[1256] As to all this see Meitzen, op. cit. i. 272 fol.
[1257] The ratio 10:1 is not the only one that is well represented in Germany. The practice of making the acre four rods wide is more universal. As we shall see below, length must take its chance.
[1258] Morgan, England under the Normans, 19.
[1259] Pollock, E. H. R. xi. 218.
[1260] Morgan, op. cit. 19, citing Monasticon, iv. 421.
[1261] Second Report of the Commissioners for Weights and Measures, Parliamentary Papers, 1820, Reports, vol. vii. The information thus obtained might have been better sifted. When it is said that a certain customary perch contains 15 feet 1 inch, these feet and inches are statute feet and statute inches. Probably this perch had exactly 15 ‘customary’ feet. So, again, it is likely that every ‘customary’ acre contained 160 ‘customary’ perches.
[1263] Compare Meitzen, op. cit. ii. 560.
[1264] Morgan, op. cit. 22.
[1265] Anonymous Husbandry, see Walter of Henley, ed. Lamond, p. 69.
[1266] K. 296 (ii. 87): 6 virgae in length and 3 in breadth.—K. 339 (ii. 149): 28 roda lang and 24 roda brad.—K. 507 (ii. 397): 12 gerda lang and 9 gerda brad.—K. 558 (iii. 229): ‘tres perticas’ = ‘þreo gyrda.’—K. 772 (iv. 84): 12 perticae.—K. 787 (iv. 115): a pertica and a half.—K. 814 (iv. 160): dimidiam virgam et dimidiam quatrentem.—K. 1103 (v. 199): 75 gyrda.—K. 1141 (v. 275): 6 gyrda.—K. 1087 (v. 163): 3 furlongs and 3 mete-yards = an unknown quantity + 12 yards + 13 yards + 43 yards and 6 feet + 20 yards and 6 feet + 7 yards and 6 feet + 5 yards. This charter is commended to geometers. We see, however, that the ‘yard’ in question is longer than 6 feet; it is connected with our perch, not with our cloth yard. Schmid, App. XII.: 3 miles, 3 furlongs, 3 acre-breadths, 9 feet, 9 hand-breadths and 9 barley-corns.
[1267] Meitzen, op. cit. ii. 554. This virga regalis is set down at 4·70 meters; our statute perch stands very close to 5 meters.
[1268] Meitzen, op. cit. i. 278.
[1269] Ellis, Introduction, i. 116.
[1270] The use of quarentina for furlong may be due to the Normans.
[1271] Delisle, Études sur la condition de la classe agricole en Normandie, 531–2.
[1272] We find from D. B. i. 166 that there was a royal sextarius; but (i. 162, 238) other sextarii were in use.
[1273] Meitzen, op. cit. ii. 564. Thus in Köln, the Morgen is 31·72 ares, the Waldmorgen 38·06 ares. In Brunswick the Feldmorgen is 25·02 ares, the Waldmorgen 33·35 ares. So in Sussex the common acres are small; the forest acre = 180 (instead of 160) perches. So in Herefordshire the common acre is put down at two-thirds of the statute acre, but an acre of wood is more than an acre and a half of statute measure.
[1274] Registr. Honor. Richemund., Ap., p. 11, Agard says: ‘In the Arrentation of Assarts of Forests made in Henry III.’s and Edward I.’s times, for forest ground the commissioners let the land per perticam xx. pedum,’ though by this time the 16·5 foot perch was the established royal measure for ordinary purposes. In a Buckinghamshire Fine levied in John’s reign (Hunter, i. 242) we find acres of land which are measured ‘by the lawful perch of the vill,’ while acres of wood are measured ‘by the perch of the king.’ Ibid. 13, 178: a perch of 20 feet was being used in the counties of Bedford and Buckingham, though Bedfordshire is notorious for small acres. The obscure processes that go on in the history of measures might be illustrated from the report cited above, p. 374, note 1261; the length of the ‘customary’ perch varies inversely with the difficulty of the work to be done. In Herefordshire a perch of fencing was 21 feet, a perch of walling 16·5. And so forth.
