Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England

by Frederic William Maitland

[1381] D. B. i. 218 b, Stanford. Or let us take this case (D. B. i. 148): ‘Terra est 3 car. In dominio est una et 4 villani habent aliam et tercia potest fieri.’ Is this third team to be a team of four or a team of eight?

[1382] Seebohm, Village Community, 85.

[1383] As a specimen we take 10 consecutive entries from the royal demesne in Surrey in which it is said that x villeins and y bordiers have z teams. We add half of y to x and divide the result by z. The quotients are 10·3, 4·0, 3·7, 3·5, 3·4, 2·7, 2·2, 1·9, 1·8, 1·4. If we massed the ten cases together, the quotient would be 2·8. We can easily find averages; but, even if we omit cases in which there is an exceptional dearth of oxen, the variations are so considerable that we must not speak of a type or norm.

[1384] Glastonbury Rentalia, 51–2: ‘S. tenet 1 virgatam terre ... et si habet 8 boves debet warectare ... 7 acras. Si autem pauciores habet, warectabit pro unoquoque bove octavam partem 7 acrarum.’ Ibid. 61: ‘R. C. tenet unam virgatam ... et habebit 4 boves cum bobus domini.’ Ibid. 68: ‘G. tenet dimidiam hidam ... et si habuerit 8 boves...’ Ibid. 78: ‘L. tenet 5 acras ... et bis debet venire cum 1 bove et cum pluribus si habuerit...’ Ibid. 98–9: ‘M. tenet 1 virgatam ... si habuerit quatuor boves...’ Ibid. 129: ‘S. tenet 1 virgatam ... et debet invenire domino 1 carrum et 6 boves ad cariandum fenum.’ Ibid. 130: ‘M. tenet dimidiam virgatam ... et debet invenire 2 boves.’ Ibid. 189: Three cases in which a virgater comes to the boon days with eight oxen. Larking, Domesday of Kent, App. 33: Customs of Hedenham: ‘...habebit unam virgatam terrae ... item habebit quatuor boves in pasturam domini.’

[1385] D. B. i. 211: ‘Terra est dim. car. et unus bos ibi arat.’

[1386] D. B. i. 342 b, Toresbi.

[1387] Pollock, E. H. R. xi. 813. I venture to think that Sir F. Pollock has not answered his own argument (p. 220) for a constant caruca.

[1388] Inq. Com. Cant. 70.

[1389] Another example from a Northamptonshire column (D. B. i. 226) will show what we mean. Let H stand for hides and T for teamlands, and let the virgate be a quarter of a hide, then we have this series: 2 H (5 T), 2¹⁄₂ H (4 T), 4 H (8 T), 1¹⁄₄ H (3 T), 1⁷⁄₁₂ H (4 T), 3/8 H (¹⁄₂ T), ¹⁄₂ H (1 T), 2¹⁄₂ H (6 T), 1¹⁄₄ H (3 T), 2 H (4 T), ⁷⁄₈ H (3 T). We see that T is integral where H is fractional.

[1390] Exceptionally we read in Kent (i. 9): ‘Terra est dim. car. et ibidem sunt adhuc 30 acrae terrae.’ And is not this a rule-proving exception? The jurors can not say simply ‘land for half a team and thirty acres.’ They say ‘land for half a team and there are thirty acres in addition.’