they once possessed. Sometimes crossing it, sometimes branching
off from it, sometimes running parallel to it, are also frequently
found similar winding broad turf drift ways, or straight roads of
apparently British or Roman origin. It crosses Akeman Street at
Tring, Watling Street at Dunstable, and Irmine Street at Royston.
Neither Dunstable nor Royston, however, are examples of continuity,
being comparatively modern towns, neither of them mentioned in the
Domesday Survey. Hitchin lies about half-way between the cross-roads.
«The district under its Belgic kings.»
The district included in the annexed map, of which Hitchin is the
centre, was a part of Belgic Britain. According to Cæsar this had
been under the rule of the same king as Belgic Gaul, and upon the
evidence of coins and certain passages in Roman writers, it is pretty
well understood to have been, soon after the invasion of Cæsar, under
the rule of Tasciovanus,[633] whose capital was Verulamium, and after
him of his son Cunobeline, whose capital was Camulodunum. The sons of
the latter (one of them Caractacus) were prevented from succeeding
him by the advance of the Roman arms.[634] The intimate relations of
the two capitals at Verulam and at Colchester explain the existence
of the roads between them.
[Illustration: MAP of the neighbourhood of HITCHIN.
THE HILLS AT MEPPERSHALL.
LITLINGTON.
TOOT HILL AT PIRTON.]
The dykes which cross the Icknild way at [p427] intervals, East
of Royston--the Brent dyke, the Balsham dyke (parallel to the _Via
Devana_), and the Devil's dyke, near Newmarket--seem to indicate that
here was the border land between this district and that of the Iceni
(Norfolk and Suffolk).
«Coins of Tasciovanus and Cunobeline.»
Sandy (the Roman _Salinæ_), at the north of the district in the
map, is known, from the evidence of coins of Cunobeline, to have
been an important British centre. A gold coin of Tasciovanus, and
other British coins, have been picked up on the Icknild way, between
Hitchin and Dunstable. A gold coin of Cunobeline, and many fragments
of Roman pottery, have been found about half a mile to the east of
Abington, a village a little to the north of the Icknild way, near
Royston.[635] Coins of Cunobeline have also been found at Great
Chesterford. A copper coin of Cunobeline was picked up in a garden in
Walsworth, a hamlet of Hitchin, and British urns of a rude type have
been recently found on the top of Benslow Hill, the high ground on
the east of the town.
«Pre-Roman roads, &c.»
The map will show in how many directions the district is cut up by
Roman roads, which, as they evidently connect the various parts of
the domain of the before-mentioned British kings, were probably, with
the Icknild way itself, British tracks before they were adopted by
the Romans.
Almost every commanding bluff of the chalk downs retains traces of
its having been used as a hill fort, probably in pre-Roman times, as
well as later, while the numerous tumuli all along the route of the
Icknild way testify, probably, to the numerous battles fought in its
neighbourhood. [p428]
«Its Roman conquest under Claudius and Aulus Plautius,
about A.D. 43.»
Probably this district fell under direct Roman rule after the
campaigns of Aulus Plautius and Claudius, about A.D. 43.[636]
The direction of the advance was probably across the Thames at
Wallingford, and along the Icknild way, from which the descent upon
Verulam could well be made from Tring or Dunstable down what were
afterwards called Akeman Street and Watling Street. Under the tumulus
near Litlington, called Limloe, or Limbury Hill, skeletons were
found, and coins of the reign of Claudius, and of later date. It
is possible that the battle was fought here in a later reign which
brought the further parts of the district under Roman rule.
«The Saxon conquest about A.D. 571.»
The date of the Saxon conquest of this district may be as definitely
determined. It preceded the conquest of Bath, Cirencester, and
Gloucester by a very few years. It may be pretty clearly placed at
about A.D. 571, when, according to the Saxon Chronicle, 'Cuthwulf
fought with the Brit-weals at Bedcan-ford (Bedford), and took four
towns. He took Lygean-birg (Lenborough) and Aegeles-birg (Aylesbury),
and Bænesingtun (Bensington) and Egonesham (Eynsham).' This was the
time when Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire fell into
the hands of the West Saxons.
The old boundary of the ecclesiastical division of the country before
the time of the Norman conquest included this district, with Bedford,
in the diocese of Dorchester. The boundary probably followed the
lines of the old West Saxon kingdom, and shut it off [p429] from
Essex and the rest of Hertfordshire, which were included in the
diocese of London.
The district, therefore, seems to have remained nearly 400 years
under Roman rule, and under the British post-Roman rule another 100
years, till within twenty-five or thirty years of the arrival of St.
Augustine in England, and the date of the laws of King Ethelbert,
and within little more than 100 years of the date of the laws of
King Ine, which laws presumably were founded upon customs of this
district, once a part of the West Saxon kingdom.
«Do the Roman remains suggest continuity?»
The question is whether the position of the Roman remains which have
been discovered in this neighbourhood points to a continuity in the
sites of the present villages between British, Roman, and Saxon
times. This question may certainly, in many instances, and, perhaps,
generally, be answered distinctly in the affirmative.
«The town of Hitchin, or 'Hiz,' _i.e._ 'of the streams.'»
Take first the town of Hitchin itself. Its name in the Domesday
Survey was 'Hiz,' and there can be little doubt that it is a Celtic
word, meaning 'streams.'[637] The position of the township accords
with this name. The river 'Hiz' rises out of the chalk at Wellhead,
almost immediately turns a mill, and, flowing through the town,
joins the Ivel a few miles lower down in its course, and so flows
ultimately into the Ouse. The Orton[638] rises at the west extremity
of the township, in [p430] a few hundred yards turns West Mill, and
forms the boundary of the parish till it meets the Hiz at Ickleford,
where the two are forded by the Icknild way. The Purwell, rising
from the south east, forms the boundary between the parishes of
Hitchin and Much Wymondley, and then, after turning Purwell Mill, and
dividing Hitchin from Walsworth Hamlet, also joins the Hiz before it
reaches Ickleford. Thus two of these three pure chalk streams embrace
the township, and one passes through it giving its Celtic name Hiz to
the town.[639]
«Its Celtic name.»
It is not likely that either the Romans or the Saxon invaders gave it
this Celtic name.
«British and Roman remains.»
As already mentioned, on the top of the hill, to the east of the
town, British sepulchral urns have been recently found.
A Roman cemetery, with a large number of sepulchral urns, dishes,
and bottles, and coins of Severus, Carausius, Constantine, and
Alectus, was turned up a few years ago on the top of the hill on
the opposite side of the town, in a part of the open fields called
'The Fox-holes'[640]--a plot of useless ground being often used for
burials by the Romans.
Another Roman cemetery, with very similar pottery and coins, has been
found on Bury Mead, near the line where the arable part ceases and
the [p431] Lammas meadow lands begin. Bury field itself (_i.e._ the
arable) has been deeply drained, but yielded no coins or urns.
Occasional coins and urns have been found in the town itself.
This, so far as it goes, is good evidence that Hitchin was a British
and a Roman before it was a Saxon town.
In the sub-hamlet of Charlton, near Wellhead, the source of the
Hiz, small coins of the lower Empire have been found. As already
mentioned, a coin of Cunobeline was found in the village of
Walsworth. In even the hamlets, therefore, there is some evidence
of continuity. At Ickleford, where the Icknild way crosses the Hiz,
Roman coins have been found.
«Much Wymondley.»
The next parish to the east, divided from Hitchin by the Purwell
stream, is Much Wymondley.
The evidence of continuity, as regards this parish, is remarkably
clear. The accompanying map[641] supplies an interesting example of
open fields, with their strips and balks and scattered ownership
still remaining in 1803. These open arable fields were originally
divided off from the village by a stretch of Lammas land.
«Roman holding perhaps of a retired veteran.»
Between this Lammas land and the church in the village lie the
remains of the little Roman holding, of which an enlarged plan is
given. It consists now of several fields, forming a rough square,
with its sides to the four points of the compass, and contains,
filling in the corners of the square, about 25 Roman [p432]
jugera--or the eighth of a centuria of 200 jugera--the extent of
land often allotted, as we have seen, to a retired veteran with a
single pair of oxen. The proof that it was a Roman holding is as
follows:--In the corner next to the church are two square fields
still distinctly surrounded by a moat, nearly parallel to which, on
the east side, was found a line of black earth full of broken Roman
pottery and tiles. Near the church, at the south-west corner of the
property, is a double tumulus, which, being close to the church
field, may have been an ancient 'toot hill,' or a terminal mound.
In the extreme opposite corner of the holding was found a Roman
cemetery, containing the urns, dishes, and bottles of a score or
two of burials. Drawings of those of the vessels not broken in the
digging, engraved from a photograph, are appended to the map, by the
kind permission of the owner.[642] Over the hedge, at this corner,
begins the Lammas land.[643]
How many other holdings were included in the Roman village we do not
know, but that the village was in the same position in relation to
the open fields that it was in 1803 is obvious.
«Ashwell.»
Ashwell also evidently stands on its old site round the head of a
remarkably strong chalk spring, the clear stream from which flows
through the village as the river _Rhee_, a branch of the _Cam_. Early
Roman coins and sepulchral urns have been found in the hamlet called
'Ashwell End,' and a Roman road, called 'Ashwell Street,' passes
by the town parallel [p433] to the Icknild way. Near to the town
is a camp, with a clearly defined vallum, called Harborough Banks,
where coins of the later Empire have been found. A map of the parish,
made before the enclosure, and preserved in the place, shows that it
presented a remarkably good example of the open-field system.
[Illustration: PLAN of the Parish of MUCH WYMONDLEY.
Enlarged Plan of the Roman Holding.]
«Roman villa and cemetery.»
An instance of continuity as remarkable as that of Much Wymondley
occurs at Litlington,[644] the next village to Ashwell, on the
Ashwell Street. The church and manor house in this case lie near
together on the west side of the village, and in the adjoining field
and gardens the walls and pavements of a Roman villa were found
many years ago. At a little distance from it, nearer to the Ashwell
Street, a Roman _ustrinum_ and cemetery were found, surrounded
by four walls, and yielding coins of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius,
Quintillus, Carausius, Constantine the Great, Magnentius, &c. A map
of this village is appended.
