FOOTNOTES:
[548] Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials. Sir William Paget to the Lord Protector, July 7, 1549.
[549] 4 Henry VII., c. 19.
[550] Journal of House of Commons, December 19, 1656. See Leonard, Trans. Royal Hist. Society, vol. xix.
[551] e.g. Price, Observations on Reversionary Payments, 1773. See Levy, Large and Small Holdings, p. 41.
[552] The general adoption of the “Test Workhouse" for the able-bodied, which dates from the Poor Law Reform Act of 1884, was the direct result of a one-sided reaction against the disastrous Speenhamland policy.
[553] Camden Society, Clarke Papers, vol. ii. p. 217.
[554] For Captain Pouch see Gay, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., New Series, vol. xviii. For the other names Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, vol. ii. p. 40.
[555] Gairdner, Letters and Papers of Henry VIII., vol. xii., Part I., 70, 1537. Examination of R. Leedes: “The rebels ... were half inclined to go home. But Ralph Green ... encouraged them to go forward, saying, 'God’s blood, sirs, what will ye now do? Shall we go home and keep sheep? Nay, by God's body, yet had I rather be hanged,'" and ibid.: “The said Trotter says the meaning of the plough borne in the banner was the encouraging of the husbandman.”
[556] Ibid., vol. xii., Part I., 687, 1537. Confession of Barnarde Townleye, Clerk: “The beginners of the insurrection in Cumberland were the 4 captains of Penrith; Faith, Poverty, Pity and Charity, as the Vicar of Burgh proclaimed them at each meeting.... Conjectures that the intent was to destroy the gentlemen, that none should pay ingressums to his landlord, and little or no rent or tithe"; also ibid., Examination of Sir Robert Thompson, Vicar of Burgh: “On the Wednesday and Thursday the 4 captains followed examinand in procession with their swords drawn, and examinand said mass, which they called the Captains' mass.”
[557] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., vol. xii., Part I., 687: “They of Kirkby Stephen plucked down the new intacks of enclosures, and sent to other Parishes to do the like, which was done at Burgh, 28th January.” For the Doncaster programme see below, p. 334. Aske said (L. and P., vol. xii., Part I., p. 901) that the new farmers of monastic estates “let and tavern out the farms of the same houses to other farmers for lucre.”
[558] These particulars are taken from Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials.
[559] Gay, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., New Series, vol. xviii., which also gives an account of the Midland riot of 1607.
[560] MSS. in possession of Charles E. Bradshaw Bowles, Esq., of Wirksworth, for a transcript of which I am indebted to Mr. Kolthammer. See below, pp. [327–329].
[561] Hist. MSS. Com., MSS. of Marquis of Salisbury, Part VI., pp. 49–50.
[562] The Humble Petition of thousands well affected persons inhabiting the city of London, Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, Hamlets, and places adjacent. In Bodleian Pamphlets, The Leveller’s Petition, c. 15, 3 Linc. See also Gooch, English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century, pp. 139–226.
[563] Camden Society, Clarke Papers, vol. ii. pp. 215–217. Winstanley’s letter to Lord Fairfax and the Council of War begins: “That whereas we have begun to dig upon the Commons for livelihood, and have declared unto your excellency and the whole world our reasons, which are four. First, from the righteous law of creation that gives the earth freely to one as well as another, without respect of persons"; also Gooch, op. cit. The Owenite note may be more than a mere chance. Owen himself stated ("New View of Society"): “Any merit due for the discovery calculated to effect more substantial and permanent benefit to mankind than any ever yet contemplated by the human mind belongs exclusively to John Bellers.” Bellers published his College of Industry in 1696, and may easily have been acquainted with the story of the Diggers' agitation.
[564] Russell, Ket’s Rebellion in Norfolk, p. 8.
[565] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., vol. xii., Part I., 201, Examination of John Halom of Calkehill, yeoman.
[566] Ibid., vol. xi., 1080.
[567] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., vol. xi., 975.
[568] Ibid., vol. xii., Part I., 163.
[569] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., vol. xii., Part I., 163. The Proclamation of the Commons; see also ibid., 138, the manifesto which says, “Ye shall have captains just and true, and not be stayed by the gentry in no wise.”
[570] Russell, Ket’s Rebellion in Norfolk, Introduction, p. 8. The advice of John Walker of Griston.
[571] Selden Society, Select Cases in the Court of Star Chamber, and Leadam, E. H. R., vol. viii. pp. 684–696.
[572] Coventry Leet Book, edited by M.D. Harris, vol. ii. 510 and passim.
[573] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., vol. xii., Part I., 380, The Examination of the Monk late of Louth Park: “Plummer and one James, a tailor, were the most quick and chiefest rulers of the company.... Melton, whom they named 'Captain Cobbles,' was the most chief and busy man among these commoners.... John Tailor, of Louth, webster, brought out of the house a great brand of fire, and the commons carried the books into the market-place.”
[574] Hist. MSS. Com., Cd. 2319, p. 75, Copy of Letters Patent (28 May, 4 Ed. VI.) granting to Thomas Audeley ... all that manor called Gunvyles Manor in Norfolk, parcel of the possessions of the said ... Robert Ket, in consideration “boni, veri, fidelis, et magnanimi servitii in conflictu versus innaturales subditos nostros proditores ac nobis rebelles in Com. nostro Norf.... quorum ... quidam Bobertus Kett existit capitanus et conductor.”
[575] Sheep-driving in the sixteenth century was like cattle-driving in Ireland to-day; see Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., vol. xii., Part I., 201: “When they first went to York, they drove one Coppyndale’s sheep because he fled away, and sold them again to his deputy for £10,” and the behaviour of the Norfolk rebels in 1549.
[576] Gairdner, L. and P., xi., II., 186, and Rutland MSS., p. 36, quoted by Leadam: “There is a great number of the commons up about Salisbury in Wiltshire, and they have plucked down Sir William Herbert’s Park that is about his new house ... they say they will not have their common grounds to be enclosed and taken from them.”
[577] Gairdner, L. and P., xii., I., 362: “Your rents and others cannot yet be collected.”
[578] I take this story from a transcript kindly supplied me by Mr. Kolthammer of MSS. in the possession of Charles E. Bradshaw Bowles of Wirksworth.
[579] Lodge, Illustrations, ii. p. 218.
[580] Synge, The Playboy of the Western World.
[581] Selden Society, Select Cases in the Court of Requests (Leadam). Customary tenants of Bradford v. Francis: “The said stuard called ... the ... tenants of the manor to be sworn to enquire as they ought to doo, the which to do ... the said tenants ... obstinately and sturdily then and there refused, and said that unless the said defendent ... wold grante them forthwith and immediatelye that they should have and enjoy the commodity of the said three matters ... that they, nor any of them, wolde be sworn at that Court, but wolde depart.”
[582] Leadam, E. H. R., pp. 684–696. The tenants at Thingden, in their proceedings against Mulsho, “calle commen Councelles ... and make a commen purse among them, promising all of them to take parte with other, saying that xx. of them would spend xx. score pounds ayenet the said John Mulsho.” The tenants of Abbot’s Ripton “procured one common purse to be ordeyned together one common stock to thentent obstinately to defend their perverse and ffrowned appetitez.” As to Rents, see L. and P. Henry VIII., xii., I., 154: “In many counties little or no ferms will they pay" (Darcy to Shrewsbury).
[583] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., xii., I., 392.
[584] Proclamation of July 22, 1549. Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, who remarks that these village officers, “in the places where these risings were, had been the very ringleaders and procurers by their example and exhortation.”
[585] Commonweal of this Realm of England (Lamond), Appendix to Introduction, lviii.: “In dyvers places wher we were, and wher the people had just cause of Gryef, and have complayned a great many yeares without remedy, there have they byn very quiet, shewed themselves most humble and obedient subiectes taryenge the Kynges Maiesties Reformation.”
[586] Original Papers of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society, 1905, p. 2.
[587] Original Papers of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society, 1905, p. 22.
[588] Ket refused the pardon offered on July 31st on the ground that the insurgents had committed no offence requiring to be pardoned, and fighting followed. On August 23rd a pardon was again offered. While it was being read by a herald, a boy standing by insulted him “with words as unseemly as his gesture was filthy" (Holinshed), and was shot by one of the herald’s retinue. Ket tried to pacify the anger of his followers at what they took to be treachery, but without effect.
[589] Original Papers of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society, 1905, p. 20.
[590] Printed by Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, vol. ii. p. 40.
[591] Gairdner, L. and P. of Henry VIII., xi. 1246.
[592] Russell, Ket’s Rebellion in Norfolk, p. 48.
[593] Some doubt has been expressed as to the interpretation of these words. They should probably be read in the light of what was said above (Part I. chap. iv.) as to enclosures made by the tenants themselves. The rebels point out that a considerable number of people have spent capital on hedging and ditching their lands for the better cultivation of saffron, and therefore ask that, while other enclosures may be pulled down, a special exception may be made in favour of this particular kind of enclosure.
[594] Contrast the feeling in Protestant Norfolk with that of Cornwall and Devon in 1549, and of the North in 1536.
[595] The grammar is bad, but the sense is clear enough. Lords must stop shifting on to tenants burdens which lords ought to bear.
[596] Camden Society, Clarke Papers, vol. ii. p. 217. Letter addressed by the Diggers, December 8, 1649: “To my lord generall and his Councell of War.” The allusion to the usurping Normans occurs also (ibid., p. 215) in another letter in a statement of the reasons of the agitation: “Secondly by vertue of yours and our victory over the king, whereby the enslaved people of England have recovered themselves from under the Norman Conquest; though wee do not yet enjoy the benefit of our victories, nor cannot soe long as the use of the Common land is held from the younger brethren by the Lords of Mannours that yet sit in the Norman chair and uphold that tyranny as if the kingly power were in force still.”
[597] Winstanley: “The curse and blessing that is in mankind,” quoted Gooch, English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth Century.
[598] A reference to the Levellers occurs in connection with the Midland Revolt of 1607, Lodge, Illustrations, iii. 320: “You cannot but have hearde what courses have been taken in Leicestershire and Warwickshire by the two Lord Lieutenants there, and by the gentlemen ... and lastlie howe Sir Anth. Mildmay and Sir Edward Montacute repaired to Newton ... where one thousand of these fellowes who term themselves levellers were busily digging, but weare furnished with many half-pikes, pyked staves, long bills, and bowes and arrows and stones ... there were slaine some 40 or 50 of them and a verie great number hurt" (January 11, 1607, the Earl of Shrewsbury to Sir John Manners, Sir Francis Leake, and Sir John Harper). The name Diggers seems to have cropped up about the same time, v. Wit and Wisdom, edited by Halliwell for New Shakespeare Society, pp. 140–141, for a petition from “the Diggers of Warwickshire to all other diggers,” and signed “poore Delvers and Day Labourers for ye good of ye commonwealth till death" (quoted by Gay, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., New Series, vol. xviii.)
[599] See below, pp. [367–368].
[600] Somers' Tracts, vol. i., pp. 164–168: “For their tenantries, this conceit I have thought upon ... that your Majesty, in every shire, should give instruction to some that are indeed trusty and religious gentlemen, that, whereas your Majesty is given to understand that divers popish landlords do hardly use some of your people and subjects, ... you do constitute and appoint them to deal both with entreaty and authority, that such tenants, paying as others do, be not thrust out of their living, nor otherwise molested. This would greatly bind the commons' hearts unto you, on whom indeed consisteth the power and strength of your realm, and it will make them less, or nothing at all, depend upon their landlords.”
[601] For the manner in which the British army is recruited by starvation, see Mr. Cyril Jackson’s Report on Boy Labour to the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress, Cd. 4632, pp. 166–168.
[602] Smith, De Republica Anglorum, Lib. I., chap. xxiv.
[603] 4 Henry VII., c. 19.
[604] Gairdner, L. and P. Hen. VIII., xii., I. p. 595.
[605] D'Ewes' Journal, p. 674: “Mr. Secretary Cecil said, '... I think that whosoever doth not maintain the plough destroys this kingdom.... I am sure when warrants go from the Council for levying of men in the counties, and the certificates be returned unto us again, we find the greatest part of them to be ploughmen.'" See also on this point Appendix I., Nos. iv., v., vi., and viii.
[606] Original Papers of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society (1909), p. 144.
[607] Pauli, Drei volkswirthshaftliche Denkscriften, How to Reform the Realm in Setting Men to Work to restore Tillage: “The kynge and his lordes have nede to mynyster right ordre of common wele; or els they must needs destroy their own wealth by the very ordenaince of God, for they are upholden and borne upon the body. Yf they will be riche, they must first see all common people have riches.”
[608] 1 Eliz. cap. xxi. Prothero Statutes and Constitutional Documents, 1558–1625. Two subsidies of 1s. 8d. and 1s. were imposed on “every pound, as well in coin, ... as also plate, stock of merchandises, all manner of corn and blades, household stuff, and of all other goods moveable,” and two subsidies of 2s. 8d. and 1s. 4d. on the “yearly profits" of land.
[609] D'Ewes' Journal, p. 633. “Sir Walter Raleigh said ... 'Call you this par iugum when a poor man pays as much as a rich, and peradventure his estate is no better than he is set at, or little better; when our estates, that be thirty or forty pounds in the queen’s books, are not the hundredth part of our wealth?'”
[610] Fortescue, On the Governance of England, chap. xii.: “The reaume off Ffraunce givith never ffrely off thair owne good will any subsidie to thair prince, because the commons thereoff be so pouere.... But owre commons be riche, and therefore thai give to thair kynge as somme tymes quinsimes and dessimes, and ofte tymes other grete subsidies.”
[611] Bacon, History of King Henry VII. (Pitt Press Series), pp. 70–71: “The more gentlemen, ever the lower book of subsidies.”
[612] Fuller, The Holy and Profane State.
[613] The Standard of Equality in Subsidiary Taxes and Payments, London, 1647.
[614] S. P. D. Ed. VI., Addenda IV., p. 26: “Subsidies and duties must be levied on that border for your service, and they are loosed by oppression of your officers.”
[615] Original Papers of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society, 1907, pp. 139–140.
[616] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., xi. 1244. See the remarks about Cromwell: “Item, the false flatterer says he will make the king the richest prince in Christendom.... I think he goes about to make him the poorest.”
[618] Letter to Mr. Cecill from Sir Anthony Auchar, quoted by Russell, Ket’s Rebellion, in Norfolk, p. 202.
[619] Miss Leonard (Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., New Series vol. xix.) quotes Coke, Institutes, Book III., p. 105 (1644 ed.), and S. P. D. Chas. I., clxxxvii., No. 95: “The decay of tillage and houses of husbandry are the undoubted causes and grounds of depopulation, and a crime against the Common Laws of this Realm, and every continuance thereof is a new crime.” But the words “against the Common Laws" are hardly to be interpreted strictly.
[620] S. P. D. Eliz., vol. cclxxxvi., Nos. 19 and 20: “He is a great taker of advantages. He granted a lease to his brother, who dying a year past, he sued his brother’s wife to overthrow the lease to the undoing of her and her children." For a strong expression of these views see Hist. MSS. Com., MSS. of Marquis of Salisbury, Part II., 1575, Nov. 20. Lord North to the Bishop of Ely: “My lord, it wilbe no pleasure for you to have hir Majestye and the Councell knowe howe wretchedly yowe live within and without your house, howe extremely covetous, how great a grazier, how marvellous a dayrye man, howe ritche a farmer, how grete an owner. It will not lyke yowe that the world knowe of your decayed houses, ... of the leases you pull violently from many, of the copyeholdes that yowe lawlesslye enter into, of the fre land that yowe wrongfully posese.... Yowe suffer no man to live longer under yowe than yowe lyke him.”
[621] Norden, The Surveyor’s Dialogue, p. 1: “Farmer, I have heard much evill of the profession, and to tell you my conceit plainly I think the same both evill and unprofitable ... and oftentime you are the cause that men lose their land and sometimes they are abridged of such liberties as they have long used in mannors.”
[622] Topographer and Genealogist, vol. i.
[623] Norden, op. cit.: “And is not every mannor a little commonwealth, whereof the tenants are the members, the land the body, and the lord the head?”
[624] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., xii., I., 98, Instructions to the Duke of Norfolk.
[625] Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, vol. xxvii. p. 129. Letter from the Council to William Harman, Esq.
[626] A useful list of these Acts, with a summary of their provisions, is given by Slater, The English Peasantry and the Enclosure of Common Fields, Appendix D.
[627] 4 Henry VII., c. 19. All occupiers of twenty acres and more which have been in tillage during three years preceding the Act to maintain tillage.
[628] 6 Henry VIII., c. 5, and 7 Henry VIII., c. 1. In parishes “whereof the more part was or were used and occupied to tillage and husbandry,” any person who “shall decay a town, a hamlet, a house of husbandry, or convert tillage into pasture,” and has not “within one yeere next after such wylfull decaye reedifyed and made ageyn mete and convenyent for people to dwell and inhabyte the same ... and therein to exercyse husbandry and tillage,” forfeits one half of his land to the lord of the manor. Land converted to pasture must be tilled “after the maner and usage of the countrey where the seyd land lyeth.”
[629] 25 Henry VIII., c. 13.
[630] 5 and 6 Edward VI., c. 5.
[631] 2 and 3 Philip and Mary, c. 2.
[632] 5 Elizabeth, c. 2.
[633] 31 Elizabeth, c. 7.
[634] 35 Elizabeth, c. 7.
[635] 39 Elizabeth, c. 1 and c. 2.