[1275] Morgan, op. cit. 27, suggests a double goad. The gād of modern Cambridgeshire has been a stick 9 feet long; but the surveyor put eight into the acre-breadth, reckoning two of these gāds to the customary pole of 18 feet. See Pell, in Domesday Studies, i. 276, 296. A rod that is 18 feet long is a clumsy thing and perhaps for practical purposes it has been cut in half. Meitzen, op. cit., i. 90: Two hunting-spears would make a measuring rod. See also Hanssen, Abhandlungen, ii. 210.
[1276] Seebohm, op. cit. 119. Welsh evidence seems to point this way.
[1277] K. 529 (iii. 4): ‘12 æceras mædwa.’—K. 549 (iii. 33).—K. 683 (iii. 263).
[1278] When Walter of Henley, p. 8, is making his calculations as to the amount of land that can be ploughed in a day, he assumes that the work will be over a noune. The ‘by three o’clock’ of his translator is too precise and too late. At whatever hour nones should have been said, the word noon became our name for twelve o’clock. See also Seebohm, op. cit. 124.
[1279] Meitzen, op. cit., ii. 565. The rods known in Germany range upwards from very short South German rods which descend from the Roman pertica to much longer rods which lie between 4 meters and 5. Our statute perch just exceeds 5 meters. Then the ordinary (not forest) Morgen rarely approaches 40 ares, while our statute acre is equivalent to 40·46 ares. However, the Scandinavian Tonne is yet larger and recalls the big acres of northern England. In France perches of 18 feet were common, and in Normandy yet longer perches were used, but we do not know that the French acre or journal contained 160 square perches.
[1280] Seebohm, op. cit. 166.
[1281] Seebohm, op. cit. 19.
[1282] Thus e.g. Glastonbury Rentalia, 68: ‘if he has eight oxen he shall plough every Thursday [during certain seasons] three roods [perticatas].’
[1283] Walter of Henley, 9.
[1284] Tour through the Southern Counties, ed. 3 (1772), pp. 298–301.
[1285] Tour through the Southern Counties, p. 127.
[1286] Walter of Henley, 9.
[1287] Young, View of Agriculture of Oxfordshire, p. 104. In Oxfordshire in the early years of this century many ploughs with four horses ‘go out for 3 roods,’ after all improvements in ploughs and in horses.
[1288] Meitzen, op. cit. 88. Dr Taylor in Domesday Studies, i. 61, gives a somewhat different explanation. The ploughman walked backwards in front of the beasts, and, when near the end of the furrow, used his right arm to pull them round.
[1289] Among the land-books those that most clearly indicate the intermixture of strips are K. 538 (iii. 19),—648 (iii. 210),—692 (iii. 290),—1158 (v. 310),—1169 (v. 326),—1234 (vi. 39),—1240 (vi. 51),—1276 (vi. 108),—1278 (vi. 111).
[1290] As to the names of culturæ the Ramsey Cartulary may be profitably consulted. Such names as Horsepelfurlange, Wodefurlonge, Benefurlange, Stapelfurlange (i. 307), Mikellefurlange (321), Stanweyfurlange, Longefurlange (331) are common. We meet also with -wong: Redewonge (321), Langiwange, Stoniwonge, Schortewonge, Semareswonge (341–2). Also with -leuge (apparently O. E. léah, gen. dat. léage): Wolnothesleuge, Edriches Leuge. Often the cultura is known as the Five (Ten, Twenty) Acres. Sometimes in Latin this sense of furlong is rendered by quarentina: ‘unam rodam in quarentina de Newedich’: Fines, ed. Hunter, i. 42.
[1291] Glastonbury Rentalia, 180, 195, 208.
[1292] Sixteen Old Maps: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1888.
[1293] The rod, however, must have been very short; perhaps it had as few as 12 feet.
[1294] For many reasons this must not be taken as a typical map. We refer to it merely as showing the relation of ‘estimated’ (that is of ‘real’) acres to an acre-measure.
[1295] Instructive evidence about this matter was given in a Chancery suit of James I.’s reign. The deponent speaking of the fen round Ely says ‘it is the use and custom ... to measure the fen grounds by four poles in breadth for an acre, by a pole of 18 feet ... and in length for an acre of the said grounds as it happeneth, according to the length of the furlong of the same fens, which is sometimes shorter and sometimes longer.’ Quoted by O. C. Pell in Domesday Studies, i. 296.
