(vii) A Somersetshire manor[493] occupied by one villein. We read nothing of any stock. Value, 15d.
(viii) A Somersetshire manor[494] with 3 bordiers on it. Value, 4s.
(ix) A Somersetshire manor[495] with one bordier on it. Value, 30d.
The lowest value of a manor in this part of the world is, so far as we have observed, one shilling; that manor to all appearance was nothing but a piece of pasture land[496]. Yet each of these holdings is a mansio, and the Bishop of Winchester’s holding at Taunton is a mansio.
Small manors in the east.
From one side of England we will journey to the other side; from Devon and Somerset to Essex and Suffolk. We soon observe that in describing the holdings of the ‘free men’ and sokemen of this eastern district as they were in King Edward’s day, our record constantly introduces the term manerium. A series of entries telling us how ‘a free man held x hides or carucates or acres’ will ever and anon be broken by an entry that tells us how ‘a free man held x hides or carucates or acres for a manor’[497]. We soon give up counting the cases in which the manor is rated at 60 acres. We begin counting the cases in which it is rated at 30 acres and find them numerous; we see manors rated at 24 acres, at 20, at 15, at 12 acres. But this, it may be said, tells us little, for these manors may be extravagantly underrated[498]. Let us then look at a few of them.
(i) In Espalle Siric held 30 acres for a manor; there were always 3 bordiers and one team and 4 acres of meadow; wood for 60 pigs and 13 beasts. It was then worth 10s.[499]
(ii) In Torentuna Turchetel a free man held 30 acres for a manor; there were always 2 bordiers and one team and a half. It is worth 10s.[500]
(iii) In Bonghea Godric a free man held 30 acres for a manor; there were 1 bordier and 1 team and 2 acres of meadow. It was then worth 8s.[501]