[636] Hall’s Chronicle of Henry VIII., p. 585 (Edition 1809), quoted by Leadam, introduction to Select Cases in the Court of Requests (Selden Society).
[637] Smith, De Republica Anglorum, Lib. III., chap. iv.
[638] Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, vol. xiii. pp. 91–92.
[639] Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, vol. xxx. pp. 36–37. A letter to the Council in the Marches of Wales, concerning the tenants of Aston in Montgomeryshire: “And if it be true, as they do inform us by their petitions, that examinations in a case concerning one of that Counsell should be taken by a kinsman of his owne and a clerk underneathe him, wee wyshe ... that you would have taken a more indifferent course, especially in a matter of commons, which, concerning many persons, doth easily give occasion of offence and scandal.”
[640] Selden Society, Select Cases in the Court of Star Chamber, edited by Leadam, and Leadam, E. H. R., vol. viii. pp. 684–696.
[641] Leadam, E. H. R., vol. viii. pp. 684–696.
[642] Ibid.
[643] Merriman, Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell, vol. i. p. 273.
[644] Ibid., vol. i. p. 413.
[645] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., xii., I., 98 and 595.
[646] Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., xiii., I., 334 (see also 66, where an appeal is made January 11, 1536, to Cromwell to protect some tenants in Denbighshire.)
[647] Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, vol. vii. p. 42: “The King’s pleasure was signified to John Dawney, Knight, that whereas he had turned certain persons in the Isle of Wight out of their farms, whereof they pretended to have leases, and had demised the same to others that minded not to dwell upon the same, he should take order that the old tenants might enjoy their leases until Michaelmas, come a twelve month, and that in the mean season the King's Highness would see a direction taken in the matter.”
[648] Ibid., vol. vii. pp. 225–226. July 30 and August 1, 1541.
[649] Ibid., vol. vii. pp. 123–125. January 25, 1541.
[650] Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, vol. i. pp. 5 and 9.
[651] Leadam, E. H. R., vol. viii. pp. 684–696.
[652] Appendix to Miss Lamond’s edition of The Commonweal of this Realm of England, Hale’s defence, p. lviii.: “Whas ther not, longe before this Commyssyon was sent forthe, an insurrection in Hertfordshire for the comens at Northall and Cheshunt?”
[653] Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, vol. ii. pp. 190–193, May 5, 1548: a complaint from “many poor men of the Parishes of Walton, Weybridge, East Molson, West Molson, Caverham, Esher, Byfiete, Temsditton ... in the name of the whole parishes before rehearsed, that by reason of the making of the late chase of Hampton Court, forsomyche as their commons, pastures, and meadows be taken in, and that all the said parishes are overlaid with the deer now increasing daily upon them, very many households of the same parishes be let fall down, the families decayed, and the king’s liege people much diminished, the country thereabout in manner made desolate.”
[654] See p. 294.
[655] Published by the E. E. T. S.
[656] The first sermon preached before King Edward the Sixth, March 8, 1549: “You landlords, you rent-raisers, I may say you step-lords, you unnatural lords, you have for your possession yearly too much. For that herebefore went for twenty or forty pounds by year ... now is let for fifty or an hundred pound by year.” See also Latimer, The Sermon of the Plough, January 18, 1548.
[657] Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials.
[658] The proclamation appointing the Commission is printed by Strype, op. cit., vol. ii., Book I., chap. ii. The operative part of it runs: “And therefore, He ... hath appointed, according to the said acts and proclamations, a view and inquiry to be made of all such as contrary to the said acts and godly ordinances have made enclosures and pasture of that which was arable ground, or let any house, tenement, or mease decay or fall down, or done anything contrary of the good and wholesome articles contained in the said acts.” In my account of the situation under Somerset I have followed the documents printed by Strype, and the appendix to Miss Lamond's introduction to The Commonweal of this Realm of England.
[659] Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials.
[660] For the pardon, see appendix to Miss Lamond's introduction to The Commonweal, &c., p. lxi.; for the ploughing up of a park and division of farms, ibid., pp. xli. and lxi.-lxii.; for the Bills introduced by Hales, ibid., xl., xlv.-lii., lxii.-lxv. Strype’s account appears to be based on that of Hales.
[661] For these facts, see Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials.
[662] Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials. Sir William Paget to the Lord Protector, July 7, 1549: “The king’s subjects are out of all discipline, out of all obedience, caring neither for Protector nor King. And what is the cause? Your own lenity ... the foot taketh upon him the part of the head, and commons is become king, a king appointing conditions and laws to the governors, saying, 'Grant this and that and we will go home.' ... What then is the matter, troweth your grace?... By my faith, Sir, even that which I said to your grace.... Liberty, Liberty.... In Germany, when the very like tumult to this began first, it might have been appeased with the loss of 20 men, and after with the loss of 100 or 200. But it was thought nothing and might easily be appeased, and also some spiced consciences taking pity of the poor ... thought it a sore matter to lose so many of their country folk, saying they were simple folk.... It cost, ere it was appeased, they say, 1000 or 2000 men.”
[663] Appendix to Miss Lamond’s introduction to The Commonweal, &c., pp. xli. and lii. But of course there was no such thing as collective responsibility for policy in the sixteenth century.
[664] Russel, Ket’s Rebellion in Norfolk, p. 202.
[666] Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, vol. ii. pp. 294–296.
[667] Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials.
[668] Somerset’s execution took place on January 22, 1552, more than two years after he had been deposed from the Protectorate, for supposed complicity in a plot to overthrow the Government. The evidence for the existence of a conspiracy appears to be feeble. See Pollard, The Political History of England, 1547–1603, pp. 61–65.
[669] Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, vol. iii. pp. 181–182 and 247 and 252. “Mr. Grenewaie was this day before the Counsaill and rebuked sore for his attemptate in causeng Raf Lees hedges to be broaken up; nevertheless considering his long service [as gentleman usher] he was borne withall, and for this tyme without further punishment he was commaunded to make up those hedges again.”
[670] 3 and 4 Edward VI. c. 3.
[671] Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, vol. xi. pp. 191–192. A letter to the Lord President of Wales that whereas upon complaints exhibited to their lordships by the tenants of the Forest of Fakenham against Sir John Throgmorton, and one Mr. William Bell his stuarde, concerning an inclosure by him made of certen commons ... encroachment upon their copieholds ... it was by them ordered that the suite against the tenants commenced at the Common Lawe in respect of their commons and copieholds should surcease and the matters in controversy abyde triall before their lordships ... and untill the matter should be heard and determined they enjoyned to proceed no further in the inclosure of the said Common ... forasmuch as the tenants do now again complaine that since their lordships' said order Sir John and the said William Bell have inclosed more of the said common ... but hath also caused Bell to proceed against the tenants by ejectione firmæ at the Common Lawe, he is therefore required ... to will and command the said Sir John and William Bell to forbear their inclosures of the said Common ... untill the same shall be ... determined by their lordships according to their lordships' form and order.”
[672] Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, vol. xiii. pp. 91–92. A letter to the Justices of the County of Lincoln: “If they thinke it agreeable with equitie and justice that the poore man should be put in possession of the said Landes, that they give commandment unto the said Lacy to admit him thereunto.”
[673] Ibid., vol. xiv. pp. 201–202.
[674] Ibid., vol. xv. pp. 394–395.
[675] See p. 373, n. 1, and Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, vol. xvii. p. 76. For a similar letter to the Council of the North, ibid., vol. xxvii. pp. 228–229.
[676] Ibid., vol. xxii. p. 379.
[677] Ibid., vol. xxii. pp. 360 and 370. Letters to the Master of the Rolls ordering retrial of case concerning enclosure of commons at Bath.
[678] Ibid., vol. xvi. pp. 366–367. A letter to the Solicitor: “Whereas divers poor men, tenants of the manor of Chilton, have exhibited very grievous complaints unto their lordships against William Darrell, Esq., of divers and sundry misdemeanors committed by him in breach of her majestie's peace" ... the solicitor is to “cause a byll to be drawn into the Court of Star Chamber against Darrel,” and Camden Society 1886, Cases in the Court of Star Chamber and High Commission, pp. 44–45.
[679] Holkham MSS., Sparham, Bdle. No. 5, 14th June, 34 Eliz: “In the matter in variance brought before the Queenes Majestie in her Majtie's honble Court of Requests at the suit of John Byrd against Christopher Saye and other defendants upon the motion of Mr. Edward Coke recorder of the City of London being of Councel with the said defendant.... For that it appeareth that the said Defendant hath had three verdicts and judgments at the Common Law, one of them against the said complainant himself."... The defendant is awarded costs, “and the said complainant shall from henceforth forbear to put any sheepe upon the said ground, and suffer his sheepe to feede there.”
[680] Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional Documents, 1558–1625, pp. 370–371.
[681] Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional Documents, 1558–1625, pp. 470–472, and Gay, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., New Series, vol. xviii.
[682] Atkinson, North Riding Quarter Sessions, vol. i. pp. 106, 108, 111, 122. The last presentment runs: “Will Marwood of Busby, gentn, for decaying of xxx acres of arable land or thereabouts, and converting of xxx acres of arable land or thereabouts, the same, from tillage into pasture or meadow, and tilled nothing in the same parish in lieu thereof, contrary, etc.”
[683] Leonard, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., vol. xix.
[684] Leonard, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., vol. xix.
[685] Ingleby, Shakespeare and the Welcombe Enclosures.
[686] S. P. D. J., I., vol. cxxiv., December 20, 1621, and S. P. D., Ch. i. cliii., October 2, 1623.
[687] Leonard, Trans. Royal Hist. Society, vol. xix.
[688] Ibid.
[689] For the ploughing up of pasture, S. P. D., Ch. I. vol. cccciv. 142, and vol. cccclxxv. 72; for Lord Saye and Sele, vol. ccclxii. 60, 1637; order of Council that the Attorney-General should forthwith proceed by information in the Star Chamber against Viscount Saye and Sele for depopulation and conversion of houses and lands.
[690] J. Moore, A Target for Tillage: “My purpose is not here to plead for ... any other idle drones and wretched atheists.... All these I acknowledge to be the greatest wasters and spoylers of our country, worse by many degrees than any depopulators, oppressors, and decayors of villages.... All these I know abhorre the plough, and are enemies to the State; who yet (I confesse) in their high talke do justify tillage and will be ready no doubt to reforme the decay thereof with spade and pickaxe." (The copy of this pamphlet which I have seen is dated 1611. I have ventured to assume that this is a misprint, and that it should be placed with John Moore’s other pamphlets on enclosure, 1653–1656.)
[691] Leonard, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., vol. xix.
[692] Hale’s defence in appendix to Miss Lamond's introduction to The Commonweal of this Realm of England.
[693] D'Ewes Journal, p. 674 (1601). Mr. Johnson said: “In the time of dearth, when we made this Statute, it was not considered that the hand of God was upon us; and now corn is cheap. If too cheap, the husbandman is undone.” See also Raleigh’s speech in the same debate.
[694] e.g. in 1593 the clause in the Act of 1563 forbidding conversion of arable to pasture was repealed. In 1595 and 1596 bad harvests produced loud complaints of high prices, and in 1597 conversion to pasture was again prohibited.
[695] Original Papers of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society, 1907, pp. 131 ff.
[696] Moore’s Reports, p. 117, plea 262, Claypole's case: “Le conseil de Reigne argue que ... l'entent de Estatute fuit que le user sera accompt equivalent en tort al convcon." Judgment was apparently given for the Queen. The decision was quoted as an authority in the debate in Parliament on the Bills introduced in 1597. Hist. MSS. Com., MSS. of Marquis of Salisbury, Part VII., pp. 541–543: “And 26 Eliz. in the Exchequer, in Claypole’s case, an information was exhibited upon the Statute of 4 Hen. VII. against a purchaser for converting of tillage into pasture, and adjudged good, though the purchaser were not the converter, but only a continuer of the first conversion. So as this new law tends but for an instruction and explanation of the old.”
[697] Leadam, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., New Series, vol. vi.
[698] For Warwick, Herbert, and the St. Johns, see pp. 326, 368, and 362. For Darcy and disturbances in Westmoreland, Gairdner, L. and P. Henry VIII., xii. II., xii. I., 319, xi. 1080. For Paget and Rich, Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials.
[699] Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials.
[700] Fisher, The Political History of England, 1485–1547, Appendix II.
[701] Selden Society, Select Cases in the Court of Requests (Leadam).
[702] Hibbert, The Dissolution of the Monasteries, pp. 209–210.
[703] Ibid., p. 210.
[704] Hist. MSS. Com., C.D. 3218, pp. 322–323 (MSS. of Earl of Leicester at Holkham Hall).
[705] For Whitby and Washerne, see pp. 285 and 194. In 1545 the tenants of the manor of Egglesdon, formerly the property of the monastery of Sion, proceed against Palmer, the grantee, in the Court of Star Chamber for evicting tenants and other oppressions (Leadam, E. H. R., vol. viii. pp. 684–696).
[706] More, Utopia, p. 31 (Pitt Press edition): “Noblemen and gentlemen, yea, and certain abbotts, holy men no doubt ... leave no ground for tillage, they enclose all to pasture.” For a case of claiming a bondman, see Selden Society, Select Cases in the Court of Star Chamber, Carter v. The Abbot of Malmesbury. For conversion of copyholds to tenancies at will, Selden Society, Select Cases in the Court of Requests, Kent and other inhabitants of Abbot’s Ripton v. St. John. The change was alleged to have been made in 1471.
[707] The opposite view is expressed by Gasquet, Henry the Eighth and the English Monasteries, chap. xxii. For a criticism of it see Savine, Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, vol. i. pp. 263–267, and pp. 245–260 for facts as to lay administrators. Hibbert, op. cit., pp. 210–211, who writes of Staffordshire, supports Savine rather than Gasquet. The evidence of Aske cannot be quoted as though what was true of the northern houses were true of all. As a matter of fact, lay estates preserved the old conditions in the north long after the dissolution (see pp. 189–191). The hatred of the new landlords is proof that they were specially detestable, rather than that the monasteries had been above all ordinary economic considerations.
[708] Quoted by Gasquet, op. cit., p. 464, from a document written about 1591.
[709] e.g. Paget’s letter to Somerset, July 7, 1549 (Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials). Neville, De furoribus Norfolcensium Ketto Duce, 1575. The words put into the mouths of the landed gentry by Crowley in The Way to Wealth (E. E. T. S.) no doubt represent their attitude fairly: “Nowe if I should demand of the gredie cormoraunts what they thinke should be the cause of sedition, they would saie, 'The paisent knaves be too welthy, provender pricketh them. They knowe no obedience, they regard no lawes, they would have no gentlemen, they would have all men like themselves, they would have all things commune. They would not have us master of that which is our owne. They will appoint us what rent we shall take for our grounds.... They will caste down our parkes and lay our pastures open.... They wyll compel the Kyng to graunt theyr requests.... We wyll tech them to know theyr betters, and because they would have all in common we will leave them nothing.'”
[710] Appendix to Introduction to The Commonweal of this Realm of England (Lamond), p. lix.
[711] Ibid., p. lxv.: “This was it that byt the mare by the thombe.”
[712] For Norfolk and the West of England, Leonard, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., vol. xix. For Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire, S. P. D., Ch. I. vol. clxxxv. No. 86, and vol. ccvi. No. 71 (quoted in Appendix I.), and vol. clxxxv. No. 41. For Leicestershire, Privy Council Register, vi. 385, and Gonner, Common Land and Enclosure, p. 165. For Yorkshire, see pp. 374–375. Professor Gonner (op. cit., p. 167) estimates that about six hundred persons were fined, the sums obtained from thirteen counties amounting to about £46,800.
[713] Hearnshaw, Southampton Court Leet Records, 1550. Presentment of “the names of the Commoners which require redress of the Commons inclosed, as they saye, contrary to the King’s Majesty’s statutes, and that they may be laid abroad according to the said statutes.”
[714] Original Papers of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society, 1907, p. 185.
[715] Bateson, Records of the Borough of Leicester, 1509–1603, pp. 300–301.
[716] Gay, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. xvii.
[717] For the debates of 1597 and 1601 see D'Ewes' Journal, pp. 551 and 674 ff.: a special exemption from the operations of the Act was allowed to a landlord who had got letters patent authorising him to enclose 340 acres “too moist and soft and altogether unfit for tillage.”
[718] Hist. MSS. Com., MSS. of Marquis of Salisbury, Part. VII., pp. 541–543.
[719] Pseudonismus, A Vindication of the Considerations concerning Common Fields and Enclosures, 1656: “The Statute of Tillage hath excited some and affrighted others that the land in each field is not and cannot be husbanded as it ought.” The “Statute” alluded to is the Bill introduced in this year which did not become law.
[720] Harrington’s Works (1700 edition), pp. 388–389.
[721] Kalm’s Account of his Visit to England on his Way to America in 1748, translated by Joseph Lucas, p. 282. I am indebted for this reference to Dr. Gilbert Slater. The exact words are: “Nor had they any turnip land to feed sheep upon. Therefore they were deprived of the advantage of getting to sell any fat sheep or other cattle. The reason they gave for all this was that their arable was common field, and thus came to lie every other year fallow, when one commoner always had to accommodate his crops to the others; but the principal reason of all was said to be that,” and so on as in text. I am not sure that I have interpreted the passage rightly in assuming that it alludes to the illegality of enclosure without Act of Parliament. It may merely mean that, without an Act of Parliament, the necessary agreement could not be obtained among all those interested. I follow Dr. Slater’s interpretation.
[722] Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., vol. xix.
