xvj. d'. xij. d. Xij. d'. Johanni de Cantebro quarrario per idem tempus xviij. d'. ix. d'. Jorverth le Galoys portitori per idem tempus ix. d'. Summa xv. s’. ij. d'.. ix. đ. Ō. . In dorse) Particulæ operationum Aulæ Lewellini de Conewey de tempore Domini W. de Sutton' Justiciarii CHARLES HENRY HARTSHORNE. Cogenhoe, Dec. 26, 1853. ON ANCIENT CUSTOMS OF THE LORDSHIP OF CRICKHOWEL. (Read at Brecon.) THE paper which I have the honour to submit to your attention has a special reference to certain customs which prevailed within the Lordship attached to Crickhowel Castle, anterior to the reign of Elizabeth, and I submit this paper with the less hesitation, inasmuch as whatever interest, if any, which the subject may possess, does not depend for its elucidation upon any observation of mine, but upon the degree of curiosity which a statement of these customs may excite-customs which I have extracted from a copy of a document from the archives of Badminton, with which I have been favoured, and which I have ventured to bring before you, from the persuasion that they are not without value as tending to throw some light over the character and quality of that feudal power exercised by the Norman Lords over their Welsh dependents. Formerly, whenever we desired to learn the history of a people, we were to a great degree compelled to be guided more by its political events and general laws than by those special customs which appertain to particular localities-customs which, by being so closely interwoven with domestic life, present a homely, but I believe a not unfaithful, picture of the state of civilization which existed at the period to which they allude, and show the importance of embodying, if not their letter, at all events their spirit, in the pages of history. But if formerly we have been too little under the guidance of local peculiarities, this circumstance did not necessarily arise from any disregard of their value, but probably from the want of that access to family documents which has of late years in so many instances been granted by their possessors; and I think you will concur with me, that even now, if many would allow an occasional trespass upon their muniment rooms, for the innocent purpose of historical investigation, that a considerable flood of light would be thrown upon matters hitherto obscure. These few remarks I should scarcely have ventured to offer had they emanated from merely my own convictions; but I felt that they were supported by an eminent authority of the day, who says : “The genuine history of a country can never be well understood without a complete and searching analysis of the component parts of the community as well as the country. Genealogical inquiries and local topography, so far from being unworthy the attention of the philosophical inquirer, are amongst the best materials he can use; and the fortunes and changes of one family, or the events of one upland township, may explain the darkest and most dubious portions of the annals of a realm. Now, in submitting this paper, I do not for a moment anticipate the realization of such a result as that announced in the last part of my quotation. Its importance is doubtless very limited, embracing, as it will, a variety of details which may appear to some almost trivial; still, I hope, when it is considered how powerful is the action of minor circumstances upon individual welfare and happiness, -how much a sentiment of either attachment or antipathy is influenced by the equity of daily transactions, that these details may be found to possess an interest which in abstract contemplation would not be accorded to them. In the fifth year of Elizabeth a commission was granted by the Earl of Worcester to Sir Roger Vaughan, Knight, and others, at the special suit of the tenants of the manor and lordship of Crickhowel , to confirm upon oath those customs which were proved to be due upon them. Accordingly, a body of ancient customs was framed, from which I have extracted such as most peculiarly express the power exercised by the lord within his lordship, more especially as indicated by the various services and conditions imposed upon his Welsh tenants. I will, with your permission, first read to you three customs which are distinctly personal : THE OATH OF THE HOMAGERS.-" All the Tenants that houlde their lands by the said Prince ought to acknowledge the Lord by the words followeinge, that is to saie, ffirst, he ought to come before the Lord kneelinge and acknowledge to hould of the Lord of Crughowell such rents and lands by service of homage and ought to close his handes within the Lordes, deposeinge truly in his faith by God and the Holy Evangelists that he with his whole heart and soul above all thinges, he shall love his Lord, and in all places of any dread shall stand by his Lord him to defend and his bodie well and truely and without fraude and guile against his enemyes keepe. And this done, The Lorde shall command to stand upp from his kneelinge and shall Kisse him and after that all the Tenants soe sworn, they shall give the Lorde or his officer by him appoynted the sum of £5. of lawful money of England immediately after the oathes and homages made.' AYDE.