Now all may have fallen out exactly as Harrison Ainsworth tells us; but then, again, as Uncle Remus says, "it moughtn't."
"Among the jocular tenures of England," writes Grose—he was the antiquary for whom Burns wrote "Tam o' Shanter"—"none has been more talked about than the Bacon of Dunmow." (A peppercorn rent, which still appears in legal documents, is a kind of "jocular tenure.") In the theory of a jocular tenure we have probably the true origin of the Flitch custom.
Morant, the historian of Essex, seems to think that this was the case. He writes—
The Prior and Canons were obliged to deliver the Bacon to them that took the Oath, by virtue (as many believe) of a Founder or Benefactor's Deed or Will, by which they held lands, rather than of their own singular frolic and wantonness, or more probably it was imposed by the Crown, either in Saxon or Norman times, and was a burthen upon their estate.
It is explained that "after the Pilgrims, as the Claimants were called, had taken the Oath, they were taken through the Town in a Chair, on Men's Shoulders, with all the Friars, Brethren, and Townsfolk, young and old, male and female after them, with shouts and acclamations, and the Bacon was borne before them on poles."
The Chartulary of Dunmow Priory (Registrum Cartarum Prioratus de Dunmawe), a thickish quarto, clearly written in old contracted Latin, is still to be seen any day in the British Museum. There are two entries in reference to the Flitch. One is dated 1445, the other 1510. The first is on page 128 and the other on the opening page. Both are among collections of memoranda apart from the actual Chartulary, which itself contains no reference to the Flitch. (See [Appendix].) Here are translations of the entries—
Memorandum: that one Richard Wright, of Badbourge, near the City of Norwich, in the County of Norfolk, Yeoman, came and required the Bacon of Dunmow on the 17th day of April, in the 23rd year of the reign of King Henry VI, and according to the form of the charter, was sworn before John Cannon, Prior of this place and the Convent, and many other neighbours, and there was delivered to him, the said Richard, one Flitch of Bacon.
Memorandum: that in the year of our Lord, 1510, Thomas le Fuller, of Coggeshall, in the County of Essex, came to the Priory of Dunmow, and on the 8th September, being Sunday, in the second year of King Henry VIII, he was, according to the form of the Charter, sworn before John Tylor, the Prior of the house and Convent, as also before a multitude of neighbours, and there was delivered unto him, the said Thomas, a Gammon of Bacon.
On a sheet pasted on the last page of a volume of MSS. consisting of extracts from the Red Book of the Exchequer ("Transcripta ex Libro Rubeo in Scarrario"), the foregoing entries are recorded in cramped English, and also a third, which, as a matter of fact, is written first—
Memorandum: that one Stephen Samuel, of Little Easton, in the County of Essex, Husbandman, came to the Priory of Dunmow, on our Lady-day in Lent, in the Seventh year of King Edward IV, and required a Gammon of Bacon, and was sworn before Roger Bulcott, then Prior, and the Convent of this place, as also before a multitude of other neighbours, and there was delivered to him a Gammon of Bacon.