[723] For the St. Johns, see pp. 362 and 380. For Sir John Yorke, pp. 285 and 381, and Selden Society, Court of Requests, Inhabitants of Whitby v. Yorke, 1553: “Be yt remembred that the cause brought before the Queen’s Counsaill in her Majestie’s Court of Requests.... Ys now ordered by the saide Councill by thagreement of the saide Syr John who hathe promised that the saide parties aforenamed, and every one of them, shall have and quietly eujoye theyr tenements and holdings during the yeres and termes in theyr leases and copies yet enduring, paying theyr Rentes and ffermes accustomed.” For Lloyd and the tenants of Hewlington in Denbighshire, see pp. 302–303.
[724] S. P. D., Ch. I., cccxlii., No. 47.
[725] Ibid., cccxiv., No. 29, and Appendix I., No. VIII.
[726] Ibid., cccclxxv., No. 72.
[727] Ibid., cccciv., No. 142.
[728] S. P. D., Ch. I., cl., No. 7.
[729] S. P. D., ccclxi., No. 15: “There are many thousand acres of heath and barren commons in England and Wales, not annually worth 6d. an acre, to which your Majesty has right of soil but no benefit thereby, which may be improved to a great value, cause plenty of provision, enrich many thousands, supply the poor.”
[730] Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Modern Times, Part I., pp. 112–119.
[731] 39 Eliz., c. 2.
[732] 4 James I., c. 11.
[733] Original Papers of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society, 1907, pp. 70–73.
[734] Lee, A Vindication of a Regulated Enclosure, 1656.
[735] Holkham MSS., Sparham Bdle., No. 5, see back, p. 374.
[736] Selden Society, Select Cases in the Court of Requests, Customarye Tenants of Bradford v. Fraunceys: “The seyd defendant seythe that the said bill of complaint ... is mater ... determinable at the comen land and not in this honourable court, whereunto he prayeth to be remitted.” Also Gairdner, L. & P. Henry VIII., i., 334, Earl of Derby to Cromwell; and Leadam, E. H. R., vol. viii. pp. 684–696. For attacks on Wolsey’s land policy see Herbert, History of King Henry VIII., pp. 297–298 (ed. of 1672): “Also the said Cardinal hath examined divers and many matters in the Chancery, after judgment thereof given at the Common Law, in subversion of your laws, and made some persons restore again to the other party condemned that they had in execution by virtue of the judgment in the Common Law.”
[737] Gardiner, History of England, 1603–1642, vol. viii., p. 78. Compare the Instructions for the President and Council of the North, 1603 (Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional Documents, 1558–1625, pp. 363–378), Article XXVIII.: “Further our pleasure is that the said Lord P. and Council shall from time to time make diligent and effectual inquisition of the wrongful taking in of commons and other grounds and the decay of tillage and of towns or houses of husbandry contrary to the laws, ... and leaving all respect and affection apart they shall take such order for redress of enormities used in the same as the poor people be not oppressed and forced to go begging ... and ... if they find any notorious malefactor in this behalf of any great wealth, cause the extremity of the law to be executed against him publicly.”
[738] Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625–1660, pp. 212–213, “Conversion of arable into pasture, continuance of pasture, under the name of depopulation, have driven many millions out of the subject's purses, without any considerable profit to his Majesty.”
[739] Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion, I. 204, IV. 63. Clarendon’s account of the Grand Remonstrance suggests that the principal grievance was not depopulation, but the fines exacted for it; see the words “with the vexations upon pretence of nuisances in building ... and of depopulation, that men might pay fines to continue the same misdemeanour.”
[740] Appendix I., No. VIII.
[741] I make this statement on the authority of Dr. Slater, Sociological Review, vol. iv., No. 4, p. 349, but I have been unable to trace his evidence. The only reference I can find bearing on the subject is contained in Article XIII. of the heads of the accusation against Lord Clarendon: “That he hath in an arbitrary way examined and drawn into question divers of his Majesty’s subjects concerning their lands, tenements, goods, chattells, and properties, determined thereof at the Council Table, and stopped proceedings at law by the order of the Council Table, and threatened some that pleaded the Statute of 17 Car. I." (The proceedings in the House of Commons touching the impeachment of Edward, late Earl of Clarendon, 1700.)
[742] Locke, Two Treatises of Government, Book II., chap. xi.
CHAPTER II
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS[ToC]
Those who have had the patience to follow the detailed changes in rural organisation which have been described above will naturally ask, “What is the upshot of it all? What are the main landmarks which stand out from the bewildering variety of scenery? How does the agrarian England which is sleepily hunting out old guns and older bows on the eve of the Civil War differ from the England which saw the first Tudor 'with general applause and joy, in a kind of military election or recognition, saluted King?'”
At first sight it differs but little. To see our subject in its proper perspective we must emphasise the continuity of economic life between 1485 and 1642 as much as in the preceding pages we have emphasised the novelty of some of its experiments. We must turn from Fitzherbert and Hales to Arthur Young. We must set Latimer’s lamentations over the decay of the yeomanry side by side with the figures of Gregory King and the boasts of Chamberlayne and Defoe. We must compare our sporadic enclosures with the two thousand six hundred Enclosure Acts which were passed between 1702 and 1810. The outward appearance of many English villages at the Revolution would be quite unrecognisable to-day, but it can have been but little altered from what it had been at the time of the Peasants' Revolt. It could still be said that three-fifths of the cultivated land of England was unenclosed. And if Piers Plowman had dreamed for four centuries on Malvern Hills he might still have woken to plough his half acre between the balks of a still open field, like that “very wide field,” with crooked ways butting upon it and a wicket-gate on its shining horizon, through which Christian sped from Evangelist, crying “Life, Life, Eternal Life.”
Ought we, then, to say that the agrarian revolution of the sixteenth century was insignificant, and that it has been magnified into importance only by the rhetorical complaints of unskilful observers? The answer has been given by implication in the preceding pages. The fact that statistical evidence reveals no startling disturbance in area enclosed or population displaced, is no bar to the belief that, both in immediate consequences and in ultimate effects, the heavy blows dealt in that age at the traditional organisation of agriculture were an episode of the first importance in economic and social development. The barometer which registers climatic variations yields no clue to their influence on the human constitution, and the quantitative rule by which we measure economic changes bends in our hands when we use it to appraise their results. The difference between prosperity and distress, or enterprise and routine, or security and its opposite, is scarcely more susceptible of expression in figures than is the difference between civilisation and barbarism itself. In the infinite complexity of human relationships, with their interplay of law with economics, and of economics with politics, and of all with the shifting hopes and fears, baseless anticipations and futile regrets, of countless individuals, a change which to the statistician concerned with quantities seems insignificant, may turn a wheel whose motion sets a world of unseen forces grinding painfully round into a new equilibrium. Not only our estimate of the importance of social alterations, but their actual importance itself, depends upon what we are accustomed to and what we expect. Just as modern manufacturing nations groan over a reduction in exports, which in the reign of Henry VIII. would have passed unnoticed, or are convulsed by a rise in general prices, which, when expressed in percentages, seems ridiculously small, so the stationary rural society of Tudor England may well have been shaken to its core by agrarian changes which, in a world where rural emigration is the rule, would appear almost too minute to be recorded. If contemporaries, to whom the very foundation of a healthy economic life seemed to be shattered, underestimated the capacity of society for readjustment, they were not mistaken in their supposition that the readjustment required would be so vast and painful as to involve the depression of important orders of men, and the recognition of new responsibilities by the State in the agony of transition. If we are busy planting small holders to-day, it is partly because sixteenth century Governments were so often busy with them in vain. The crude barbarities of tramp ward and workhouse were first struck out in an age when most of those who tramped and toiled, who sat in stocks and were whipped from town to town, were not the victims of trade depression or casual employment, but peasants thrown on the labour market by the agrarian revolution.
For, in truth, the change which was coming upon the world in the guise of mere technical improvements was vaster than in their highest hopes or their deepest despondency the men of the Tudor age could have foreseen, and its immediate effects on the technique of agriculture and the standard of rural prosperity were but the tiny beginnings of movements whose origins are overshadowed by their tremendous consequences. It is a shallow view which has no interest to spare for the rivulet because it is not yet a river. Though many tributaries from many sources must converge before economic society assumes a shape that is recognisable as modern, it is none the less true that in the sixteenth century we are among the hills from which great waters descend. By 1642 the channels which will carry some of them have been carved deep and sure. By that time the expansion of the woollen industry has made it certain that England will be a considerable manufacturing nation, and consequently that the ancient stable routine of subsistence farming will gradually give place to agricultural methods which swing this way and that, now towards pasture, now towards arable, according to the fluctuations of the market. It is certain that, sooner or later, the new and more profitable economy of enclosure will triumph. It is certain that the small holder will have a hard struggle to hold his own against the capitalist farmer. It is certain that, owing to the substitution of variable for fixed fines on admission to copyholds, and the conversion of many copyholds into leases for years, a great part of the fruits of economic progress will no longer be retained, as in the fifteenth century, by the mass of the peasants, but will pass, in the shape of increased payments for land, into the pockets of the great landed proprietors. It is almost certain that to any new developments which may be detrimental to them the peasants will be able to offer a much less effective resistance than they have in the past. For the security of many of their class has been undermined; the gulf which separates them from the landed gentry, though still bridged by the existence of many prosperous freeholders, has been widened; and, above all, the destruction of the absolute monarchy has entrenched the great landlords inexpugnably at the heart of government, both central and local, and has made their power as great as their ambitions. Both from below and from above they are unassailable. For a century and a half after the Revolution they have what power a Government can have to make and ruin England as they please.
If we cast our eye over the agrarian changes of our period, with a view to grouping their main elements under a few easily distinguishable categories, we do not find that they present themselves as a simple series of economic sequences. Behind them all there is, it is true, the fundamental economic fact of the decay of subsistence husbandry. The movement away from the strict communal organisation of the open field village was inevitable as soon as markets were sufficiently developed to make agricultural experiments profitable, because experiments could not easily be undertaken without to some extent individualising the methods of cultivation. In particular, the grand innovation of substituting pasture-farming for tillage, whether carried out on a large scale or on a small, was only practicable if individuals were able to break away from the established course of agriculture. But the relaxation of village customs, which allowed a wider scope to individual initiative, did not necessarily involve that formation of large estates out of peasant holdings, which was the special note of the sixteenth century problem, and in fact the gradual nibbling away of customary restrictions went on to some degree among quite small men, long before the enclosure of land by great capitalists became a serious grievance. In the fourteenth century, and even earlier, holdings are becoming partible and unequal, and strips are being interchanged for the purpose of more convenient, because compacter, management. In the sixteenth century there is a good deal of enclosure by the peasants themselves with a view to better arable cultivation or to the more successful keeping of stock. Nor must we forget the example of Kent, Essex, Devonshire, Somersetshire, and Cornwall. Without raising the question whether the predominance of small enclosures in the Western Counties is not partly to be ascribed to peculiarities in their original settlement, we may say without fear of contradiction that the early enclosures of Kent and Essex are the outcome of the spread of commercial forces in those seaboard counties at an earlier date than was possible in the inland districts. Even in the more conservative parts of the country, like the Midlands and Wiltshire, whose geographical position made them the last to respond to the influence of trade its gradual extension was slowly, and in isolated villages, bringing the same departure from the rigid arrangements of mediæval agriculture which in the East of England had developed much more swiftly. How far such enclosure by consent would have proceeded if no other forces had come into play we cannot say. It is not safe, however, to assume that, because in the eighteenth century many villages seemed to observers like Arthur Young to be living in a condition of organised torpor, therefore its effects in facilitating a more economical utilisation of the land are to be dismissed as negligible. Quite apart from the obvious bias given to Young's observations by his questionable doctrine that a high pecuniary return from the soil is the final criterion of successful agriculture, it may well be the case that the decline in the condition of the peasantry, which took place in the sixteenth century, discouraged initiative on the part of small men, and that, since one agent in that decline had been a movement which went by the name of enclosure, its effect was to make them cling all the more closely to the established routine in those parts of the country where they had not been violently shaken out of it.
On such conjectures, however, we need not enter. Even if the movement towards the rearrangement of holdings which has been traced among the peasants themselves was insignificant, and if the larger capitalists were the sole agents through whom a more alert and progressive agrarian régime could be introduced, it is none the less the case that the improvements in the technique of agriculture do not by themselves account for the special social consequences which flowed from the agrarian changes of the sixteenth century. The situation then is not at all similar to that which arose at a later date, when small landholders voluntarily threw up their holdings in order to engage in the more profitable urban industries, and when yeomen like the Peels of their own choice decided that the career of a cotton-spinner was more attractive than that of a farmer. In the period which we have been discussing men do not only leave the land; they are forced off it. Not only economic, but legal, issues are involved, and the latter give a decisive twist to the former. What made the new methods of agriculture not simply an important technical advance in the utilisation of the soil, but the beginning of a social revolution, was the insecurity of the tenure of large numbers of the peasantry, in the absence of which they might gradually have adapted themselves to the altered conditions, without any overwhelming shock to rural life such as was produced by the evictions and by the loss of rights of common. The way in which the economic movement towards enclosure and pasture-farming is crossed, and its consequences heightened, by the law of land tenure, is proved by the comparative immunity of the freeholders from the worst forms of agrarian oppression, by the fact that, even in the middle of the eighteenth century, the purely economic conditions of much of England were by no means unfavourable to small scale farming, and by the anxiety of landlords to induce tenants who had estates of inheritance to surrender them for leases. We cannot therefore agree with those writers who regard the decline in the position of the smaller landed classes, which took place in our period, as an inevitable step in economic progress, similar to the decay of one type of industry before the competition of another. If economic causes made a new system of farming profitable, it is none the less true that legal causes decided by whom the profits should be enjoyed. We have already pointed out that many customary tenants practised sheep-farming upon a considerable scale, and it is not easy to discover any economic reason why the cheap wool required for the development of the cloth-manufacturing industry should not have been supplied by the very peasants in whose cottages it was carded and spun and woven. The decisive factor, which ruled out this method of meeting the new situation created by the spread of pasture-farming, was the fact that the tenure of the vast majority of small cultivation left them free to be squeezed out by exorbitant fines, and to be evicted when the lives for which most of them held their copies came to an end. It was their misfortune that the protection given by the courts since the fifteenth century to copyholders did not extend to more than the enforcement of existing manorial customs. When, in our own day, the same causes which raised the cry of depopulation in sixteenth century England have operated in other countries, their influence has been circumscribed by governmental power, which has stepped ready armed into the field, and has turned customary titles into freeholds and cut back private jurisdictions with a heavy hand. To find a parallel to the sufferings of the English copyholders in the sixteenth century, we must turn to the sweeping invasion of tenant right which at one time made almost every Irishman into a Ket. But the comparison, incomplete in other respects, is most incomplete in this, that even if Tudor Governments, moved by considerations of national strength and order, would have helped the peasants if they could, they could hardly have helped them materially if they would, without a social and administrative revolution which was unthinkable, and which, if carried out, could only have meant political absolutism. Living, as they did, with the marks of villein tenure still upon them, the small cultivators of our period were fettered by the remnants of the legal rightlessness of the Middle Ages, without enjoying the practical security given by mediæval custom, and felt the bitter breath of modern commercialism, undefended by the protection of the all-inclusive modern State which alone can make it tolerable.
For, indeed, it is as a link in the development of modern economic relationships and modern conceptions of economic expediency, that the changes which we have been considering possess their greatest interest. The department of economic life in which, both for good and evil, the modern spirit comes in the sixteenth century most irresistibly to its own, is not agriculture but foreign commerce, company promoting, and the money market, where the relations of man to man are already conceived of as the necessary parts of a vast and complicated mechanism, whose iron levers thrust the individual into actions for the consequences of which he is not responsible, and under whose pressure unknown is driven by unknown to do that which he did not intend. But if the intoxication with dreams of boundless material possibilities, the divorce of economic from moral considerations, the restless experiment and initiative and contempt for restrictions that fetter them, which are the marks of that spirit’s operations, are never quite so victorious in agriculture as they are in finance, it is nevertheless in transforming agrarian conditions that its nature and characteristics are most impressively revealed, not because it is felt there first or proceeds there furthest, but because the material which it encounters is so dense, so firmly organised, so intractable, that changes, which in a more mobile environment pass unnoticed, are seen there in high relief against the stable society which they undermine. In truth the agrarian revolution is but a current in the wake of mightier movements. The new world, which is painfully rising in so many English villages, is a tiny mirror of the new world which, on a mightier stage, is ushering modern history in amid storms and convulsions. The spirit which revolts against authority, frames a science that will subdue nature to its service, and thrusts the walls of the universe asunder into space, is the same—we must not hesitate to say it—as that which on the lips of grasping landlords and stubborn peasants wrangles over the respective merits of “several” and “common,” weighs the profits of pasture in an economic scale against the profits of arable, batters down immemorial customs, and, regarding neither the honour of God nor the welfare of this realm of England, brings the livings of many into the hands of one. To the modern economist, who uses an ancient field map to trace the bewildering confusion of an open field village beneath the orderly lines of the dignified estate which lies upon it like a well written manuscript on the crabbed scrawl of a palimpsest, the wastefulness of the old régime, compared with the productiveness of the new, may well seem too obvious to leave room for any discussion of their relative advantages; and indeed the accession of material wealth which followed the first feeble approach towards the methods of modern agriculture is unquestionable. But the difference between such a standpoint and that of our peasants is not one of methods only but of objects, not of means but of ends. We can imagine that to an exposition of the advantages of large scale farming and enclosure, such as many stewards must have made to the juries of many manors, they would have answered something after this fashion:—“True, our system is wasteful, and fruitful of many small disputes. True, a large estate can be managed more economically than a small one. True, pasture-farming yields higher profits than tillage. Nevertheless, master steward, our wasteful husbandry feeds many households where your economical methods would feed few. In our ill-arranged fields and scrubby commons most families hold a share, though it be but a few roods. In our unenclosed village there are few rich, but there are few destitute, save when God sends a bad harvest, and we all starve together. We do not like your improvements which ruin half the honest men affected by them. We do not choose that the ancient customs of our village should be changed!" Such differences lie too deep to be settled by argument, whether they appear in the sixteenth century or in our own day.
