Part 14
[339] Cnut II. 12, 13, 14. Perhaps when in other parts of England the pleas of the crown are reckoned to be but four, it is treated as self-evident that the outlaw falls into the king's hand, as also the man who harbours an outlaw. If _fihtwíte_ is the right word, we must suppose with Schmid (p. 586) that a _fihtwíte_ was only paid when there was homicide. A fine for mere fighting or drawing blood would not have been a reserved plea.
[340] D. B. ii. 179 b: 'Et iste Withri habebat sacham et socam super istam terram et rex et comes 6 forisfacturas.' Ibid. 223: 'In Cheiunchala soca de 6 forisfacturis.'
[341] D. B. ii. 413 b: 'socam et sacam praeter 6 forisfacturas S. Eadmundi.' Ibid. 373: 'S. Eadmundus 6 forisfacturas.' Ibid. 384 b: 'Tota hec terra iacebat in dominio Abbatiae [de Eli] T. R. E. cum omni consuetudine praeter sex forisfacturas S. Eadmundi.'
[342] D. B. ii. 244: 'sex liberi homines ... ex his habet S. Benedictus socam et de uno commendationem et de 24 tres forisfacturas.'
[343] D. B. i. 336 b: 'praeter geld et heriete et forisfacturam corporum suorum de 40 oris argenti et praeter latronem.' Such a phrase as 'geld, heriot and thief' is instructive.
[344] D. B. i. 4 b.
[345] William I. for Ely, Hamilton, Inquisitio, p. xviii.: 'omnes alias forisfacturas quae emendabiles sunt.'
[346] D. B. ii. 195: 'Super hos habuit T. R. E. Episcopus 6 forisfacturas sed hundret nec vidit breve nec sigillum nec concessum Regis.'
[347] D. B. ii. 34 b.
[348] See e.g. D. B. i. 220.
[349] D. B. i. 336: 'Rogerius de Busli habet unum mansum Sueni filii Suaue cum saca et soca. Judita comitissa habet unum mansum Stori sine saca et soca.'
[350] D. B. i. 2.
[351] D. B. i. 1 b.
[352] D. B. i. 337.
[353] D. B. i. 280 b.
[354] D. B. ii. 185: 'Super omnes liberos istius hundreti [de Northerpingeham] habet Rex sacam et socam.' Ibid. 188 b: 'Rex et comes de omnibus istis liberis hominibus socam.' Ibid. 203: 'Et de omnibus his liberis [Episcopi Osberni] soca in hundreto.'
[355] D. B. ii. 210: 'Super omnes istos liberos homines habuit Rex Eadwardus socam et sacam, et postea Guert accepit per vim, sed Rex Willelmus dedit [S. Eadmundo] cum manerio socam et sacam de omnibus liberis Guert sicut ipse tenebat; hoc reclamant monachi.'
[356] Below, p. 105.
[357] D. B. ii. 425 b.
[358] D. B. ii. 287, 287 b: 'Sanfort Hund. et dim.... Supradictum manerium scilicet Bercolt ... cum soca de hundreto et dimidio reddebat T. R. E. 24 lib.' On subsequent pages it is often said that the soke of certain persons or lands is in Bergholt.
[359] D. B. ii. 408 b: 'Hagala tenuit Gutmundus sub Rege Edwardo pro manerio 8 car[ucatarum] terrae cum soca et saca super dominium hallae tantum. Tunc 32 villani ... 8 bordarii ... 10 servi. Semper 4 carucae in dominio. Tunc et post 24 carucae hominum.... Sex sochemanni eiusdem Gutmundi de quibus soca est in hundreto.'
[360] D. B. ii. 216: 'De Redeham habebat Abbas socam super hos qui sequebantur faldam, et de aliis soca in hundreto.' Ibid. 129 b: 'Super omnes istos qui faldam Comitis requirebant habebat Comes socam et sacam, super alios omnes Rex et Comes.' Ibid. 194 b: 'In Begetuna tenuit Episcopus Almarus per emptionem T. R. E. cum soca et saca de Comite Algaro de bor[dariis] et sequentibus faldam 3 carucatas terrae.' Ibid. 350 b: 'habebat socam et sacam super hallam et bordarios.'
