Part 15

There are 6 mills of 64 shillings and one fish-weir of 6_s._ 8_d._ and one weir which renders nothing. There is pasture sufficient for the cattle of the vill. There is meadow for the 24 teams, and in addition to this there is meadow worth 20_s._ a year. There is wood for 30 pigs; there are 2 arpents of vineyard. To this manor belong four berewicks. Altogether it is worth £35 and formerly it was worth £40.--This is a handsome manor.--The next manor that is mentioned would be a fairer specimen. It is Sunbury held by St Peter of Westminster[461]. It is rated at 7 hides and there is land for but 6 teams. To the demesne belong 4 hides and there is one team there. The villeins have 4 teams. There are:--

A priest with a half-virgate. 8 villeins with a virgate apiece. 2 villeins with a virgate. 5 bordiers with a virgate. 5 cottiers. 1 serf.

There is meadow for 6 teams and pasture enough for the cattle of the vill. Altogether it is worth £6 and has been worth £7. Within this one county of Middlesex we can see wide variations. There are manors which are worth £50 and there are manors which are not worth as many shillings. The archbishop's grand manor at Harrow has land for 70 teams[462]; the Westminster manor of Cowley has land for but one team and the only tenants upon it are two villeins[463].

[Enormous manors. Leominster.]

But far larger variations than these are to be found. Let us look at a few gigantic manors. Leominster in Herefordshire had been held by Queen Edith together with sixteen members[464]. The names of these members are given and we may find them scattered about over a wide tract of Herefordshire. In this manor with its members there were 80 hides. In the demesne there were 30 teams. There were 8 reeves and 16 beadles and 8 radknights and 238 villeins, 75 bordiers and 82 male and female serfs. These in all had 230 teams; so that with the demesne teams there were no less than 260. Further there were Norman barons paying rents to this manor. Ralph de Mortemer for example paid 15_s._ and Hugh de Lacy 6_s._ 8_d._ It is let to farm at a rent of £60 and besides this has to support a house of nuns; were it freed from this duty, it might, so thinks the county, be let at a rent of £120. It is a most interesting manor, for we see strong traces of a neat symmetrical arrangement:--witness the 16 members, 8 reeves, 8 radknights, 16 beadles; very probably it has a Welsh basis[465]. But we have in this place to note that it is called a manor, and for certain purposes it is treated as a single whole. For what purposes? Well, for one thing, it is let to farm as a single whole. This, however, is of no very great importance, for landlords and farmers may make what bargains they please. But also it is taxed as a single whole. It is rated at the nice round figures of 80 hides.

[Berkeley.]

[Tewkesbury.]

No less handsome and yet more valuable is Berkeley in Gloucestershire[466]. It brought in a rent of £170 of refined money. It had eighteen members which were dispersed abroad over so wide a field that a straight line of thirty miles would hardly join their uttermost points[467]. 'All the aforesaid members belong to Berkeley.' There were 29 radknights, 162 villeins, 147 bordiers, 22 coliberts, 161 male and female serfs, besides some unenumerated men of the radknights; on the demesne land were 54-1/2 teams; and the tenants had 192. Tewkesbury also is a splendid manor. 'When it was all together in King Edward's time it was worth £100,' though now but £50 at the most can be had from it and in the turmoil of the Conquest its value fell to £12[468]. It was a scattered unit, but still it was a unit for fiscal purposes. It was reckoned to contain 95 hides, but the 45 which were in demesne were quit of geld, and matters had been so arranged that all the geld on the remaining 50 hides had, as between the lord and his various tenants, been thrown on 35 of those hides. The 'head of the manor' was at Tewkesbury; the members were dispersed abroad; but 'they gelded in Tewkesbury[469].'

[Taunton.]

No list of great manors would be complete without a notice of Taunton[470]. 'The bishop of Winchester holds Tantone or has a mansion called Tantone. Stigand held it in King Edward's day and it gelded for 54 hides and 2-1/2 virgates. There is land for 100 teams, and besides this the bishop in his demesne has land for 20 teams which never gelded.' 'With all its appendages and customs it is worth £154. 12_d._' 'Tantone' then is valued as a whole and it has gelded as a whole. But 'Tantone' in this sense covers far more than the borough which bears that name; it covers many places which have names of their own and had names of their own when the survey was made[471]. We might speak of the bishop of Exeter's manor of Crediton in Devon which is worth £75 and in which are 264 villeins and 73 bordiers[472], or of the bishop of Winchester's manor of Chilcombe in Hampshire where there are nine churches[473]; but we turn to another part of England.

[Large manors in the midlands.]