APPENDIX I[ToC]
(I)
[Letter from a Bailiff, illustrating the relations between Farmer and Lord, and difficulties with Freeholders]
Merton MSS., No. 4381
Good Sir lett me intreat you yf the colledge determyne to make survay this springe of the lands at Kibworth and Barkby to send Mr. Kay or me word a month or 3 weeks before your coming that we may have Beare and other necessaries. And I desire you to gather up all evidences that may be needful for ye Lordshipp, for all testimony will be little enough, the colledge land is soo mingled with Mr. Pochin’s frehold and others in our towne. There is an awarde for the keepinge in of the old wol close in our ffields for [from?] Mr. Pochin’s occupation, very needefulle for the ynhabitants yf that awarde can be founde at the colledge where yt [was loste].
The composition betwixt Mr. Stanford and the towne wold we very gladly see, yt is for tythe willows and partinge grasse, wee thinke that they challenge more than of right they should have. I pray you gather upp what evidence you can for the rents due to the college out of [?], for when some of them are denied I know not where to distraine for them.
I pray you also give order that the evidences may be sought up for the lands lyinge in Barkby Thorpend alias Thurmaston in our parish and parcell of our lordship of the rent per ann. 3/4d. as alsoe the evidences of Peppers frehold rent per annum 1d. This rent is denied and not paidd this 20 yeares, and I cannot learne where I should distraine for the same, neither will he pay it unlesse he may knowe for what he payeth the same; he is towards the land [?], and his frehold lyeth in Thurmaston ut supra. And soe with remembrance of my duty desiringe you to pardon my breach of promise for the lease at last Michaelmas, and I hope before this yeare be ended to be as good as my worde, yf it will please you and the company to spare me with your favours untill then, ffor God is my judge I did not breake my promise wilfully nor willingly, but necessity hath noe law. I have lost this su[=m]er 6 horses and was forced to buy in these for my carte. Day [?] groweth scant, therefore I must spare to write, only hoping and desiringe your favour at this tyme I humbly take my leave and rest as I have ever beene your wops at commandment. Henry Sayer.
Barkby, February 26th, 1608.
To the wll his very singular
ffriend Mr. Brent subwarden
at Merton College in Oxon.
(II)
[In Illustration of Manorial Customs, cf. pp. 124–131 and 297–301.]
Manor of Aldeburgh, R.O., Misc. Bks., Treas. of Receipt, Vol. 163, Henry VIII.
The said Manor has one lete by the year ... and hath also the Court from 3 weeks to 3 weeks called the 3 weeks Court.
Item.—Every tenant payeth for a cottage ground not buylded if it conteyn 80 ft. every way
Item.—Every tenant payeth for a cottage ground not
buylded if it conteyn 80 ft. every way 1d.
Item.—Every tenant payeth for half a cottage which
is 40 ft. every way ½d.
Item.—For every curtilage containing 40 ft. or under ½d
Item.—For every fyne of every cotage buylded 2/-
Item.—For every fyne of every cotage ground unbuilded 1/-
Item.—Every tenant that taketh any cotage ground to
build upon if he build not within three years he
forfeiteth the ground by him taken.
Item.—Every tenant having a cotage or parcel of a cotage
wherein any tenant dwelleth and keepeth a fire,
they owe to pay for the same a Russhe hen or
else 2d. which is for the rushes that they
gather upon the lord’s common there.
Item.—If 2 tenants dwell in one house having 2 severall
rooms in the same they to pay yearlie 2 rush
hennes or 4d. for them.
Item.—Every freeholder having by copy any arable land
or pasture ground in the field payeth yearly
for the same at terms accustomed the rent of
old time due at [Michaelmas & Easter] by even
porcions; and for all fines cessed upon the
tenaunts for land in the fields is at the will of
the lord, as well at the alienations made as at
the death of any tenant.
Item.—The tenants and copyholders shall do no waste
upon the lord’s common ne otherwise upon pain
of forfeiture of their tenements.
Item.—All the freeholders shall [pay] double their rent
at every death or alienation made, as relief.
Item.—Certain freeholders and copyholders pay heriot
after the death of any tenant.
Item.—Neither the freeholders nor copyholders shall not
surcharge the lord’s comon but to keep after
the rate of his tenure. If he otherwise do he
shall be amerced.
Item.—No man shall encroche on lord’s lands on pain of
forfeiture of his tenure.
Item.—Every boat going to the sea on fishing and having
4 men therein payeth yearly to the lord 8d.,
and 6 men 12d., and so after the rate, for
each man 2d., which is by a late composition.
Item.—There is a service paid by certain tenants there
called Oryell, which is for the liberty of the
common that tenants have in the said lordship.
Item.—The lords of Aldeburgh have the moietie of all
wreck of the sea being cast on land or found
near the shore within the limits of the same
lordship, and the finder thereof hath the other
half.
(III)
[In Illustration of the Peasants' Grievances]
Holkham MSS., Fulmordeston MSS., Bdle. 6
To the Right Honble. Sir Edward Cooke, Knight, Attorney-Generall unto the King’s Matie.
Humblie sheweth unto your good lord yor poore and dayley orators Thomas Ffawcett, Thomas Humphry, and Nicolas Farnes [?] yor worshippes tenants of the Manor of Ffulmordeston cum Croxton in the Duchie of Lancaster and the moste parte of the tenants of the same Manor that whereas yor said orators in the Hillary Term laste commenced suite in the Duchie Courte against Thomas Odbert and Roger Salisbury, Gent., who have enclosed their grounds contrary to the custom of the Manor, whereby your wor. loseth your shack due out of those grounds, common lane or way for passengers is stopped up, and your worshippes poore orators lose their accustomed shack in those grounds, and the said Roger Salisbury taketh also the whole benefit of theire comons from them, keepinge there his sheepe in grasinge and debarringe them of their libertie there which for comon right belongeth unto them:—
Which suite and controversie, forasmuch as the same manor is nowe come unto your lordshippe’s hands by his most excellent Maties gracious disposinge thereof, youre poore oratours thought it theire duty to impart and lay open unto your worpp, and doe most humblie pray and beseech your worpp that they may have your lawfull favour herein for the furtherance of their proceedings in this theire suite of lawe, so that the greatness of the said parties adversant unto them, on which they much relie, may not be the more strengthened by your worship's favour, whereby your poore orators may have and enjoy theire former liberties in peace, and be the better able to maintaine themselves in their callings rights and dueties which unto your wor. is belonging and due uppon their Tenures in the saide Mannor.
And according to theire bounden duety your sayde poor orators shall dayly pray to God for your wor. in all encrease of prosperitie and worshippe long to continew.
21 Aug. 1604.
I have considered of this peticion, and seeinge I am lord of the mannor I will do my best endeavour upon hearing of both parties to end the controversie and the defendts need not appeare nor the cause to proceed in the duchy.
Edw. Coke.
(IV)
[In Illustration of the Peasants' Grievances]
S. P. Dom. Charles I. Vol. 151, No. 38.
To the Kings most Excellent Matie.
The humble peticoɳ of yor Mate poore and distressed Tennants of yor Mannor of North Wheatley in the Countie of Nottingham belonging to yor Maties Duchie of Lancaster.
Most humbly shewing. That yor poore Subiects have tyme out of mynd byn Coppieholders of lands of inheritaunce to them and their heires for ever of the Mannor aforesaid, and paid for every Oxgang of land xvjs viijđ rent, and paid heretofore vpon every Alienacoɳ xijđ for every Oxgang, but nowe of late, about 40 Jacobi by an order of the Duchie Court they paie ijs s vjd d vpon euery Alienacoɳ for every acre, wch amounteth nowe to 45s an Oxgang.
And whereas some of yor Tennants of the said Mannor have heretofore held and doe nowe hold certayne Oxganges of lands belonging to the said Manor by Coppie from xxj yeres to xxj yeares, and have paid for the same vpon eⱱy Coppy ijs, and for every Oxgang xvjs viijd ᵱ Anɳ; they nowe of late by an order in the Duchie Court hold the same by lease vnder the Duchie Seale, and paie vjli xiijs iiijd for a Fyne vpon every lease and xvjs viijd rent wth an increase of vjs viijd more towards yor Maties prouision.
And whereas in 110 Edw: 40 yor petic[o~n]ers did by Copy of Court Roll hold the demeanes of the said Mannor for tearme of yeres att ixli vjs viijd ᵱ anɳ, they afterwards in 60 Eliz: held the same demeanes by lease vnder the seale of the duchie for xxj yeares, att the like rent; and Tenne yeres before their lease was expired, they ymployed one Mr Markham in trust to gett their lease renewed, whoe procured a newe lease of the demeanes in his owne name for xxj yeres att the old rent, and afterwards contrary to the trust Comitted to him increased and raised the rent thereof vpon the Tenants to his owne privat benefitt to 56li ᵱ annư.
And whereas the woods belonging to the said Mannor hath within the memory of Man byn the only Co[~m]on belonging to the said Towne, paying yerelie for the herbage and pannage thereof vjs viijđ, they nowe alsoe hold the same vnder the Duchie Seale att xvjli li xvjs ijđ ᵱ annư.
And whereas the Court Rolls and Records of the said Mannor, have alwaies heretofore byn kept vnder severall Locks and Keys, whereof yor Mats Stewards have kepte one key and yor Maties Tennant (in regard it Concerned their ᵱticuler inheritances) have kept an other keye. But nowe they are att the pleasure of the Stewards and Officers transported from place to place, and the nowe purchasers doe demaund the Custody of them, wch may be most preiudiciall to yor Mate poore Tennants.
Now for asmuch as yor Matie: hath byn pleased to sell the said Mannor vnto the Cittie of London, whoe have sold the same vnto Mr John Cartwright and Mr Tho: Brudnell gent: And for that yor peticon͠ers and Tennants there (beinge in nomber Two hundred poore men, and there being xj of yor Mate Tennants there that beare Armes for the defence of yor Mate Realme, and xij that paie yor Matie Subsidies fifteens and Loanes) are all nowe like to be vtterlie vndon, in Case the said Mr Cartwright and Mr Brudnell should (as they saie they will) take awaie from yor Tennants the said demeanes and woods after thexpiracoɳ of their leases, and that yor poore Tennants should be left to the wills of the purchasers for their Fynes, or that the Records and Court rowles should not be kept as in former tymes in some private place, where the purchasers and Tennants maie both have the custody and viewe of them as occasion shall serve.
Maie it therefore please yor Sacred Majtie That such order may be taken in the premisses for the reliefe of yor poore Tennants of the Mannor aforesaid That they maie not be dispossessed of the demeanes and leases, and that they may knowe the Certayntie of their Fynes for the Coppieholds demeanes and leases and maie have the Court Rolls & Records safely kepte as formerly they have byn. And that yor Matie wilbe further pleased to referr the Consideracoɳ hearing, ordering and determynacoɳ of the premisses vnto such Noble men, or other 4 gent: of esteeme in the Country whome yor Matie shalbe pleased to appoint, that are neighbours vnto yor Tenãnts, and doe best knowe their estate & greevances. That they or any two or three of them may take such order, and soe Cettell the busynes betweene the purchasers & yor poore Tennants, as they in their wisdoms and discressions shall judge to be reasonable and fitting, or to Certifie yor Matie howe they fynd the same, and in whose defalt it is they cannot determyne thereof. And yor poore Tenn͠ts as in all humble dutie bound will daielie pray for yor Matie.
Whitehall this 10 of Novembr 1629.
His Ma[~] is graciously pleased to referre the consideration of this request to the Co[~m]issionrs for sale of his lands, that vpon the report vnto his Ma[~] of their opinion and advise his Ma[~] may give further order therein. Dorchester.
[Endorsed.] Divers Tenants of his Mate mañor of North Wheatley
in the Countie of Nottingham.
(V)
[Paper on the Evils of Enclosure, by an Applicant for Government Employment]
S. P. Dom. Charles I. Vol. 206, No. 70
Right Hole
Uppon the ixth of July and also the 23d of Septembr I deliⱱd petitions vnto yor Lopp desireinge to shew ye great hurt yt ys done to his Matie & ye land by inclosiers wch decay tillage, & depopulate townes in ye best naturall corne countryes, wch affore supplyed the wants of others every way beinge in ye middle of ye land, for yt their is dearths vppon any vnseasonable seedes tyme or springe, and is a great cause of decayinge of trades and vndoeinge many thousands wch before lived well & now for want of Imployment & dearth of corne, yer is multitudes of poor & vagrants complayninge of their miseryes; and are dangerous to ye peacable state of ye land, by yer desire of troubles to revenge them selves. Ye know what lamentable broyles & bloodshedinges were betwixt ye gileadites & ephramites & Israelites & benjamites for ye levits wife & Abia & Jeroboam & Ahay & Peka where was slaine above 700,000 men of warr & many of other sorts, wch was more crewell then by any foraigne enymyes, & wee have incrochinge enemyes yt would take yer advantage vppon such opertunytyes as yei did when ye leaguers in France made warrs against theire Kinge ... for many are of oppinyon that ye Kinges Matie nor ye lordes doe not truly vnderstand ye secret mischief es wch is done by covetous men by ye cuninge misterie of depopulation nor ye oppressions and causes of dearthes and poverty nor know ye readyest waye for remedyes, yet beinge as unacquainted in tyllage & husbandrye as in other arts: as appeared by ye booke of orders ye last yere wch shewed that his Matie and the lordes had a good desire to remedy the dearth but ye corn masters & malsters &c. used such closse dealinges yt ye dearth was worse as ye like in former tymes: soe that no orders will ease dearthes but by causeing more tyllage & yt would make plenty & then every man will sell willinglye....
Also many are much deceived by inclosier because there are countries are enclosed & be rich, but these were inclosed when there were but few people & these maintain tyllage husbandry & hospitallyty & sett people on work & have tenements for labourers, these are lyable to musters & all services requirable for ye Kinge & country & taxes & charitable collections but ye depopulators in ye champian countryes destroy all meanes of doeinge help or servise for ye Kinge & country what neede soever come.
And although this was the fruitfullest somer that was in many yeares, yet corne holds almost duble price to that which most men expected, because rich men will sell but litle corne before they see the strength of May past & if corne does not prosper then they will keep it expecting a dearth the next yere. Another cause is that all men see how tyllag is yearly decayed in the best champian countryes & people & drunknes increased & no hope of remedy because of ye inyquity of ye tyme & gentlemen & other have great friends & favour & may doe what they list. And maltsters & ingrossers buy corn as fast as they can, & doe use wayes to have it brought home what lawes or orders to the contrary expectinge a dearth if ye next spring prove not very fruitfull. And if his Maty & ye lords doe not take some speedy course to cause more tyllage there beinge good ground enough before wete seeds tymes come, then will dearth ensue. And yn ye poore hungry people may cry ... where ys corne; And yn it will be too late to remedy dearths by any lawes or orders. And now it might be done there beinge aboundance of old resty fatt ground in ye champian countryes which if it were plowed & sowne wt corne, no wett seeds tyme could hurt it soe that they would yield corne to supply all wants beinge in ye midle of ye land my lord if you please to give me leave I will give you ye names of many decayed townes in ye counties of Leics & Northampt, &c., and who decayed them & now the Lord hath swept away ye inclosiers & their posterity out of all & strangers have their houses & pastures. And my desire is yt yor Lop might be acquainted with ye country dissorders & the remydes to reforme ye evills and then ye may better judge of them & acquaint his Matie & ye lords, that by his & their good directions, we shall have plenty and bring much more to his maties treasures & the whole land....
Also I doe humbly intreate yor Lops favor to let me shew how there may be ymploymt for people & wealth to ye Kinge & ye Kingdome & plenty & cheapnes & have ingrossers frustrated of their game & have lesse wast of corne in ale & beer & less sinninge: & lesse dangers & soe ye lorde keepe you: wth my humble sute, to accept of my poore desires for ye deede, with my attendance vpon your Lops pleasure.
Your Lops to Co[~m]and
[Endorsed:—] Richard Sandes.
Sandes touching Indigence.
(VI)
[In Illustration of Action against Enclosures by Justices]
S. P. Dom. Charles I. Vol. 185, No. 86
Most Honorble
Wee have caused a view to bee made according to yor Lops Late Lr[~e]s of all Inclosures and convrsions of Arrable Land to meadow and pasture, wch are now in hand or haue beene made wthin two yeares Last past, And wee haue signifyed yor Lops direc[c~o]ns vnto such ᵱsons as are causers of any such Inclosures & Conⱱtions and have given them notice that they ought not to ᵱcede wth hedgeing or dytchinge in of any such grounds but to Let them so rest vntill wee shall have furder orders from yor: honors: And wee further conceaue that if depopula[c~o]ns may bee reformed it will bring a great good to the whole Kingƌ: for where houses are pulled downe the People are forced to seeke new habitations. In other townes & cuntryes by meanes whereof those Townes where they get a setling are pestred so as they are hardly able to live one by an other, and it is likewise the cause of erecting new Cottages vppon the wasts and other places who are not able to releive themselves nor any such townes able to sustaine or set them on worke wch Causes Rogues & vagabonds to encrease. Moreover it doth appeare that in those townes wch are depopulated the People being expelled There are few or none Left to serve the King when Souldjours are to bee lodged to appeare at Musters for his Mate seruice wch is also a cause that poore Townes where many people are, are put to greater charg in setting forth of souldjours & depopulated Townes are much eased and the Subsidie decayed. All wch wee humbly submit to yor Lops great wisdome. And will eⱱ rest.