[361] D. B. ii. 130 b.
[362] D. B. i. 265 b: 'Hoc manerium habet suum placitum in aula domini sui.'
[363] Above, p. 88.
[364] D. B. ii. 385 b.
[365] D. B. ii. 46 b.
[366] D. B. i. 283 b.
[367] D. B. i. 11 b.; Chron. de Bello (Anglia Christiana Soc.) p. 28; Battle Custumals (Camd. Soc.), p. 126.
[368] D. B. i. 154 b.
[369] D. B. 39 b, Hants: 'Huic manerio pertinet soca duorum hundredorum.' Ibid. 64 b, Wilts: 'In hac firma erant placita hundretorum de Cicementone et Sutelesberg quae regi pertinebant.' Ibid. ii. 185: 'Super omnes liberos istius hundreti habet rex sacam et socam.' Ibid. ii. 113 b.: 'Soca et sacha de Grenehou hundreto pertinet ad Wistune manerium Regis, quicunque ibi teneat, et habent Rex et Comes.'
[370] See above, note 367.
[371] Above, p. 88.
[372] D. B. ii. 379: 'Super ferting de Almeham habet W. Episcopus socam et sacam.'
[373] D. B. i. 184: 'Haec terra non pertinet ... ad hundredum. De hac terra habet Rogerius 15 sextarios mellis et 15 porcos quando homines sunt ibi et placita super eos.'
[374] D. B. ii. 139 b.
[375] D. B. ii. 114.
[376] D. B. i. 340, 346, 357 b, 366, 368 b (ter). See also on f. 344, 344 b, the symbol fð in the margin. The word friðsócn occurs in Æthelr. VIII. 1 and Cnut I. 2 § 3, where it seems to stand for a sanctuary, an asylum.
[377] If one of _A_'s tenants is sued in a personal action in the hundred court he will have to answer there unless _A_ appears and 'claims his court.' This comes out plainly in certain rolls of the court of Wisbeach Hundred, which by the kind permission of the Bishop of Ely, I have examined. On a roll of 33 Edw. I. we find Stephen Hamond sued for a debt; 'et super hoc venit Prior Elyensis et petit curiam suam; et Thomas Doreward petit curiam suam de dicto Stephano residente suo et tenente suo.' The prior's petition is refused on the ground that Stephen is not his tenant, and Doreward's petition is refused on the ground that it is unprecedented.
[378] D. B. ii. 291: 'Et fuit in soca Regis. Postquam Briennus habuit, nullam consuetudinem reddidit in hundreto.' Ibid. 240: 'Hoc totum tenuit Lisius pro uno manerio; modo tenet Eudo successor illius et in T. R. E. soca et saca fuit in hundreto; set modo tenet Eudo.'--Ibid. 240 b: 'Soca istius terre T. R. E. iacuit in Folsa Regis; modo habet Walterius [Giffardus].'--Ibid. 285 b: the hundred testified that in truth the King and Earl had the soke and sake in the Confessor's day, but the men of the vill say that Burchard likewise (_similiter_) had the soke of his free men as well as of his villeins.
[379] D. B. i. 35 b: 'Duo fratres tenuerunt T. R. E.; unusquisque habuit domum suam et tamen manserunt in una curia.' Ibid. 103 b: 'Ibi molendinum serviens curiae.' Ibid. 103: 'arabant et herciabant ad curiam domini.'
[380] D. B. i. 87 b. Kemble, Cod. Dip., iv. p. 233: 'and þriwa secan gemot on 12 monðum.'
[381] D. B. i. 193 b; Hamilton, Inquisitio, 77-8.
[382] D. B. i. 75.
[383] D. B. i. 238.
[384] D. B. i. 186.
[385] D. B. i. 38 b.
[386] D. B. i. 101.
