English Economic History: Select Documents

by Unknown

5. Lease[257] of the Manor of Ablode to a Farmer [Rolls Series. Historia et Cartularium Monasterii Gloucestriæ, Vol. III, pp. 291-5], 1516.

This indenture made on the 5th day of October in the seventh year of King Henry VIII between William ... Abbot of St. Peter ... of the one part and Richard Cockes and Catharine his wife ... and William and John, sons of the said Richard and Catharine, of the other part, witnesseth, that the aforesaid Abbot and Convent ... have leased, demised, and to farm let to Richard, Catharine, William, and John, the site of their Manor of Ablode, situated in the county of Gloucester, with all its houses, buildings, arable lands, meadows, feedings and pastures, dovecotes, weir, waters, fishpools, and rabbit warrens, with all and everything thereto pertaining. And the said abbot and convent have leased to the aforesaid ... divers goods and chattels, moveable, and immoveable, pertaining to the said manor. ... Moreover the said abbot and convent have leased to the said ... 320 sheep remaining for stock on the said manor, priced per head at 16d., which amounts in all to the sum of 21l. 6s. 8d., together with their meadows, pastures and all easements ... needed for the support of the said sheep.... Furthermore the said abbot and convent have leased to the aforesaid ... divers lands and demesne meadows belonging to the said manor, when the reversion thereof shall in any way have occurred, which lands and demesne meadows are now occupied by the customary tenants of the lord, as is plain from the rental drawn on the back of the present indenture.... And it shall be lawful for the aforesaid Richard, Catharine, William and John, or any of them to introduce at their pleasure new tenants on all those demesne lands aforesaid, now in the hands of the tenants there, whenever the aforesaid reversion shall have fallen in.

[257] The most interesting clauses in the lease are (a) that which relates to the leasing of the stock of the manor ("Stock and land lease"); (b) the last, which shows how the practice of leasing a manor to one large farmer replaced the earlier practice of leasing parts of it to numerous small tenants.

6. Lease of the Manor of South Newton To a Farmer [Roxburghe Club, Surveys of the lands belonging to William Earl of Pembroke], 1568.

John Rabbett holds to himself and his assigns, by an indenture dated November 28 in the fourth year of Elizabeth, at a fine of £120, the whole site of the farm of the Manor of South Newton in the county of Wilts., all its demesne lands, meadows, marshes, pastures, commons, fisheries, and the customary works of the tenants in South Newton, Stovord, and Childhampton, with all and singular their appurtenances in the above-mentioned South Newton belonging to the site and the farm or of old demised to farm with the above-mentioned site, as fully as Lewis ap Jevan had and occupied it, and also one virgate of land and one ham of meadow, lying in the afore-mentioned South Newton, called the Parson's yardland and ham with a sheep pasture, ... excepted and altogether reserved to the lord and his heirs the advowson of the vicarage there; the said John Rabbett and his assigns to have and to hold the aforesaid ... from Michaelmas before this indenture for the full term of 21 years, paying thence yearly to the lord for the aforesaid farm and site with its appurtenances

per bs. 12d. 4l.
10 quarters of wheat
prec. cap. 4d. 6s. 8d.
20 capons,
per bs. 8d. 106s. 8d.
29 quarters of barley,
prec. cap. 4d. 6s. 8d.
20 pigeons,
per bs. 3d. 26s. 8d.
[sic]
10 quarters of oats
prec. cap. 4d. 4s.
12 great fish called great Trouts.

and for the aforesaid virgate of land ... 13s. at the usual terms, with all other clauses and agreements, as is set forth at length in the indenture placed in the register. And be it known that the grain, capons, and pigeons and fish are valued at the rate written above the head of each kind. And there belong to the farm of arable land 55 acres in Middlefield, 60 acres in Westfield, and 60 acres in Eastfield, and one meadow called Long Ham lying in a close and containing 11½ acres, and the cropping of one meadow called Duttenham lying in the west part of Wishford containing 10½ acres, one meadow called Beymeade containing 4½ acres lying on the north-west side of South Newton, and one curtilage near the barn containing 2 acres, and a hill called the Down estimated to contain 100 acres, and it is able to keep 500 sheep, 36 cattle, and 12 horses. And there belong to the aforesaid virgate of land, called the Parson's Yardland, of arable land in Southfield 6½ acres, in Middlefield 8½ acres, in Northfield 6 acres, and one ham of meadow, pasture for 10 cows, 1 bull, and 120 sheep with the farmer, 14s.

4l.
Wheat 10 qrs.
106s. 8d.
Barley 20 qrs.
26s. 8d.
Oats 10 qrs.
6s. 8d.
Capons 20.
6s. 8d.
Pigeons 20.
4s.
Fish 12.

7. The Agrarian Programme of the Pilgrimage of Grace [Gairdner, Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII, Vol. xi, 1246], 1536.

9. That the lands in Westmoreland, Cumberland, Dent, Sedbergh, Furness, and the abbey lands in Mashamshire, Kyrkbyshire, Notherdale, may be by tenant right, and the Lords to have, at every change, 2 years rent for gressum, according to the grant now made by the Lords to the Commons there. This is to be done by Act of Parliament.