Where there was lǽn, there could properly be no book, because the possession of the charter itself was prima facie evidence (indeed nearly conclusive evidence) in favour of the holder. Hence, where from any circumstance the books were withheld, the tenant had only a lǽn: this was the case with Helmstán’s estates mentioned above: he had deposited his charters with Ordláf as a security on an occasion when this duke helped him to make oath to some property. On Helmstán’s felony, Ordláf seized the land to himself, and the document from which we learn this is obviously his appeal to Ælfred’s son and successor, against an attempt to disturb Helmstán’s original title, under a judgment given by Ælfred. Nor was it unusual for books to be thus retained as securities, by which the tenant having only a lǽn could be evicted, if not at pleasure, at least by legal process[[572]]. And the same remarks apply to a very common mode of disposing of estates, where the clergy were grantees. Either to avoid litigation with justly exasperated heirs, or to escape from the commands of various synods, the clergy used to take deeds of gift from living tenants, impounding the books of course, and leaving the life-interest only to the owner. Such an estate in technical Latin was named praestaria; but it was obviously a lǽn, and was generally charged with recognitory payments[[573]].
It may not be uninteresting, before I close this chapter, to give some examples of the gafol or rent paid upon lands whether held for lives, or as, more strictly, lǽnland. They are extremely valuable from the insight they give into the details of social life, and the daily habits of our forefathers.
Twenty hides of land at Sempringham were leased by Peterborough to Wulfred for two lives, on condition of his getting its freedom, and that of Sleaford (both in Lincolnshire): upon this estate the following yearly rent was reserved. First, to the monastery: two tons of bright ale, two oxen, fit for slaughter, two mittan or measures of Welsh ale, and six hundred loaves. Secondly to the abbot’s private estate: one horse, thirty shillings of silver or half a pound, one night’s pastus, fifteen mittan of bright and five of Welsh ale, fifteen sesters of mild ale[[574]].
A little earlier, Oswulf, a duke in Kent, devised lands to Christchurch Canterbury, which he charged with annual doles to the poor upon his anniversary. Forty hides at Stanhampstead were to find one hundred and twenty loaves of wheat, thirty loaves of fine wheat[[575]], one fat ox and four sheep, two flitches of bacon, five geese, ten hens, and ten pounds of cheese. If it fell on a fast-day, however, there was to be (instead of the meat) a wey of cheese, and fish, butter, eggs ad libitum. Moreover, thirty ambers of good Welsh ale, on the footing of fifteen mittan, and one mitta of honey (perhaps to make into a drink) or two of wine. From his land at Burnan were to issue one thousand loaves, and one thousand raised loaves or cakes; and the monks themselves were to find one hundred and twenty more of the latter[[576]].
Werhard gave two juga or geoc of land to Canterbury. The rent of one at Lambahám was forty pensas (weys) of cheese, or an equivalent in lambs and wool; the other, at Northwood, rendered one hundred and twenty measures, which the English call ambers, of salt[[577]].
Lufe, in 832, charged the inheritors and assigns of her land at Mundlinghám, with the following yearly payment to Canterbury, for ever; that is to say: Sixty ambers of malt, one hundred and fifty loaves, fifty white loaves, one hundred and twenty alms-loaves, one ox, one hog and four wethers, two weys of bacon and cheese, one mitta of honey, ten geese and twenty hens[[578]].
In 835, Abba, a reeve in Kent, charged his heirs with a yearly payment to Folkstone, of fifty ambers of malt, six ambers of groats (gruta?), three weys of bacon and cheese, four hundred loaves, one ox, and six sheep, besides an allowance or stipend in money to the priests[[579]]. And Heregyð, his wife, farther burthened her land at Challock with payments to Canterbury, amounting to: thirty ambers of ale, three hundred loaves, fifty of them white, one wey of bacon and cheese, one old ox, four wethers, and one hog, or six wethers, six geese and ten hens, one sester of honey, one of butter, and one of salt; and if her anniversary should fall in winter, she added thirty wax-lights[[580]].
In 902, Bishop Denewulf leased fifteen hides of church-land at Eblesburn to his relative Beornwulf for forty-five shillings a year, with liberty to Beornwulf’s children to continue the lease. One shilling (sixty of which went to the pound) is so very small a rent for ten acres, that we must either suppose the land to have been unusually bad, or Beornwulf’s connection with the bishop much in his favour[[581]]. He was also to aid in cyricbót, and pay the cyric-sceat. About the same time Denewulf leased forty hides at Alresford to one Ælfred, at the old rent of three pounds per annum, or four shillings and a half per hide. He was however also to pay church-shot, the amount of which is not stated, and to do church-shot-work, and find men to the bishop’s reaping and hunting[[582]].
Between 901-909, king Eádweard booked twenty hides of land to Bishop Denewulf. The payments reserved have been already mentioned: instead of going to the king as gafol or rent, they were to be expended in an anniversary feast on founder’s day. I have already stated that this may be the old charge on folcland: it was a grant from the monks to the bishop, probably negotiated by Eádweard. All parties were satisfied: the monks probably got from the land as much as they could expect from any other tenant, or what, if folcland, they would themselves have had to pay; the bishop got the land into his own hands, to dispose of at his pleasure, and the king was rewarded for intervention with all the benefits to be derived on his anniversary from the prayers of the grateful fathers at Winchester.
At the close of the ninth century, Werfrið bishop of Worcester claimed land under the following circumstances. Milred a previous bishop had granted an estate in Sopbury, on condition that it was to be always held by a clergyman, and never by a layman, and that if no clergyman could be found in the grantee’s family, it should revert to the see. By degrees the family of the grantee established themselves in the possession, but without performing the condition. At length Werfrið impleaded their chief Eádnóð, who admitted the wrong and promised to find a clergyman. The family however all refused to enter into holy orders. Eádnóð then obtained the intercession of Æðelred duke of Mercia, the lady Æðelflǽd, and Æðelnóð duke of Somerset; and by their persuasion, Werfrið (in defiance of his predecessor’s charter) sold the land to Eádnóð for forty mancuses, reserving a yearly rent of fifteen shillings, and a vestment (or perhaps some kind of hanging) to be delivered at the episcopal manor of Tetbury[[583]].