In King Alfred's will[154] estates in the south-east of England, including the villages upon them, which by Norman scribes would have been called manors, are described as hams (the ham at such a place). In the old English version of the will given in the 'Liber de Hyda' [155] the word 'twune' is used to translate 'ham,' and in the Latin version the word 'villa.' [156]
Parable of the prodigal son.
In the Saxon translation of the parable of the prodigal son, the country estate of the citizen—the 'burh-sittenden man'—to which the prodigal was sent to feed swine, and where he starved upon the 'bean-cods' that the swine did eat, was the citizen's 'tune.' [157]
So that the 'hams' and 'tuns' of Saxon times were in fact commonly private estates with villages upon them, i.e. manors.
Grants of whole manors.
This fact is fully borne out by the series of Saxon [p128] charters from first to last. They generally, as already said, contain grants of whole manors in this sense, including the villages upon them, with all the village fields, pastures, meadows, &c., embraced within the boundaries given. And these boundaries are the boundaries of the whole village or township—i.e. of the whole estate.
Saxon words.
Further, a careful examination of Anglo-Saxon documents will show that the Saxon manors, not only at the time of Edward the Confessor, as shown by the Domesday Survey, but also long previously, were divided into the land of the lord's demesne and the land in villenage, though the Norman phraseology was not yet used. The lord of the manor was a thane or 'hlaford.' The demesne land was the thane's inland. All classes of villeins were called geneats. The land in villenage was the geneat-land, or the gesettes-land, or sometimes the gafol-land. And further, this geneat-, or gesettes-, or gafol-land was composed, like the later land in villenage, of hides and yard-lands, whilst the villein tenants of it, as in the Domesday Survey, were divided mainly into two classes: (1) the geburs (villani proper), or holders of yard-lands; and (2) the cottiers with their smaller holdings. Beneath these two classes of holders of geneat land were the theows or slaves, answering to the servi of the Survey. Lastly, there is clear evidence that this was so as early as the date of the laws of King Ine, which claim to represent the customs of the seventh century.
To the proof of these points attention must now be directed. [p129]