When the Roman villa was discovered, the open fields around the
village were still unenclosed, and the position of Ashwell Street was
pushed farther from the village at the time of the enclosure.
The tumulus called 'Limloe,' or 'Limbury Hill,' lies at the side
of the road leading from the Icknild way across the Ashwell Street
to the village, and immediately under it skeletons with coins of
Claudius, Vespasian, and Faustina were found, as already mentioned.
«Ickleton and Chesterford.»
A few miles further east than Royston are two villages, Ickleton on
the Icknild way, and Great [p434] Chesterford a little to the south
of it. That both these places are on Roman sites the foundations and
coins which have been found attest.[645] There are remains of a camp
at Chesterford, and coins of Cunobeline as well as numerous Roman
coins have been dug up there.[646]
«Hadstock.»
At Hadstock, a village near, in a field called 'Sunken Church Field,'
Roman foundations and coins have been found.[647]
«Other instances of continuity in the sites of villages.»
Proceeding further east the list of similar cases might be greatly
increased. But keeping within the small district, in the following
other cases the finding of Roman coins in the villages seems to be
fair proof of continuity in their sites, viz.:--Sandy, Campton,
Baldock, Willian, Cumberlow Green, Weston, Stevenage, Hexton, and
Higham Gobion.
«Ancient mounds and earth works.»
Two remarkable instances of ancient mounds or fortifications close
to churches occur at Meppershall and Pirton, of both of which plans
are given. The Pirton mound is called in the village the 'toot hill.'
These mounds in the neighbourhood of churches may be much older than
the Saxon conquest. Open air courts were by no means confined to one
race.[648] Roman remains have been found in the neighbourhood of both
these places, but how near to the actual village sites I am unable to
say.[649]
Leaving out these two and many more doubtful cases, and without
pretending to be exhaustive, there have been mentioned nearly a score
in which Roman [p435] remains or coins have already been found on
the present sites of villages in this small district.
[Illustration: ROMAN POTTERY FOUND AT GREAT WYMONDLEY,
HERTS. MARCH 1882.]
«Strong evidence of continuity in this district.»
So far the local evidence supports the view that the West Saxons, who
probably conquered it about A.D. 570, succeeded to a long-settled
agriculture; and further it seems likely that, assuming the lordship
vacated by the owners of the villas, and adopting the village sites,
they continued the cultivation of the open fields around them by
means of the old rural population on that same three-field system,
which had probably been matured and improved during Roman rule, and
by which the population of the district had been supported during the
three generations between the departure of the Roman governors and
the West Saxon conquest.
But it may perhaps be urged that these districts, conquered so late
as A.D. 570, may have been exceptionally treated. If this were so,
it must be borne in mind that the whole of central England--i.e. the
counties described in the second volume of the Hundred Rolls as to
which the evidence for the existence of the open-field system was so
strong--was included in the exception. Indeed, if the line of the
Icknild way be extended along Akeman Street to Cirencester, Bath, and
Gloucester, the line of the Saxon conquests which were later than
A.D. 560 would be pretty clearly marked. The laws of Ine, pointing
backwards as they do from their actual date, reach back within two or
three generations of the date of the Saxon conquest of this part of
Old Wessex.
«The Hitchin district hardly exceptional.»
It would be impossible here to pursue the question in detail in other
parts of England. Perhaps it will be sufficient to call attention to
the many cases [p436] mentioned in Mr. C. Roach Smith's valuable
'Collectanea,'[650] in which Roman remains have been found in close
proximity to the churches of modern villages, and to his remark that
a long list of such instances might easily be made.[651]
The number of such cases which occur in Kent is very remarkable, and
Kent was certainly not a late conquest.
I will only add a passing allusion to the remarkable case at
Woodchester, in Gloucestershire, where the church, present mansion,
and Roman villa are close together,[652] and mention that in two
of the hamlets on the manor of Tidenham--Stroat and Sedbury (or
Cingestun)--Roman remains bear testimony to a Roman occupation before
the West Saxon conquest.[653]
The fact seems to be that the archæological evidence, gradually
accumulating as time goes on, points more and more clearly to the
fact that our modern villages are very often on their old Roman and
sometimes probably pre-Roman sites--that however much the English
invaders avoided the walled towns of Roman Britain, they certainly
had no such antipathy to the occupation of its villas and rural
villages. [p437]
III. CONCLUSION.
«Economic result.»
The economic result of the inquiry pursued in this essay may now be
summed up in few words.
Its object was not to inquire into the origin of village and tribal
communities as the possible beginning of all things, but simply
to put English Economic History on true lines at its historical
beginning, viz.: the English Conquest.
«Two rural systems throughout--the village community in the
east, and the tribal community in the west.»
Throughout the whole period from pre-Roman to modern times we have
found in Britain two parallel systems of rural economy side by side,
but keeping separate and working themselves out on quite different
lines, in spite of Roman, English, and Norman invasions--that of the
_village_ community in the eastern, that of the _tribal_ community in
the western districts of the island.
«Community and equality in both.»
«Each had its own open-field system.»
Both systems as far back as the evidence extends were marked by the
two notes of community and equality, and each was connected with a
form of the open or common field system of husbandry peculiar to
itself. These two different forms of the common field system also
kept themselves distinct throughout, and are still distinct in their
modern remains or survivals.
«Both pre-Roman.»
Neither the village nor the tribal community seems to have been
introduced into Britain during a historical period reaching back for
2,000 years at least.
«The English village community in serfdom, and its»
«three-field system.»
«A step out of slavery towards the freedom of the new order
of things.»
On the one hand, the village community of the eastern districts of
Britain was connected with a settled agriculture which, apparently
dating earlier [p438] than the Roman invasion and improved during
the Roman occupation, was carried on, at length, under that
three-field form of the open-field system which became the shell of
the English village community. The equality in its yard-lands and
the single succession which preserved this equality we have found to
be apparently marks not of an original freedom, not of an original
allodial allotment on the German 'mark system,' but of a settled
serfdom under a lordship--a semi-servile tenancy implying a mere
usufruct, theoretically only for life, or at will, and carrying with
it no inherent rights of inheritance. But this serfdom, as we have
seen reason to believe, was, to the masses of the people, not a
degradation, but a step upward out of a once more general slavery.
Certainly during the 1,200 years over which the direct English
evidence extends the tendency has been towards more and more of
freedom. In other words, as time went on during these 1,200 years,
the serfdom of the old order of things has been gradually breaking
up under those influences, whatever they may have been, which have
produced the new order of things.
«The tribal community and its 'run-rig' system.»
«opposed to the new order of things.»
On the other hand, the tribal community of the western districts
of Great Britain and of Ireland, though parallel in time with the
village community of the eastern districts, was connected with an
earlier stage of economic development, in which the rural economy was
pastoral rather than agricultural. This tribal community was bound
together, perhaps, in a unique degree, by the strong ties of blood
relationship between free tribesmen. The equality which followed
the possession of the tribal blood involved an equal division among
the sons of tribesmen, and was [p439] maintained in spite of the
inequality of families by frequent redistributions of the tribal
lands, and shiftings of the tribesmen from one homestead to another
according to tribal rules. We have traced the curious method of
clustering the homesteads in arithmetical groups mentioned in the
ancient Welsh laws, and still practised in Ireland in the seventeenth
century, and we have found many survivals of it in the present names
and divisions of Irish townlands. We have found the simple form of
open-field husbandry used under the tribal system, and suited to its
precarious and shifting agriculture, still surviving in the 'rundale'
or 'run-rig' system, by which, to this day, is effected in Ireland
and western Scotland that infinite subdivision of holdings which
marks the tenacious adherence to tribal instincts on the part of a
people still fighting an unequal battle against the new order of
things.
«The new order opposed to community and equality.»
The new order has, no doubt, arisen in one sense out of both branches
of the old, but neither the manorial village community of the
eastern district, nor the tribal community of the west, can be said
to be its parent. Its fundamental principle seems to be opposed to
the community and equality of the old order in both its forms. The
freedom of the individual and growth of individual enterprise and
property which mark the new order imply a rebellion against the bonds
of the communism and forced equality, alike of the manorial and of
the tribal system. It has triumphed by breaking up both the communism
of serfdom and the communism of the free tribe.
«Belongs to a wider range of economic development.»
Nor, it would seem, can the new order be regarded with any greater
truth as a development from the [p440] germs of any German tribal
or 'mark' system imported in the keels of the English invaders.
It would seem to belong to an altogether wider range of economic
development than that of one or two races. Its complex roots went
deeply back into that older world into which the Teutonic invaders
introduced new elements and new life, no doubt, but, it would seem,
without destroying the continuity of the main stream of its economic
development, or even of the outward forms of its rural economy.
This, from an economic point of view, is the important conclusion
to which the facts examined in this essay seem to point. These
facts will be examined afresh by other and abler students, and the
last word will not soon have been said upon some of them. They are
drawn from so wide a field, and from lines reaching back so far,
that their interest and bearing upon the matter in hand will not
soon be exhausted or settled. But if the conclusion here suggested
should in the main be confirmed, what English Economic History
loses in simplicity it will gain in breadth. It will cease to be
provincial. It will become more closely identified with the general
economic evolution of the human race in the past. And this in its
turn will give a wider interest to the vast responsibilities of the
English-speaking nations in connexion with the progress of the new
order of things and the solution of the great economic problems of
the future.
«The communism of the old order a thing of the past,»
What are the forces which have produced, and are producing, the
evolution of the new order, and to what ultimate goal the 'weary
Titan' is bearing the 'too full orb of her fate,' are questions of
the [p441] highest rank of economic and political importance, but
questions upon which not much direct light has been thrown, perhaps,
in this essay. Still the knowledge what the community and equality
of the English village and of the Keltic tribe really were under
the old order may at least dispel any lingering wish or hope that
they may ever return. Communistic systems such as these we have
examined, which have lasted for 2,000 years, and for the last 1,000
years at least have been gradually wearing themselves out, are hardly
likely--either of them--to be the economic goal of the future.
«like the open-field system.»
