[176] Merton Documents, “A table of the Matters, Orders, and Customs Conteyned in Severall Courts of the Manor, 1563”: “Daye given to all ye tenants of ye manor to remove and expell their undertenants by Michaelmas that shall be in ye yeare 1563, upon paine of every delinquent forfeiting 20s.” “Daye given to the aforesaid tenants having above one customary tenement to be here at ye next court to shew,” etc., as above. See the Customary of High Furness quoted below, p. 101; also Hone, The Manor and Manorial Records, pp. 177–178, Court Rolls of Payton, Oxon.: “And the aforesaid Laurence Pemerton, in his life time, substituted Walter Milleward as his subtenant ... contrary to the custom of the Manor without license; therefore let him have a talk thereon with the King’s officer before the next court.”
[177] This is the meaning of entries of two names as “sureties” when land changes hands. See Crondal Records, Court Rolls of 1281 and 1282, passim.
[178] Since writing the above I have seen that the same view of the advantages of copyhold (the descendant of villein) tenure is taken by Dr. Hasbach, who quotes an eighteenth century writer to the effect that copyhold as compared with freehold land had the advantage of “the greater certainty of its title and the cheapness of its conveyance” (Hasbach, A History of the English Agricultural Labourer, pp. 72–73).
[179] 1235, c. 4. One may remark, however, that the power which a single freeholder had had before 1235 to prevent the breaking up or enclosure of common pastures, even when he had more than was sufficient for his own beasts, was a genuine hardship for the lord, for other freeholders, and for the customary tenants; see the remarks in Pollock and Maitland (History of English Law, vol. i. p. 612).
[180] Gesta Abbatum Monasterii St. Albani, vol. iii. pp. 120–121, quoted by Petruschevsky, op. cit., pp. 179–180.
[181] Victoria County History, Derbyshire, vol. ii. p. 170.
[182] Glover, History of Ashton, p. 355. “Richard the Hunte ... for an intake 3d. ... Thomas of the Leghes for the one half of the intake in Palden Wood 13s. 4d. The same Thomas of the Leghes for an intake besyde Alt Hey 10s.”
[183] Court Rolls of the Lordships, etc., of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster (Farrer). Halmote of Ightenhill, 1324, January 18: “John de Briddeswail for entry to half an acre of waste in Habrincham, 6d., for the same yearly, 2d.” Same court, May 7, 1324.: “Richard le Skinner for entry to 4 acres of waste in Sommerfordrod, 6d., for the same yearly, 6d.,” and passim. In the north of England there seems to have been very much colonising of the waste, perhaps because original settlements were small. See Turner, History of Brighouse, Rastrick, and Hipperholme, pp. 66–67, and Trans. Rochdale Literary and Philosophical Society, vol. vii., Rochdale Manor Inquisition.
[184] Crondal Records (Baigent), pp. 116–120, e.g. “Robert, son of Peter de la Pierke, holds one acre of encroachment land on paying 4d.”
[185] Ibid., pp. 123–127.