At yor honble service humbly to bee comaunded Fran: Thornhagh Ro: Sutton vic. Wee doe herewth Matth Palmer ᵱsent vnto yor W. Cooper Gervas Fevery Honrs the names of Tym: Pilsy Gilƀt Millington all such as have Wil̴l Coke Will Moseley made any Inclosures Jo: Woods or conⱱsions wth in two yeares Last past or that were in hand to make the same. [Addressed:] To the right honble the Lords of his Mats honble Privy Counsell humbly present these. [Endorsed:] Feb. 1630. From the County of Nottingham touching Inclosures. The inconveniencies of Depopulation. [No Enclosures]
[This letter is printed by Miss Leonard, Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., New Series, vol. xix. She refers it to Norfolk, which is apparently a mistake.]
(VII)
[In Illustration of Action against Enclosures by Justices]
S. P. Dom. Charles I. Vol. 206, No. 71
Lincoln
An abstract of such depopulators as have bene hetherto dealt
withall in Lincolnshyre, & receyued their pardon.
| The persons in number | 9 |
| The som̃e of their fynes | 300l |
| The number of houses by bond to bee erected | 33 |
| The tyme for the ereccoɳ within one yere. | |
| The number of farmes to be contynued that are now standing | 22 |
| The fynes are already payd. |
Sir Charles Hussey Knt. Fyne, 80ɫ. Bond of 200 ᶆkes, wth Condicoɳ
to sett up in Homingtoɳ 8 farmhouses wth Barnes &c. and
to lay to eⱱye house 30 acres of land, and to keepe 10 acres
thereof yearlye in tyllage.
Sr Henry Ayscough Knt. Fyne, 20ɫ.
Bond 200 ᶆkes. To sett vp 8 farmhouses in Blibroughe
wth 30 acres to eⱱy farme, and 12 thereof to be kept
yearlie in tylthe.
Sr Hamond Whichcoote Knt. Fyne, 40ɫ.
Bond 200 ᶆkes. To set up 8 farmhouses &c. in Harpswell,
wth 40 acres to eưy house; and 16 thereof in
tyllage.
Sr Edward Carre Kt. Fyne, 30ɫ.
Bond 100ɫ. To sett vp 2 Farmhouses in Branswell, and
1 in Aswarby wth 40 acres to eưy house, 16 in tyllage.
Sr Willᶆaye, Knt. Fyne, 30ɫ.
Bond 100ɫ. To sett up in Graynesby 2 farmhouses wth 2
acres at least to either, 10 in tyllage & to contynue 2
farmes more in Grainsby & 3 in Newbell & Longworth,
wth the same quantity, as is now used them, a third ᵱte
in tylthe.
Sr Edmund Bussye Kt. Fyne, 10ɫ.
Bond 100ɫ. To set vp one farmhouse in Thorpe wth 40
acres, 14 thereof in tyllage, And to contynue 14 farmes
in Hedor, Oseby, Aseby, & Thorpe, as they now are, wth a
third ᵱte in tyllage.
Richard Rosetor Esqr. Fyne, 10ɫ.
Bond 50ɫ. To set vp one farme in Lymber wth 40 acres,
16 in tyllage, and to continewe 1 farme in Limber, and 2
in Sereby, vt supa.
Robert Tirwhilt Esqr. Fyne, 10ɫ. Bond 50ɫ.
To set vp one farme in Camtringtaun wth 40 acres. 16 in
tyllage.
John Fredway gent. Fyne, 10ɫ. Bond 40ɫ.
To set up one farme in Gelson wth 30 acres, 10 thereof in
tyllage.
[Endorsed:] Lincolɳ Depopulatoɽ Fyned & pardoned and the
reformacons to bee made.
[No date]
(VIII)
[Complaints concerning the Procedure of Archbishop Laud in Dealing with Enclosures]
S. P. Dom. Charles I. Vol. 499, No. 10
That vpon the Commission of enquiry after depopulacoñ The Lord Archbishopp of Canȶ and other the Commissioners at the solicitacoñ of Tho: Hussey gent. did direct a leɽ nature of a Coᶆission to certain persons wth in the County of Wilts to certifie what number of Acres in South Marston in the ᵱish of Highworth were converted from arable to pasture and what number of ploughes were laid downe &c.
Wherevpon the Archdeacon with two others did retourne Certificate, to the Lord Archbishopp &c.
Upon this Certificate, Mr Anth: Hungerford, Mr Southby with 15 others were convented before his Grace and the other Commissioners at the Councell Board, where being charged with Conversion.
Mr Anth: Hungerford & Mr Southby with some others did averre that they had made noe conversion, other then they had when they came to be owners thereof.
His Grace said that they were to looke noe further then to the owners, And Certificate was retourned that soe many Acres were converted and soe many ploughes let downe.
They alladged that this Certificate was false & made without their privity, and therefore Mr Hungerford in the behalfe of the rest did desire that they might not be iudged upon that Certificate. But that they might haue the like favour as Mr Hussey had, to have Ceɽf the same nature directed to other Commissioners, or a Commission if it might be granted to examine vpon oath whereby the trueth might better appeare.
His Grace replyed to Mr Hungerford since you desire it & are soe earnest for it you shall not have it.
They did offer to make prove that since the conversion there were more habitacoɳs of men of ability & fewer poore. And that whereas the King had before 4 or 5 souldiers of the Trayned Band he had nowe 9 there. That the Impropriacoɳ was much better to be lett.
His Grace said to the rest of the Lords, wee must deale with these genȶ as with those of Tedbury to take 150ɫ fine, and to lay open the inclosures.
Which they refusing to doe they were there threatned with an informacoɳ to be brought agt them in the Starrchamƀ And accordingly were within a shorte tyme after by the said Mr Hussey served with sub penas at Mr Attorney his suite in the Starr chamber: And this as Mr Hussey told Mr Hungfd was done by my Lo: Archbp his command.
[Endorsed:] Depopulation—Mr Hungerford & Mr Southby [1641].
APPENDIX II[ToC]
[Table I.] (p. [25)]
This table is based on documents relating to the following manors:—
1. Northumberland.
Acklington (1567, Northumberland County History, vol. v. pp. 367–8); Buston (1567, ibid., vol. v. p. 209); Thirston (1567, ibid., vol. vii. pp. 305–6); Birling (1567, ibid., vol. v. pp. 200–1); Amble (1608, ibid., vol. v. p. 281); Hexham (1608, ibid., vol. iii. pp. 86–104).
2. Lancashire.
Warton (Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 19, No. 7, ff. 79–87); Whyttington (Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 19, No. 7, ff. 47–9); Ashton (Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Portf. 19, No. 7, ff. 69–72); Overton (4 Eliz. R.O. Duchy of Lanc., Special Commission, No. 67); Widnes (10 Eliz. R.O. Duchy of Lanc., Special Commission, No. 181); Cartmel (Hen. VIII.(?) R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 22, No. 75); Rochdale (1626, from information kindly supplied by Lieut.-Colonel Fishwick of Rochdale, from a Survey in the Chetham Library, Manchester), Lands of Cockersand Abbey (1501, Chetham Miscellanies, vol. iii.).
3. Staffordshire.
Barton (Ph. and M.(?) R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 14, No. 70); Burton Bondend (1597, R.O. Land Rev. Misc. Bks., vol. 185, ff. 70–74); Drayton Basset (1579, R.O. Land Rev. Misc. Bks., vol. 185, ff. 54–68); Wotton in Elishall (1 Ed. VI., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 14, No. 83); Agarsley (1611, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Duchy of Lancs., Bdle. 8, No. 29).
4. Leicestershire.
Ulverscroft Priory (31 Hen. VIII., R.O. Land Rev. Misc. Bks., vol. 182, f. 35); Broughton Astley (Eliz. R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Bdle. 10, No. 4); Barkby (Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Roll 382); Stapleford (10 Eliz., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Duchy of Lanc., Portf. 6, No. 15); Priory of Launde (31 Hen. VIII, R.O. Land Rev. Misc. Bks. 182, f. 1); College of St. Mary, Leicester (1595, R.O. Rentals, Duchy of Lanc. 6/12); Garradon Abbey (Hen. VIII., R.O. Augm. Off., Misc. Bks. 403, f. 123); Kibworth Beauchamp (1 & 2 Ph. and M., R.O. Land Rev. Misc. Bks. 182, f. 284); Kibworth Harcourt (1636, Merton MSS., Book labelled Kibworth and Barkby, 1636).
5. Northamptonshire.
Duston (3 Eliz., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Portf. 13, No. 23); Yelvertoft (11 Eliz., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Portf. 13, No. 52); Warmington and Eaglethorpe (30 Eliz., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Portf. 13, No. 21); Brigstock (4 James I., R.O. Land Rev. Misc. Bks., vol. 221, f. l); Higham Ferrers (8 James I., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Portf. 13, No. 34); Paulspurie, alias Westpury (32 Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, vol. 419, f. 3).
6. Norfolk.
Ormesby (7 Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 22, No. 18); Barney (29 Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 26, No. 57); Great Walsingham (29 Hen. VIII., ibid.); Gunthorpe (29 Hen. VIII., ibid.); Skerning (Ed. VI., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 3, No. 23); Metherwolde (1575, R.O. Duchy of Lanc., Rentals and Surveys, Bdle. 7, No. 29a); Brisingham (31 Eliz., R.O. Misc. Bks., Land Rev., vol. 220, f. 220); Aylsham (James I., R.O. Misc. Bks., Augm. Off., vol. 360, f. 1); Scratbye Bardolphes (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 12, No. 52); Burghe Vaux (1620, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 12, No. 52); Castons (c. 1620(?), R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 12, No. 52 p. 10d); Massingham (Hen. VIII.(?), R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 30, No. 25); Northendall (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Roll 478, m. 3); Drayton Hall (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 20, No. 53); East Dereham (1649, R.O. Parliamentary Surveys, Norfolk, No. 10); West Lexham (1595, Holkham MSS., West Lexham MSS., No. 87); Longham Hall and Gunton (1611, Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 62); Longham and Watlington (1611, Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 62); Watlington and Priors (1611, Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 62); Billingford (1565, Holkham MSS., Billingford and Bintry MSS., Bdle. No. 9); Foxley (1568, Holkham MSS., Billingford and Bintry MSS., Bdle. No. 9); Peakhall (1578, Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 12); Wellingham (1611, Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 62); Tittleshall Newhall (Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 62). I have included one manor (R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 3, No. 21), of which I have mislaid the name.
7. Suffolk.
Snape (Hen. VIII., R.O. Misc. Bks., Treas. of Receipt, vol. 163, f. 187); Ashfield (Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 14, No. 85); Otley (Hen. VIII., R.O. Misc. Bks., Treas. of Receipt, vol. 163, f. 145); Rodstrete and Brimdishe (Ed. VI., R.O. Misc. Bks., Augm. Off., vol. 414, f. 19–22); Dennington (Ed. VI., R.O. Misc. Bks., vol. 414, f. 22b); Harrolds in Cretingham (Ed. VI., R.O. Aug. Off., vol. 414, f. 25b); Stratford juxta Higham (17 James I., R.O. Duchy of Lanc., Rentals and Surveys, 9/13); Denham (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32); Dunstall (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32); Dalham (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32); Kentford (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32); Nedham (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32); Desnage Talmaye, and Cressness[?] in Gaseleye (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32); Higham (date uncertain, R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 27, No. 32).
8. Wiltshire, Somerset, and Devon.
All are contained in the Surveys of the Lands of William, Earl of Pembroke, published by the Roxburgh Club, and edited by Straton, 1565–1573. There are twenty-seven manors in Wiltshire, four in Somersetshire, and one in Devonshire.
9. Hampshire.
Crondal, and Sutton Warblington (Crondal Records, Part I., Baigent).
10. Ten other manors in the South of England.
Castle Combe (Wilts, 1454, Scrope, History of Castle Combe); Ibstone (Bucks, 1483, Merton MSS., No. 5902); Cuxham (Oxford, 1483, Merton MSS., No. 5902); Malden (Surrey, 1496, Merton MSS., Survey of Malden); Aspley Guise (Bedford, 1542, from information kindly supplied by Mr. G.H. Fowler, of Aspley Guise); Ewerne (Dorset, 1568, Topographer and Genealogist, vol i.); Edgeware (Middlesex, 1597, All Souls Estate Maps); Kingsbury (Middlesex, 1597, All Souls Estate Maps); Gamlingay Merton (Cambridge, 1601, Merton Estate Maps); Gamlingay Avenells (Cambridge, 1601, Merton Estate Maps).
The chief criticisms which may be made upon this table are:—
(i) Some of the documents from which the figures are taken are separated from each other by a very long interval of time, so that they do not all represent approximately the same stage of agrarian development. This is a disadvantage. It is possible, for example, that, if the manor of Rochdale could be examined in 1526 instead of in 1626, it would be found that the proportion of copyholders to leaseholders was higher than it is at the later date. This defect, however, is perhaps not so great as to outweigh the value of the general picture of the relative proportion of different classes given by the table. A great majority of the documents from which it is compiled belong to the sixteenth century, and are dated as follows: Those of 10 manors are of an uncertain date, those of 3 fall between 1450 and 1485, of 2 in the reign of Henry VII., of 19 in that of Henry VIII., of 5 in that of Edward VI., of 3 in that of Philip and Mary, of 60 in that of Elizabeth, of 13 in that of James I., of 2 in that of Charles I., of 1 in 1649.
(ii) The lists of tenants given by the surveyors may sometimes not be exhaustive. I am not sure, for example, that all the freeholders on the manor of Crondal, or all the leaseholders at Gamlingay Merton and Gamlingay Avenells, are recorded.
(iii) It is sometimes not clear under what category a tenant should be entered. When there is no clue at all I have entered such tenants as “uncertain.” In some cases, however, though there is no entry by the surveyor, there are indications that the tenants are freeholders, customary tenants, or leaseholders, and, when that is so, I have grouped them in the table according to the probabilities of the case. But I do not doubt that I have made some mistakes.
(iv) A special word must be said about Norfolk and Suffolk. In these counties it is quite common to find the same tenant holding both by free and by customary tenure. When this is so, I have entered him both under “freeholders" and under “customary tenants" in the table. This means, of course, that the numbers entered for these two counties in the table exceed the number of individual landholders. As, however, my object was to ascertain the distribution of different classes of tenures, this course, though not satisfactory, seemed the best one to follow. In other counties a similar difficulty hardly ever occurs, a fact which is of some interest as showing the relatively advanced agrarian conditions of Norfolk and Suffolk. In the few cases in which it does occur I have followed the same plan as I have for those two counties.
[Table II.] ([pp. 32 and 33)]
This table is based on documents relating to the undermentioned manors. The sources from which the information is taken are given in the explanation of Table I., and I therefore do not repeat them.
1. Norfolk.
Metherwolde, Northendall, Brisingham, Massingham, Skerning Billingford.
2. Suffolk.
Ashfield, Stratford juxta Higham, Kentford, Dunstall.
3. Staffordshire.
Drayton Basset, Barton, Burton Bondend.
4. Lancashire.
Warton, Overton, Widnes.
5. Northamptonshire.
Paulespurie, Brigstock, Higham Ferrers, Duston.
6. Wiltshire.
South Newton.
7. Leicestershire.
Barkby.
I have thought it worth while to insert this table, but I am not satisfied with it. (i) I am inclined to think that, as stated in the text, fuller information would show that medium-sized holdings of between 20 and 60 acres were more common than it suggests. It is plain that surveyors often could not locate the properties of freeholders, and the larger the property the harder their task. (ii) Even where the holding is set out by the surveyor, one cannot always form an accurate judgment of its size. For example, rights of common, though often expressed in acres, are often expressed in some other way, e.g. in the terms of the number of beasts which the tenant may graze; and, again, a man is sometimes said to hold so many acres “cum pertinentiis.” What I have done is simply to enter the acreage as given in the surveys. In some cases, therefore, the size of the holding is certainly underestimated.
Table III. ([p. 48)]
The figures in this table are an analysis of the figures given under the heading of “Customary Tenants" in Table I., and the source from which they are taken will be found by looking at the explanation of that table given above. As I have pointed out in the text, it is probable that not all the “Tenants at Will" should have been entered as “Customary Tenants" in that table. I hope that any error which may have arisen through their inclusion under that heading there may be neutralised by setting them out here. It will be seen that they are not numerous.
Table IV.(pp. [64 and 65])
This table is based on documents relating to the undermentioned manors. The sources from which the information is taken are given, with a few exceptions (see below), in the explanation of Table I.
1. Wiltshire and Somerset.
South Newton, Byshopeston, Washerne, Knyghton, Donnington, Estoverton and Phipheld, Wynterbourne Basset (all in Wilts), South Brent and Huish (Somerset).