The reader of this essay may perhaps contemplate the few remaining
balks and linces of our English common fields, and the surviving
examples of the 'run-rig' system in Ireland and Scotland, with
greater interest than before, but it will be as historical survivals,
not of types likely to be reproduced in the future, but of economic
stages for ever past.
FOOTNOTES:
[630] There are undoubtedly manors and yard-lands in some districts,
but of later and English introduction.
[631] The '_one-field system_ 'of _permanent arable_ must not
be confused with the improvement of the early Welsh and Irish
'co-aration of the waste,' by which the land was cropped perhaps two
or three or four years before it was _left to go back into grass_.
This resembles the German _Feldgraswirthschaft_ and not the German
one-field system.
[632] Amm. Marc. xvi. c. ii.
[633] Evans' _Ancient British Coins_, p. 220 _et seq._
[634] _Ibid._ p. 284 _et seq._
[635] I am indebted to the Rev. W. G. F. Pigott for this information.
[636] See the paper on 'The Campaign of Aulus Plautius,' in Dr.
Guest's _Origines Celticæ_, vol. ii.
[637] Compare supra, p. 161: the change of 'Hisse-burn' or
'Icenan-burn' into 'Itchin River,' and of 'æt Icceburn' into
'Ticceburn,' and 'Titchbourne.' May not Icknild Way, or
'Icenan-hild-wæg,' mean highway 'by the streams,' and Ricknild Way
mean highway 'by the ridge'? See map, _supra_, ch. v., s. v. They are
sometimes parallel as an upper and lower road.
[638] Formerly 'Alton.' See Survey of the Manor of Hitchin. 1650,
Public Record Office.
[639] In Hampshire the old Celtic or Belgic names of rivers in many
cases gave their names to places upon them. The '_Itchin_' to Itchin
Stoke, Itchin Abbas, Itchbourne, &c. The '_Meona_' (_Cod. Dip._
clviii.) to Meon Stoke, East and West Meon, &c. The '_Candefer_'
(_Cod. Dip._ mcccix.) to three 'Candovers.' So also the _Tarrant_
gives its names to several places.
[640] Now part of the garden of Mr. W. T. Lucas, in whose possession
many of them now remain. Three skeletons, one of them of great size,
were found near the urns.
[641] For permission to reproduce this map I am indebted to the
present lord of the manor, C. W. Wilshere, Esq., of the Fryth, Welwyn.
[642] Mr. William Ransom, of Fairfield, near Hitchin.
[643] As regards Roman cemeteries, as placed in the extreme corner of
a holding, _see_ Lachmann, pp. 271–2; _De Sepulchris Dolabell_. p.
303.
[644] _Archæologia_, vol. xxvi. p. 376.
[645] _Journal of British Archæological Association_, iv. 356, and v.
54.
[646] _Archæologia_, xxxii. p. 350.
[647] _Id._, p. 352.
[648] _See_ Mr. Gomme's interesting work on _Primitive Folkmotes_, c.
ii.
[649] A remarkably fine _glass_ funeral urn was found about half
a mile below the Meppershall Hills in 1882 by the tenant of the
neighbouring farm.
[650] Vol. i. pp. 17, 66, 190; vol. iii. p. 33; vol. iv. p. 155; vol.
v. p. 187; vol. vi. p. 222.
[651] _Collectanea_, v. p. 187. The recently discovered Roman villa
on the property of Earl Cowper, at Wingham, near Canterbury, is
a striking instance. See Mr. Dowker's pamphlet thereon. See also
_Archæologia_, xxix. p. 217, &c., where Mr. C. Roach Smith mentions
several other instances.
[652] _Account of the Roman Antiquities at Woodchester_, by S.
Lysons. Lond.: MDCCXCVII.
[653] See Mr. Ormerod's _Archæological Memoirs_.
[p443]
APPENDIX.
THE MANOR OF HITCHIN (PORTMAN AND FOREIGN) IN THE COUNTY OF HERTFORD.
«1891. Oct. 21»
'At the Court [Leet and] of the View of Frank pledge of our
Sovereign Lord the King with the General Court Baron of William
Wilshere, Esquire, Lord Firmar of the said manor of his
Majesty, holden in and for the manor aforesaid, on Thursday,
the twenty-first day of October, One thousand eight hundred and
nineteen, Before Joseph Eade, Gentleman, Steward of the said
manor, and by adjournment on Monday, the first day of November
next following, before the said Joseph Eade, the Steward aforesaid.
'The jurors for our Lord the King and the Homage of this Court
having diligently enquired into the boundaries, extent, rights,
jurisdictions, and customs of the said manor, and the rights,
powers, and duties of the lord and tenants thereof, and having
also enquired what lands in the township of Hitchin and in the
hamlet of Walsworth respectively within this manor are subject to
common of pasture for the commonable cattle of the occupiers of
messuages, cottages, and land within the said township and hamlet
respectively, and for what descriptions and number of cattle, and
at what times of the year and in what manner such rights of common
are by the custom of this manor to be exercised, and what payments
are by such custom due in respect thereof, they do upon their
oaths find and present as follows:--
'That the manor comprises the township of Hitchin and the hamlet
of Walsworth, in the parish of Hitchin, the [p444] lesser manors
of the Rectory of Hitchin, of Moremead, otherwise Charlton, and of
the Priory of the Biggin, being comprehended within the boundaries
of the said manor of Hitchin, which also extends into the hamlets
of Langley and Preston in the said parish of Hitchin, and into
the parishes of Ickleford, Ippollitts, Kimpton, Kingswalden, and
Offley.
«Boundaries.»
'That the following are the boundaries of the township of Hitchin
with the hamlet of Walsworth (that is to say), beginning at Orton
Head, proceeding from thence to Burford Ray, and from thence to a
water mill called Hide Mill, and from thence to Wilberry Hills;
from thence to a place called Bossendell, from thence to a water
mill called Purwell Mill, and from thence to a brook or river
called Ippollitts' Brook, and from thence to Maydencroft Lane,
and from thence to a place called Wellhead, and from thence to
a place called Stubborn Bush, and from thence to a place called
Offley Cross, and from thence to Five Borough Hills, and from
thence back to Orton Head, where the boundaries commenced. And
that all the land in the parish of Hitchin lying on the north
side of the river which runneth from Purwell Mill to Hide Mill is
within the hamlet of Walsworth, and that the following lands on
the south side of the same river are also within the same hamlet
of Walsworth (vizt.), Walsworth Common, containing about fourteen
acres; the land of Sir Francis Sykes called the Leys, on the south
side of Walsworth Common, containing about four acres; the land of
William Lucas and Joseph Lucas, called the Hills, containing about
two acres; and nine acres or thereabouts, part of the land of
Sir Francis Sykes, called the Shadwells, the residue of the land
called the Shadwells on the north side of the river.
«Jurisdiction.»
'That the lord of the manor of Hitchin hath Court Leet View of
Frank pledge and Court Baron, and that the jurisdiction of the
Court Leet and View of Frank pledge extendeth over the whole of
the township of Hitchin and the hamlet of Walsworth. That a Court
Leet and Court of the View of Frank pledge and Great Court Baron
are accustomed to be holden for the said manor within one month
[p445] after the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel in every
year, and may also be holden within one month after the Feast of
Easter. And that general or special Courts Baron and customary
Courts are holden at the pleasure of the lord or of his steward.
'That in the Court Leet yearly holden after the Feast of St.
Michael the Archangel the jurors for our Lord the King are
accustomed to elect and present to the lord two constables and
six headboroughs (vizt.), two headboroughs for Bancroft Ward, two
for Bridge Ward, and two for Tilehouse Street Ward (each such
constable and headborough having right and being bound to execute
the office through the whole leet), and likewise two ale conners,
two leather searchers and sealers, and a bellman who is also the
watchman and cryer of the town. And they present that Bancroft
Ward contains Bancroft Street, including the Swan Inn, Silver
Street, Portmill Lane, and the churchyard, church and vicarage
house, and the alley leading out of Bancroft now called Quaker's
Alley. That Bridge Ward contains the east and north sides of the
market place, and part of the south side thereof to the house of
John Whitney, formerly called the Maidenhead Inn, Mary's Street,
otherwise Angel Street, now called Sun Street, Bull Street, now
called Bridge Street, to the river; Bull Corner, Back Street,
otherwise Dead Street, from the south to the north extremities
thereof; Biggin Lane with the Biggin and Hollow Lane. And that
Tilehouse Street Ward contains Tilehouse Street, Bucklersbury to
the Swan Inn, and the west side and the remainder of the south
side of the market place.
PRESENTMENTS OF THE HOMAGE.
«Reliefs.»
'And the Homage of this Court do also further present that
freeholders holding of the said manor do pay to the lord by way
of relief upon the death of the preceding tenant one year's
quitrent, but that nothing is due to the lord upon the alienation
of freehold.
«Fines on admissions.»
'That the fines upon admissions of copyholders, whether by descent
or purchase, are, and beyond the memory of [p446] man have been,
certain (to wit), half a year's quitrent; and that where any
number of tenants are admitted jointly in one copy, no greater
fine than one half year's quitrent is due for the admission of all
the joint tenants.
«Power of leasing.»
'The Homage also present that by the custom of the manor the
customary tenants may without licence let their copyholds for
three years and no longer, but that they may by licence of the
lord let the same for any term not exceeding twenty-one years; and
that the lord is upon every such licence entitled to a fine of one
year's quitrent of the premises to be demised.
«Forfeiture.»
'The Homage present that the freehold tenants of the said manor
forfeit their estates to the lord thereof for treason and for
murders and other felonies; and that the copyholders forfeit their
estates for the like crimes, and for committing or suffering their
copyholds to be wasted, for wilfully refusing to perform their
services, and for leasing their copyholds for more than three
years without licence.
'The Homage also present that by the custom of this manor
copyholds are granted by copy or court roll for the term of forty
years, and that a tenant outliving the said term is entitled to be
re-admitted for the like term upon payment of the customary fine
of half a year's quitrent.
«Heriots.»
'The Homage present that there are no heriots due or payable to
the lord of this manor for any of the tenements holden thereof.
«Woods and trees.»