[387] D. B. i. 280 b: 'Hic notantur qui habuerunt socam et sacam et thol et thaim et consuetudinem Regis 2 denariorum.... Horum omnium nemo habere potuit tercium denarium comitis nisi eius concessu et hoc quamdiu viveret, preter Archiepiscopum et Ulf Ferisc et Godeue Comitissam.'
[388] See above, p. 92, note 367.
[389] D. B. ii. 123 b: 'De istis est soca in hundreto ad tercium denarium.'
[390] D. B. ii. 282.
[391] D. B. ii. 312: 'Rex habet in Duneuuic consuetudinem hanc quod duo vel tres ibunt ad hundret si recte moniti fuerint, et si hoc non faciunt, forisfacti sunt de 2 oris, et si latro _ibi_ fuerit captus _ibi_ judicabitur, et corporalis iusticia in Blieburc capietur, et sua pecunia remanebit dominio de Duneuuic.' It seems to us that the first _ibi_ must refer to Dunwich and therefore that the second does so likewise. Still the passage is ambiguous enough.
[392] See above, p. 91.
[393] Battle Custumals (Camden Soc.) 136. This is an interesting example, for it suggests an explanation of the common claim to hold a court 'outside' the hundred court (_petit curiam suam extra hundredum_). The claimant's men will go apart and hold a little court by themselves outside 'the four benches' of the hundred.
[394] D. B. i. 32: 'et si quis forisfaciens ibi calumpniatus fuisset, Regi emendabat; si vero non calumpniatus abisset sub eo qui sacam et socam habuisset, ille emendam de reo haberet.' Compare with this the account of Guildford, Ibid. 30.
[395] D. B. i. 56 b.
[396] D. B. i. 336 b.
[397] D. B. i. 238.
[398] The passages from the dooms are collected by Schmid s. v. _Hausfriede_, _Feohtan_.
[399] Ine, 6 § 3: 'If he fight in the house of a gavel-payer or boor, let him give 30 shillings by way of wite and 6 shillings to the boor.'
[400] D. B. i. 204.
[401] D. B. ii. 419 b: 'Cercesfort tenuit Scapius teinnus Haroldi.... Scapius habuit socam sub Haroldo.'--Ibid. 313: 'Heroldus socam habuit et Stanuuinus de eo.... Idem Stanuuinus socam habuit de Heroldo.'
[402] D. B. i. 142 b: 'et vendere potuerunt praeter socam; unus autem eorum etiam socam suam cum terra vendere poterat.' Comp. D. B. ii. 230: 'Huic manerio iacent 5 liberi homines ad socam tantum commend[ati] et 2 de omni consuetudine.'--Ibid. ii. 59: 'In Cingeham tenuit Sauinus presbyter 15 acras ... in eadem villa tenuit Etsinus 15 acras.... Isti supradicti fuerunt liberi ita quod ipsi possent vendere terram cum soca et saca ut hundretus testatur.'--Ibid. ii. 40 b: 'et iste fuit ita liber quod posset ire quo vellet cum soca et sacha set tantum fuit homo Wisgari.'
[403] Leg. Henr. 81 § 3: 'Quidam, villani qui sunt, eiusmodi leierwitam et blodwitam et huiusmodi minora forisfacta emerunt a dominis suis, vel quomodo meruerunt, de suis et in suos, quorum flet-gefoth vel overseunessa est 30 den.; cothseti 15 den.; servi 6 (_al._ 5) den.' The _flet-gefoth_ seems to be the sum due for fighting in a man's _flet_ or house.
[404] Munimenta Gildhallae, i. 66.
[405] Hist. Eng. Law, i. 580-2.
[406] D. B. ii. 424: 'Et dicunt etiam quod istam terram R[anulfus] calumpniavit supra Radulfum, et vicecomes Rogerius denominavit illis constitutum tempus m[odo] ut ambo adfuissent; Ranulfo adveniente defuit Radulfus et iccirco diiudicaverunt homines hundreti Rannulfum esse saisitum.'--Ibid. i. 165 b: 'Modo iacet in Bernitone hundredo iudicio hominum eiusdem hundredi.'--Ibid. i. 58 b: 'unde iudicium non dixerunt, sed ante Regem ut iudicet dimiserunt.'--Ibid. 182 b: 'In isto hundredo ad placita conveniunt qui ibi manent ut rectum faciant et accipiant.'