—“The Welsh Tenants shall give to the Lord at his makeinge Knight reasonable ayde, that is to witte, 8d. for to buy him a horse. “The said Tenants shall give unto the Lord at his first comeinge to his Lordshipp 100s.; and to the marryinge of his first begotten daughter 100s., and to the sonne of the said Lord when he is made Knight ffive poundes.” The two last, it will be observed, seem clearly burdens imposed upon the Welsh ; but I think the following customs will show in a still more emphatic manner the distinctions which were originally made between the English and Welsh tenants : CUSTOME FOR PAYMENT OF RENTS.—“ The Lord of Crughowell and his heires have of oulde custome that all the Tenants of the borrowe and village and all manner of tenants both Welshe and Fforren shall come and paie the rents to the Lords Bayliffes certeyne days in which the said rents be leinable upon reasonable summoninge, that is to witt, the 3rd day before the said days; and if ane of them come not with their rents to paie them to the said Bayliffes, they ought before the Steward at the Lord's Barr every eache of them to be amerced, if he be a Welshe Tenant in 10s., a fforreigne Tenant in 7s., a burgesse in 12d.” HENNES PAID.—“Every Tenant by the said Forest for to have libertie for their Beaste in the said fforestes goeinge and feedinge shall paie a hen at the Feast of St. Andrews." “ If ane be summoned at the said Feast for bringing of the said hens and come not, such ought to be amerced if he be a Welshe Tenant at 10s., a Fforeigne Tenant at 7s., a Burgess at 12d.” PLOUGHING THE LORD'S DEMAYNES. -“ All the Welshe Tenants within the Lordship of Crickhowel ought by the custome off their landes to come with their oxen to eare the Demeane Lands by certeyne days at the winter season. The said Tenants ought to doe the like by certeyne days of the Lent Season.” "If any man enters the said Parke and there be founde that he ought to be attached by the Keeper of the Parke, and to be kepte in the stocks without the gate of the said parke till he pay upp or else to loose his right foote if the Parke be closed round about.” A large portion of the remaining customs have almost exclusive reference to the maintenance of weares and mills, and we shall presently see how heavily that maintenance fell upon the Welsh tenants. From the number and particularity of these customs, it would appear as though the old Welsh maxim that the riches of a family consisted of three things, a mill, a weare and an orchard, continued, in the two first instances at least, to exercise a practical influence,-a maxim which, in these days, would certainly fail to embody a truth, inasmuch as so little is a mill regarded as an element of wealth, that it has almost become a popular aphorism, that you cannot inflict upon your enemy a greater injury than to leave him a mill in your will. However let the customs speak for themselves : Mills.“ All the Welshe Tenants of Llanelly, &c., shall sustain and repaire the mill of Clydach with upon their own proper costs and expenses. That is to witt, with all carpentry, Mill ponds and all manner of other works necessary to the same Mill appertayning: And they shall find sufficient water at all times of winter and summer or any other time to the course of the said mill. And if there be any de ult in the turning of water to the said mill turned by the Tenant of the Welshe Tenure, they ought to be amerced in 10s. every each of them.” To subject a Welsh tenant to a penalty on account of a scarcity of water in a dry season is certainly a strange obliquity of justice. But to proceed : “ If it reigne in the said Mill for default of coveringe, all the Tenants above said ought to be amerced in 10s. a piece. “ If any Welshe Tenant deny to come with his graynes to the said mill to have grindinge and to go to another Mill out of the Lordship, they ought to be amerced in 10s. and to satisfie the Lord of his Tolle soe borne away.” “ All the Welshe Tenants of the Lpp of Crughowell shall carry tymber of all manner reparation to the mill of Uske with their bodies, and to make the weare called the Welsh weare upon their own proper costs save the hedges and filling with stones between the hedges of the said weare; and paie due tolle as it was used in the time of Hugh Turberville and his predecessors.” I think I need not weary you with more quotations to show the peculiar stringency of those customs to whịch the Welsh tenants were exposed. We can, I believe, arrive at these two conclusions: that they are eminently suggestive of a spirit of conquest; and, secondly, that their tendency must have been to perpetuate that strong sentiment of separate nationality which so long checked the growth of a warm intercourse between two countries recognizing the same sovereign. Whether in other lordships the Welsh were subject to customs of similar severity, or whether their quality was determined by the |