2. Suffolk.
Stratford juxta Higham, Ashfield, Snape, Desnage Talmaye, Chaterham Hall (the last Hen. VIII. R.O. Misc. Bks., Treas. of Receipt, vol. 163, ff. 109–114).
3. Norfolk.
Barney, Great Walsingham, Gunthorpe, Brisingham, Aylsham, Ormesby, Northendall, and one manor, the name of which I have mislaid (see explanation of Table I.).
4. Staffordshire.
Barton, Wotton in Elishall, Agarsley.
5. Lancashire.
Ashton, Whytyngton, Warton, Widnes.
6. Northamptonshire.
Higham Ferrers, Brigstock.
7. Leicestershire.
Launde Priory, Barkby, Kibworth.
8. Northumberland.
High Buston, Acklington, Birling, Thirston, Preston, East Chirton, Middle Chirton, Whitney, Monkseaton, Eardon (the last six all 1539, Northumberland County History, vol. viii. p. 230, ff.).
9. Nine manors elsewhere in South of England.
Crondal, Sutton Warblington, Edgeware, Kingsbury, Aspley Guise, Gamlingay Merton, Gamlingay Avenells, Salford, Weedon Weston (two last from surveys on back of All Souls Maps).
In this table are included a few landholders as to whose tenure I am not certain. It has the defect stated in connection with Table I., that in a considerable number of instances the holdings of tenants are not fully expressed in terms of acres, and that therefore it probably somewhat underestimates their area. On the other hand, the holdings of the customary tenants are usually set out by the surveyors much more fully than those of the freeholders.
Table V ([p. 107])
1. Northumberland and Lancashire.
Acklington, Birling, High Buston, Thirston, Whytyngton.
2. Wiltshire and Dorsetshire.
South Newton, Estoverton and Phipheld, Winterbourne Basset, Washerne, Donyngton, Byshopeston, Knyghton, Ewerne (the last in Dorsetshire, Topographer and Genealogist, vol. i. There are only three customary tenants on this manor, and only one is represented in the table, as the use made by the others of their land is not ascertainable).
3. Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire.
Salford, Weedon Weston, Wotton in Elishall, Kibworth Harcourt.
In connection with this table the following points should be noticed:—
(i) I am not certain that all the tenants represented in it are customary tenants. But with one or two exceptions the holdings of all are not larger than those of the customary tenants on other manors, so that there is no reason to suppose that their agricultural economy differed from that usually followed by the latter.
(ii) More serious, the figures are not completely accurate. I have entered under each denomination, “arable,” “meadow,” or “pasture,” land so entered by the surveyor. In some cases, however, the character of the land is not specified. E.g. it is described simply as a “close,” or a tenant is said to hold so many acres of arable “with appurtenances." Further, tenants frequently possess rights of pasture which are not expressed in terms of acres, but are either measured by the number of beasts which they may graze, or are not measured at all (e.g. “catalla sine extento"). In the latter case, which does not affect any except the Wiltshire manors, I have not attempted to form any estimate, but have simply taken their holdings as stated by the surveyor. When there is no clue to the character of the land, I have omitted it. When it is plain that the land falls under a special denomination, though this is not specified in the survey, I have placed it under that denomination in my table. E.g. at Donyngton nearly every tenant holds “unum clausum noviter extractum de communia,” and together they hold in such “closes” 132 acres. I have entered these as “pasture.”
Table VI. (p. [115–117])
1. Ingoldmells, Lincolnshire: Massingberd, Ingoldmells Court Rolls, Preface, p. vii. I quote the words of the editor, “In 1086 the annual value of the manor of Ingoldmells was £10.... In 1295 the rents of the free and bondage tenants were £51, 17s. 1d.... In 1347 the same rents were £61, 9s. 4d., and in 1421 they were £71, 10s. 3d.... But in 1485 £3, 7s. 4d. had to be deducted for lost rents ... from a total of £72, 6s. 8d.... When the manor was sold in 1628 by Charles I., the reserved rent ... was only £73, 17s. 2d.... It is therefore clear that at Ingoldmells the tenants appropriated virtually the whole of the increase in the value of the land.”
2. Crondall, Hampshire: Baigent, Crondal Records, Part I., pp. 135 and 383.
3. Sutton Warblington, Hampshire: ibid., pp. 141 and 383. At the later date Sutton Warblington appears to have been treated as part of the manor of Crondal, though still itself called a manor.
4. Birling, Northumberland: Northumberland County History, vol. v.
5. Acklington, Northumberland: ibid., vol. v.
6. High Buston, Northumberland: ibid., vol. v. (Tenants at will and copyholders only).
7. Amble, Northumberland: ibid., vol. v.
8. Aspley Guise, Bedfordshire. These figures were kindly supplied me by Dr. G.H. Fowler of Aspley Guise as the result of his researches in the Record Office into the history of the manor.
9. South Newton, Wiltshire: Roxburghe Club, Surveys of Lands of William, first Earl of Pembroke, edited by Straton. Note (a) The manor of South Newton included the parishes of Childhampton, Stoford, Little Wishford, and North Ugford. I have dealt here only with the Parish of South Newton, (b) The figures relate only to the customary tenants, and do not include the payments of freeholders and convencionarii. I have obtained the figure of £8, 3s. 11–1/2d. by adding together the tenants' money payments and the value of their works, which are set down in terms of money. But I am not sure that it is correct. I have omitted the payments of fowls (made at both dates) and the small payments for church shot and maltsilver.
10. Cuxham, Oxfordshire: Merton MSS., Nos. 5902 and 5905.
11. Ibstone, Buckinghamshire: ibid., Nos. 5902 and 5209. (In the earlier rental freeholders as well as customary tenants, and in the later possibly leaseholders as well, are included.)
12. Malden, Surrey: Merton MSS. MSS. both headed “Maldon, Thorncroft, and Farleigh 1841,” and giving extracts from early court rolls and rentals.
13. Kibworth, Leicestershire: Merton MSS., Nos. 6375 (Rental), 6362, and 6356 (ministers' accounts). The earliest entry is the payments of the copyholders only: the two later entries are “rents of assize.”
14. Standen, Hertfordshire: R.O. Mins. Accts., Gen. Ser., Bdle. 868, No. 17; Bdle. 869, No. 8; Bdle. 869, No. 15; Bdle. 870, No. 4. The earliest entry is “Rents assized £18, 17s. 3d. Lands let at will of lord 60s." The second, third, and fourth give the total income.
15. Feering, Essex: R.O. Mins. Accts., Gen. Ser., Bdle. 841, No. 5; Bdle. 841, No. 23; Mins. Accts., Hen. VIII., No. 951. The first two entries are totals of quarterly rents paid at Christmas, Easter, Birth of St. John the Baptist, and Michaelmas. The last is “assized rent.” It is possible, therefore, that the apparent diminution is due to the earlier rentals having included payments not given in the last.
16. Appledrum, Sussex: R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Rolls 643, 644, and Mins. Accts., Gen. Ser., Bdle. 1019, No. 15.
17. Minchinhampton: R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Rolls 237 and 241. In the earlier documents the “total rent yearly" is given as £41, 14s. 4d., and the “sum total of works" as £4, 15s.
18. Langley Marish, Berkshire: R.O. Mins. Accts., Gen. Ser., Bdle. 761, No. 4, and Bdle. 762, No. 5; Land Rev. Misc. Bks., vol. 188, f. 196ff. The first entry is the sum total of rents paid quarterly, together with 7s. 4d. of a custom called “vaccage,” and 13s. 4d. of common fine at view of frank pledge. (Exactly the same items are entered in the following year.) The second entry is “profits and issues of the manor," and is headed “account of the manor for 83 days,” but the similarity of the figure with that of the earlier date makes it hard to believe that the “profits” relate to less than one quarter of the year. The third entry is made up of rents of free and customary tenants, demesne lands held by copy, and customary rents called “Hedage” and “Duply,” producing 23s. 3½d.
19. Lewisham, Kent: R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Roll 361; Misc. Bks., Treas. of Receipt, vol. 174, f. 1–34; Misc. Bks., Aug. Off., vol. 414, f. 33–4. The first entry is “Rent of the tenants of the manor of Lewisham,” the second “Rental of the lordship of Lewisham.” The third “Rent of free tenants £17, 12s. 10-1/2d., Rent of tenants per dimissionem £72, 9s. 8-1/2d., Rents of tenants at will 9d.”
20. Cuddington, Surrey: R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Rolls 669 and 624, Aug. Off., Misc. Bks., vol. 414, f. 3–16. The first entry is “Rents belonging to the manor at the terms of Easter and Michaelmas,” i.e. it is for half a year only, and therefore I have ventured to double it. The second and third entries consist of the annual rent of all classes of tenants.
21. Isleworth, Middlesex: R.O. Mins. Accts., Gen. Ser., Bdle. 916, Nos. 11, 21, and 25. The figures at each date refer to the assized rent. At the two earlier dates the assized rent is given for all four quarters of the year. At the last date it is given only for the Michaelmas quarter. In order to make comparison possible, I have given the rents for the Michaelmas quarter throughout. The full entries for the two earlier dates are: 1314–15, £15, 5s. 6d. at Christmas, £17, 1s. 9-3/4d. at Easter, £15, 5s. 6d. at June 24, £21, 16s. 10d. at Michaelmas, works sold 22s. 1-1/2d; 1386–7, £14, 13s. at Christmas, £16, 19s. 7d. at Easter, £13, 13s. at June 24, £23, 3s. 10-1/2d. at Michaelmas, works sold 106s. 10d.
22. Wootton, Oxfordshire: R.O. Misc. Accts., Bdle. 962, No. 20; Bdle. 963, No. 14; Aug. Off., Misc. Bks., vol. 414, f. 38b. At the two earlier dates the figures given are the assized rents of free and bond tenants and cotarii, at the last date they are the rents of free and customary tenants. At that time there was also a rent of 30s. 8-1/2d. from assarts, and a rent of £13, 0s. 11d. from tenants by demission. I have omitted the last two items as there is nothing comparable to them in the earlier entries.
23. Speen, Berkshire: R.O. Mins. Accts., Gen. Ser., Bdle. 750, No. 22; Misc. Bks. Land Revenue, vol. 187, f. 97–101. At the earlier date the figures refer to the assized rents, at the later date to the rents of free tenants, customary tenants, and “firms.”
24. Schitlington, Bedfordshire: R.O. Mins. Accts., Gen. Ser., Bdle. 741, Nos. 16, 19, and 27. At the first date the figures refer to the assized rent, and include “Tallage of the vill £10.” At the second date they cover the same entries as at the first. At the last date they refer to the rent as it appears in the Rental. At this time there are certain additional entries, viz., “Firm of land £8, 5s. 0-1/4d., Firm of the manor £4, 15s. 4d., Increase of Rent [of a mill(?)] 13s. 4d., Increase of Rent of 1 messuage, 1 virgate with croft and meadow 13s. 7-1/2d." These I have omitted.
25. Cranfield, Bedfordshire: R.O. Mins. Accts., Gen. Ser., Bdle. 740, Nos. 18, and 25; Mins. Accts., Hen. VIII., No. 4. At the first two dates the figures include rents of free and native tenants and ferm of lands. At the last date the entry is “Rent of the vill, as by the rental, £72, 2s. 1-3/4d.”
26. Holywell, Huntingdonshire: R.O. Mins. Accts., Gen. Ser., Bdle. 877, No. 17, Bdle. 878, No. 1. At the first date the entries include rents assized, and certain miscellaneous items such as “Hewesilver," “Heringsilver,” “Brensilver”; at the later date “Rents assized of free and villein tenants £4, 19s. 8d., customary rent lately in works and in new rent £15, 6s. for 17 virgates paying 18s. each, £6, 15s., for 25 cotmen paying 9s. each, 6s. 8d. increment of rent.”
The suggestion that it might be of interest to try to discover how far rents were stationary over long periods came to me from reading the article by Maitland on “The History of a Cambridgeshire Manor" in E. H. R., vol. ix., where he points out that copyholders must have enjoyed a considerable unearned increment. The table of rents explained above is unsatisfactory, because of the difficulty of finding a basis for the comparison of payments at different periods. Thus at the earlier dates there are the tenants' works, and (occasionally) tallages to be considered; at the later the rent obtained from leasing the demense. The variety of the sources of manorial revenue makes it impossible to discover a common form to which the payments on all manors can be reduced. The ideal would be to take the villeins' payments and works in (say) the fourteenth century, and to compare them with the payments of the copyhold tenants in the sixteenth century. But since the commonest entry is simply “rents of assize,” which included the rents of freeholders as well as of customary tenants, this simple procedure is often impossible.
While the table given on pages 115–117 is certainly not what could be desired, I am inclined to think its inaccuracies do not lie in the direction of exaggerating the fixity of rents, but rather, if anything, in underestimating it, because (i) when a total rent is given for the fifteenth or sixteenth century, without further particulars, it probably often included the rent paid by the farmer of the demesne, which at the earlier period was non-existent, (ii) at the later period the total rent often included payments made for new encroachments in the waste. When this is evidently the case, as at Wootton, and the amount of the new payments is stated, I have omitted them, my object being to compare, when possible, the rents paid by customary tenants at different periods. But often it is not possible to make such an allowance, and therefore I am disposed to think that the figures for the later dates are more likely to be weighted with irrelevant items than are the figures for the earlier dates. This makes the comparatively slow increase in the rents of some manors all the more worthy of notice.
Table VIII ([p. 212])
1. Norfolk.
Massingham Priory (two farms, Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 24, No. 4, f. 46); Wymondham (Hen. VIII., R.O. Augm. Off., Misc. Bks. 408, f. 25); Marshams (Marham(?), Hen. VIII., Augm. Off., Misc. Bks. 408, f. 19); Thetford (Hen. VIII., Augm. Off., Misc. Bks. 408, f. 22); Bockenham (Hen. VIII., R.O. Augm. Off., Misc. Bks. 408, f. 9–10); Langley (Hen. VIII., R.O. Augm. Off., Misc. Bks. 399, f. 228–9); Walsingham (Hen. VIII., R.O. Augm. Off., Misc. Bks. 399, f. 201); Brisingham (31 Eliz., R.O. Misc. Bks. 220, f. 236); Farfield (31 Eliz., ibid.); Wighton (17 Eliz., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Duchy of Lanc, Bdle. 7, No. 34); Peakhall (1575, Holkham MSS., Tittleshall Bks., No. 12); West Lexham (1575, Holkham MSS., West Lexham MSS., No. 87); Foxley (1568, Holkham MSS., Billingford and Bintry MSS., Bdle. No. 9); Sparham (1590, Holkham MSS., Sparham MSS., Bdle. No. 5); Billingford (between 1564 and 1606, Holkham MSS., Billingford and Bintry MSS., Bdle. No. 9); Fulmordeston (1614, Holkham MSS., Map No. 59).
2. Wiltshire.
South Newton, Estoverton, Wynterbourne Basset, Byshopeston, Donnington, Knyghton, Domerham, Burdonsball, Foughlestone, Brudecomb, Westoverton, Sutton Maundeville, Stockton, Albedeston, Chalke, Bulbridge, Dichampton, Patney, Wyley, Berwick St. John, Remesbury, Staunton, Chilmerke (all 1565–73, Roxburgh Club, Surveys of Lands of William, First Earl of Pembroke).
3. Manors in other counties.
Ashton (Lancs., Hen. VIII., R.O. Rentals and Surveys, Gen. Ser., Portf. 19, No. 7, ff. 69–72); Prestwood (Staffs., R.O. Misc. Bks. Land Rev., vol. 185, ff. 155b-7); Gamlingay Merton (Cambridgeshire, 1601, Merton Estate Maps); Gamlingay Avenells (ibid.); Salford (Bedfordshire, 1595, All Souls Estate Maps); Weedon Weston (Northants, c. 1595, ibid.); Edgeware (Middlesex, 1597, All Souls Estate Maps); Kingsbury (Middlesex, 1597, ibid.); Greenham (Bucks, 1595, ibid.); Crendon (Bucks, c. 1595, ibid.); Harlesden Farm (Middlesex, 1599, ibid.); Land in the Parish of Hendon (Middlesex, c. 1599, ibid.); Whadborough (Leicestershire, 1620, ibid.).
The fact that this table is compiled from documents of different dates makes it impossible to use it as an index of the size of the large leasehold farms at any one period in the sixteenth century. Nor can I hope to have escaped errors of calculation. I hope, however, it may be of some use in illustrating the considerable scale on which some farms were conducted.
Tables IX, X, and XI (pp. [218], [225–226] and [227])
The farms from which these tables are compiled are included in the list given in explanation of Table VIII. (with one exception, Ewerne in Dorsetshire, Topographer and Genealogist, vol. i.), and it is therefore unnecessary to set them out in detail here. The figures as to arable, pasture, and meadow on the demesne of 41 monasteries are taken from Savine, “English Monasteries on the Eve of the Dissolution," Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, vol. i. p. 172.