If we wish to see a midland manor with many members we may look at Rothley in Leicestershire[474]. The vill of Rothley itself is not very large and it is separately valued at but 62_s._ But 'to this manor belong the following members,' and then we read of no less than twenty-one members scattered over a large area and containing 204 sokemen who with 157 villeins and 94 bordiers have 82 teams and who pay in all £31. 8_s._ 1_d._ Their rents are thus reckoned as forming a single whole. In Lincolnshire Earl Edwin's manor of Kirton had 25 satellites, Earl Morcar's manor of Caistor 16, the Queen's manor of Horncastle 15[475]. A Northamptonshire manor of 27 hides lay scattered about in six hundreds[476].

[Town-houses and berewicks attached to manors.]

It is common enough to see a town-house annexed to a rural manor. Sometimes a considerable group of houses or 'haws' in the borough is deemed to 'lie in' or form part of a manor remote from its walls. Thus, to give but two examples, twelve houses in London belong to the Bishop of Durham's manor of Waltham in Essex; twenty-eight houses in London to the manor of Barking[477]. Not only these houses but their occupants are deemed to belong to the manor; thus 80 burgesses in Dunwich pertain to one of the Ely manors[478]. The berewick (_bereuita_)[479] also frequently meets our eye. Its name seems to signify primarily a wick, or village, in which barley is grown; but, like the barton (_bertona_) and the grange (_grangia_) of later days, it seems often to be a detached portion of a manor which is in part dependent on, and yet in part independent of, the main body. Probably at the berewick the lord has some demesne land and some farm buildings, a barn or the like, and the villeins of the berewick are but seldom called upon to leave its limits; but the lord has no hall there, he does not consume its produce upon the spot, and yet for some important purposes the berewick is a part of the manor. The berewick might well be some way off from the hall; a manor in Hampshire had three berewicks on the mainland and two in the Isle of Wight[480].

[Manor and soke.]

Then again in the north and east the manor is often the centre of an extensive but very discrete territory known as its soke. One says that certain lands are 'soke' or are 'the soke,' or are 'in the soke' of such a manor, or that 'their soke belongs' to such a manor. One contrasts the soke of the manor with the 'inland' and with the berewicks[481]. The soke in this context seems to be the territory in which the lord's rights are, or have been, of a justiciary rather than of a proprietary kind[482]. The manor of the eastern counties is a discrete, a dissipated thing. Far from lying within a ring fence, it often consists of a small nucleus of demesne land and villein tenements in one village, together with many detached parcels in many other villages, which are held by 'free men' and sokemen. In such a case we may use the term _manerium_ now in a wider, now in a narrower sense. In valuing the manor, we hardly know whether to include or exclude these free men. We say that the manor 'with the free men' is worth so much[483], or that the manor 'without the free men' is worth so much[484], that the manor is worth £10 and that the free men pay 40 shillings[485], that Thurmot had soke over the manor and over three of the free men while the Abbot of Ely had soke over the other three[486].

[Minute manors.]

From one extreme we may pass to the other extreme. If there were huge manors, there were also tiny manors. Let us begin in the south-west of England. Quite common is the manor which is said to have land for but one team; common also is the manor which is said to have land for but half a team. This means, as we believe, that the first of these manors has but some 120 acres of arable, while the second has but 60 acres or thereabouts. 'Domesday measures' are, it is well known, the matter of many disputes; therefore we will not wholly rely upon them, but will look at some of these 'half-team' manors and observe how much they are worth, how many tenants and how much stock they have upon them.

(i) A Somersetshire manor[487]. Half the land is in demesne; half is held by 7 bordiers. The only plough beasts are 4 oxen on the demesne; there are 3 beasts that do not plough, 20 sheep, 7 acres of underwood, 20 acres of pasture. It is worth 12_s._, formerly it was worth 10_s._

(ii) A Somersetshire manor[488]. A quarter of the land is in demesne; the rest is held by 2 villeins and 3 bordiers. The men have one team; apparently the demesne has no plough-oxen. No other animals are mentioned. There are 140 acres of wood, 41 acres of moor, 40 acres of pasture. It is worth 12_s._ 6_d._ and has been worth 20_s._

(iii) A Somersetshire manor[489]. All the land, save 10 acres, is in demesne; 2 bordiers hold the 10 acres. There is a team on the demesne; there are 2 beasts that do not plough, 7 pigs, 16 sheep, 4 acres of meadow, 7 of pasture. Value, 6_s._

(iv) A Somersetshire manor[490]. The whole of the arable is in demesne; the only tenant is a bordier. There are 4 plough-oxen and 11 goats and 7 acres of underwood. Value, 6_s._

(v) A Devonshire manor[491]. To all seeming all is in demesne and there are no tenants. There are 4 plough-beasts, 15 sheep, 5 goats, 4 acres of meadow. Value, 3_s._

(vi) A Devonshire manor[492]. Value, 3_s._ All seems to be in demesne; we see no tenants and no stock.