'The Homage also present that, all woods, underwoods, and trees
growing upon the copyhold lands holden of the said manor were by
King James the First, by his Letters Patent, under the Great Seal
of England, bearing date the fourteenth day of March, in the 6th
year of his reign (in consideration of two hundred and sixty-six
pounds sixteen shillings paid to his Majesty's use), granted
to Thomas Goddesden and Thomas Chapman, two copyholders of the
said manor, and their heirs and assigns, in trust to the use of
themselves and the rest of the copyholders of the said manor; and
that the copyhold tenants of the said manor are by virtue of such
grant entitled to cut all timber and [p447] other trees growing
on their copyholds, and to dispose thereof at their will.
«Grain sold in the market toll free.»
'The Homage also present that no toll has ever been paid or ought
to be paid for any kind of corn or grain sold in the market of
Hitchin.
«Common pound and stocks.»
'They also present that from the time whereof the memory of man is
not to the contrary, the lord of this manor has been used to find
and provide a common pound and stocks for the use of the tenants
of this manor.
'And the Homage do further present that by the custom of this
manor the lord may, with the consent of the Homage, grant by copy
of court roll any part of the waste thereof, to be holden in fee
according to the custom of the manor, at a reasonable rent and by
the customary services, or may with such consent grant or demise
the same for any lesser estate or interest.
COMMONS WITHIN THE TOWNSHIP OF HITCHIN.
'And the Homage of this Court do further present that the
commonable land within the manor and township of Hitchin consists
of--
«1st. Green Commons in the township of Hitchin.»
'Divers parcels of ground called the Green Commons, the soil
whereof remains in the lord of the said manor (that is to say):
'Butts Close, containing eight acres or thereabouts; Orton Mead,
containing forty acres or thereabouts, exclusively of the Haydons,
and extending from the Old Road from Hitchin to Pirton by Orton
Head Spring west unto the way which passes through Orton Mill
Yard east; and that the Haydons on the east of the last mentioned
way, containing four acres or thereabouts, are parts of the same
common, and include a parcel of ground containing one rood and
thirteen perches or thereabouts adjoining the river, which have
been fenced from the rest of the common by Samuel Allen; and the
ground called the Plats lying between Bury Mead and Cock Mead,
containing two acres or thereabouts, including the slip of ground
between the river and the way leading to the mill of the said John
[p448] Ransom, lately called Burnt Mill, and now called Grove
Mill, which hath been fenced off and planted by John Ransom.
«2nd. Lammas Meadows.»
'And of the lands of divers persons called the Lammas Meadows
in Cock Mead, which contain eighteen acres or thereabouts, and
in Bury Mead, which contains forty-five acres or thereabouts,
including a parcel of land of the Rev. Woollaston Pym, clerk,
called Old Hale.
«3rd. Common fields.»
'And of the open and unenclosed land within the several common
fields, called Purwell Field, Welshman's Croft, Burford Field,
Spital Field, Moremead Field, and Bury Field.
«Right of common.»
'That the occupier of every ancient messuage or cottage within the
township of Hitchin hath a right of common for such cattle and at
such times as are hereinafter specified upon the Green Commons and
the Lammas Meadows, but no person hath any right of common within
this township as appurtenant to or in respect of any messuage or
cottage built since the expiration of the 13th year of the reign
of Queen Elizabeth, unless the same shall have been erected on the
site of an ancient messuage then standing.
'That any person having right of common in respect of the messuage
or cottage in his actual occupation may turn on the Green Commons
and the Lammas Meadows two cows and one bullock, or cow calf under
the age of two years.
«Common bull.»
'That the rectors impropriate of the rectory of the parish of
Hitchin or their lessees of the said rectory are bound to find a
bull for the cows of the said township, and to go with the herd
thereof, and that no other bull or bull calf may be turned on the
commons.
'That Butts Close is the sole cow common from the 6th day of
April, being Old Lady-day inclusive, to the 12th day of May also
inclusive, and after that time is used for collecting in the
morning the herd going out to the other commons.
'That Orton Mead, including the Haydons, is an open common upon
and from the thirteenth day of May, called Old May-day, till the
fourteenth day of February, called Old Candlemas Day. [p449]
'That the Plats are an open common upon and from Whitsunday till
the 6th day of April.
'That Cock Mead and Bury Mead became commonable on the thirteenth
day of August, called Old Lammas Day, and continue open till the
6th day of April.
'That the common fields called Bury Field and Welshman's Croft are
commonable for cows only from the time when the corn is cut and
carried therefrom until the twelfth day of November, called All
Saints', and that the close of Thomas Wilshire, gentleman, called
Bury Field Close, is part of the common field called Bury Field,
and the closes of John Crouch Priest, called Ickleford Closes, are
part of Welshman's Croft, and are respectively commonable at the
same times with the other parts of such respective common fields.
'That every occupier of an ancient messuage or cottage hath right
of common upon the Green Commons, except Butts Close, for one
gelding from and after the thirteenth day of August until the
fourteenth day of February.
'That no person entitled to common for his cattle may turn or
suffer the same to remain on any of the commons between the hours
of six in the evening and six in the morning.
'That it is the duty of the Homage at every Great Court Baron
holden next after the Feast of St. Michael to appoint a herdsman
for this township, and that every commoner turning his cows upon
the commons is bound to pay a reasonable sum, to be from time
to time assessed by the Homage, for the expenses of scouring
the ditches, repairing the fences and hedges, and doing other
necessary works for the preservation of the commons and for the
wages of the herdsman. And the Homage of this Court assess and
present such payments at one shilling for every head of cattle
turned on the commons, payable by each commoner on the first day
in every year on which he shall turn his cattle upon the commons,
to be paid to the foreman of the Homage of the preceding Court
Baron, and applied in and towards such expenses. And that the
further sum of threepence be paid on Monday weekly for every head
of cattle which any [p450] commoner shall turn or keep on the
commons for the wages of the herdsman.
'That the cattle to be depastured on the commons ought to be
delivered or sent by the owners to Butts Close between the hours
of six and eight of the morning from the sixth day of April to the
eleventh day of October, both inclusive; and after the eleventh of
October between the hours of seven and nine of the morning. And
that it is the duty of the herdsman to attend there during such
hours, and to receive into his care the cattle brought to him, and
to conduct them to the proper commons, and to attend and watch
them there during the day, and to return them to the respective
owners at six o'clock in the evening or as near thereto as may be;
but no cow which is not brought to the herdsman within the hours
before appointed for collecting the herd is considered as part of
the herd or to be under the herdsman's care; and that no horned
cattle ought to be received into the herd without sufficient knobs
on their horns.
SHEEP COMMONS.
«The common fields.»
'That every occupier of unenclosed land in any of the common
fields of the said township hath common of pasture for his sheep
levant and couchant thereon over the residue of the unenclosed
land in the same common field, in every year from the time when
the corn is cut and carried until the same be again sown with
corn, and during the whole of the fallow season, save that no
sheep may be depastured on the land in Bury Field and Welshman's
Croft between the harvest and the twelfth day of November, the
herbage thereof from the harvest to the twelfth day of November
being reserved for the cows.
«The three seasons.»
'That the common fields within the township of Hitchin have
immemorially been and ought to be kept and cultivated in three
successive seasons of tilthgrain, etchgrain, and fallow.
'That the last fallow season of Purwell Field and Welshman's
Croft was from the harvest of 1816 until the wheat sowing in
the autumn of 1817; and that the fallow season [p451] of those
fields commenced again at the close of the last harvest. That the
last fallow season of Burford Field and Spital Field was from the
harvest of the year 1817 until the wheat sowing in the autumn of
the year 1818. And the last fallow season of Moremead Field and
Bury Field was from the harvest of 1818 until the wheat sowing of
1819.
'That no person hath any right of common for sheep on any of the
Green Commons or Lammas ground within this township except on Old
Hale and on the closes of John Crouch Priest, called Ickleford
Closes, which are commonable for sheep at the same time with the
field called Welshman's Croft.
«Right of enclosure giving up right of common.»
'The Homage find and present that every owner and every occupier
of land in any of the common fields of this township may at his
will and pleasure enclose and fence any of his land lying in the
common fields of this township (other than and except land in Bury
Field and Welshman's Croft), and may, so long as the same shall
remain so enclosed and fenced, hold such land, whether the same
belong to one or to more than one proprietor, exempt from any
right or power of any other owner or occupier of land in the said
township to common or depasture his sheep on the land so enclosed
and fenced (no right of common on other land being claimed in
respect of the land so enclosed and fenced).
'The Homage also find and present that the commonable lands in the
hamlet of Walsworth within this manor consist of--
«Walsworth Common.»
'A parcel of meadow ground called Walsworth Common, containing
fourteen acres or thereabouts, the soil whereof remains in the
lord of the manor.
'And of certain parcels of meadow called Lammas Meadow (that is to
say), the Leys, part of the estate of Sir Francis Sykes adjoining
to Walsworth Common, and containing four acres or thereabouts;
Ickleford Mead, containing two acres or thereabouts; Ralph's
Pightle, adjoining to Highover Moor, containing one acre or
thereabouts, Woolgroves, containing three acres or thereabouts,
lying near to the mill of John Ransom, heretofore called Burnt
Mill, and now called Grove Mill. [p452]
'A close called the Hills, containing two acres or thereabouts, on
the west side of the road from Hitchin to Baldock, and a parcel of
land called the Shadwells on the east side of the same road, and
divided by the river, containing twelve acres or thereabouts.
'And they find and present that four several parcels of land
hereinafter described have been by John Ransom enclosed and fenced
out from the said Lammas ground called Woolgroves, and are now by
him held in severalty.
'And that the same are and always have been parts of the
commonable land of the said hamlet (to wit): A piece of land
containing twenty-one perches or thereabouts on the south-west
side of the present course of the river, and between the same
and the old course; a piece of land containing twelve perches or
thereabouts, now by the alteration of the course of the river
surrounded by water; a piece of land on the north-east side
of Woolgroves, containing one rood and twenty-two perches or
thereabouts; and a piece of land at the south-east corner of
Woolgroves, containing one rood or thereabouts.