[Table XIII] (p. [300])
This table is compiled from documents relating to the undermentioned manors. When the reference has already been given I do not repeat it here:—23 manors in Wilts, Somerset, and Devon, Roxburghe Club, Surveys of Lands of William, First Earl of Pembroke. West Lexham (Norfolk), Sparham (Norfolk), East Dereham (Norfolk), Wighton (Norfolk), Stockton Socon (Norfolk, 1649, R.O. Parly. Surveys, Norf. No. 14); Aldeburgh (Suffolk, Hen. VIII., R.O. Misc. Bks., Treas. of Receipt, vol. 163); St. Edmund (Suffolk, 1650, R.O. Parly. Surveys, Suff. No. 14); Dodnash (Suffolk, Hen. VIII., R.O. Misc. Bks., Treas. of Receipt, vol. 163, f. 79); Chatesham, Suffolk (Hen. VIII., R.O. Misc. Bks., Treas. of Receipt, vol. 163, f. 91); Falkenham (Suffolk, Hen. VIII., R.O. Treas. of Receipt, vol. 163, f. 181); Stratford juxta Higham (Suffolk), Mettingham (Suffolk, Victoria County History, chapter on Social and Economic History); Mark Soham (Suffolk, ibid.); Bushey (Herts, 7 Eliz., from Court Rolls lent me by the late Miss Toulmin Smith); Ewerne (Dorset, 1567, Topographer and Genealogist, vol. i.); Corton (Somerset, ibid.); Rolleston (Staffs., ibid.); Hewlington (Denbighshire, 4 Eliz., Wrexham Library, Ancient Local Records, vol. ii.); Holt (Denbighshire, ibid.); Wotton in Elishall (Staffs.); Burton Bondend (Staffs.); Agarsley (Staffs.); High Furness (Lancs., 28 Eliz., R.O. Duchy of Lancs., Special Commissions, No. 398); Crondal (Hants); Edgeware (Middlesex); Kingsbury (Middlesex); Malden (Surrey, Merton MSS., book labelled Malden, Thorncroft, and Farleigh); Thorncroft (Surrey, ibid.); Farleigh (Surrey, ibid.); 14 manors in Northumberland (Northumberland County History, vol. viii., p. 238); Bradford (Somerset, Selden Society, vol. xii., Leadam, Select Cases in the Court of Requests); Shepton Mallet, Somerset (Calendar of Proceedings in Chancery, temp. Eliz. H.h. i. 27); Newton Tracye (Devon, ibid., H.h. 23, 17); Chudlye (Devon, ibid., L.l. 8, 31); Powlton (Wilts, ibid., M.m. 13); Kibworth Harcourt (Leicestershire, Merton MSS., book containing extracts from Merton Court Rolls); Barkby (Leicestershire, ibid.).
Note.—(i) The names of the manors from which Dr. Savine takes his figures are not given. Consequently his information and mine may sometimes overlap, (ii) The MSS. book from which the customs of Farleigh, Thorncroft, and Malden are taken is dated 1841, but it purports to give customs based on ancient court rolls. The same applies to the information as to Kibworth Harcourt and Barkby.
GENERAL INDEX
- Abbeys, see Monasteries
- Act of Parliament, Enclosure by in 18th century, [183–184]
- Acts of Parliament—
- Statute of Merton, 1235, [87], [180], [248], [371–372]
- 15 Hen. VI. c. 2, sanctioning export of corn, [113],[197]
- 23 Hen. VI. c. 5, sanctioning export of corn, [113], [197]
- 3 Ed. IV. c. 2, restricting import of corn, [113], [197]
- 4 Hen. VII. c. 14, against depopulation, [11], [353]
- 6 Hen. VIII. c. 5, against depopulation, [353]
- 7 Hen. VIII. c. 1, against depopulation, [353]
- 25 Hen. VIII. c. 13, against depopulation, [354]
- 27 Hen. VIII. c. 25, for relieving impotent beggars, [269]
- 1 Ed. VI. c. 2, legalising enslavement of vagabonds, [44], [269]
- 2 and 3 Ed. VI. c. 12, giving good titles to Duke of Somerset’s tenants, [294], [365]
- 3 and 4 Ed. VI. c. 3, re-enacting Statute of Merton with amendments, [371–372]
- 5 and 6 Ed. VI. c. 5, against depopulation, [354]
- 2 and 3 Phil, and M. c. 2, against depopulation, [354]
- 5 Eliz. c. 2, Statute of Artificers, [23], [45], [100], [353]
- 14 Eliz. c. 5, directing compulsory assessment for relief of poor, [269]
- 18 Eliz. c. 3, directing provision of materials for setting unemployed to work, [269]
- 31 Eliz. c. 7, requiring cottages to be let with 4 acres of land attached, [277], [354]
- 35 Eliz. c. 7, against depopulation, but repeating clauses in previous Acts forbidding conversion to pasture, [354]
- 39 Eliz. c. 1, against depopulation, [354–355]
- 39 Eliz. c. 2, against depopulation, [354–355]
- 4 Jac. I. c. 11, for enclosure of certain parishes in Herefordshire, [395]
- 21 Jac. I. c. 28, continuing certain Acts and repealing others, [355]
- Administration—
- Administrative Courts, see Council, Courts
- Administrative interference—
- Admission fines, see Fines
- Agrarian changes, the—
- causes of, [6–7], [12–13], [185–200]
- contemporary accounts of, [6–8]
- general effect of, [403–404]
- localities most affected by, [153–154], [182], [262], [405]
- of fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, [11–12], [11–12], [136–147], [161–162]
- of sixteenth century, [6–8], [147–173], [213–230], [301–310]
- of eighteenth century, [34], [183–184], [406]
- part played by capitalist farmers in, [200–202], [213–266]
- part played by peasants in, [136–173]
- reaction of on peasantry, [7–8], [231–280]
- resistance of peasants to, [302–304], [317–340]
- See also Agriculture, Enclosure, Land, Pasture
- Agriculture—
- capitalist, [6–7], [200–204], [210–230]
- cattle, importance of to, [113–115], [239–242]
- changes in methods of, see Agrarian changes
- commercial development, effect of on, [185–188], [195–197]
- common rights, importance of to, [238–242]
- communal elements in, [128–131], [159–161], [205–207], [243–246]
- corn growing, part played by in, [105–112]
- corn laws, effect of on, [112–113], [197]
- custom, effect of on, [75–78], [124–131], [292–301]
- enclosure by peasants, effect of on, [152–153], [158], [169–173]
- enclosure by manorial authorities, effect of on, [216–223]
- farmer of demesne, part played by in, [201–204], [210–230]
- for market, [214–216]
- for subsistence, [111–112]
- improvements in, [110–111], [170–172]
- markets, effect of on, [196–197], [214–215]
- mediæval, not incompatible with change, [75–97], [172], [404–405]
- methods of—
- in Cornwall, [262], [405]
- " Devonshire, [167], [262], [405]
- " Essex, [167], [262], [405]
- " Kent, [167], [262], [405]
- " Lancashire, [63], [65]
- " Midlands, [65], [167], [192]
- " Norfolk, [63], [65], [405]
- " Northumberland, [63], [65], [189–192]
- " Suffolk, [63], [262]
- " Somerset, [110–111], [171], [262], [405]
- " Staffordshire, [63], [65]
- " Wiltshire, [63], [65], [212]
- on demesne farms, [200–230]
- " monastic estates, [382–383]
- " peasants' holdings, [105–115]
- open field system of, see Open field system
- pasture farming instead of, see Pasture
- rise in prices, effects of on, [197–200], [304–310]
- social importance of, [341–347]
- speculation, effects of on, [381–383]
- views as to, of Clarkson, [5], [189–190]
- " " Fitzherbert, [5], [109], [112], [117–118], [150], [151–152], [242]
- " " Norden, [5], [108], [110–111], [118], [150], [151], [171], [308]
- woollen industry, effects of on, [6], [195–197]
- Alien, see Immigration
- Apprenticeship, effect of on marriage, [104–106]
- Arable land—
- backbone of peasants' livelihood, [105–108]
- common rights, necessary for cultivation of, [239–242]
- conversion of to pasture, [223–230], [232–233], [258]
- corn yielded by acre of, [110–111]
- enclosure of for better cultivation by large farmers, [10], [221–224]
- enclosure of for better cultivation by peasants, [151–153], [162–164]
- estimated number of persons maintained by holding of, [261]
- proportion of to pasture and meadow in Staffordshire, [392–393]
- proportion of to pasture and meadow on demesne farms, [225–228]
- proportion of to pasture and meadow on peasants' holdings, [107]
- reconversion of pasture to—
- Aristocracy—
- acquisition of monastic estates by some of the, [380–384]
- attack of on Somerset’s land policy, [367–368], [370–372]
- contrast between mediæval and that of sixteenth century, [191–194]
- growth of commerce, effect of, on the, [187–188], [191–194]
- Harrington’s account of social changes in the, [38], [191]
- landholding peasants not an, [100–102]
- part played by in Pilgrimage of Grace, [322–324]
- relations of to tenants in North and South contrasted, [188–191]
- Tudor policy, effect of on powers of the, [188–195]
- unpopularity of administrative Courts with the. [397–400]
- See also Index of Persons, Bath, Brudenell, Darcy, Derby, Englefield, Harrington, Herbert, St. John, Shrewsbury, Saye and Sele, Somerset, Warwick, Willoughby, Wolsey, Yorke, Leicester, Northumberland.
- Assize—
- Authorities—
- manorial, see Manorial authorities, the
- Authority—
- Barton land, division of among peasants, [95]
- Black Death, see Great Plague
- Bodger, the, [349]
- Bondage, see Villeinage
- Bondman, see Villeinage
- Bord land, [95]
- Border—
- Border tenure—
- Bovate, see Virgate
- Canon Law, the, as to usury, [307]
- Capital—
- Capitalists—
- Catholic—
- Cattle, see Agriculture, Beasts, Common Land
- Chancery, see Court
- Chevage, [53]
- Childwite, still paid in seventeenth century, [54]
- Classes of landholders, see Peasants
- Combinations—
- Commerce—
- attention given by Tudor governments to, [185–186], [197]
- backwardness of in North, [190]
- effect of in breaking down equality of peasants' holdings, [66], [84–85]
- engaged in by aristocracy, [187–188]
- expansion of in fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, [185–186], [196]
- influence of on social conditions and land tenure, [187–188], [196–197]
- Commission of sewers, [395]
- Commissions, Royal—
- activity of Hales in connection with, [167], [366–368], [371]
- " " Laud in connection with, [399], [420–421]
- " " Somerset in connection with, [362–370]
- anger of landlords at, [367–368], [370]
- appointment of on enclosure and depopulation in 1517, [261], [359]
- " " " " 1548, [261], [366]
- " " " " 1566, [261]
- " " " " 1607, [261], [375]
- " " " " 1632, [261], [376]
- " " " " 1635, [261], [376]
- " " " " 1636, [261], [376]
- causes of appointment of, [358]
- counties visited by, [366]
- disappointment of peasants with, [319], [366]
- effects of in checking depopulation, [391–393], [419–420]
- evidence before, how collected, [263], [366–367]
- " " interpretation of, [263–265]
- fines imposed by, [391], [419–420]
- fiscal motives for, under Charles I., [391]
- statistics derived from, as to average area of enclosures, [154–155]
- " " " " acreage enclosed, value of, [262–265]
- " " " " population displaced, value of, [262–265]
- Commons—
- Commons, House of, see Parliament
- Common field system, see Open field system
- Common Land—
- administration of, by Manorial Courts, [159–162], [244–246]
- " " at Burnham, [245]
- " " " Southampton, [245–246]
- " " " Wootton Basset, [251–252]
- beasts kept on by peasants, [113–114]
- colonising of by evicted tenants, [277–279]
- demands of Norfolk rebels as to, [335–336]
- division of by peasants, [157]
- enclosure of by peasants, [157], [169–170]
- " " manorial authorities, [219–221]
- " " Johnson on unimportance of, [9]
- importance of, reasons for, [239–242]
- " " Clarkson on, [189]
- " " Fitzherbert on, [242]
- " " Hales on, [4], [239–240]
- " " Hamberstone on, [240], [241]
- improvement of by capitalists, [394–395]
- monopolising of by large farmer, [220–221], [242–243]
- overstocking of, [170–172], [242–243]
- sale of at Burnham, [245]
- stinting of, [160], [241]
- view taken in seventeenth century as to, [394–396]
- See also Common, Bights of, Meadow land, Pasture, Waste
- Common Law—
- complaints of landlords as to interference of government with, [397–398]
- complaints of Long Parliament as to interference of government with, [399]
- doctrine of as to Rights of Common, [246–250]
- ineffective remedy offered to customary tenants by, [358], [400]
- protection of copyholders by, [289], [291], [296]
- tenants at will at, [289]
- Common meadow, see Meadow land
- Common pastures, see Pasture
- Common waste, see Waste
- Common, rights of—
- Bracton on, [247]
- Coke on, [248]
- communal element in, [244–246]
- compensation for loss of, [243]
- copyholders' remedy for loss of, [248–249], [287–301]
- cottagers' claim to, [247]
- difficulty of poor in enforcing, [252–253]
- dispute as to at Coventry, [250–251]
- " " " Wootton Basset, [251–253]
- Fitzherbert on, [249]
- freeholders' remedy for loss of, [248–249]
- legal theory as to common appendant, [247]
- " " " " appurtenant, [247]
- " " " " in gross, [247]
- " " " " par cause de vicinage, [247]
- Maitland on, [244]
- peasants' view of, [243–246]
- not conferred by residence, [247]
- tenements attached to, [247]
- sicut quantitatem tenuræ , [241]
- Vinogradoff on, [244]
- See Common Land, Copyholders, Meadow land, Pasture, Waste
- Communism—
- Community, the village, see Manor
- Commutation, see Labour services
- Competitive rents, see Rents
- Consolidation of holdings, see Holdings
- Conversion to pasture, see Pasture
- Copyholders—
- act to give security to, on Somerset’s demesne lands, [294], [365]
- attitude of, to State, [122–124]
- cases as to, [296]
- compelled to surrender copies for leases, [301–304]
- customs affecting, at Aldeburgh, [411–412]
- customs affecting, at Bushey, [126–127]
- dependence of on custom of manor, [124–131], [292–301]
- effect on of fall in value of money, [304–310]
- fines paid by, [305–307]
- labour services rendered by, [52–53]
- marks of personal villeinage among, [53–54]
- on new land, [289–290], [293–294]
- preponderance of over other classes shown by statistics, [25], [48]
- rights of common enjoyed by, [248–258]
- rents of fixed by custom, [115–121]
- surplus enjoyed by, [119–121]
- subletting of land by, [81]
- tenure of, changes in, in sixteenth century, [1–2], [310–311]
- " definition of, [47]
- " demands of rebels as to, [334–337]
- " duration of, statistics as to, [300]
- " fines incidental to, certain or uncertain, statistics as to, [300]
- " origin in villein tenure, [50]
- " definition of, [47]
- " demands of rebels as to, [334–337]
- " duration of, statistics as to, [300]
- " fines incidental to, certain or uncertain, statistics as to, [300]
- " origin in villein tenure, [50]
- " protected by custom of manor, [129–131], [292–297]
- " " " Court of Chancery, [289], [291–292], [294–295], [398]
- " " " Courts of Common Law, [289], [291], [294–295]
- " " " Court of Requests, [362], [367], [397]
- " " " Court of Star Chamber, [360]
- " " " Council, [296], [359], [373–374], [397]
- " theories as to, of Ashley, [290–292]
- " " " Coke, [289], [299]
- " " " Fitzherbert, [288–289]
- " " " Kitchin, [289]
- " " " Leadam, [289–290]
- " " " Norden, [47]
- " " " Savine, [287], [292], [297], [300]
- See also Customary tenants, Manor
- Corn—
- Corn-growing—
- backbone of peasants' livelihood, [105–112]
- commercial policy towards, [112–113], [197]
- conditions making profitable, [110–113]
- in Norfolk, [111–112]
- pastures broken up for at Coventry, [20]
- proposals for encouragement of, [416–417]
- unemployment caused by abandonment of, [232–233]
- wastes to be reclaimed for, [394–395]
- Corn laws, see Corn
- Cottagers—
- Council—
- Agrarian policy of under Charles I., [391], [399]
- attack on Somerset by, [370], [380]
- grantees of monastic estates members of, [380]
- intervention of to protect peasants, [357–359], [361–362], [372–376], [391], [399]
- of the North, [355], [374], [398]
- of Wales, [355], [373]
- returns made by Justices to, [356], [375–376], [386], [419–420]
- Court of Chancery—
- Court of Manor—
- Court of Requests—
- cases before as to copyholds, [362]
- " " " fold-courses, [374], [397]
- " " " rack-renting, [285], [390]
- " " " villeinage, [42]
- constitution of, [357]
- Hall on, [357]
- popularity of with poorer classes, [357]
- powers of curtailed by prohibitions, [399]
- Somerset’s use of, [367]
- unpopularity of with landlords, [397–398]
- Court of Star Chamber—
- Court Leet—
- Court Rolls—
- Courts of Common Law, see Common Law.
