BOON SHEARING.
In the manor of Ashton-under-Lyne, every tenant-at-will was thus commanded:—"He that plough has, shall plough two days. He that half plough has, shall plough a day, whenever the lord be liever [more willing], in wheet-seeding, or in lenton-seeding; and every tenant harrow a day with their harrow, in seeding time, when they bin charged. And they should cart, every tenant ten cartful of turve from Doneam Moss to Assheton, and shere four days in harvest, and cart a day corn." This service, so profitable to the lord, was familiarly called boon-work. Hence an old adage still retained in the North of England, when a man is supposed to be working for nothing, that "he has been served like a boon-shearer."[215]
THE PRINCIPAL OR HERIOT.
One of the services of Sir John Assheton's tenants-at-will, in the manor of Ashton-under-Lyne, in the fifteenth century, as appears by his rental of 1422, was that "they should pay a principal at their death, to wit, the best beast they have." This was evidently a heriot. As of a military vassal, or tenant by knight-service, his horse was the heriot due to his lord at death; so the custom became extended to that class of dependents who were retained in the lord's employ to perform the busier services of the manor. As their property consisted of cattle, or of implements of husbandry, the heriot due to the lord was the best beast, cow, or horse, of which the tenant might die possessed. This condition being fulfilled, every further claim upon the goods of the deceased was remitted. At times this expressive relic of ancient military subjection was found exceedingly galling. In the manor of Assheton there are many traditional stories still remaining on the subject of such principals or heriots. A tenant's boy, on the death of his father, was driving an only cow to the manor-house of the adjoining demesnes of Dukinfield. He was met by the lord of the place, with whose person and rank he was unacquainted, who questioned him whither he was taking his beast. "I am driving it as far as Dukinfield for the heriot," replied the boy. "My father is dead—we are many children—and we have no cow but this. Don't you think the devil will take Sir Robert for a heriot, when he dies?" The lad was fortunately addressing a humane landlord. "Take the cow back to thy mother; I know Sir Robert,—I am going to Dukinfield myself, and will make up the matter with him."[216]
DENTON RENT-BOONS.
The lands of the Denton estates of the Hollands were held in 1780 by seventeen tenants, subject to a rent of 294l. 6s. 8d. The entire property was held by lease of lives, and this rental was exclusive of fines paid on the renewal of leases. By the terms of their respective leases the tenants were also pledged to the payment of certain rent-boons, consisting of a dog and a cock, or (at the landlord's option) of their equivalent in money—for the dog 10s., for the cock 1s.; the landlord thus providing for his amusement in hunting and cock-fighting in a manner least onerous to himself.[217]
A SAXON CONSTABLEWICK.
Until within these few years a relic of Saxon polity more ancient than the Domesday Survey existed in the Constablewick of Garstang, which continued to our own days, the freo borh, friborg, or Saxon manor, in a very perfect state. The free-burgh consisted of 11 townships, surrounding the original lordship to which all but one were subject. The reason for establishing this institution is stated in a Saxon law. The Wita, or counsellors, having considered the impunity with which trespasses against neighbours were committed, appointed over every ten friborgs, justiciaries whom they denominated tien heofod or "head of ten." These (says Dr. Keuerden) handled smaller causes between townsmen and neighbours, and according to the degree of the trespass, awarded satisfaction; made agreements respecting pastures, meadows and corn-lands, and reconciled differences among neighbours. The constablewick of Garstang comprised the township of Garstang and ten other townships, all of which are styled hamlets in the books of the court, and were divided into three portions. Two constables were annually elected for this district, and were alternately taken from each third portion of the constablewick. The jury were nominated in a similar manner. The jury were accustomed to adjourn from the court to an eminence called Constable hillock, adjoining the river Wyre, where they made choice of the constables by inscribing their names upon slips of wood. These officers were empowered to collect the county-rates, and serve for all the hamlets. The court was held annually, by direction of a steward of the Duke of Hamilton, the superior lord of the wick, till 1816, when it fell into neglect, and its powers are now exercised in such of the townships only as are the property of the Duke. The adjournment of the court to the hillock is obviously the remnant of a custom far more ancient than the institution of the friborg itself.[218]