[1296] For an explanation of this mode of ploughing, see Meitzen, op. cit. 84.
[1297] Meitzen gives 6 feet as a usual width for the beds in Germany. I think that in cent. xiii. our selions were usually wider than this.
[1298] The Gloucester Corporation Records, ed. Stevenson (1893), should be consulted. When small pieces of land were being conveyed, the selions were often enumerated. Thus (p. 124): ‘and 13 acres of arable land ... whereof one acre lies upon þistelege near Durand’s land ... an acre and a half being three selions ... half an acre being two selions ... an acre of five selions ... an acre being one selion and a gore ... four selions and two little gores ... an acre being three selions and a head-land.’ In Mr Seebohm’s admirable account of the open fields there seems to me to be some confusion between the selions and the acre or half-acre strips.
[1299] On Mr Mowat’s map of Roxton a quarter-acre strip is a yeard.
[1300] D. B. i. 364: ‘In Staintone habuit Jalf 5 bovatas terrae et 14 acras terrae et 1 virgatam ad geldum.’ This virgate is a quarter-acre. The continuous use of virgata in this sense is attested by Glastonbury Rentalia, 27. So in Normandy: Delisle, Études sur la condition de la classe agricole, 535. So in France: Ducange, s. v. virgata from a Register of the Chamber of Accounts: ‘Quadraginta perticae faciunt virgatam: quatuor virgatae faciunt acram.’ Meitzen, op. cit. i. 95: in Kalenberg a strip that is one rod in breadth is called a Gert (our yard).
[1301] In the Exeter Domesday virga not virgata is the common word. In the Exchequer book an abbreviated form is used; but virga appears in i. 216 b.
[1302] So again, if a iugum is quartered, its quarter can be called a virgate. See Denman Ross, Hist. of Landholding, 140; Round, Feudal England, 108.
[1304] K. 205 (i. 259): ‘circiter 30 iugera.’—K. 217 (i. 274): ‘30 iugera.’—K. 225 (i. 290): ‘hoc est 30 iugerum’ ... ‘hoc est 85 segetum.’—K. 234 (i. 308): ‘150 iugera.’—K. 241 (ii. 1): ‘24 iugeras.’—K. 259 (ii. 26): ‘19 iugera.’—K 264 (ii. 36): ‘unum dimidium agrum ... healve aker.’—K. 276 (ii. 57): ‘10 iugera.’—K. 285 (ii. 70): ‘80 æcra.’—K. 339 (ii. 150): ‘sextig æcera earðlondes ... oðer sextig.’—K. 586 (iii. 118): ‘30 æcra on ðæm twæm feldan.’—K. 612 (iii. 159): ‘2 hida buton 60 æcran.’—K. 633 (iii. 188): ‘3 mansas ac 30 iugerum dimensionem.’—K. 695 (iii. 295): ‘40 agros.’—K. 759 (iv. 59): ‘30 akera.’—K. 782 (iv. 106): ‘fiftig æcera.’—K. 1154 (v. 303): ‘36 ækera yrðlandes.’—K. 1161 (v. 315): ‘ter duodenas segetes’ = ‘36 æcera yrðlandes.’—K. 1211 (v. 393): ‘25 segetes.’—K. 1218 (vi. 1): ‘14 hida and ... 40 æcera.’
[1305] Probably it occurs in Ine 67; certainly in Rectitudines 4, § 3, and in the late document about Tidenham (above, p. 330).—K. 369 (ii. 205): Boundary of a gyrd at Ashurst which belongs to a hide at Topsham (A.D. 937).—K. 521 (ii. 418): Edgar grants ‘tres virgas.’—K. 658 (iii. 229): Æthelred grants ‘3 mansas et 3 perticas.’—K. 1306 (vi. 163): Æthelred grants land ‘trium sub aestimatione perticarum.’—K. 772 (iv. 84): Edward Conf. grants ‘5 perticas.’—K. 787 (iv. 115): He grants ‘unam perticam et dimidiam.’—K. 814 (iv. 160): He grants ‘dimidiam virgam et dimidiam quatrentem.’—Crawford Charters, 5, 9, mortgage in 1018 of a yard of land.—K. 949 (iv. 284); 979 (iv. 307): two other examples from the eve of the Conquest.—It is more likely that these ‘yards’ and ‘perches’ of land are quarter-hides than that they are quarter-acres; ‘square’ perches seem to be out of the question. There are of course many instances in the charters of a pertica, virga, gyrd used as a measure of mere length. See above, p. 375, note 1266, where a few are cited.