[407] Above, p. 95.
[408] D. B. ii. 186: 'In Sterestuna tenuit 1 liber homo S. Aldrede T. R. E. et Stigandi erat soca et saco in Hersam, set nec dare nec vendere poterat terram suam sine licentia S. Aldrede et Stigandi.'
[409] D. B. ii. 376.
[410] D. B. ii. 401 b: 'Eodem tempore fuerunt furati equi inventi in domo istius Brungari, ita quod Abbas cuius fuit soca et saca et Rodbertus qui habuit commendationem super istum venerunt de hoc furto ad placitum, et sicut hundret testatur discesserunt amicabiliter sine iudicio quod vidissed (_sic_) hundret.'
[411] E.g. D. B. ii. 35 b: 'quas tenuerunt 2 sochemanni et 1 liber homo.'
[412] D. B. ii. 28 b: 'Huic manerio iacent 5 sochemanni quorum 2 occupavit Ingelricus tempore Regis Willelmi qui tune erant liberi homines.'
[413] D. B. ii. 83: '3 sochemanni tenentes libere.'--Ibid. 88 b: 'tunc fuit 1 sochemannus qui libere tenuit 1 virgatam.'--Ibid. 58: 'in hac terra sunt 13 sochemanni qui libere tenent.'
[414] D. B. i. 212 b, Bedf.: 'Hanc terram tenuerunt 4 sochemanni quorum 3 liberi fuerunt, quartus vero unam hidam habuit, sed nec dare nec vendere potuit.'
[415] D. B. i. 35 b, 'Isti liberi homines ita liberi fuerunt quod poterant ire quo volebant.'--Ibid. ii. 187: '5 homines ... ex istis erant 4 liberi ut non possent recedere nisi dando 2 solidos.'
[416] Round, Feudal England, 34.
[417] D. B. ii. 59 b, Essex: 'quod tenuerunt 2 liberi homines ... set non poterant recedere sine licentia illius Algari.'--Ibid. 216 b, Norf.: 'Ibi sunt 5 liberi homines S. Benedicti commendatione tantum ... et ita est in monasterio quod nec vendere nec forisfacere pot[uerunt] extra ecclesia set soca est in hundredo.'--Ibid. i. 137 b, Herts: 'duo teigni ... vendere non potuerunt.'--Ibid. i. 30 b, Hants: 'Duo liberi homines tenuerunt de episcopo T. R. E. sed recedere cum terra non potuerunt.'
[418] Above, p. 103, note 417.
[419] E.g. D. B. i. 129 b: 'In hac terra fuerunt 5 sochemanni de 6 hidis quas potuerunt dare vel vendere sine licentia dominorum suorum.'
[420] Above, p. 100, note 402.
[421] E.g. D. B. ii. 358: '7 liberos homines ... hi poterant dare vel vendere terram set saca et soca et commendatio et servitium remanebant Sancto [Edmundo].'
[422] D. B. ii. 186: 'In Sterestuna tenuit unus liber homo S. Aldredae T. R. E. et Stigandi erat soca et saco in Hersam.'--Ibid. 139 b: 'habuit socam et sacam ... de commendatis suis.'
[423] D. B. i. 141.
[424] Liebermann, Leges Edwardi, p. 72. The most important passage is Leg. Edw. 12 § 4: 'Manbote in Danelaga de villano et de socheman 12 oras [= 20 sol.]: de liberis hominibus 3 marcas [= 40 sol.].'
[425] A study of the Hundred Rolls might prepare us for this result. One jury will call _servi_ those whom another jury would have called _villani_. See e.g. R. H. ii. 688 ff.
[426] D. B. ii. 189 b, 190.
