THE CUSTOMS OF THE TOWNSHIP
Many persons marvelled at the changes in the customs that took place
by the order or permission of the lord abbot Samson. From the time
when the town of St. Edmund received the name and liberty of a
borough, the men of every house used to give to the cellarer one penny
in the beginning of August, to reap our corn, which annual payment was
called rep-silver. Before the town became free, all of them used to
reap as serfs; the dwellings of knights and chaplains, and of the
servants of the court lodge being alone exempt from this payment. In
process of time, the cellarer spared certain of the most wealthy of
the town, demanding nothing from them. The other burgesses, seeing
this, used openly to say that no one who had a dwelling house of his
own was liable to pay this penny, but only those who rented houses
from others.
Afterwards, they all in common sought this exemption, conferring
thereon with the lord abbot, and offering an annual rent as a
composition of this demand. The abbot, indeed, considering the
undignified way in which the cellarer used to go through the town to
collect rep-silver, and the manner in which he used to take distresses
in the houses of the poor, sometimes taking trivets, sometimes doors,
and sometimes other utensils, and how the old women came out with
their distaffs, threatening and abusing the cellarer and his men,
ordered that twenty shillings should be given every year to the
cellarer at the next portman-moot, at the hand of the bailiff before
August, by the burgesses, who were to pay the rent to discharge this.
And it was done accordingly, and confirmed by our charter, there being
given to them another quittance from a certain customary payment,
which is called sorpeni, in consideration of four shillings, payable
at the same term. For the cellarer was accustomed to receive one penny
by the year for every cow belonging to the men of the town for their
dung and pasture (unless perchance they happened to be the cows of the
chaplains or of the servants at the court lodge). These cows he used
to impound, and had great trouble in the matter.
Afterwards, indeed, when the abbot made mention of this in the
chapter, the convent was very angry, and took it in ill part, so much
so that Benedict the sub-prior in the chapter, answering for all,
said, "That man, abbot Ording, who lies there, would not have done
such a thing for five hundred marks of silver." The abbot, although he
himself felt angry, put off the matter for a time.
There arose also a great contention between Roger the cellarer and
Hugh the sacrist concerning the appurtenances of their offices, so
that the sacrist would not lend to the cellarer the prison of the town
for the purpose of detaining therein the thieves who were taken in the
cellarer's jurisdiction. The cellarer was thereby oftentimes harassed,
and because the thieves escaped he was reprimanded for default of
justice.
Now it came to pass that one holding as a free tenant of the cellarer,
dwelling without the gate, by name Ketel, was charged with theft, and
being vanquished in a trial by battle, was hanged. The convent was
grieved by the offensive words of the burgesses, who said that if that
man had only dwelt within the borough, it would not have come to the
ordeal, but that he would have acquitted himself by the oaths of his
neighbours, as is the privilege of those who dwell within the borough.
Therefore the abbot and the more reasonable part of the convent seeing
this, and bearing in mind that the men without the borough as well as
those within are ours, and ought all of them in like manner to enjoy
the same liberty within the jurisdiction, except the villeins of
Hardwick and their like, deliberately took thought with themselves how
this could be done.
Thereupon the abbot, being desirous of limiting the offices of the
sacristy and the cellary by certain articles, and of quieting all
contentions, commanded, as if taking the part of the sacrist, that the
servants of the town bailiff and the servants of the cellarer should
together enter upon the fee of the cellarer for the purpose of seizing
thieves and malefactors, and that the bailiff should have half the
profit for their imprisonment and safe keeping and for his pains
therein; and that the court of the cellarer should go to the
portman-moot, and judge the prisoners in common. It was also ordered
that the men of the cellarer should come to the toll-house with the
others, and there renew their pledges, and should be inscribed upon
the bailiff's roll, and should there give the bailiff that penny which
is called borth-selver, whereof the cellarer was to have one half
part; but at this time the cellarer receives nothing at all from this.
The intent of all this was, that every one should enjoy equal
privilege. Nevertheless, the burgesses at this time say, that the
dwellers in the outskirts ought not to be quit of toll in market,
unless they belong to the merchant's guild. Moreover, the bailiff (the
abbot conniving at the matter) now claims for himself the fines and
forfeitures accruing from the fee of the cellarer.
The ancient customs of the cellarer, which we have seen, were these:
The cellarer had his messuage and barns near Scurun's well, at which
place he was accustomed to exercise his jurisdiction upon robbers, and
hold his court for all pleas and plaints. Also at that place he was
accustomed to put his men in pledge, and to enroll them and to renew
their pledges every year, and to take such profit therefor as the
bailiff of the town was to take at the portman-moot. This messuage,
with the adjacent garden, now in the occupation of the infirmarer, was
the mansion of Beodric, who was of old time the lord of this town, and
after whom also the town came to be called Beodricsworth. His demesne
lands are now in the demesne of the cellarer, and that which is now
called averland was the land of his rustics. And the total amount of
the holding of himself and his churls was thirty times thirty acres of
land, which are still the fields of this town.
The service thereof, when the town was made free, was divided into two
parts, so that the sacrist or town bailiff was to receive a free
annual payment, namely, for each acre twopence. The cellarer was to
have the ploughings and other services, namely, the ploughing of one
rood for each acre, without meals (which custom is still observed),
and was to have the folds wherein all the men of the town, except the
steward, who has his own fold, are bound to put their sheep (which
custom also is still observed); and was to have aver-peni, namely, for
each thirty acres twopence (which custom was done away with before the
decease of abbot Hugh, when Gilbert of Elveden was cellarer).