'And the Homage find and present that the occupier of every
ancient messuage or cottage within the hamlet of Walsworth hath
a right to turn and depasture on the commonable land thereof,
in respect of and as appurtenant to his messuage or cottage,
two cows and a bullock or yearling cow calf upon and from the
thirteenth day of May, called Old May-day, until the sixth day of
April, called Old Lady-day, and one horse upon and from the said
thirteenth day of May until the thirteenth day of August, called
Old Lammas-day, and hath a right to turn the like number of cattle
upon the Lammas ground in Walsworth upon and from Old Lammas-day
until Old Lady-day. That no person hath a right to common or turn
any sheep upon the said common called Walsworth Commons, and that
no sheep may be turned on the Lammas ground of Walsworth between
Old Lammas-day and the last day of November.
'The Homage also present that it is the duty of the Homage of this
Court at every Great Court Baron yearly holden next after the
Feast of St. Michael, upon the [p453] application and request of
any of the persons entitled to common the cattle upon the commons
within the hamlet of Walsworth, to appoint a herdsman for the
said hamlet, and to fix and assess a reasonable sum to be paid to
him for his wages, and also a reasonable sum to be paid by the
commoners for draining and fencing the commons.
'This Court was then adjourned to Monday, the first day of
November next.
'Signed THOS. JEEVES (Foreman).
SAMUEL SMITH.
JOHN MARSHALL.
WILLM. DUNNAGE.
WM. BLOOM.
ROBT. NEWTON.
WILLM. HALL.
WM. MARTIN.
THOS. WALLER.
GEO. BEAVER.
W. SWORDER.
JOHN MOORE.'
INDEX AND GLOSSARY.
_Acre_, the 'selio,' or strip in the open field (40 x 4 rods),
3, 106, 385. A day's work in ploughing, 124. Reason of its
shape, 124. Welsh acre, _see_ 'Erw'
_Ager_, _agellus_, _agellulus_, territory of a manor, 167
_Ager publicus_, tenants on, 272–288. Tendencies towards
manorial methods of management, 300, 308
_Agri decumates_, occupied by Alamannic tribes, 282–288.
Position of tenants on, 311
_Agri occupatorii_, with irregular boundaries, 277, and
sometimes scattered ownership, 278
_Agrimensores_ (Roman), methods of centuriation, 250, 276, 279
_Aillt_, or _altud._ _See_ 'Taeog.' Compare Aldiones of
Lombardic Laws and Saxon 'althud' = foreigner, 281
_Alamanni_, German tribes, offshoots of, Hermundori, Thuringi,
&c., 282. Some deported into Britain, 285. Conquered by
Julian, 286
_Alfred the Great_, his founding the New Minster at Winchester,
160. Services of serfs on his manor of Hysseburne, 162.
His sketch of growth of a new _ham_, 169. His Boethius
quoted, 168
_Amobr_, fee on marriage of females under Welsh laws, 195
_Andecena_, day work of serf under Bavarian laws same shape as
English acre, 325, 386, 391
_Angariæ and parangariæ_, carrying or post-horse services
(_see_ Roman 'sordida munera'), 297, and so any forced
service, 298. Manorial services, 324–327
_Anwänder_, German 'headland,' 381
_Archenfeld_, in Wales, survey of, in Domesday Book, 182, 206–7
_Averagium_ manorial carrying service from _avera_ or _affri_,
beasts of burden, 298, _n._; at Bleadon, 57
_Balk_, the unploughed turf between two acre strips in the
open fields. 4; in 'Piers the Plowman,' 19; in Cambridge
terrier, 20; in Welsh laws, 119; a Welsh word, 382
_Ballibetogh_, cluster of 16 taths or homesteads, 215–224
_Bally_, Irish townland, 221, 223
_Battle Abbey Records_ (A.D. 1284–7), 49
_Bede_, complaint of lavish grants of manors to monasteries, 168
_Bees_, Welsh Law of, 207
_Bene-work_ or _Boon-work_. _See_ Precariæ
_Black Death_, 20; influence on villenage, 31
_Boc-land_, land of inheritance permanently made over by
charter or deed, 168, 171
_Boldon Book_ (A.D. 1183), evidence of, 68–72
_Book of St. Chad_, Welsh charters in margins of, 209
_Booths_, making of, by villani, for fairs of St. Cuthbert, 71
_Bordarii_, or cottagers (from 'bord,' a cottage), 76; in
Domesday Survey, 95; normal holding about 5 acres, 97;
mentioned in Liber Niger of Peterborough, 97
_Boundaries_, method of describing, in Hitchin Manor, 9; in
Saxon charters, 107, 111. Manor of King Edwy (Tidenham),
149; in Lorsch charters, 331. Roman method, 9. _See also_,
375
_Bovate_ (_Bovata terræ_), the half yard-land contributing
_one_ ox to the team of eight, 61. 2 bovates in Boldon
Book = virgate, 68
_Brehon Laws_, 226, 231, 232
_Breyr_, free Welsh tribesman, 192
_Britain_, Belgic districts of, pre-Roman settled agriculture
in, 245. Exports of corn during Roman rule, 247, 286. The
marling of the land described by Pliny, 250. Analogous to
'one-field system' of North Germany, 372
_Bucenobantes_, deported into Britain, 287
_Butts_, strips in open fields abutting others, 6
_Cæsar_, description of British and Belgic agriculture, 246.
Ditto of chiefs and tribesmen in Gaul, 305. Description of
German tribal system, 336–338
_Cambridge_, terrier of open fields of, in fourteenth or
fifteenth century, 19, 20
_Carpenter_, village official having his holding free, 70
_Caruca_ (_see_ Carucate), plough team of eight oxen, yoked
four to a yoke, 62, 74, 123; _carucæ adjutrices_, or
smaller teams of villeins, 48, 74, 85; variations in team,
64, 74; of Domesday Survey, 85
_Carucate_, unit of assessment = land of a _caruca_ (_see_
Caruca), connexion with hide, 40. Used in Domesday Survey,
85
_Centenarii_, Roman and Frankish officials, 300–303
_Centuria_, division of land by Roman _Agrimensores_ of 200 or
240 jugera, 276. Divided into eight normal single holdings
of 25 or 30, or double holdings of 50 or 60 jugera, 276
_Centuriation._ _See_ Agrimensores
_Ceorl_= husbandman; a wide term embracing, like 'geneat,' the
lower class of freemen and serfs above the slaves, 110, 144
_Chamavi_, pagus chamaviorum, 285
_Co-aration_, or co-operative ploughing by contributors to team
of eight oxen, 117. Described in Welsh Laws as 'Cyvar,'
118–124; in Ireland, 226; in Palestine, 314; in Roman
provinces, 278
_Coloni_, position of, on the later Roman villa, 266.
Right of lord to compel son to continue his parent's
holding and services, 267. Often barbarians, 269.
Like _usufructuarii_, 309, _n._ Possibly with single
succession, 308–310
_Commendation_, surrender, putting a freeman under the
_patrocinium_ or lordship of another, instances of,
305. Salvian's description of, 307. Effect of, 307–310.
Practice continues under Alamannic and Bavarian laws,
allowing surrenders to the Church, 316–335
_Continuity_ of English village sites, 424–436
_Cornage, cornagium_, tribute on horned cattle, 71
_Co-tillage._ _See_ Co-aration
_Cotsetla_, or cottier, in 'Rectitudines', = bordarius in
Domesday Survey, 130; his services, &c., 130–131
_Cottier tenants_, holders in villenage of a few scattered
strips in open fields, 24, 29, 34, 69
_Cyvar._ _See_ Co-aration
'_Daer_' and '_Saer_' tenancy in Ireland, 231
_Davies, Sir John_, his surveys in Ireland and description of
the Irish tribal system, 214–231
_Dawnbwyd_, food rent of Welsh taeogs, 198
_Decuriæ_, of slaves on Roman villa, 264
_Dimetian_ Code of South Wales. _See_ 'Wales, Ancient Laws of'
_Domesday Survey_ (A.D. 1086). Manors everywhere, 82. Lord's
demesne and land in villenage, 84. Assessment by hides and
carucates, 84; in Kent by solins, 85; _liberi homines_
and _sochmanni_ in Danish district, 86–89. Tenants in
villenage, villani, bordarii or cottarii, and servi,
89. The villani holders of virgates or yard-lands, 91;
examples from surveys of Middlesex, Herts, and Liber
Eliensis, 92–94. Bordarii hold about five acres each, more
or less, 95–97. Survey of Villa of Westminster, 97–101;
area of arable land in England, and how much of it held in
the yard-lands of villani, 101–104. Survey of portions of
Wales, 182–184, 211
_Doles_, or Dǽls, i.e. pieces or strips, hence 'gedal-land,'
110; and run-dale (or run-rig) system of taking strips
in rotation or scattered about, 228 (_see also_ Doles of
Meadow-land, 25)
_Drengage_, hunting service (Boldon Book), 71
_Ebediw_, Welsh death payment or heriot, 195
Edward the Confessor, his dying vision of the open fields round
Westminster, 100
_Einzelhöfe_, German single farms in Westphalia, 371
_Enclosure Acts_, 4,000 between 1760–1844, 13
_English settlements_, methods of, 412–423
_Ergastulum_, prison for slaves on Roman villa, 264
_Erw_, Welsh acre, the actual strips in open fields described
in Welsh Laws, 119
_Etch_, crop sown on stubble, 377
_Ethelbert_, Laws of, _hams_ and _tuns_ in private ownership
and mention of læts, 173–174
_Faber_, or village blacksmith, holds his virgate free of
services, 70
_Fleta_ (temp. Ed. I.), description of manor in, 45
_Forera_ (Saxon foryrthe), or headland, 20, 108
_Frankpledge_, View of, 10
_Franks_, their inroads, 283; deported into Belgic Gaul, 284
_Frisians_, 285. Tribute in hides, 306, _n._
_Furlong_ (shot, or quarentena), division of open fields 'a
furrow long,' divided into strips or acres, 4; in Saxon
open fields, 108; German, Gewann, 380
_Gafol_ (from German _Gaben_, _Abgaben_, food gifts under
German tribal system), tribute, 144, 145; in money and
in kind, of villein tenants. Perhaps survival of Roman
tributum based upon tribal food rents (_see_ 'Roman
tributum,' and 'jugatio,' 'gwestva'); of villani, on
English manors, 78; of _gebur_, on Saxon manors, 132,
140–142, 155, 162. Marked a semi-servile condition, 146,
326
_Gafol-land_, 137. _See_ Geneat-land
_Gafol-gilder_, payer of gafol or tribute, 145
_Gafol-yrth_, the ploughing of generally three acre strips
and sowing by the gebur, from his own barn, and reaping
and carrying of crop to lord's barn by way of rent; in
'Rectitudines,' 132–140; on Hysseburne Manor of King
Alfred, 162; in South Germany in seventh century, 326 _et
seq._ Possibly survival of the _agrarium_ or tenth of
produce on Roman provincial tithe lands, 399–403
_Gavael_, the tribal homestead and holding in N. Wales, 200–202
_Gavelkind_, Irish _gabal-cined_, distinguished by equal
division among heirs, 220, 352
_Gebur_, villanus proper, or owner of a yard-land normally
of thirty acres with outfit of two oxen and seed, in
'Rectitudines,' 131–133. His services described, 131–133,
and 137–143; his gafol and week-work in respect of
yard-land, 142; his outfit or 'setene,' 133, 143; in laws
of Ine, 147. Services and gafol on Tidenham Manor of King
Edwy, 154. In High German 'Gebur and Gipur' = vicinus,
394, and compare 278
_Gedal-land_, land divided into strips (Laws of Ine), 110.
