The English Village Community / Examined in its Relations to the Manorial and Tribal Systems and to the Common or Open Field System of Husbandry; An Essay in Economic History (Reprinted from the Fourth Edition)

by Frederic Seebohm

I. EVIDENCE OF THE DOMESDAY SURVEY.

The Saxon land system has now been examined. No feature has been found to be more marked and general than its universally manorial character; that is to say, the Saxon 'ham' or 'tun' was an estate or manor with a village community in villenage upon it. And the services of the villein tenants were of a uniform and clearly defined type; they consisted of the combination of two distinct things—fixed gafol payments in money, in kind, or in labour, and the more servile week-work.

It is needful now to examine the land system beyond the border of Saxon conquest.

A good opportunity of doing this occurs in the Domesday Survey.

The Tidenham manor has already been examined. It afforded a singularly useful example of the Saxon system. Its geographical position, at the extreme south-west corner of England, on the side of Wales, enabled us to trace its history from its probable conquest in 577, or soon after, and to conclude that it remained Saxon from that time to the date of [p182] the Survey; and distinctly manorial was found to be the character of its holdings and services.

West side of the Wye.

Now, the neighbouring land, on the west side of the Wye, was equally remarkable in its geographical position. For as long as Tidenham had been the extreme south-west corner of England, so long had the neighbouring land between the Wye and the Usk been the extreme south-east corner of unconquered Wales.

Gwent.

Remained Welsh till conquered by Harold.

It was part of the district of Gwent, and it seems to have remained in the hands of the Welsh till Harold conquered it from the Welsh king Gruffydd, a few years only before the Norman Conquest.

Harold seems to have annexed whatever he conquered between the Wye and the Usk—i.e. in Gwent—to his earldom of Hereford; and after the Norman Conquest it fell into the hands of William FitzOsborn, created by William the Conqueror Earl of Hereford and Lord of Gwent.[203]

It was he[204] who built at Chepstow the Castle of Estrighoiel, the ruins of which still stand on the west bank of the Wye, opposite Tidenham. His son, Roger FitzOsbern, succeeded to the earldom of Hereford and the lordship of Gwent; and, upon his rebellion [p183] and imprisonment, this region of Wales became terra regis, and as such is described in the Domesday Survey, mostly as a sort of annexe to Gloucestershire,[205] but partly as belonging to the county of Hereford.[206]

So also the district of Archenfield.

Nor is Gwent the only district very near to Tidenham whose Welsh history can be traced down to the time of the Domesday Survey. There was another part of ancient Wales, the district of Ergyng, or Archenfield,—which included the 'Golden Valley' of the Dour. It lay, like Gwent—but further north—between the unmistakable boundaries of the Wye and the Usk, and it remained Welsh till conquered by Harold; and this is confirmed by the fact that the district of 'Arcenefelde' is brought within the limits of the Domesday Survey[207] as an irregular addition to Herefordshire, just as Gwent was an annexe to Gloucestershire.

Both districts described in the Domesday Survey.

Here, then, we have two districts, one to the west and the other to the north of Tidenham, both of which clearly remained Welsh till conquered by Harold a few years before the Norman Conquest, and both of them are described in the Domesday Survey. Further, it so happens that because they had been but recently conquered, and had not yet been added to any English county, and because also their customs differed from those of the neighbouring English manors, the services of their tenants, quite out of ordinary course, are described.

So that, by a convenient chance, we are able to bring together upon the evidence of the Domesday [p184] Survey the land systems of a district which for five hundred years before the Norman Conquest had been the extreme south-east edge of Wales, and of a district which for the same five hundred years had been the extreme south-west corner of Saxon England, beyond the Severn.

We have seen what was the Saxon land system on one side of the Wye, which divided the two districts; let us now see what was the Welsh land system on the other side of the river, so far as it is disclosed in the Survey.

Gwent.

Part of the Welsh district of Gwent is thus described in the Domesday annexe to Gloucestershire:—

'Under Waswic, the præpositus, are xiii. villæ; under [another præpositus] xiiii. villæ, under [another præpositus] xiii., under [another præpositus] xiiii. (i.e. 54 in all). These render xlvii. sextars of honey, and xl. pigs, and xli. cows, and xxviii. shillings for hawks.[208] . . .

'Under the same præpositi are four villæ wasted by King Caraduech.' [209]

Again, a little further on, this entry occurs:—

'The same A. has in Wales vii. villæ which were in the demesne of Count William and Roger his son (i.e. Fitz-Osbern, Earl of Hereford and Lord of Gwent). These render vi. sextars of honey, vi. pigs, and x. shillings.' [210]

Passing to the Domesday description of the district of Archenfield, we find a similar record.

Archenfield.

The heading of the survey for Herefordshire[211] is as follows: 'Hic annotantur terras tenentes in [p185] Herefordscire et in Arcenefelde et in Walis.' And further on[212] we learn that—

'In Arcenefelde the king has 100 men less 4, who with their men have 73 teams, and give of custom 41 sextars of honey and 20s. instead of the sheep which they used to give, and 10s. for fumagium; nor do they give geld or other custom, except that they march in the king's army if it is so ordered to them. If a liber homo dies there, the king has his horse, with arms. From a villanus when he dies the king has one ox. King Grifin and Blein devastated this land in the time of King Edward, and so what it was then is not known.' Lagademar pertained to Arcenefelde in the time of King Edward, &c. There is a manor [at Arcenefelde] in which 4 liberi homines with 4 teams render 4 sextars of honey and 16d. of custom. Also a villa with its men and 6 teams, and a forest, rendering a half sextar of honey and 6d.

There are other instances of similar honey rents, e.g.—

In Chipeete 57 men with xix. teams render xv. sextars of honey and x. shillings.

In Cape v. Welshmen having v. teams render v. sextars of honey, and v. sheep with lambs, and xd.

In Mainaure one under-tenant having iv. teams renders vi. sextars of honey and x. s.

In Penebecdoc one under-tenant having iv. teams render vi. sextars of honey and x. s.

In Hulla xii. villani and xii. bordarii with xi. teams render xviii. sextars of honey.

Food rents and clusters of villas under a præpositus.

The distinctive points in these descriptions of the recently Welsh districts west and north of Tidenham are obviously (1) the prevalence of produce or food rents—honey, cows, sheep, pigs, &c.—honey being the most prominent item; (2) the absence of the word 'manor,' used everywhere else in the survey of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire; (3) the remarkable grouping in the district of Gwent of the 'villas' in batches of thirteen or fourteen, each batch under a separate præpositus. [p186]

It is clear that on the Welsh side of the Wye Welsh instead of Saxon customs prevailed, and that these were some of them.[213] So much we learn from these irregular additions of newly conquered Welsh ground to the area of the Domesday Survey.

The meaning of the peculiarities thus indicated will become apparent when the Welsh system has been examined upon its own independent evidence.