[1306] Meitzen, op. cit. 74. In Germany the Hufe, hoba, huoba, huba, etc. is the unit. This word is said to be connected with the modern German Behuf, our behoof; it is the sors, the portion that behoves a man. In Sweden, the unit is the Mantal, a man’s share. The last word about the tenmannetale of Yorkshire has not been said.
[1307] K. 633 (iii. 188).
[1308] K. 612 (iii. 159): ‘landes sumne dæl, ðæt synd 2 hida, buton 60 æcran ðæt hæft se arcebisceop genumen into Cymesige to his hame him to hwætelande.’
[1309] Rot. Hund. ii. 575. After going through the whole calculation, I have satisfied myself that the sum is worked in this way.
[1310] Hence in our law Latin the word terra means arable land. To claim unam acram terrae when you meant an acre of meadow (prati) would have been a fatal error.
[1311] K. 1222 (vi. 12); T. 508: ‘And ic Æðelgar an an hide lond ðes ðe Æulf hauede be hundtuelti acren, ateo so he wille.’ Kemble, Saxons, 117.
[1312] See above, p. 386, note 1304.
[1313] There can be little need of examples. Glastonbury Rentalia, 152: ‘S. tenet unam virgatam terrae et dimidiam, quae computantur pro una virgata.’ Ibid. p. 160: ‘H. tenet unam virgatam et 5 acras, quae omnia computantur pro una virgata.’ Worcester Register, 62: A virgate consists of 13 acres in one field and 121⁄2 in the other; the next virgate of 16 acres in one field and 12 in the other. In other cases the numbers are 16 and 14; 145⁄8 and 11; 13 and 121⁄2; 14 and 11; 143⁄4 and 111⁄4. Yet every virgate is a virgate.
[1314] At the date of Domesday we are a long way from the first danegeld and a very long way from any settlement of Cambridgeshire; still if we analyze a symmetrical hundred, such as Armingford, we shall find that the average ten-hide vill is just about twice as rich as the average five-hide vill in men, in teams and in annual valet, though there will be some wide aberrations from this norm.
[1315] See above, p. 336, note 1160.
[1317] This is proved by ‘The Burghal Hidage’ of which we spoke above, p. 187, and shall speak again hereafter.
[1318] See the Gerefa published by Dr Liebermann in Anglia, ix. 251. Andrews, Old English Manor, 246.
[1319] The manner in which the old hides have really fallen to pieces but are preserving a notional existence is well illustrated by Domesday of St. Paul’s, 41–47. In one case a hide forms nine tenements containing respectively 30, 30, 15, 15, 5, 5, 71⁄2, 5, 71⁄2 acres. See Vinogradoff, Villainage, 249.
[1320] Vinogradoff, Villainage, 242; Maitland, History of an English Manor, Eng. Hist. Rev. ix. 418.
[1321] See Pell, in Domesday Studies, i. 357. Almost at one and the same moment, but in two different ‘extents,’ the same tenements are being described as containing 15 and as containing 18 acres. Domesday of St. Paul’s, 69: ‘In this manor the hide contains 120 acres; the old inquest said that it used not to contain more than 80; but afterwards the lands were sought out and measured (exquisitae sunt terrae et mensuratae).’
[1322] Cart. Rams. iii. 208. See also the table given by Seebohm, op. cit. 37.
[1323] A ‘double hide’ of 240 acres plays a part in Mr Seebohm’s speculations. His instances of it hardly bear examination. On p. 37 he produces from Rot. Hund. ii. 629 the equation 1 H.=6 V. of 40 A. apiece. This apparently refers to the Ramsey manor of Brington; but Cart. Rams. ii. 43 gives 1 H.=4 V. of 40 A., while Cart. Rams. iii. 209 gives 1 H.=4 V. of 34 A. Then Mr Seebohm, p. 51, cites from ‘the documents of Battle Abbey given by Dugdale’ the equation 1 H.=8 V.; but this seems to refer to the statement now printed in the Battle Cartulary (Camd. Soc.) p. xiii., where 1 H.=4 V. As to the supposed solanda of two hides, see Round, Feudal England, 103.