_See_ Doles
_Geneat_, a wide term covering all tenants in villenage, 129,
137, 154. Servile condition of, liable to have life taken
by lord, 146
_Geneat-land_, land in villenage as opposed to 'thane's
inland,' or land in demesne, 116. Sometimes called
'gesettes-land' and 'gafol-land, 128, 150; 'gyrds of
gafol-land,' 150
_Geset-land_, land set or let out to husbandmen, 128. _See_
'Geneat-land'
_Gored Acres_, strips in open fields pointed at one end, 6, 20;
in Saxon open fields, 108
_Gwely_, the Welsh family couch (lectus), also a name for a
family holding, 195; in Record of Carnarvon, 194
_Gwentian Code_, of South Wales. _See_ 'Wales, Ancient Laws of'
_Gwestva_, food rent of Welsh tribesmen, and _tunc pound_ in
lieu of it, 195; early evidence of, in Ine's laws, 209–213
_Gyrd_ (a rod-virga)
_Gyrdland._ _See_ Yardland. _See_ 169–172
_Ham_ (hem, heim, haim), in Saxon, like 'tun,' generally
= villa or manor, 126, 254. A private estate with a
village community in serfdom upon it, 127. Geographical
distribution of suffix, 255. _See_ Villa
_Headland_, strip at head of strips in a furlong on which the
plough was turned, 4. Latin '_forera_,' Welsh '_pentir_,'
Scotch '_headrig_,' German '_anwänder_,' 5, 380. In Saxon
open fields, 108
_Hide_, normal holding of a free family (hence Latin _casatum_
and the _familia_ of Bede), but in later records
corresponding with the full plough team of eight oxen,
and so = four yard-lands. Used as the unit of assessment
for early times, 38. Perhaps from Roman times. Compare
Roman _tributum_, 290–294. Connexion with carucate and
yard-land, 36. Normal hide, 120 a., 37. Double hide of
240 a., 37, 39, 51, 54. Possible origin of word, 398. The
_hide_, the _hof_, and the _centuria_ compared, 395
_Hitchin_ (Herts), its 'open fields,' 1–7. Map of township
and of an estate therein, _opposite title-page_. Map of
Purwell field, 6. Its village community described in Manor
Rolls of 1819, 8, and appendix. Boundaries, 9. Officers,
10. Common fields, 11. Its Celtic name _Hiz_, 429. Roman
remains, 430. Continuity of villages in Hitchin district
from Celtic and Roman and Saxon times, 424–436
_Hiwisc_, Saxon for family holding, 162, 395
_Honey_, Welsh rents in. _See_ Gwestva, 207, 211–213
_Hordwell_, boundaries of, in Saxon Charter, 107
_Hundred Rolls_ of Edward I., A.D. 1279, evidence of, as to the
prevalence of the Manor, the open-field system and serfdom
in five Midland Counties, 32, _et seq._
_Husband-lands_ in Kelso and Newminster Records = virgate or
yard-land, 61
_Hydarii_, holders of hides, 52
_Hysseburne_, Manor of Stoke by, on the river Itchin near
Winchester, held by King Alfred, 160. Serfdom and services
of ceorls on, 162
_Ine, Laws of_ (A.D. 688), evidence of open-field system, 109.
Acre strips, 110. Yardlands, 142. Hides and half hides,
147. Geneats, geburs, gafol, week-work, 147. Welsh food
rents, 212–213
_Ing_, suffix to local names; whether denotes clan settlements
and where found, 354–367
_Inquisitio Eliensis_ mentions liberi homines and sochmanni,
87. Mentions villani as holding virgates, &c., 94.
Mentions both bordarii and cottarii, 96
_Isle of Man_, early division of land into ballys and quarters,
222
_Jugatio._ _See_ Roman tributum
_Jugerum_, size and form of, 387
_Jugum._ (_See_ Roman tributum.) Roman unit of assessment,
289–295. Description of, in Syrian Code, 291. Analogy to
virgate and hide, and sulung, 292
_Jüngsten-Recht_, right of youngest to succeed to holding,
352–354. See also under Welsh laws, 193, 197
_Kelso, Abbey of_, '_Rotulus redituum_,' _stuht_ or outfit to
tenants of, 61
_Lammas land_, meadows owned in strips, but commonable after
Lammas Day, in Hitchin Manor, 11; in laws of Ine, 110
_Læn-land_, lands granted as a benefice for life to a thane, 168
_Læti_, conquered barbarians deported and settled on public
lands during later Roman rule, chiefly in Belgic Gaul and
Britain, 280–289
_Leges Alamannorum_ (A.D. 622), surrenders to Church allowed
under, 317; services of _servi_ and _coloni_ of the Church
under, 323
_Leges Baiuwariorum_ (7th century) surrenders under, 317.
Services of _coloni_ and _servi_ of the Church under, 325
_Leges Ripuariorum_, 304
_Lex Salica_, use of 'villa' in a manorial sense, 259–262, 303
_Lex Visigothorum_ (A.D. 650 about) in division of land between
Romans and Visigoths, fifty aripennes allotted _per
singula aratra_, 276 _n._
_Liber Niger_ of Peterborough Abbey (A.D. 1125), nearest
evidence to the Domesday Survey, 72 _et seq._
_Libere tenentes_, holders of portions of demesne-land, i.e.
land _not_ in villenage, 33. Villeins holding yard-lands
in villenage may be _libere tenentes_ of other land
besides, 34. Increasing in later times, 54. Absent from
Domesday survey generally, 86; Archdeacon Hale's theory of
their presence disproved, 86–87 _n._
_Liberi homines_, of Domesday Survey in Danish districts, 86,
102
_Lince, or lynch_, acre strip in open fields formed into a
terrace by always turning the sod downwards in ploughing a
hill side, 5; sketch of, 5; in Saxon open fields, 108; in
Yorkshire 'reean' and Germany 'rain' = _lince_ or _balk_,
381
_Lingones_, 284
_Lorsch_ (Lauresham), instances of surrenders to the Abbey of,
329–333
_Maenol_, cluster of tribal homesteads in Welsh laws, in North
Wales of sixteen homesteads paying between them the _tunc
pound_, 202. In South Wales the _maenol_ is a group of
twelve _trevs_, each paying _tunc pound_, 203–4
_Manor_, or _villa_, in Saxon, _ham_ or _tun_. An estate
of a lord or thane with a village community generally
in serfdom upon it. Hitchin Manor and its connexion
with open-field system, 1–13. Manors before Domesday
Survey--Winslow, 22; Hundred Rolls, 32; described in
Fleta, 45; Battle Abbey and St. Paul's, 49; Gloucester
and Worcester, 55; Bleadon, 57; Newminster and Kelso,
60. In Boldon Book, 68; in Liber Niger of Peterborough,
72; summary, 76. In Domesday Survey manors everywhere,
82 _et seq._ Westminster, 97. Saxon 'hams' and 'tuns'
were manors, 126 _et seq._ Manor of Tidenham, of King
Edwy, 148. Hysseburne, of King Alfred, 160. Creation of
new manors, 166. Terra Regis composed of manors, 167.
'Hams' and 'tuns' in King Ethelbert's laws, manors, i.e.,
in private ownership with semi-servile tenants (_læts_)
upon them, 173. There were manors in England before St.
Augustine's arrival, 175. English and Frankish identical,
253. Villa of Salic Laws probably a manor on Terra Regis,
259–263. Likeness of Roman villa to, 263–272 (_see_
Roman 'Villa'). Villas, or fiscal districts of Imperial
officials, tend to become manors, 300–305. Transition
from villas to manors under Alamannic and Bavarian laws
in South Germany, 316–335. Frankish manors, their tenants
and services, 333. Manorial tendencies of German tribal
system, 346
_Monetary System_, Gallic and Welsh pound of 240 pence of
silver divided into twelve unciæ each of a score pence,
204. The Gallic system in Roman times, 234, 292
_Nervii_, 284
_Newminster Abbey_, cartulary of, 60
_No Man's Land_, or 'Jack's Land,' odds and ends of lands in
open fields, 6. In Saxon boundaries, 108
_Open-Field System in England_; remains of open fields
described, 1, _et seq._ Divided into acre or half-acre
strips, 2, and furlongs or shots, 4. Holdings in bundles
of scattered strips, 7; _i.e._, hides, half-hides,
yard-lands, &c. (to which refer). Wide prevalence of
system in England, 13. The shell of a village community,
8–13--which was in serfdom, 76–80. The English system,
the _three-field system_, _i.e._, in three fields,
representing three-course rotation of crops, 11. Traced
back in Winslow manor rolls (Ed. III.), 20 _et seq._; in
Gloucester and Worcester surveys, 55; Battle Abbey and
St. Paul's records, 49; Newminster and Kelso records,
60; Boldon Book, 68; Liber Niger of Peterborough, 72.