Furthermore, the men of the town were wont upon the order of the
cellarer to go to Lakenheath, and bring back a day's catch of eels
from Southrey. They often, indeed, used to return empty-handed, so
they had their trouble without any profit to the cellarer. It was
therefore settled between them that each thirty acres, from
thenceforth, should pay one penny by the year, and the men were to
remain at home. But, in fact, at this time, those lands are subdivided
into so many parts, that it can hardly be ascertained by whom that
annual payment is to be made; so that I have seen the cellarer, in one
year, receive twenty-seven pence, but now he can hardly get tenpence
halfpenny.
The cellarer was also wont to exercise authority over the ways without
the town, so that it was not lawful for any one to dig for chalk or
clay without his licence. He also was accustomed to summon the fullers
of the town, that they should furnish cloth for his salt. Otherwise he
would prohibit them the use of the waters, and would seize the webs he
found there; which customs are still observed. Also, whosoever bought
corn, or indeed anything from the cellarer, was accustomed to be quit
from toll at the gate of the town when he went homewards, wherefore
the cellarer sold his produce dearer; which usage is still observed.
Also, the cellarer is accustomed to take toll of flax at the time of
its carrying, namely, one truss from each load. Also, the cellarer
alone ought, or at least used to have, a free bull in the fields of
the town; now many persons have bulls.
Also, when any one surrendered his burgage land in alms to the
convent, and this was assigned to the cellarer, or other official,
that land used, thenceforth, to be quit of haggovele, and most
especially so to the cellarer, on account of the dignity of his
office, for he is the second father in the monastery, or even as a
matter of reverence to the convent, for the estate of those who
procure our provisions ought to be favourable. But the abbot says that
usage is unjust, because the sacrist loses his service. Further, the
cellarer was accustomed to warrant to the servants of the court lodge,
that they should be quit of scot and tallage; but now it is not so,
for the burgesses say that the servants of the court lodge ought to be
quit only so far as they are servants, but not when they hold burgage
in the town, and when they or their wives publicly buy and sell in the
market.
Also, the cellarer was used freely to take all the dunghills in the
street, for his own use, unless it were before the doors of those who
were holding averland; for to them only was it allowable to collect
dung, and to keep it. This custom gradually lapsed in the time of
abbot Hugh until Dennis and Roger of Hingham became cellarers. Being
desirous of reviving the ancient custom, they took the cars of the
burgesses laden with dung, and made them unload; but a multitude of
the burgesses resisting, and being too strong for them, every one in
his own tenement now collects his dung in a heap, and the poor sell
theirs when and to whom they choose.
The cellarer was also wont to have this privilege in the market of
this town, that he and his purveyors should have pre-emption of all
the provisions for the use of the convent, if the abbot were not at
home. Also, that the purveyors of the abbot, or cellarer, whichever of
them first came into the market, should buy first, either the latter
without the former, or the former without the latter. But if both were
present, then preference was to be given to the abbot. Also, in the
season when herrings were sold, the purveyors of the abbot should
always buy a hundred herrings at a halfpenny less than other people,
and likewise the cellarer and his purveyors. Also, if a load of fish
or other provisions should come first into the court lodge, or into
the market, and that load should not have been discharged from the
horse or from the cart, the cellarer or his purveyors might buy the
whole and take it home with them without paying toll. But the abbot
Samson commanded his purveyors that they should give preference to the
cellarer and his men, because, as he himself said, he had much rather
himself go without than his convent. Therefore the purveyors, "in
honour preferring one another," if they find there is any one thing to
be bought which is not enough for both parties, buy it between them,
and divide it, share and share alike, and so between the head and the
members, and the father and the sons, there remains an agreement in
disagreement.
The poet has said, "Envy aims at the highest," and it is for this
reason that I repeat these words, that when some one was perusing this
narrative, and while he was reading of so many good acts, he called me
a flatterer of the abbot, and a seeker of favour and grace, saying
that I had silently suppressed some things which ought not to have
been passed by.
When I inquired which and what sort of acts they might be, he
answered, "Do you not see how the abbot grants away, at his own good
pleasure, the escheats of land belonging to the demesnes of the
convent, and the female heirs of lands, and the widows, as well within
the town of St. Edmund as without? Also, do you not see how the abbot
draws to himself the plaints and pleas of those who demand by the
King's writ lands which are of the fee of the convent, and especially
those plaints from which profit arises; and those from which no gain
ensues, he turns over to the cellarer or sacrist, or other officials?"
Whereto I answered, as I believe the fact to be, perhaps rightly,
perhaps wrongly, and said that every lord of a fee whereto there is
homage, ought by right to have an escheat whenever it shall have
fallen within the fee in respect whereof he has received homage. By
parity of reason, there is due to him general aid of the burgesses,
and also the wardships of boys, and the gifts of widows and girls, in
those fees in respect whereof he has received homage; for all these
things seem to belong to the abbot alone, unless by chance the abbey
shall be vacant.
Moreover, in the town of St. Edmund a special custom has place, by
reason of its being a borough, that the next in blood shall have the
wardship of a boy with an inheritance, until the years of discretion.
Furthermore, I thus answered him concerning the plaints and pleas,
that I had never seen the abbot usurp jurisdiction that belonged to
us, unless in default of our administering justice; but nevertheless,
he had on some occasions taken money, in order that by the
intervention of his authority plaints and pleas should attain their
final determination. Also, I have sometimes seen pleas which belonged
to us decided in the court of the abbot, because there was not any in
the commencement of the suit who would, on the part of the convent,
assert jurisdiction.