We have been at no great pains to select examples, and yet smaller manors may be found, manors which provide arable land for but two oxen. Thus

(vii) A Somersetshire manor[493] occupied by one villein. We read nothing of any stock. Value, 15_d._

(viii) A Somersetshire manor[494] with 3 bordiers on it. Value, 4_s._

(ix) A Somersetshire manor[495] with one bordier on it. Value, 30_d._

The lowest value of a manor in this part of the world is, so far as we have observed, one shilling; that manor to all appearance was nothing but a piece of pasture land[496]. Yet each of these holdings is a _mansio_, and the Bishop of Winchester's holding at Taunton is a _mansio_.

[Small manors in the east.]

From one side of England we will journey to the other side; from Devon and Somerset to Essex and Suffolk. We soon observe that in describing the holdings of the 'free men' and sokemen of this eastern district as they were in King Edward's day, our record constantly introduces the term _manerium_. A series of entries telling us how 'a free man held _x_ hides or carucates or acres' will ever and anon be broken by an entry that tells us how 'a free man held _x_ hides or carucates or acres for a manor'[497]. We soon give up counting the cases in which the manor is rated at 60 acres. We begin counting the cases in which it is rated at 30 acres and find them numerous; we see manors rated at 24 acres, at 20, at 15, at 12 acres. But this, it may be said, tells us little, for these manors may be extravagantly underrated[498]. Let us then look at a few of them.

(i) In Espalle Siric held 30 acres for a manor; there were always 3 bordiers and one team and 4 acres of meadow; wood for 60 pigs and 13 beasts. It was then worth 10_s._[499]

(ii) In Torentuna Turchetel a free man held 30 acres for a manor; there were always 2 bordiers and one team and a half. It is worth 10_s._[500]

(iii) In Bonghea Godric a free man held 30 acres for a manor; there were 1 bordier and 1 team and 2 acres of meadow. It was then worth 8_s_.[501]

(iv) Three free men and their mother held 30 acres for a manor. There was half a team. Value, 5_s._[502]

(v) In Rincham a free man held 30 acres for a manor. There were half a team and one acre of meadow. Value, 5_s._[503]

(vi) In Wenham Ælfgar a free man held 24 acres for a manor. Value, 4_s._[504]

(vii) In Torp a free man held 20 acres for a manor. One team; wood for 5 pigs. Value, 40_d._[505]

(viii) In Tudenham Ælfric the deacon, a free man, held 12 acres for a manor. One team, 3 bordiers, 2 acres of meadow, 1 rouncey, 2 beasts that do not plough, 11 pigs, 40 sheep. Value, 3_s._[506]

We are not speaking of curiosities; the sixty acre manor was very common in Essex, the thirty acre manor was no rarity in Suffolk.

[The manor as a peasant's holding.]

Now it is plain enough that the 'lord' of such a manor,--or rather the holder of such a manor, for there was little lordship in the case,--was often enough a peasant, a tiller of the soil. He was under soke and under commendation; commended it may be to one lord, rendering soke to another. Sometimes he is called a sokeman[507]. But he has a manor. Sometimes he has a full team, sometimes but half a team. Sometimes he has a couple of bordiers seated on his land, who help him in his husbandry. Sometimes there is no trace of tenants, and his holding is by no means too large to permit of his cultivating it by his own labour and that of his sons. No doubt in the west country even before the Conquest these petty _mansiones_ or _maneria_ were being accumulated in the hands of the wealthy. The thegn who was the _antecessor_ of the Norman baron, sometimes held a group, a geographically discontinuous group, of petty manors as well as some more substantial and better consolidated estates. But still each little holding is reckoned a manor, while in the east of England there is nothing to show that the nameless free men who held the manors which are said to consist of 60, 40, 30 acres had usually more than one manor apiece. When therefore we are told that already before the Conquest England was full of manors, we must reply: Yes, but of what manors[508]?

[Definition of a manor.]