[1324] The virgates on the Gloucestershire manors of Gloucester Abbey contain the following numbers of acres: 36, 40, 36, 38, 48, 48, 48, 48, 50, 48, 40, 64, 64, 64, 48, 50, 60, 48, 48, 64, 18 (?), 44, 80, 48, 48, 72. See Gloucester Cartulary, vol. iii. Of the taxation and wealth of the various counties we shall speak hereafter.
[1325] Napier and Stevenson, Crawford Charters, p. 47: The O. E. sulh (plough) is ‘cognate with Lat. sulcus.’
[1326] Both terms were in use in Normandy and some other parts of France: Delisle, Études, 538; also Ducange. In a would-be English charter of the days before the Conquest these words would be ground for suspicion. In K. 283 and 455 Kemble has printed (in documents which he stigmatizes) caractorum. But apparently (see B. ii. 104, iii. 94) what stands in the cartulary is carattorum, and this seems a mistake for the common casatorum. To mistake O. E. s for r is easy.
[1327] See Stevenson, E. H. R. v. 143.
[1328] In D. B. the iugum appears as a portion of a solin; probably as a quarter of the solin. D. B. i. 13: ‘pro uno solin se defendit. Tria iuga sunt infra divisionem Hugonis et quartum iugum est extra.’ The iugum has already appeared in a few Kentish land-books. In K. 199 (i. 249), B. i. 476, we find an ioclet which seems to be half a manse (mansiuncula). In K. 407 (iii. 262), B. ii. 572, we find ‘an iuclæte et insuper 10 segetes (acres).’
[1329] D. B. ii. 389: ‘In Cratingas 24 liberi homines 1 carr. terrae et 1 virg.’
[1330] Yorkshire Inquisitions (Yorks. Archæeol. Soc.) passim. On p. 77 in an account of Catterick we read of ‘a capital messuage worth 5s.; 32 bovates of arable land in demesne (each bovate of 6 acres at 8s.) £12. 16s.; 311⁄2 bovates held by bondmen (each bovate of 10 acres at 13s. 4d.) £21; ... 2 bovates which contain 24 acres and 32 acres called Inland worth 74s. 8d.’
[1332] A bovate of 13 acres seems to have prevailed in Scotland: Acts of Parliament of Scotland, i. 387.
[1333] The immediate source is the Seneschaucie. See Walter of Henley, ed. Lamond, p. 84. Fleta, p. 159.
[1334] Walter of Henley, pp. 6, 8, 44–5. With a three-course system the figures will be somewhat different. Plough 60 acres for winter seed, 60 for spring seed, 60 for fallow (total 180) at the rate of 7/8th of an acre per day:—Total, 2051⁄7 days. In second fallowing plough 60 acres at an acre per day:—Grand total, 2655⁄7 days. Whichever system is adopted, the plough ‘goes’ 240 acres.
[1335] Walter of Henley, p. 13.
[1336] Domesday of St. Paul’s, 38.
[1337] Meitzen, op. cit. i. 277; Andrews, op. cit. 260.
[1338] Gerefa, 9 (Anglia, ix. 261): ‘Me mæig in Maio and Junio and Julio on sumera fealgian.’ Andrews, op. cit. 257.
[1339] Thus e.g. Domesday of St. Paul’s, 59, Tillingham. Is it possible to fallow, when, as in this case, there is no pasture for the oxen except such as is afforded by the idle field? ‘Non est ibi pastura nisi cum quiescit dominicum per wainagium.... (69) Non est ibi certa pastura nisi quando terrae dominici quiescunt alternatim incultae.’
[1340] D. B. i. 307 b, 308.
[1341] It will be convenient for us to adopt this term a ‘teamland’ as an equivalent for the Terra ad unam carucam of our record, so that ‘b teamlands’ shall translate Terra ad b carucas. The reader is asked to accept this note as an ‘interpretation clause.’
[1342] D. B. i. 353.
[1343] D. B. i. 308, Trectone.