Summary of post-Domesday evidence, 76. Prevalence in
Saxon times, shown by use of the word _æcera_, 106, and
by occurrence of _gored acres_, _head-lands_, _furlongs_,
_linces_, &c., in the boundaries appended to charters,
108. Evidence of division of fields into acre strips in
seventh century in _Laws of Ine_, 109–110. Holdings in
hides, half-hides and yard-lands, 110–117. Scattering of
strips in a holding the result of co-operative ploughing,
117–125. The three-field system would grow out of the
simple form of tribal system, by addition of rotation of
crops in three courses, settlement, and serfdom, 368–370.
_Welsh open-field system_, 181, 213, with division into
'_erws_,' or acres, 119. Scattering of strips in a holding
arising from co-aration, 121. The system 'co-aration of
the waste,' _i.e._ of grass land which went back into
grass, 192, 227, 244, 251. Like that of the Germania of
Tacitus, 369, 412. No fixed 'yard-lands' or rotation of
crops, 251, 413. _Irish and Scotch open-field system_ like
the Welsh; modern remains of, in _Rundale_ or _Run-rig_
system, 214–231. _German_ open-field systems, 369–411;
different kinds of, _Feldgraswirthschaft_ resembling that
described by Tacitus and Welsh 'co-aration of waste,'
371. One-field system of N. Germany, 372–373. Forest and
marsh system, 372. Three-field system in S. Germany,
373. Comparison of, with English, and connexion with
Roman province, 375–409. Absent from N. Germany, and so
could not have been introduced into England by the Saxon
invaders, 373, 409, 411. Rotation of crops, perhaps of
Roman introduction, 410, 411. Wide prevalence of forms of
open-field system, 249. Description of, in Palestine, 314.
Mention of, by Siculus Flaccus, 278. Possibly in use on
Roman tithe lands, 315. Remains of the simple tribal form
of, in modern rundale or run-rig of Ireland and Scotland,
quite distinct from the remains of the three-field form in
England, 437–439. Described by Tusser as uneconomical, 17,
and by Arthur Young, 16
_Parangariæ_, extra carrying services, _see_ 'angariæ'
_Paraveredi_, extra post-horses (_see_ Roman 'sordida
munera'), 297, from _veredus_ a post-horse, 298. Manorial
_Parafretus_, 325–334
_Patrocinium._ _See_ 'Commendation'
_Pfahl-graben_, the Roman _limes_ on the side of Germany, 282
_Pflicht-theil_, survival of late Roman law, obliging a fixed
proportion of a man's property to go equally to his sons.
In Bavaria, 313. Compare Bavarian laws of the seventh
century, 317, and Syrian code of fifth century, 312
_Piers the Plowman_, his 'faire felde,' an open field divided
into half-acre strips and furlongs, by balks, 18–19
_Plough-bote_, or _Plough-erw_, the strips set apart in the
co-ploughing, for the carpenter, or repair of plough, 121.
(_See_ Carpenter)
_Plough team_, normal English manorial common plough team of 8
oxen (_see_ 'Caruca'). Welsh do., also of 8 oxen, 121–2.
Scotch also, 62–66. 6, 10, or 12 oxen in Servia, 387
_n._ In India, 388. Single yoke of 2 oxen in Egypt and
Palestine, 314, 387; and in Sicily, 275, and Spain, 276
_Polyptique d'Irminon_, Abbot of St. Germain des Prés, and M.
Guérard's Introduction quoted, 265, 298, 641
_Præpositus_ of a manor elected by tenants, 48. Holds one wista
without services at Alciston, 50. Holds his two bovates
free (Boldon Book), 70. Word used for Welsh 'maer,' 184
_Precaria_, a benefice or holding at will of lord or for life
only, 319, 333
_Precariæ_ or Boon-works, work at will of lord, 78. On Saxon
Manors, 140, 157. In South Germany, 327. Sometimes
survivals of the Roman 'sordida munera,' 327, 403
_Priest_, his place in village community often with his
yard-land, 90–111, 115
_Probus_ introduces vine culture on the Rhine, 288. Deports
Burgundians and Vandals into Britain, 283. Colonised with
Læti Rhine Valley and Belgic Gaul, 283
_Punder_, keeper of the village pound, 69, 70
_Quarentena._ _See_ Furlong. Length of furrow 40 poles long
_Rain_, German for 'balk' as in Yorkshire 'reean' = linch, 381
_Randir_, from _rhan_, a division, and _tir_, land; a share of
land under Welsh laws, 200. A cluster of three homesteads
in South Wales, 204; and four randirs in the _trev_, 204;
but in North Wales a subdivision of the homestead, 200
'_Rectitudines Singularum Personarum_' (10th century?),
evidence of, 129 _et seq._ Dr. Leo's work upon, 164
_Redon, Cartulaire de_, quoted, 385
_Rhætia_, semi-servile barbarian settlers in, 288. _Sordida
munera_ in, 296–299. Roman custom, in present Bavaria as
to land tenure, 313. Transition from Roman to Mediæval
manor in, 316–335
_Rig_, strip in Irish and Scotch open fields, 3. Hence Run-rig
system
_Roman jugatio sive capitatio_, 289, 295. _See_ Roman tributum
_Roman_ '_sordida munera_,' 295–299. Some of them survive in
manorial services, 324, 325, 327, 334, 404
_Roman tributum_ of later Empire, 289–295. Roman _jugatio_ and
Saxon hidage compared, _id._, and 397
_Roman Veterans_ settled on _ager publicus_ with single or
double yokes of oxen and seed for about 30 or 60 jugera,
272–276
_Roman Villa._ _See_ Villa
_Run-rig_ or _Rundale_, the Irish and Scotch modern open-field
system, 3. Survival of methods of tribal system now used
in subdivision of holdings among heirs, 226, 230, 438–440
_St. Bertin_, Abbey of Sitdiu at, Grimbald brought by King
Alfred from thence, 160; Chartularium Sithiensis, and
surveys of estates of, 255–6; villa or manor of Sitdiu,
272, 366; suffix 'inghem' to names of manors, 356
_St. Gall_, records of Abbey, surrenders to, 316–324
_St. Paul's_ (Domesday of), A.D. 1222, 51
_Salian Franks_ in Toxandria, 286
_Scattered Ownership_, in open fields, 7. Characteristic
of 'yard-land' in Winslow manor rolls, 23. In Saxon
open fields, 111. In Welsh laws, 118. Resulted from
co-ploughing, 121. Under runrig system, 226–229
_Scutage_, 1d. per acre or 1l. per double hide of 240 a.,
or 40s. per _scutum_, to which four ordinary hides
contributed, 38
_Seliones_, the acre or half-acre strips into which the open
fields were divided, separated by turf _balks_, 2, 3, 19,
119
_Servi_ (_slaves_), in Domesday Survey, 89, 93–95. Saxon
_Theow_ 164–166, 175. Welsh _caeth_, 199, 238. On Roman
Villa, 263. Arranged in _decuriæ_, 264. Under Alamannic
and Bavarian laws, 317, 323–326
_Services_ of _villani_, chiefly of three kinds: (1) Gafol,
(2) precariæ or boon-work, (3) week-work (refer to these
heads), 41. In Hundred Rolls, 41. Domesday of St. Paul's,
53. Gloucester and Worcester records, 58. In Kelso
records, 67. Boldon Book, 68. Liber Niger of Peterborough,
73. Summary of post-Domesday evidence, 78. On Saxon
manors, in 'Rectitudines,' 130, 137–147. On Tidenham manor
of King Edwy, 154. On Hysseburne manor of King Alfred,
162. In Saxon '_weork-ræden_,' 158. Of cottiers (or
bordarii) in Hundred Rolls, 44. Gloucester and Worcester,
58, 69. Of Saxon 'cotsetle,' 130, 141. On German and
English manors compared, 399–405
_Setene_, outfit of holder of Saxon yard-land, 133, 139. _See_
Stuht
_Shot_, 4 (_see_ furlong), Saxon 'sceot,' a division, occurs at
Passau, 380
_Siculus Flaccus_ mentions open fields, irregular boundaries,
and scattered ownership, on _agri occupatorii_, 274–278
_Sochmanni_, a class of tenants on manors chiefly in the
Danish districts, 34. Mentioned in Hundred Rolls in
Cambridgeshire, 34; in Domesday Survey, 87, 102
_Solanda_, in Domesday of St. Paul's = double hide of 240 a., 54
_Solin_, _sullung_, of Kent, plough land from 'Suhl,' a plough,
54; divided into 'yokes' (= yard-lands), 54; sullung = 4
gyrdlands and to ½ sullung, outfit of four oxen, A.D. 835,
139. _See also_, 395
_Stuht_, Kelso records, outfit of two oxen, &c., with
husband-land (yard-land), 61. Compare '_setene_' of the
Saxon gebur with yard-land, 133 and 139, and outfit of
Roman veteran, 274; and see under Bavarian Laws, 326
_Succession to holdings_, under the tribal system to all sons
of tribesmen equally, 193, 234, 340; to yard-lands and
other holdings in serfdom _single_ by regrant, 23–24, 133,
176; so probably in the case of semi-servile holdings of
_usufructuarii_ under Roman law, 308
_Supercilia_, or linches, mentioned by _Agrimensores_, 277
_Syrian Code_ of fifth century, 291–294
_Tacitus_, description of German tribal system in the
_Germania_, 338–343
_Tacogs_ (or aillts), Welsh tenants without Welsh blood or
rights of inheritance, not tribesmen--their 'register
land' (tir cyfrif), 191; arranged in separate clusters
or trevs with equality within each, 197; their 'register
land,' 197; their dues to their lord and other incidents,
198–199
_Tate, or Tath_, the Irish homestead, analogous to Welsh
'tyddyn,' 214, 231. _See_ Tribal system, Irish
_Thane_, Lord of a ham. Thane's inland = Lord's demesne land,
128. Thane's law or duties in 'Rectitudines,' 129; his
services, 134; a soldier and servant of king, 135; his
'fyrd,' 136; _trinoda necessitas_, 134
_Theows_, slaves on Saxon estates, 144; their position, 164.