[427] D. B. ii. 318: 'In Suttona tenet idem W. [de Cadomo] de R. Malet 2 liberos homines commendatos Edrico 61 acr[arum] et sub 1 ex ipsis 5 liberi [_sic_] homines.'--Ibid. 321 b: 'In Caldecota 6 liberi homines commendati Leuuino de Bachetuna 74 acr. et 7 liberi homines sub eis commend[ati] de 6 acr. et dim.'
§ 6. _The Manor._
[What is a manor?]
This brings us face to face with a question that we have hitherto evaded. What is a manor? The word _manerium_ appears on page after page of Domesday Book, but to define its meaning will task our patience. Perhaps we may have to say that sometimes the term is loosely used, that it has now a wider, now a narrower compass, but we can not say that it is not a technical term. Indeed the one statement that we can safely make about it is that, at all events in certain passages and certain contexts, it is a technical term.
['Manor' a technical term.]
We may be led to this opinion by observing that in the description of certain counties--Middlesex, Buckingham, Bedford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Derby, Nottingham, Lincoln, York--the symbol _M_ which represents a manor, is often carried out into the margin, and is sometimes contrasted with the _S_ which represents a soke and the _B_ which represents a berewick. This no doubt has been done--though it may not have been very consistently done--for the purpose of guiding the eye of officials who will turn over the pages in search of manors. But much clearer evidence is forthcoming. Throughout the survey of Essex it is common to find entries which take such a form as this: 'Thurkil held it for two hides and for one manor'; 'Brithmær held it for five hides and for one manor'; 'Two free men who were brothers held it for two hides and for two manors'; 'Three free men held it for three manors and for four hides and twenty-seven acres[428].' In Sussex again the statement '_X_ tenuit pro uno manerio[429]' frequently occurs. Such phrases as 'Four brothers held it for two manors, Hugh received it for one manor[430],'--'These four manors are now for one manor[431],'--'Then there were two halls, now it is in one manor[432],'--'A certain thegn held four hides and it was a manor[433],'--are by no means unusual[434]. A clerk writes 'Elmer tenuit' and then is at pains to add by way of interlineation 'pro manerio[435].' 'Eight thegns held this manor, one of them, Alwin, held two hides for a manor; another, Ulf, two hides for a manor; another, Algar, one hide and a half for a manor; Elsi one hide, Turkill one hide, Lodi one hide, Osulf one hide, Elric a half-hide[436]'--when we read this we feel sure that the scribe is using his terms carefully and that he is telling us that the holdings of the five thegns last mentioned were not manors. And then Hugh de Port holds Wallop in Hampshire 'for half a manor[437].' But let us say at once that at least one rule of law, or of local custom, demands a definition of a _manerium_. In the shires of Nottingham and Derby a thegn who has more than six manors pays a relief of £8 to the king, but if he has only six manors or less, then a relief of 3 marks to the sheriff[438]. It seems clear therefore that not only did the Norman rulers treat the term _manerium_ as an accurate term charged with legal meaning, but they thought that it, or rather some English equivalent for it, had been in the Confessor's day an accurate term charged with legal meaning.
[The word _manerium_.]
The term _manerium_ seems to have come in with the Conqueror[439], though other derivatives from the Latin verb _manere_, in particular _mansa_, _mansio_, _mansiuncula_ had been freely employed by the scribes of the land-books. But these had as a rule been used as representatives of the English _hide_, and just for this reason they were incapable of expressing the notion that the Normans desired to express by the word _manerium_. In its origin that word is but one more name for a house. Throughout the Exeter Domesday the word _mansio_ is used instead of the _manerium_ of the Exchequer record, and even in the Exchequer record we may find these two terms used interchangeably:--'Three free men belonged to this _manerium_; one of them had half a hide and could withdraw himself without the licence of the lord of the _mansio_[440].' If we look for the vernacular term that was rendered by _manerium_, we are likely to find it in the English _heal_. Though this is not connected with the Latin _aula_, still these two words bearing a similar meaning meet and are fused in the _aula_, _haula_, _halla_ of Domesday Book.
[Manor and hall.]