[1344] D. B. i. 275 b, Burnulfestune.
[1345] D. B. i 337 b.
[1346] See pp. 400–403.
[1347] We shall not complain of our tools; but Domesday Book is certainly not impeccable. As to its omissions see Eyton, Notes on Domesday (1880); also Round, Feudal England, 43.
[1348] Agricultural Returns, 1895 (Board of Agriculture) p. 34. Tidal water is excluded.
[1349] The received figures are: Middlesex, 149,046, London, 75,442. From older sources we give Middlesex, 180,480: Population Abstract, 1833, vol. i. p. 376.
[1350] For some good remarks on these matters see Eyton, Notes on Domesday. Lincoln, Nottingham and Northampton would require correction because of the treatment that Rutland has received. The boundary of Shropshire has undergone changes. The inclusion of stretches of Welsh ground increases the population without adding to the hidage of some western counties.
[1352] Thus Leicester is charged with £100. 0s. 0d., with £99. 19s. 11d. and with £99. 19s. 4d.
[1353] In 8 Hen. II. several of the counties answer for about £10 less than had formerly been demanded from them.
[1354] The inclusion of the boroughs would have led to many difficulties. London, for example, though no account is taken of it in D. B., seems to have gelded for 1200 hides. (Brit. Mus. MS. Add. 14,252, f. 126.)
[1355] We omit the ‘ingeldable carucates’ which occur in some hidated counties. This may introduce a little caprice. If the jurors in one of these counties ascribe twelve carucates to a manor, we do not count them. If they had spoken of hides which never gelded, we should have counted them; and yet we may agree with Eyton that the two phrases would mean much the same thing. But this source of error or caprice is not very important in our present context. Thus we take Dorset. Eyton gives it 2321 hides and then by adding ‘quasi-hides’ brings up the number to 2650. The difference between these two figures is not large when regarded from the point that we are occupying. I have thought that the difficulty would be better met by the warning that Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset and Devon contain considerable stretches of unhidated royal demesne, than by my reckoning as hides what Eyton called ‘quasi-hides.’ In the case of Dorset, Somerset and Stafford I have placed Eyton’s figures below my own and signed them with the letter E. I know full well that his are much more accurate than mine. He probably gave to each county that he examined more months than I have given weeks to the whole of England. In comparing our results, it should be remembered that, at least in Staffordshire, he dealt with the county boundary in a manner which, in my ignorance, I dare not adopt.
[1356] My calculations about Leicestershire are more than usually rough, owing to the appearance of the curious ‘hide’ or ‘hundred’ or whatever it is. See on the one hand Stevenson, E. H. R. v. 95, and on the other Round, Feudal England, 82. Whether this unit contained 12 or 18 carucates is not of very great importance to us at the moment. But there are other difficulties in Leicestershire. In Cornwall I was compelled to make an assumption as to the peculiar ager or acra of that county; but no reasonable theory about this matter would seriously affect the number of Cornwall’s hides.
[1357] The usual formula is: ‘Tunc se defendit pro a hidis, modo pro a´.’ We place a in Col. IV., a´ in Col. V.
[1358] The usual formula is: ‘T. R. E. geldabat pro a hidis; ibi tamen sunt a´ hidae.’ We place a in Col. IV. and a´ in Col. V.; and we shall argue hereafter, with some hesitation, that the taxation of this county has been increased under William.
[1359] The words Terra est are written and are followed by a blank space. Many instances in Kent and Sussex.
[1360] On the other hand, when I find a statement about B and none about C, I do not assume that C = B; on the contrary, I read the entry to mean that C = 0. In other words, it is very possible that there should be teamlands without teams; but I do not think that for Domesday’s purposes there can be teams (i.e. teams at work) without land that is being ploughed, though it is true that often, and in some counties habitually, C will be slightly greater than B.
[1361] One of the chief difficulties in the way of accurate computation is occasioned by what we may call the complex entries. We start with some such statement as this: ‘The Bishop holds Norton. It defends itself for a hides. There is land for b teams. There are d teams on the demesne and the villeins have e teams.’ But then we read: ‘Of this land [or of these a hides] Roger holds m hides; there are n teams on the demesne and the villeins have o teams.’ Here the total number of hides is a, and not a + m; and I think that the total number of teamlands is b, and not b + some unstated number held by Roger; but the total number of teams is d + e + n + o. Entries in this form are not very uncommon, and therefore this explanation seemed to be required.