- Cultivation, see Agriculture
- Cultivators, see Peasants
- Crown, the, see Council, Court, and Index of Persons
- Crown tenants—
- Custom of the Manor, the, see Copyholders, Manor
- Customary Court, see Court of Manor
- Dairy farming, [215]
- Day work of copyholders, [52–53]
- Demesne land—
- absent from some northern manors, [203]
- acreage of farms on, [212–213]
- added to peasants' holdings, [93–95], [204–209]
- changes in use of after Great Plague, [93–95], [204–209]
- conversion to pasture of, [223–228]
- customary routine of agriculture on, [217], [228–229]
- difficulty of discriminating between peasants' land and, [95]
- effect of division of among peasants, [91–93]
- foundation of large farm in sixteenth century, [202–203]
- gradual consolidation of, [221–223], [254–256]
- insecurity of copyholders on, [289], [293–294]
- leased to capitalist farmer, [210–212]
- leased to smallholders, [94–95], [204–205]
- leased to village community, [205–207]
- lying in compact blocks, [221–223], [254–256]
- lying in scattered strips, [221–222]
- peasants' land merged in, [257–258]
- progress of enclosure on, [216–223]
- proportion of manorial area formed by, [259]
- rents paid for, [256]
- rights of common over, [234]
- statistics as to use of, [225–226]
- unemployment caused by enclosure of, [232–233]
- Depopulation—
- Commissions of Inquiry into, see Commissions
- counties most affected by, [8–9], [153–154], [262–263], [404–405]
- contemporary accounts of, [6–8]
- effect of on pauperism, see Poor Law
- individual instances of, [257], [260–261]
- proposals for checking, [416–417]
- statistics of Royal Commissions as to, [261–265]
- Statutes against, see Acts of Parliament
- views of Gay as to exaggerated accounts of, [10–11], [263–265]
- Dissolution of monasteries, see Monasteries
- Domesday of Enclosures—
- Economic rent, see Rent, Copyholders
- Education obtained by some peasants, [134–135]
- Enclosure—
- by agreement, between individuals, [162–165]
- " " better cultivation produced by, [169–172]
- " " early progress of in East and South-West, [167–168], [405]
- " " Fitzherbert on, [150], [152–153], [171]
- " " Hales on, [151], 167, [171]
- " " Lee on, [151]
- " " Moore on, [167]
- " " Norden on, [150], 151, [171]
- " " no harm resulting from, [152–153], [172–173]
- " " of arable land, [157],162–165
- " " of meadow and pasture, [157], [161–162]
- " " of whole village, [156–158]
- " " opposed by Court of Manor, [159–162]
- " " peasants' approval of, [168–170]
- by manorial authorities, attitude of Government to, see Acts, Council, Court
- " " " " counties most affected by, [8–9], [182], [262–263]
- " " " " in Middle Ages, [180–182]
- " " " " motives for, [185–200]
- " " " " of arable land, [221–223]
- " " " " of eighteenth century, [183–184]
- " " " " of meadow and pasture, [219–221]
- " " " " of peasants' holdings, [150–173]
- " " " " peasants' dislike of, [147–150]
- " " " " preceded by consolidation, [222–223]
- " " " " reaction of on peasants, [231–280]
- Equality—
- Escheats of freehold land unascertainable, [30]
- Eviction—
- Exchange, the, [186–187]
- Exports of woollen piece goods, [196–197]
- " " corn, see Corn
- Farm, see Demesne, Farmers
- Farmers—
- acreage occupied by large, [212]
- advantage to lord of letting land to large, [213–216]
- agents through whom agrarian change took place, [201–202]
- capitalists among, [215–216]
- consolidation of strips by, [221–223], [254–256]
- conversion to pasture by, [225–228]
- demesnes leased to large, [209–211]
- disputes between peasants and, [234–237]
- economic conditions favouring, [214–216]
- enclosing practised by, of arable land, [221–223]
- " " " common meadow and pasture, [219–221]
- importance in sixteenth century of large, [204]
- manorial rights leased to, [211]
- peasant subtenants of, [211]
- soldiers recruited from, [343–344]
- subsidies collected from, [344–347], [415], [418]
- Feudal—
- Final concords in Staffordshire, [392–393]
- Financial, see Fiscal
- Fines—
- for depopulation, [391], [419–421]
- of copyholders, customs as to, [127], [295–301], [411–412], [413–415]
- " " declared unreasonable by courts, [296]
- " " demand for reasonable, [294], 307, [335–336]
- " " rise in prices, effect of on, [308–309]
- " " statistical analysis of, [300]
- " " upward movement in, [305–310]
- of freeholders, [127]
- Fiscal reasons for protecting peasants, [344–347]
- Fold-courses, cases as to, [374], 395
- Freedom, growth of personal, see Villeinage
- Freeholds—
- interference of Council with, [399]
- See also Freeholders
- Freeholders—
- enclosing by, [32–33], [157–158], [236]
- eviction of in fifteenth century, [37]
- holdings of, statistics as to, [32–33]
- independence of, [30], [35–38]
- large numbers of in Norfolk and Suffolk, [24–27]
- little affected by agrarian changes, [28–29], [134], [406]
- loss of rights of common by, [250–253]
- political interests of, [121–122]
- rents of, [29–30]
- rights of common of, how protected, [247–249]
- social importance of, [34–37]
- suits of Court due from, [29]
- statistics as to, [25]
- upward movement among in sixteenth century, [37–40]
- See also Yeomen
- Gentlemen—
- Geographical distribution of enclosures, see Enclosures
- Gilds—
- Government, the, see Acts of Parliament, Council, Court
- Grazier, see Pasture
- Great Plague—
- Half-virgate, see Virgates
- Hallmote tenants, land sublet to, [81]
- Hedges, see Enclosure
- Holdings—
- added to demesne farm, [257–258]
- addition to, of demesne land, [93–95]
- " " of waste, [87–89]
- enclosing of, see Enclosure
- equality of, in North, [63–66], [189]
- exchanging of, [164–165], [395–396]
- formation of compact, [162–165]
- growth in size of, [70]
- held by same family for many years, [189]
- inequality of in South and East, [63–66], [70–72]
- of customary tenants, statistics as to, [63–66]
- " " freeholders, [32–33]
- " " land, basis of economic life of village, [99–104]
- rents of, on customary land, [115–119], [141–147]
- " " on new encroachments, [141–147]
- services due from, [76–77]
- subdivision of, [79–80]
- subletting of, [80–81]
- use made of by peasants, [105–108]
- See also Agriculture, Farmers
- Horse and harness, tenure by, see Border tenure
- Hospitality, meaning of, [233]
- Households, equipment of with land, see Holdings
- Husbandry, see Agriculture
- Immigration—
- Imports, see Commerce
- Import duties, see Corn
- Indenture, tenants by, see Leaseholders
- Industry—
- Inequality—
- Judges—
- Juries—
- Justices—
- of Assize, cases referred to, [373–376]
- " " action taken by, [374–376]
- of the Peace, actions taken by against depopulation in Lincolnshire, [386], [419–420]
- of the Peace, actions taken by against depopulation in Nottinghamshire, [386], [418–419]
- of the Peace, assessment of enclosed land by in Warwickshire, [169]
- " " failure of to administer Acts against depopulation, [384–385], [390]
- of the Peace, letters of Council to, [358], [376]
- " " orders of as to relief of poor in Cornwall, [272]
- " " presentments before of enclosers in Yorkshire, [375]
- " " returns sent to Government by, [386]
- " " social prejudices of, [384–385]
- " " views of as to enclosing in Nottinghamshire, [418–449]
- Kind, rent paid in, [211–212]
- King, see Council, Court, and Index of Persons
- Knight service, tenure by, [29]
- Labour, see Labourers
- Labourers—
- assessment of wages of, [23], [100], [308]
- at Axholme, [104]
- commons used by, [247]
- effect of enclosing on habits of, [106]
- immobility of, [270–272]
- immigration to towns of, [275–277]
- in Norfolk, [21–22]
- " Worcestershire, [23]
- " Yorkshire, [22]
- King’s estimate of number of, [21]
- on monastic estates, [22]
- scarcity of, [100]
- social unimportance of, [342]
- unemployment of, [232–233]
- Land—
- Landholders, see Peasants
- Landless population, see Labourers
- Landlords, see Manorial authorities
- Land tenure, see Copyholders, Freeholders, Leaseholders
- Leasehold tenure—
- Leaseholders—
- Leyrwite, [53]
- Lords of manors, see Manorial authorities
- Manor, the—
- agricultural routine of, [102]
- changes in, produced by Great Plague, [88–95], [207–209]
- classification of tenants on, [25], [48]
- communism in, [159–161], [243–246], [338]
- copyholders kernel of, [288]
- court of, [47], [78–79], [86], [125], [159–160], [244–246], [292]
- custom of, [47], [124–131], [292–301]
- customs of, at Aldeburgh, [411–412]
- " " Bushey, [126–128]
- " " High Furness, [101]
- fiscal interests of lord in, [76–77]
- interpretation of documents relating to, [75–78]
- leased in sixteenth century, [201–213]
- part played in by authority and communal arrangements, [92–93]
- rigidity of exaggerated, [76], [89–90], [172]
- views of held by Maitland, [244], [305], [433]
- " " " Seebohm, [163]
- " " " Vinogradoff, [77], [92], [244], [290]
- unprofitableness of to lord, [304]
- Manorial authorities, the—
- bargains made by with villagers, [205–207]
- bound by custom, [128–129]
- contemporary accounts of action of, [6–8]
- effect on of Tudor policy, [191], [197]
- " " rise in prices, [195–196]
- " " growth of woollen industry, [197–200]
- enclosing by, see Enclosures
- eviction by, see Eviction
- identity of interests of peasants with those of, [229], [257]
- large enclosures made by, [148–150], [154–155], [216–223]
- leasing of demesne by, see Demesne, Leasehold tenure
- opposition of to interference of Government, [397–399]
- " " " Somerset’s policy, [367–368], [370]
- pasture-farming by, see Pasture
- permission to enclose given by, [157]
- petitions of copyholders to, [302–304]
- rack-renting by, [141–147], [285]
- resumption of land by, [285–287]
- small control of over freeholders, [29–30]
- speculation in land by, [381–382]
- villeins claimed by, [42–43]
- Map—
- Marriage, age of, [104–106]
- Meadow land—
- Merchants, see Commerce
- Merchet, immunity from claimed by peasants, [53–54]
- Middleman, the farmer a, [234]
- Midlands—
- Mobility of labour checked by law, [270–272]
- Monasteries—
- agriculture on estates of, [225]
- demesne lands of leased, [203]
- oppression of tenants by, [43], [382]
- pasture-farming on estates of, [225], [382]
- persons acquiring estates of, [380]
- political effects of dissolution of, [383–384]
- rebellions partly motived by, [318–319], [322–323]
- social effects of dissolution of, [380–384]
- views of Aske on dissolution of, [319], [383]
- " " Cobbett on dissolution of, [382]
- " " Hibbert on dissolution of, [383]
- " " Gasquet on dissolution of, [383]
- Money—
- “Nativi,” see Villeinage
- New allotments—
- North of England—
- absence of demesne from some manors in, [203]
- administration of Acts against depopulation in, [374–375]
- copyhold tenure in, [190–191]
- customary of a manor in, [101]
- demands of rebels in, [335–336], see also Pilgrimage of Grace
- economic conservatism of, [63–66], [189–191]
- enclosing by peasants in, [157–158]
- equality of holdings in, [63–66], [189]
- eviction from a manor in, [257–258]
- importance of numerous tenantry in, [189–191]
- labour services on a manor in, [52–53]
- preponderance of customary tenants in, [25–26]
- rebellions in, see Pilgrimage of Grace
- relations between lords and tenants in, [189–191]
- size of enclosures in, [154]
- undermining of customary tenures in, [303–305]
- Open field system, the—
- advantage of, to peasants, [103–104]
- arrangement of demesne land under, [222–223], [254–256]
- early decay of in Kent, Essex, and Devonshire, [167], [202–263], [405]
- gradual modification of by peasants, [165–166], [172]
- ideas underlying, [169–170]
- inconvenience of, [171–172]
- picture of in maps, [163–164], [222–223]
- prevalence of in seventeenth century, [401–402]
- uncertainty of boundaries under, [235–236]
- See also Common Land, Enclosures, Maps, Strips
- Pannage paid by copyholders in sixteenth century, [53]
- Parliament—
- Act of to fix fines demanded, [335]
- Acts of, ineffectiveness of, [352–353], [355]
- attitude of freeholders to, [36], [39], [121–122]
- debates in on Enclosures, [343], [387–388]
- " " Poor Law, [273–275]
- " " subsidies, [345–346]
- petition of peasants to, [251]
- request to return member to refused, [387]
- See also Acts of Parliament
- Pasture—
- acreage of held by customary tenants, [107]
- " " " farmers of demesnes, [225–226]
- " " on monastic estates, [225]
- administration of by village, [102], [159–161], [243–246]
- apportionment of to arable holdings, [240–241], [247]
- conversion of arable to, [223–230]
- division of by peasants, [157]
- enclosure of by peasants, [157], [170]
- " " manorial authorities, [219–221]
- importance of to peasants, [235], [239–242]
- reconversion of to arable, [367], [391–393]
- See also Agriculture, Common Land, Farmers
- Pasture-farming, see Agriculture, Common Land, Farmers, Pasture
- Pauperism, see Poor Law
- Peasants, the—
- agricultural methods of, [105–112]
- contemporary pictures of, [132–134]
- demands of, [334–337]
- education of, [134–135]
- effect of loss of common rights on, [240–241], [253]
- enclosure by, [151–173]
- encroachments on waste by, [87–89], [284–287]
- eviction of, [253–265]
- helplessness of, [302–304], [325]
- importance of, fiscal, [344–347]
- " " military, [343–344]
- independence of, [29–30], [34–39], [132–134], [325–328]
- leasing of demesne by, [94–95], [204–210]
- national pride in, [20–21],132–134
- pauperism among, [270], [273–279]
- prosperity of, [132–134], [325]
- protection of by Government, [316–317], [351–400]
- rebellions of, [317–340]
- rents of, [115–121], [141–147]
- size of holdings of, [32–33], [64–65]
- upward movement among, [72], [75], [81–84], [96–98], [136]
- See also Agriculture, Copyholders, Freeholders, Leaseholders, Tenants at will
- Pilgrimage of Grace—
- Plague, see Great Plague, the
- Plantations, emigration to suggested, [270]
- Ploughmen, military importance of, [343–344]
- Policy, agrarian, see Council, Court, Acts of Parliament
- Poor Law, the—
- Population, checks upon, [104–106]
- Population, the manorial, see Peasants, Copyholders, Leaseholders, Freeholders
- Poverty, see Poor Law
- Prices—
- Proletariat, peasants not a, [102]
- Protector, the—
- Act protecting tenants on demesne lands of, [294], [365]
- attack of colleagues on, [367–368], [370]
- Court of Requests used by, [367]
- difficulties of agrarian policy of, [362–364]
- fall of, [370]
- proclamation against enclosures issued by, [367]
- " pardoning rioters issued by, [367]
- Royal Commission appointed by, [366]
- See also Council, Court
- Rackrents, see Rents, Fines
- Reformation, the 339, [380–384]
- Rents—
- competitive, growth of, [139–147]
- fixed, demand for in Peasants' Revolt, [146]
- " effect of on landlords, [199–200], [304–310]
- " " " peasants, [117–121]
- " neutralised by exorbitant fines, [118], [120], [305–307]
- " statistics as to, [115–117]
- fixing of by commissioners, [354]
- " " council, [369]
- paid in kind, [211]
- per acre of demesne land, [256]
- racking of, complaints as to, [235], [414]
- reasonable, demand for, [336]
- Revolts, agrarian, the—
- conservative aims of, [333], [338–340]
- counties affected by, [318–320]
- directed against landlords, [323–324]
- in North of England, [318], [322–324]
- " Derbyshire, [329]
- " Norfolk, [324], [331–333]
- objects of, [333–337]
- organised character of, [325–326], [330–332]
- political importance of, [329], [340–341]
- sixteenth century, last age of, [318]
- Riots, agrarian, see Revolts
- Royal Commissions, see Commissions
- Salt silver, paid by copyholders, [53]
- Serf, see Villeins
- Service, see Knight service
- Services, labour, see Labour services
- Sewers, the Commission of, [395]
- Shack, common of, [234]
- Sheep-farming—
- Sochemanni, large number of in East Anglia, [26–27]
- South of England—
- Statutes, see Acts of Parliament
- Strips—
- Subletting of land by peasants, [80–81]
- Subsidiary income of peasants from woollen industry, [114–115]
- Subsidies—
- Subsistence, farming for, [111–112]
- Sub-tenants, taking of forbidden, [275–276]
- Surveyors—
- Tallages, [53–54]
- Taxation, see Subsidies
- Tenants, see Copyholders, Freeholders, Leaseholders, Tenants at will, Peasants
- Tenants at will—
- Textile industries, the, see Woollen industry, the
- Tillage, see Arable land
- Trade, see Commerce
- Tramps, see Vagrancy
- Transferring, the, of land—
- Tudors, the, see Index of Persons, Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Elizabeth
- Uses, Statute of, [323]
- Vagrancy, chief feature of pauperism in sixteenth century, [268]
- Village community, the, see Manor, the
- Villagers, see Peasants
- Villeinage—
- Virgates—
- Virgators, see Virgates
- Wage labour, see Labourers
- Waste land of manor—
- enclosure of by manorial authorities, [219–221]
- encroachments on, [87–89], [285–287]
- erection of cottages on, [277–278]
- great extent of, [88–89]
- improvement of under Statute of Merton, [87], [248]
- insecurity of tenants on, [285–287]
- overstocking of, [172], [242–243]
- reclamation of by capitalists, [394–395]
- rents of, [140–147]
- stinting of, [160], [220]
- Wool, see Woollen industry
- Woollen industry—
- Yeomen—
- accounts of by Bacon, [28]
- " " Coke, [133]
- " " Fuller, [36–37]
- " " Harrison, [132]
- " " Latimer, [134]
- " " Reyce, [40]
- " " Smith, [28]
- education of children of, [134–135]
- forcible disseisin of, [37]
- legal definition of, [27–28]
- importance of, fiscal, [344–347]
- " " military, [343–344]
- " " social, [34–40], [132]
- national pride in, [20–21]
- See also Freeholders, Peasants