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

by Frederic Seebohm

The Hermitage, Hitchin:

May, 1883

CONTENTS.

• CHAPTER I. THE ENGLISH OPEN-FIELD SYSTEM EXAMINED IN ITS MODERN REMAINS.
  • 1. The distinctive marks of the open-field system [1]
  • 2. Scattered and intermixed ownership in the open fields [7]
  • 3. The open fields were the common fields of a village community or township under a manor [8]
  • 4. The wide prevalence of the system through Great Britain [13]
• CHAPTER II. THE ENGLISH OPEN-FIELD SYSTEM TRACED BACK TO THE DOMESDAY SURVEY—IT IS THE SHELL OF SERFDOM—THE MANOR WITH A VILLAGE COMMUNITY IN VILLENAGE UPON IT.
  • 1. The identity of the system with that of the Middle Ages [17]
  • 2. The Winslow Manor Rolls of the reign of Edward III.—example of a virgate or yard-land [22]
  • 3. The Hundred Rolls of Edward I. embracing five Midland Counties [32]
  • 4. The Hundred Rolls (continued).—Relation of the virgate to the hide and carucate [36]
  • 5. The Hundred Rolls (continued).—The services of the villein tenants [40]
  • 6. Description in Fleta of a manor in the time of Edward I. [45]
  • 7. S.E. of England—The hide and virgate under other names (the records of Battle Abbey and St. Paul's) [49]
  • 8. The relation of the virgate to the hide traced in the cartularies of Gloucester and Worcester Abbeys, and the custumal of Bleadon in Somersetshire [55]
  • 9. Cartularies of Newminster and Kelso, thirteenth century—The connexion of the holdings with the common plough team of eight oxen [60]
  • 10. The Boldon Book, A.D. 1183 [68]
  • 11. The 'Liber Niger' of Peterborough Abbey, A.D. 1125 [72]
  • 12. Summary of the post-Domesday evidence [76]
• CHAPTER III. THE DOMESDAY SURVEY (A.D. 1086).
  • 1. There were manors everywhere [82]
  • 2. The division of the manor into lord's demesne and land in villenage [84]
  • 3. The free tenants on the lord's demesne [86]
  • 4. The classes of tenants in villenage [89]
  • 5. The villani were holders of virgates, &c. [91]
  • 6. The holdings of the bordarii or cottiers [95]
  • 7. The Domesday survey of the Villa of Westminster [97]
  • 8. The extent of the cultivated land of England, and how much was included in the yard-lands of the villani [101]
• CHAPTER IV. THE OPEN-FIELD SYSTEM TRACED IN SAXON TIMES—THE SCATTERING OF THE STRIPS ORIGINATED IN THE METHODS OF CO-ARATION.
  • 1. The village fields under Saxon rule were open fields [105]
  • 2. The holdings were composed of scattered strips [110]
  • 3. The open-field system of co-aration described in the ancient laws of Wales [117]
• CHAPTER V. MANORS AND SERFDOM UNDER SAXON RULE.
  • 1. The Saxon 'hams' and 'tuns' were manors with village communities in serfdom upon them [126]
  • 2. The 'Rectitudines Singularum Personarum' [129]
  • 3. The thane and his services [134]
  • 4. The geneats and their services [137]
  • 5. The double and ancient character of the services of the gebur—Gafol and week-work [142]
  • 6. Serfdom on a manor of King Edwy [148]
  • 7. Serfdom on a manor of King Alfred [160]
  • 8. The theows or slaves on the lord's demesne [164]
  • 9. The creation of new manors [166]
  • 10. The laws of King Ethelbert—There were manors in the sixth century [173]
  • 11. Result of the Saxon evidence [175]
• CHAPTER VI. THE TRIBAL SYSTEM (IN WALES).
  • 1. Evidence of the Domesday Survey [181]
  • 2. The Welsh land system in the twelfth century [186]