[1362] Pearson, History of England, ii. 665.
[1363] Col. IX. gives I. divided by II. Col. X. gives I. divided by VI. Col. XI. gives I. divided by VII. Col. XII. gives II. divided by VI. Col. XIII. gives II. divided by VII. Col. XIV. gives VI. divided by VII. Col. XV. gives VIII. divided by VI. [or if there is no VI. for this county, then by VII.].
[1364] In Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford and Shropshire I was compelled to adopt as the divisor the number of teams instead of the number of teamlands. As it is fairly certain that these counties were ‘underteamed’ (B > C), the resulting quotient (annual value of land actually tilled by a team) should be diminished before it is compared with the figures given for other counties.
[1365] C. S. Taylor, Analysis of Gloucestershire Domesday (Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeol. Soc. 1887–9).
[1366] But this is intended to include males only: the ancillae are left out.
[1367] Mr Taylor says in his preface: ‘The work has occupied a large part of my leisure time for five years.’ There is therefore some audacity in my printing my figures beside his. It is clear that we have put different constructions upon some of the composite entries concerning large manors. See below, p. 457. Mr Taylor, like Eyton, computes only 48 ‘geld acres’ to the hide; I reckon 120 acres to the hide; that, however, is in this context a trifling matter.
[1368] Mr Taylor has brought out 15s. 5d. as the average valet of land tilled by a team. By taking Pearson’s valet and my teams I have brought out 15s. 0d.
[1369] For Dorset and Somerset my figures can be checked by Eyton’s. For Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall, by the Geld Inquests. These give for Wiltshire (see W. H. Jones, Domesday for Wiltshire, 158 ff.) 3955 H. 3 V.; for Devon (see Devonshire Domesday, ed. Devonsh. Assoc. p. xlix.) 1029 H. 1 V. 3 F.; for Cornwall 401 H. 3 V. 1 F. I give for Wiltshire 4050 H., for Devon 1119 H., for Cornwall 399 H.
[1370] Lincoln, 5·0; Nottingham, 4·4; Derby, 3·9; Surrey, 3·7; Hampshire, 3·6; Middlesex, 3·4; Dorset, 3·3; Cambridge, 3·1; Berkshire, 3·0; Wiltshire, 2·9; Hertford, Northampton, Warwick, Somerset, 2·8; Huntingdon, 2·6; Oxford, 2·5; Bedford and Buckingham, 2·4; Cornwall and Stafford, 2·2; Devon, 2·1. For Kent the figure would be near 3·9, for Sussex near 3·3, for apparently in these counties there was approximate equality between the number of teams and the number of teamlands.
[1371] One word about the meaning of the valets. I think it very clear from thousands of examples that an estate is valued ‘as a going concern.’ The question that the jurors put to themselves is: ‘What will this estate bring in, peopled as it is and stocked as it is?’ In other words, they do not endeavour to make abstraction of the villeins, oxen, etc. and to assign to the land what would be its annual value if it were stocked or peopled according to some standard of average culture. Consequently in a few years the value of an estate may leap from one pound to three pounds or to five shillings or even to zero. Eyton, Dorset, 56, has good remarks on this matter.
[1372] Seebohm, Village Community, 85–6. To the contrary Round, in Domesday Studies, i. 209, and Feudal England, 35.
[1373] Round, Feudal England, 35.
[1374] See e.g. D. B. i. 222: ‘Terra est 2 car. Has habent ibi 3 sochemanni et 12 bordarii.’ ... ‘Terra est 3 car. Ibi sunt ipsae cum 9 sochemannis et 9 bordariis.’ Ibid. i. 223: ‘Terra est 1 car. quam habent ibi 4 bordarii.’ Ibid. i. 107 b: ‘Terra est 7 car. et tot ibi sunt.’
[1375] D. B. i. 222. Codestoche, Lidintone.
[1376] D. B. i. 289; 339 b, Bechelinge.
[1377] D. B. i. 342 b, Toresbi.
[1378] D. B. i. 339, Agetorne.
