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and privileged, but none the less their exclusion from the public courts and the exaction of week-work stamped their tenure as servile. They were accordingly quite distinct from the free sokemen, and at the best they can only be described as villein sokemen.

tenements.

(2) In other cases the increase in the number of free (ii.) Createnants was real and not merely apparent, and can be tion of free definitely traced to the creation of new holdings carved out of the demesne or the waste. Instead of the demesne remaining in the lord's occupation a portion of it, sometimes differentiated from the rest by the term 'inland,' was often alienated to tenants at a money-rent and held in free tenure. This practice was fairly common, as we may infer, for example, from a charter of the earl of Chester (1285), which enjoined that "if any convert the earl's demesne into tributary land, whether it be a farmer or a bondman that hold it, he shall pay tithe "1. Two circumstances favoured the practice of curtailing the demesne in the interests of new tenants. It was necessary to reward the services of manorial officials 2, and in the feudal age services of almost any kind were usually requited by a grant of land. Again the growth of population involved the need for making some provision on their behalf, and it was easier to sever a portion of the home farm than to attempt a redistribution of the manorial holdings. The cultivation of the waste afforded another method of coping with the pressure of population. Land was reclaimed for purposes of tillage, and was either added to the demesne or granted out to tenants. The clearance of the waste (essart) was of advantage to the lord who received the rent, and to those who were allowed to occupy it, but it conflicted with the interests of the villagers whose rights over the waste were proportionately diminished. The new holdings thus fashioned out of the demesne and the waste were seldom large in size, and consisted as a rule only of a few acres, but there was no regularity. Among the new tenants for whom opportunities of rural employment were thus afforded 1 Charter Rolls, ii. 317. 3 Infra, P. 73.

2 Infra, p. 55.

(iii.) Commutation.

Officials of

The

were artisans 1, for the mediaeval workman usually combined the cultivation of a small plot of land with industrial pursuits. (3) Finally, the class of free tenants was recruited to an increasing extent from tenants in villeinage who had commuted their labour services for the payment of rent in money. But this was a development which will be examined later in connexion with the break-up of the manorial system 2.

The different groups of tenants comprised within the the manor. manorial community were knitted together, not only by their common interests in the open fields, but also by their common subjection to the lord of the manor. The authority of the lord was exercised through a ministerial body which formed an important element in the rural population. A thirteenth-century treatise, the Seneschaucie 3, describes the duties of the different manorial officers, the seneschal, bailiff and other servants of the demesne, upon whose industry and ability depended the working of the manorial system. Where the lord owned several manors, the charge of their administration was entrusted to the seneschal or steward, who must, says the treatise, show seneschal. fidelity, prudence and foresight, and possess a knowledge of legal lore to safeguard the lord's rights and advise the bailiffs in their difficulties. Twice or thrice in the year he is to make his round and visit the manors of his stewardship, making inquiry of rents and services and customs, amending what is wrong and protecting the lord's interests as need arises. He should know how much land is in demesne and the amount of crop it is expected to produce. "And if there be any cheating in the sowing, or ploughing, or reaping", on the part of the customary tenants, “he shall easily see it". He may not remove the bailiff, but if the latter is incompetent, "or if he have committed trespass or offence in his office, let it be shown to the lord and to his council, and he shall do as he shall think good". The seneschal is to be responsible to the lord, who must not abdicate his authority by entrusting to the steward powers

1 E.g. Hale, Domesday of St. Paul's, 52 (weaver with five acres).
2 Infra, P. 77.

3 Printed in Walter of Henley, Husbandry (ed. E. Lamond, 1890).

which are beyond a seneschal's province; for example, the seneschal may not sell or enfranchise a villein without special warrant from the lord. In the main the duties of the seneschal are those of general supervision. He "ought on his coming to each manor to see and inquire how they are tilled, and in what crops they are, and how the cart-horses, and avers, oxen, cows, sheep and swine, are kept and improved". He must also ascertain "how the bailiff bear himself within and without, what care he takes, what improvement he makes, and what increase and profit there is in the manor in his office, because of his being there. And also of the provost and hayward and keeper of cattle and all other officers, how each bears himself towards him, and thereby he can be more sure who makes profit and who harm". The bailiff in his turn is responsible for the manage- The ment of the estate. He must know "everything connected bailiff.