Example from 'Ælfric's Dialogue,' 165
_Three-Field System._ (_See_ Open-field system.) Form of the
open-field system with three-course rotation of crops
_Tidenham_, Manor of King Edwy. Description of, and of services
of geneats and geburs upon, A.D. 956, 148–159. _Cytweras_
and _hæcweras_, for salmon fishing, 152
_Tir-bwrdd_ = terra mensalia, 198
_Tir-gwelyawg_, family land of Welsh free tribesmen, 191
_Tir-cyfrif_, register land of taeogs, 101
_Tir-kyllydus_, Welsh geldable land, 191
_Tithes_ of Church under Saxon laws taken in actual strips or
acres 'as they were traversed by the plough,' 114; acres
of tithes in Domesday Survey, 117; Ethelwulf's grant, 114
_Tithe lands_ of Sicily, 275; of modern Palestine, 314. (_See_
'_Agri decumates_.')
_Trev_, cluster of Welsh free tribesmen's homesteads, four in
North Wales, 200–202; twelve in South Wales, 204. _Taeog_
trevs, 203
_Treviri_, 284
_Tricassi_, 284
_Tribal System in Wales_, 181–213. Welsh districts and traces
of, in Domesday Survey, 182, 206–7. Food rents in D.S.,
185. Welsh land system described by Giraldus Cambrensis,
186–189. In Ancient Laws of Wales, 189 _et seq._ The
free tribesmen of Welsh blood, 190. Homesteads scattered
about, but grouped into clusters for payment of food
rents, 190. Their family land (tir-gwelyawg), 190–191.
Their right to a tyddyn (homestead), five free 'erws'
and co-tillage of waste, 192. The tribal household with
equality within it among brothers, first cousins, and
second cousins, 193. The gwely or family couch, 194. The
_gwestva_, or food rent, and tunc pound in lieu of it,
195. Other obligations of tribesmen, 195. The _taeogs or
aillts_ (see these words) not tribesmen, their tenure and
rules of equality, 197. Land divisions under Welsh Codes
connected with the _gwestva_ and food rents, 199–208.
Early evidence of payment of gwestva and of food rents of
taeogs, 208–213. Shifting of holdings under tribal system,
205. Cluster of twelve tyddyns in Gwent and sixteen in
N. Wales pay _tunc pound_, 202, 203. _In Ireland and
Scotland_, 214–231. Clusters of sixteen tates or taths
(Welsh tyddyn), 215–217. Sir John Davies's surveys and
description of tribal system, Tanistry, and Gavelkind,
215–220. Example of a Sept deported from Cumberland, 219.
Ancient division of Bally or townland into _quarters_
and _tates_, 221, 224. Quarters and names of tates still
traceable on Ordnance Survey, 223–224. Names of tates not
personal, owing to tribal distributions and shiftings of
tribal households from tate to tate, 224.
Irish open-field system--rundale or run-rig--226–228. Similar
system in Scotland, 228–229. Tribal system in its earlier
stages, 231–245. Tenacity with which tribal division among
sons maintained, 234. The tribal house, 239. Blood money,
242. Wide prevalence of tribal system, 244. Absent from
S.E. or Belgic districts of England at Roman conquest,
245. _In Germany_, description of tribal system by Cæsar,
336–337. Description of, by Tacitus, 338–342. Husbandry
like Welsh co-tillage of the waste for one year only,
343–345. Manorial tendencies of German system: tribesmen
have their _servi_ who are 'like _coloni_,' 345–346.
The manor in embryo, 346. Tribal households of German
settlers--local names ending in 'ing'--whether clan
settlements or perhaps as manorial as others, 346–367
_Tun_, generally in Saxon = ham or manor, (to which refer), 255
_Tunc pound_, payment in lieu of Welsh _gwestva_ (to which
refer) paid to the Prince of Wales, 196
_Tusser_, his description of 'Champion' or open-field
husbandry, 17
_Tyddyn_, the Welsh homestead, 192–193. Compare Irish 'tate' or
'tath' and Bohemian 'dĕdiny,' 355
_Uchelwyr_, free Welsh tribesman, 192
_Venedotian_ Code of North Wales. _See_ Wales, Ancient Laws of
_Veredus_, post horse, derivation of word, 298
_Villa_, word interchangeable with _manor_, _ham_, _tun_, 126,
254. Frankish _heim_ or _villa_ on _Terra Regis_ was a
manor and unit of jurisdiction, 257, 262. _The Roman
villa_, an estate under a villicus, worked by slaves, 263.
Its _cohortes_ and _ergastulum_, 263–264. Slaves arranged
in _decuriæ_, 264. _Coloni_, often barbarians on a villa,
266. Likeness to a manor increasing, 267–268. Burgundians
shared villas with Romans, 269. Villas transferred to
Church, 270. And continued under German rule to be villas,
270. And became gradually mediæval manors with villages
upon them, 271. Villas surrendered under Alamannic and
Bavarian laws to the Church, 317 _et seq._
_Village Community or Villata_, under a manor, 8. Hitchin
example. _See_ Hitchin. Its common or open fields: arable,
11; meadow and pasture, 11. Its officials, 10, 70
_Villani_, holders of land in villenage, 29. Sometimes _nativi_
and _adscripti glebæ_, 29. Pay heriot or relief; widows
have dower; make wills proved in Manor Court, 30. The
yard-land the normal holding of full villanus with two
oxen, 27 (_see_ Yard-land). Sometimes they hold the
demesne land at farm, 69. Sometimes farm whole manor, 70.
_Pleni-villani_ and _semi-villani_, 74
_Villenage._ _See_ Villani. Breaking up in 14th century, 31.
Its death-blow the Black Death and Wat Tyler's rebellion,
31–32. Incidents of, in Worcestershire, 56. General
incidents, 80. _See_ Servius
_Virgarii_, holders of Virgates, 50
_Virgate._ See Yardland.
_Wales, Ancient Laws of_, ascribed to Howel Dda (10th century),
189. Contemporary with Saxon Laws, 190. _See_ 'Tribal
System' of, 181–213. Parts of, mentioned in Domesday
Survey, 182, 185
_Wat Tyler's_ rebellion, 31
_Week-work._ The distinctive service of the serf in villenage,
78 (and see for details 'Services'), in _Rectitudines_,
week-work of gebur three days a week, 131, 141. In
services of Tidenham unlimited, 155. So in those of
Hysseburne, 163. In laws of Alamanni (A.D. 622) three
days on estates of Church, 323. So in Bavarian laws (7th
century), 326. Unless lord has found everything, 326. On
Lorsch manors three days, 334. _See also_, 404
_Wele_, Welsh holding in _Record of Carnarvon_. _See_ 'Gwely,'
193–195
_Westminster_, description of its manor and open fields in
Domesday Survey, 97–101
_Winslow_, Court Rolls of, 20–32
_Wista_, in Battle Abbey records = ½ hide--the _Great Wista_ =
½ double hide, 50
_Wizenburg_, surrenders to Abbey of, 329. Interchange between
_villas_ and _heims_ in records of, 258
_Yard-land_ (_gyrd-landes_, _virgata terræ_), normal holding
of villanus with two oxen in the common plough of eight
oxen--a bundle of mostly thirty scattered strips in
the open fields = German 'hub.' Example of yard-land
in Winslow Manor rolls, 24. Rotation in the strips,
27. Large area in yard-lands, 28. Held in villenage by
villani, 29. Evidence of Hundred Rolls, 33. Variation in
acreage and connexion with 'hide,' 36, 55 = husband-land
of two bovates in the North, 61, 67. Normal holding of
villanus in _Liber Niger_ of Peterborough, 73. Normal
holding of villanus of Domesday Survey, 91–95. Large
proportion of arable land of England held in yard-lands
at date of survey, 101. Saxon 'gyrd-lands,' 111, 117. In
'Rectitudines,' 133. In 'Laws of Ine,' 142. A bundle of
scattered strips resulting from co-operative ploughing,
117–125. With single succession (_see_ 'Succession') which
is the mark of serfdom of the holders, 176, 370
_Yoke of Land_ (mentioned in Domesday Survey of Kent) =
yard-land. Division of the _sullung_ or double hide in
Kent, 54. Compared with Roman _jugum_. _See_ Jugum
_Yoke_, _short_ for two oxen, _long_ for four oxen abreast in
Welsh laws, 120
_Youngest_ son, custom for, to succeed to holding. _See_
Jüngsten-Recht
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Transcriber's note:
Original punctuation and spelling were generally retained.
Illustrations are moved from inside paragraphs to between paragraphs.
Footnotes are renumbered and moved from the ends of pages to the
ends of chapters.
The List of Maps and Plates was reformatted slightly to eliminate
the original ditto marks ahead of each page number. Ditto marks have
also been removed elsewhere, adding repetitive text as necessary.
Large curley brackets, "{" or "}", meant to indicate combination or
grouping of information on two or more lines, have been eliminated
from this ebook. Such information has been recast appropriately to
retain the original meaning.
Page 142: No anchor was found for the footnote; a new anchor was
therefore inserted thus: "an otherwise almost unintelligible passage
in the laws of King Ine[170]".
Page 144, first footnote: The text looks like "twihinde mek"; this
has been changed to "twihinde men".
Page 207: changed "rendered as gwesta" to "rendered as gwestva".
Page 216–217: "ballibeatach" is also spelled "bailebiatagh" on these
pages.
Page 261: changed "in the sense of 'court'--king's court,'--just as
in" to "in the sense of 'court'--'king's court,'--just as in", by
adding the single quote.
Page 340: The first footnote on this page lacks the volume number for
the reference _Germania_. The second edition of the book contains the
same footnote, but shows the volume number as "xxv", which has been
inserted herein.
Page 391: The third footnote is rendered "_Id._ 37–8" herein, based
on the second edition of the book. The current (reprint of the
fourth) edition was illegible.
Index, under "Hide": "Double hide of, 240 a" changed to "Double hide
of 240 a".
Index, under "Polyptique d'Irminon": It says "Introduction quoted, 265,
298, 641", but there is no page 641 in the book. However, footnote
number 594 refers to page 641 of M. Guérard's Introduction.