[1379] D. B. i. 174, Lappewrte.
[1380] D. B. i. 163, Berchelai.
[1381] D. B. i. 218 b, Stanford. Or let us take this case (D. B. i. 148): ‘Terra est 3 car. In dominio est una et 4 villani habent aliam et tercia potest fieri.’ Is this third team to be a team of four or a team of eight?
[1382] Seebohm, Village Community, 85.
[1383] As a specimen we take 10 consecutive entries from the royal demesne in Surrey in which it is said that x villeins and y bordiers have z teams. We add half of y to x and divide the result by z. The quotients are 10·3, 4·0, 3·7, 3·5, 3·4, 2·7, 2·2, 1·9, 1·8, 1·4. If we massed the ten cases together, the quotient would be 2·8. We can easily find averages; but, even if we omit cases in which there is an exceptional dearth of oxen, the variations are so considerable that we must not speak of a type or norm.
[1384] Glastonbury Rentalia, 51–2: ‘S. tenet 1 virgatam terre ... et si habet 8 boves debet warectare ... 7 acras. Si autem pauciores habet, warectabit pro unoquoque bove octavam partem 7 acrarum.’ Ibid. 61: ‘R. C. tenet unam virgatam ... et habebit 4 boves cum bobus domini.’ Ibid. 68: ‘G. tenet dimidiam hidam ... et si habuerit 8 boves...’ Ibid. 78: ‘L. tenet 5 acras ... et bis debet venire cum 1 bove et cum pluribus si habuerit...’ Ibid. 98–9: ‘M. tenet 1 virgatam ... si habuerit quatuor boves...’ Ibid. 129: ‘S. tenet 1 virgatam ... et debet invenire domino 1 carrum et 6 boves ad cariandum fenum.’ Ibid. 130: ‘M. tenet dimidiam virgatam ... et debet invenire 2 boves.’ Ibid. 189: Three cases in which a virgater comes to the boon days with eight oxen. Larking, Domesday of Kent, App. 33: Customs of Hedenham: ‘...habebit unam virgatam terrae ... item habebit quatuor boves in pasturam domini.’
[1385] D. B. i. 211: ‘Terra est dim. car. et unus bos ibi arat.’
[1386] D. B. i. 342 b, Toresbi.
[1387] Pollock, E. H. R. xi. 813. I venture to think that Sir F. Pollock has not answered his own argument (p. 220) for a constant caruca.
[1388] Inq. Com. Cant. 70.
[1389] Another example from a Northamptonshire column (D. B. i. 226) will show what we mean. Let H stand for hides and T for teamlands, and let the virgate be a quarter of a hide, then we have this series: 2 H (5 T), 21⁄2 H (4 T), 4 H (8 T), 11⁄4 H (3 T), 17⁄12 H (4 T), 3/8 H (1⁄2 T), 1⁄2 H (1 T), 21⁄2 H (6 T), 11⁄4 H (3 T), 2 H (4 T), 7⁄8 H (3 T). We see that T is integral where H is fractional.
[1390] Exceptionally we read in Kent (i. 9): ‘Terra est dim. car. et ibidem sunt adhuc 30 acrae terrae.’ And is not this a rule-proving exception? The jurors can not say simply ‘land for half a team and thirty acres.’ They say ‘land for half a team and there are thirty acres in addition.’
[1391] D. B. iv. 497; Inq. Com. Cant. 97.
[1392] There can be little doubt that this is the right reading. See Round. Feudal England, 134.
[1393] Thus, D. B. ii. 39: ‘Tunc 4 carucae in dominio, post et modo 2 ... et 2 carucae possunt restaurari.’ To use our symbols, in Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk we obtain statements about A and about C, but learn nothing about B, unless this is to be inferred from the increase or decrease that has taken place in C. We shall hereafter argue that, in spite of some appearances to the contrary, the carucates of East Anglia belong to the order A and not to the order B.
[1394] Thus, D. B. i. 231: ‘Rad. tenet de episcopo 4 car. terrae in Partenei. Terra est 4 car. In dominio sunt 2 et ... villani habent 2 car.’ Just before this we have the other common formula: ‘Rad. tenet ... 2 car. terrae in Toniscote. Duae car. possunt esse et ibi sunt.’
[1395] