Walter Blyth in 1649 included “Hartford” with “Essex, Kent, Surrey, Sussex,” etc., as enclosed counties (“The English Improver,” p. 49).
“An insurrection in hertfordshire for the comens at Northall and Cheshunt,” was, according to Hales, the first beginning of the enclosure riots and rebellions in the reign of Edward VI.
It is somewhat remarkable that Hertford was in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries so much more enclosed than the surrounding counties, than Middlesex as well as than Bedford and Cambridge, and even more enclosed than the part of Essex immediately adjoining.
Leland gives no account of the condition of the county with regard to enclosure; but as no earlier author than Blyth speaks of Hertford as an enclosed county, I am inclined to believe that its enclosure mainly took place in the sixteenth and in the first half of the seventeenth century. It is to be noticed that Hertford was excluded from the operation of the last (39 Elizabeth, c. 2) of the Depopulation Acts, requiring that all old arable land should continue under tillage and be cultivated according to the local custom.
Buckingham.
Buckingham is, on the whole, a county of late enclosure. A large proportion (34·2 per cent.) of the area was enclosed by Acts of Parliament; two-thirds of this enclosure belonging to the eighteenth and one-third to the nineteenth century.
The reporters to the Board of Agriculture, William James and Jacob Malcolm, supply a list of the parishes containing common fields in 1794, with an approximate statement of the area. The majority of these parishes have, of course, undergone Parliamentary enclosure since. By comparing their list with that of the Enclosure Acts and with the summary of the tithe documents, we find that the following seventeen parishes were enclosed without Acts between 1794 and the date of tithe commutation:—
- Astwood
- Buckland
- Dinton
- Drayton Beauchamp
- Halton
- Great Hampden
- Little Hampden
- Hedgerley
- Horsendon
- Great Horwood
- Ickford
- Marsh Gibbon
- Medmenham
- Great Missenden
- Little Missenden
- Newton Longueville
- Quainton
The following five still had remains of common field at the time of tithe commutation, though the area was considerably reduced in each case:—
| —— | Common Field Acreage. | |
|---|---|---|
| In 1794. | According to Tithe Map. | |
| Acres. | Acres. | |
| Burnham and Lower Boveney | 1000 | 525 |
| Chesham | 300 | 66 |
| Dorney | 600 | 277 |
| Eton | 300 | 181 |
| Chipping Wycombe | 200 | 100 |