Now were the differences between various manors a mere difference in size and in value, a student of law might pass them by. Our notion of ownership is the same whether it be applied to the largest and most precious, or to the smallest and most worthless of things. But in this case we have not to deal with mere differences in size or value. The examples that we have given will have proved that few, if any, propositions of legal import will hold good of all _maneria_. We must expressly reject some suggestions that the later history of our law may make to us. 'A manor has a court of its own':--this is plainly untrue. To say nothing of extreme cases, of the smallest of the manors that we have noticed, we can not easily believe that a manor with less than ten tenants has a court of its own, yet the number of such manors is exceedingly large. 'A manor has freehold tenants':--this of course we must deny, unless we hold that the _villani_ are freeholders. 'A manor has villein or customary tenants':--even this proposition, though true of many cases, we can not accept. Not only may we find a manor the only tenants upon which are _liberi homines_[509], but we are compelled to protest that a manor need not have any tenants at all. 'A manor must contain demesne land':--this again we can not believe. In one case we read that the whole manor is being farmed by the villeins so that there is nothing in demesne[510], while in other cases we are told that there is nothing in demesne and see no trace of any recent change[511]. Thus, one after another, all the familiar propositions seem to fail us, and yet we have seen good reason to believe that _manerium_ has some exact meaning. It remains that we should hazard an explanation.

[The manor and the geld.]

A manor is a house against which geld is charged. To the opinion that in some way or another the definition of a manor is intimately connected with the great tax we shall be brought by phrases such as the following: 'Richard holds Fivehide of the Earl which Brihtmær held in King Edward's time for forty acres and for a manor[512].'--'Two free men who were brothers, Bondi and Ælfric held it for two hides and for two manors[513].' When we say that a man holds land 'as' or 'for' (_pro_) forty acres, we mean that his holding, be its real size what it may, is rated to the geld at forty acres. If we add the words 'and as (or for) one manor,' surely we are still speaking of the geld. For one moment the thought may cross our minds that, besides a tax on land, there has been an additional tax on 'halls,' on houses of a certain size or value; but this we soon dismiss as most unlikely. To raise but one out of many objections: had there been such a house-tax, it would have left plain traces of itself in those 'Geld Inquests' of the south-western counties that have come down to us. Rather we regard the matter thus:--The geld is a land-tax, a tax of so much per hide or carucate. In all likelihood it has been assessed according to a method which we might call the method of subpartitioned provincial quotas. The assumption has been made that a shire or other large district contains a certain number of hides; this number has then been apportioned among the hundreds of that shire, and the number allotted to each hundred has been apportioned among the vills of that hundred. The common result is that some neat number of hides, five, ten or the like is attributed to the vill[514]. This again has been divided between the holdings in that vill. Ultimately it is settled that for fiscal purposes a given holding contains, or must be deemed to contain, this or that number of hides, virgates, or acres. Thus far the system makes no use of the _manerium_. But it now has to discover some house against which a demand may be made for every

## particular penny of geld. Despite the 'realism' of the system, it has to

face the fact that, after all, taxes must be paid by men and not by land. Men live in houses. It seeks the tax-payer in his house. Now, were all the occupiers of land absolute owners of the land that they occupied, even were it true that every acre had some one person as its absolute owner, the task would be simple. A schedule of five columns, such we are familiar with, would set forth 'Owner's Name,' 'Place of Residence,' 'Description of Geldable Property,' 'Hidage,' 'Amount due.' But the occupier is not always the owner; what is more, there is no absolute ownership. Two, three, four persons will be interested in the land; the occupier will have a lord and that lord a lord; the occupier may be a serf, a villein, a sokeman; there is commendation to be considered and soke and all the infinite varieties of the power to 'withdraw' the land from the lord. Rude and hard and arbitrary lines must be drawn. Of course the state will endeavour to collect the geld in big sums. It will endeavour to make the great folk answer for the geld which lies on any land that is in any way subject to their power; thus the cost of collecting petty sums will be saved and the tax will be charged on men who are solvent. The central power may even hold out certain advantages to the lord who will become responsible for the geld of his tenants or justiciables or commended men. The hints that we get in divers counties that the lord's 'inland' has borne no geld seem to point in this direction, though the arrangements about this matter seem to have varied from shire to shire[515]. On the pipe rolls of a later day we see that the geld charged against the magnates is often 'pardoned.' For one reason the king can not easily tax the rich; for another he can not easily tax the poor; so he gets at the poor through the rich. The small folk will gladly accept any scheme that will keep the tax-collector from their doors, even though they purchase their relief by onerous promises of rents and services. The great men, again, may find advantage in such bargains; they want periodical rents and services, and in order to obtain them will accept a certain responsibility for occasional taxes. This process had gone very far on the eve of the Conquest. Moreover the great men had enjoyed a large liberty of paying their geld where they pleased, of making special compositions with the king, of turning some wide and discrete territory into a single geld-paying unit, of forming such 'manors' as Taunton or Berkeley or Leominster.

[Classification of men for the geld.]