[435] e.g. Coventry Leet Book, vol. ii. p. 510.
[436] Genealoger and Archæologist, vol. i., Manor of West Coker (Somerset): “The demesnes remayneth in one entier ferm, and is dymysed to one Sir John Seymour, knight, who being confederate with the freeholders of the manor, maketh such inclosers for his owne lucre, and suffreth the freeholders to do the same, nevertheless surcharge the common with their cattle, that in process of tyme yt wilbe the destruccion of the custumarye tenants.”
[437] For a discussion of the legal position of the copyholders see below, pp. 287–310.
[438] Coventry Leet Book, vol. ii. pp. 445–446 and passim.
[439] If the common was so large that it had been unnecessary to “stint” it, why did the city object to the lord putting additional beasts on? I take the situation to be that the Prior—probably tempted by the profitableness of sheep-farming in the latter part of the fifteenth century—diminished the pasture which the city could use, by putting on many more beasts than ever before, which, in the absence of a recognised “stint,” he was able to do without violating any custom, as he would have done if there had been a customary limit, as on many manors.
[440] Topographer and Genealogist, vol. iii. These are the people whom Heaven protected in the way described on p. 148 note. Observe what this little community endured. (i.) Sir Francis Englefield, senior, seizes 1900 out of 2000 acres of their common. (ii.) Sir Francis Englefield, junior, seizes “the charter of our town ... and the deed of the said common." (iii.) He tries to seize the remaining 100 acres, and ruins them by lawsuits “for the space of seven or eight years at the least, and never suffers any one to come to triall in all that space ... that the said Free tenants were not able to wage law any longer, for one John Rous ... was thereby enforced to sell all his land (to the value of £500) with following the suits in law, and many were thereby impoverished." (iv.) He turns them out of their shops in the market-place, and introduces instead “a stranger that liveth not in the town." (v.) He appoints his own nominee as mayor, in defiance of the custom which requires him to appoint one of two men submitted to him by the jury. (vi.) He prevents his victims from signing this petition by threats of eviction. ("They are fearful that they shall be put forth of their bargaines, and then they shall not tell how to live, otherwise they would have set to their hands.")
[441] Holkham MSS., Map of West Lexham.
[442] R.O. Aug. Off. Misc. Bks., vol. cccxcix., f. 201 ff.
[443] The manors are South Newton, Winterbourne Basset, Knyghton, Donnington, and Estoverton and Phipheld (Roxburghe Club, Surveys of Pembroke Manors).
[444] This, of course, is not inconsistent with a general appreciation, i.e. a general rise in wages and fall in the rate of interest.