Now this term stands in the first instance for a house and can be exchanged with _curia_. You may say that there is meadow enough for the horses of the _curia_[441], and that there are three horses in the _aula_[442]; you may speak indifferently of a mill that serves the hall[443], or of the mill that grinds the corn of the court[444]. But further, you may say that in Stonham there are 50 acres of the demesne land of the hall in Creeting, or that in Thorney there are 24 acres which belong to the hall in Stonham[445], or that Roger de Rames has lands which once were in the hall of St Edmund[446], or that in the hall of Grantham there are three carucates of land[447], or that Guthmund's sake and soke extended only over the demesne of his hall[448]. We feel that to such phrases as these we should do no great violence were we to substitute 'manor' for 'hall.' Other phrases serve to bring these two words very closely together. One and the same page tells us, first, that Hugh de Port holds as one manor what four brothers held as two manors, and then, that on another estate there is one hall though of old there were two halls[449]:--these two stories seem to have the same point. 'Four brothers held this; there was only one hall there[450].' 'Two brothers held it and each had his hall; now it is as one manor[451].' 'In these two lands there is but one hall[452].' 'Then there were two halls; now it is in one manor[453].' 'Ten manors; ten thegns, each had his hall[454].' 'Ingelric set these men to his hall.... Ingelric added these men to his manor[455].'
[Difference between manor and hall.]
We do not contend that _manerium_ and _halla_ are precisely equivalent. Now and again we shall be told of a _manerium sine halla_[456] as of some exceptional phenomenon. The term _manerium_ has contracted a shade of technical meaning; it refers, so we think, to a system of taxation, and thus it is being differentiated from the term _hall_. Suppose, for example, that a hall or manor has meant a house from which taxes are collected, and that some one removes that house, houses being very portable things[457]: 'by construction of law,' as we now say, there still may be a hall or manor on the old site; or we may take advantage of the new wealth of words and say that, though the hall has gone, the manor remains: to do this is neater than to say that there is a 'constructive' hall where no hall can be seen. Then again, _manerium_ is proving itself to be the more elastic of the two terms. We may indeed speak of a considerable stretch of land as belonging to or even as 'being in' a certain hall, and this stretch may include not only land that the owner of the hall occupies and cultivates by himself or his servants, but also land and houses that are occupied by his villeins[458]: still we could hardly talk of the hall being a league long and a league wide or containing a square league. Of _manerium_, however, we may use even such phrases as those just mentioned[459]. For all this, we can think of no English word for which _manerium_ can stand, save _hall_; _tún_, it is clear enough, was translated by _villa_, not by _manerium_.
[Size of the _maneria_.]
If now we turn from words to look at the things which those words signify, we shall soon be convinced that to describe a typical _manerium_ is an impossible feat, for on the one hand there are enormous _maneria_ and on the other hand there are many holdings called _maneria_ which are so small that we, with our reminiscences of the law of later days, can hardly bring ourselves to speak of them as manors. If we look in the world of sense for the essence of the _manerium_ we shall find nothing that is common to all _maneria_ save a piece of ground--very large it may be, or very small--held (in some sense or another) by a single person or by a group of co-tenants, for even upon a house we shall not be able to insist very strictly. After weary arithmetical labours we might indeed obtain an average manor; we might come to the conclusion that the average manor contained so many hides or acres, possibly that it included land occupied by so many sokemen, villeins, bordiers, serfs; but an average is not a type, and the uselessness of such calculations will soon become apparent.
[A large manor.]
We may begin by looking at a somewhat large manor. Let it be that of Staines in Middlesex, which is held by St Peter of Westminster[460]. It is rated at 19 hides but contains land for 24 plough-teams. To the demesne belong 11 hides and there are 13 teams there. The villeins have 11 teams. There are:--
3 villeins with a half-hide apiece. 4 villeins with a hide between them. 8 villeins with a half-virgate apiece. 36 bordiers with 3 hides between them. 1 villein with 1 virgate. 4 bordiers with 40 acres between them. 10 bordiers with 5 acres apiece. 5 cottiers with 4 acres. 8 bordiers with 1 virgate. 3 cottiers with 9 acres. 13 serfs. 46 burgesses paying 40 shillings a year.