with his baillie . . . for a bailiff is worth little in time of need who knows nothing and has nothing in himself without the instruction of another". He is to "rise early every morning and survey the woods, corn, meadows and pastures, and see what damage may have been done". He should take care that the ploughs accomplish their appointed task day by day, and cause the land to be marled, folded, manured and improved. He must see that the customary tenants perform their services, and that the horses, and oxen, and all the stock are well kept, that the corn be well and cleanly threshed, and the land well ploughed and well sown. He must also dispose of the surplus produce of the manor in neighbouring markets. The reeve is chosen by the village community as the best husbandman in their midst. His duties are manifold, and embrace the supervision of all the actual work done by the tenants on the farm. In practice, where the manor included both a bailiff and a reeve, it must have been difficult to draw a clear line between their functions. But the bailiff enjoyed a position of greater responsibility, while the reeve would seem to have been answerable for any shortcomings on the part of the tenantry. The rest of the treatise is taken up with a description of other manorial servants: the hayward who

The office

of reeve.

ought to be an active and sharp man, early and late looking after the wood, and corn and meadows; the auditors to whom accounts are rendered and the complaints of the tenants brought; the ploughmen who must be men of intelligence and know how to drive the oxen without beating or hurting them; the waggoners who should load and carry without danger to the horses, and lastly the cowherds, swineherds, shepherds and dairymaids.

In the thirteenth century the reeve was inferior to the bailiff alike in status and functions; broadly speaking, he represented the interests of the villagers as the bailiff represented those of the lord. The office was an unpopular one on account of the responsibility involved, and liability to serve as reeve was regarded as proof of villeinage 1. The following passage from the manor rolls of Brightwaltham (1293) will serve to illustrate both the choice of a reeve and the large payments made to avoid the burden. The jurors on the manor "say that John Atgreen, John of Southwood, Thomas Smith and Richard Young are the best and most competent men of the whole vill for the purpose of filling and executing the office of reeve. And of these the steward has chosen Thomas Smith for the office. Afterwards the said Thomas made fine that he might be absolved from the office of reeve and gives the lord forty shillings" 2. In earlier times the relation between the reeve and the bailiff would seem to have been the reverse. The gerefa and the bedellus are mentioned in Domesday and were, it is supposed, of villein origin 3. The reeve at this period acted on behalf of the lord's interests and took precedence of the 'beadle' to whom he was superior. His duties in Saxon times are set forth in an eleventh-century treatise on the Gerefa, the terms of which recall the description given above of the steward and the bailiff. "The sagacious reeve ought to know both the lord's land-right and the folk-rights, even as the counsellors of olden days have determined; and the season of every crop that pertains to a homestead; since, in

1 Vinogradoff, Villainage, 318 (n. 3); Neilson, Customary Rents, 101. 2 Select Pleas in Manorial Courts, i. 168; Pembroke Surveys, ii. 345. 3 Round in Vict. County Hist. Herefordshire, i. 287-288.

4 Ibid.

many districts, the farm-work is earlier than in others. . . Let him who holds such office take heed that he guard and further every work according as is best for it. . . . He ought prudently to consider and diligently to look into all the things that may be for his lord's advantage. . . . He must know both the less and the more, both the greater and the less important matters that concern a homestead, both in the farm-yard and on the down, both in wood and in water, both in field and fold, both indoors and out". There follows an enumeration of "matters that concern a homestead" so detailed that the writer at length exclaims: "It is toilsome to recount all that he who holds this office ought to think of. . . . Many things are needed for a faithful reeve of a household and for a temperate guardian of men "1.

ministerial

The servants of the manor formed a very large body, Importgenerally drawn from the inhabitants of the village whose ance of the surplus population found employment upon the demesne. body. Their services were rewarded in different ways. Land was often attached to the office of reeve 2, and at other times he was allowed a partial or even complete remission of the rents and services due from his tenement 3. This was doubtless a common provision, while those permanently employed would receive food and drink and clothing. The importance of this administrative staff in the economic organization of the manor can scarcely be over-estimated 5. "It mediated between lord and subject, between military order and industrial order". It linked up the various estates belonging to the lord and constituted the channel of intercourse between different parts of the country. Within the manor itself it acted as the brain of the community, directing its affairs and administering its concerns; in a word, regulating and controlling all the varied economic activities of mediaeval rural life.

Hitherto we have dealt only with one aspect of the

1 The Gerefa, printed in Liebermann, Gesetze, i. 453-455 (trans. in W• Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce (1910), i. App. B.). 2 Charter Rolls, ii. 194; charter speaking of land pertaining to the office of reeve. 3 E.g. Custumals of Battle Abbey, 27, 54, 66. 4 Vinogradoff, Villainage, 320; Growth of the Manor, 359. Ibid.

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