  • 3. The Welsh land system according to the Welsh laws [189]
  • 4. Land divisions under the Welsh Codes [199]
  • 5. Earlier evidence of the payment of Welsh gwestva, or food-rent [208]
• CHAPTER VII. THE TRIBAL SYSTEM (continued).
  • 1. The tribal system in Ireland and Scotland [214]
  • 2. The tribal system in its earlier stages [231]
  • 3. The distinction between the tribal and agricultural economy of the West and South-East of Britain was pre-Roman, and so also was the open-field system [245]
• CHAPTER VIII. CONNEXION BETWEEN THE ROMAN LAND SYSTEM AND THE LATER MANORIAL SYSTEM.
  • 1. Importance of the Continental evidence [252]
  • 2. The connexion between the Saxon 'ham,' the German 'heim,' and the Frankish 'villa' [253]
  • 3. The Roman 'villa,' its easy transition into the later manor, and its tendency to become the predominant type of estate [263]
  • 4. The smaller tenants on the 'Ager Publicus' in Roman provinces—The veterans [272]
  • 5. The smaller tenants on the 'Ager Publicus' (continued)—the 'læti' [280]
  • 6. The 'tributum' of the later Empire [289]
  • 7. The 'sordida munera' of the later Empire [295]
  • 8. The tendency towards a manorial management of the 'Ager Publicus,' or Imperial domain [300]
  • 9. The succession to semi-servile holdings, and methods of cultivation [308]
  • 10. The transition from the Roman to the later manorial system [316]
• CHAPTER IX. THE GERMAN SIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL EVIDENCE.
  • 1. The German tribal system and its tendency towards the manorial system [336]
  • 2. The tribal households of German settlers [346]
• CHAPTER X. THE CONNEXION BETWEEN THE OPEN-FIELD SYSTEM AND SERFDOM OF ENGLAND AND OF THE ROMAN PROVINCES OF GERMANY AND GAUL.
  • 1. The open-field system in England and in Germany compared [368]
  • 2. The boundaries or 'marchæ' [375]
  • 3. The three fields, or 'zelgen' [376]
  • 4. The division of the fields into furlongs and acres [380]
  • 5. The holdings—the 'yard-land' or 'hub' [389]
  • 6. The hide, the 'hof,' and the 'centuria' [395]
  • 7. The gafol and gafol-yrth [399]
  • 8. The boon-work and week-work of the serf [403]
  • 9. The creation of serfs and the growth of serfdom [405]
  • 10. The confusion in the status of the tenants on English and German manors [407]
  • 11. Result of the comparison [409]
• CHAPTER XI. RESULT OF THE EVIDENCE.
  • 1. The method of the English settlements [412]
  • 2. Local evidence of continuity between Roman and English villages [424]
  • 3. Conclusion [437]
• • APPENDIX [443]
• • INDEX and GLOSSARY [455]

LIST OF MAPS AND PLATES.

• to face
  
• [1.] Map of Hitchin Township, &c. title-page
• [2.] Map of Part of Purwell Field 2
• [3.] Sketch of 'Linces' 5
• [4.] Hitchin, Purwell Field 6
• [5.] A normal Virgate or Yard-land 26
• [6.] Domesday Survey, Distribution of Sochmanni, Liberi Homines, Servi, Bordarii, and Villani 85
• [7.] Manor of Tidenham, &c. 148
• [8.] Group of Puttchers on the Severn near Tidenham 152
• [9.] Maps of an Irish 'Bally' and 'half-Bally' 224
• [10.] Examples of Divisions in a Townland 228
• [11.] Distribution in Europe of Local Names ending in 'heim,' 'ingen,' &c. 256
• [12.] Map of the Neighbourhood of Hitchin 426
• [13.] Map of the Parish of Much Wymondley and Roman Holding 432
• [14.] Roman Pottery found on ditto 434

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THE ENGLISH VILLAGE COMMUNITY.