[391] See references quoted below, pp. 244–253.
[392] e.g. Scrope, History of Manor and Barony of Castle Combe, p. 203. Extent of Manor, 1454: “Et notandum quod prædictae terræ dominicates cum pratis et pasturis supra specificatis dimittebantur ad firmam Ricardo Hallewey, Edwardo Yonge, Johanni Costyn, Willelmo Gaudeby, et Edwardo Noorth, ea intentione quod ipsi dimitterent ad firmam omnibus tenentibus domini aliquas portiones dictorum terrarum secundum magis et minus pro earum cultura, et reddunt pro firma inter se cxiiis. viiid.”
[393] R.O. Land Revenue Misc. Bks., vol. ccxxi., fol. 1. Survey of Manor of Brigstock (Northants) 4, James I. Here the demesne is held by twenty-two tenants, each having 8 acres, 3 roods, and 1 acre of meadow. Mickleholme meadow (also demesne land) is held by five tenants, each having 1 acre. One finds on some Northumberland manors a growth in the size of customary holdings combined with the preservation of almost exact equality between them, which surely must be taken as proving that the increase in the area held grew, not by sporadic encroachments on the part of individuals, but by definite allotment on some communal plan. Thus at Birling there were in 1248 ten “bondi,” each holding 30 acres or one husbandland; in 1498 nine holding 30 acres or one husbandland, and four holding one husbandland of 30 acres between them; in 1567 ten customary tenants, each holding 33 acres; in 1616 the average holding has risen from 33 to 42½ acres, but there is still substantial equality, the largest holding amounting to 44 acres, 3 roods, 3½ poles, and the smallest to 40 acres, 0 roods, 33 poles (I omit the facts as to the cottagers). In spite of two considerable additions to the land of the village, there is little change in the relative proportions of the tenancies. At Acklington there were in 1352 thirty-five bondage holdings of 16 acres each, of which nine were vacant (presumably on account of the plague). In 1368 these nine vacant holdings were let to the other tenants for herbage. In 1498 there were eighteen tenants, of whom seventeen held two husbandlands apiece (i.e. 32 acres) and one, one husbandland (i.e. 16 acres). Northumberland County History, vol. v.
[394] Humberstone, Topographer and Genealogist, vol. i. (surveys temp. Phil. and Mary of various manors belonging to the Earl of Devon).
[395] Davenport, History of a Norfolk Manor, p. 57. When first leased in 1373 the demesne was leased as a whole, but this plan was abandoned. Early in the fifteenth century it was leased in small plots, at first for six or seven years, and then for twelve, twenty, or forty years. Finally parts of the demesne were granted to be held at fee farm.
[396] Merton Documents, Nos. 3100 (lease of 1361 for seven years), 3002 (lease of 1420 for seven years); 2856 (lease of 1424 for one year); 1874 (lease of 1472 for twenty years).
[397] Historia et Cartularium Monasterii Gloucestriæ, vol. iii. App., pp. 291–295. The words are “Sed bene licebit præfatis ... substituere tenentes ad eorum bene placitum in omnibus illis terris dominicalibus supradictis modo in manibus tenentium ibidem existentibus, cum reversio prædicta inde acciderit."
[398] Thus in 1535, on nineteen out of twenty-two manors owned by Battle Abbey, the demesne was farmed by a single tenant, on one by two, on one by three, while on one it was retained in the hands of the monks (Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, vol. i.; English Monasteries on the Eve of the Dissolution, by A. Savine). On twenty-five manors out of thirty-two held by the Earl of Pembroke in 1568, the same unified management obtained (Roxburghe Club, Surveys of Pembroke Manors). Savine’s remarks are to the point: “The lord of the manor seldom divided up the demesne into separate plots of land to be let to local tenants. Usually the demesne and its buildings, sometimes even together with the live and dead stock, passed into the hands of one farmer" (ibid.).
[399] As at Knyghton in Wilts in 1568 (Roxburghe Club, Pembroke Surveys), where the holdings and rents of the customary tenants appear in the farmer’s lease, e.g. “Walter Savage ad voluntatem tenet ut parcellam dicti manerii l close etc. ... et reddit 56s. ad manus dicti firmarii.”
[400] Here is an example from a lease of 1562. The farmer pays “yearly to the lord for the aforesaid farm—