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 priest holds 1 hide.
• 3 milites hold 612 hides.
• 2 villani hold 2 hides. [i.e. a hide each].
• 12 villani hold 6 hides. [i.e. 12 hide each].
• 20 villani hold 5 hides. [i.e. 14 hide each, or virgate].
• 40 villani hold 5 hides. [i.e. 18 hide each, or 12 virgate].
• 16 villani hold 2 hides. [i.e. 18 hide each, or 12 virgate]. [p093]

(F. 128 a.)—In Villa ubi sedet Æcclesia Sti. Petri (Westminster).

• 9 villani each of a virgate.
• 1 villanus of 1 hide.
• 9 villani each of 12 virgate.
• 1 cotarius of 5 acres.
• 41 cotarii with gardens.

(F. 128 b.)—Hermodesworde.

• 1 miles holds 2 hides.
• 2 villani hold 1 hide each.
• 2 villani of 1 hide (i.e. 12 hide each).
• 14 villani each of 1 virgate.
• 6 villani each of 12 virgate.
• 6 bordarii each of 5 acres.
• 7 cotarii.
• 6 servi.

And so on throughout the survey for the county.

As might be expected, most of the villani held virgates and half-virgates, but there are a sufficient number of cases of hides and half-hides to show conclusively the relation to each other of the four grades in the regular hierarchy of villenage.

Examples in Herts.

Another local and solitary exception occurs in the record for Sawbridgeworth, in Hertfordshire. The holdings in this case were as follows:—

(F. 139 b.)—Sabrixteworde.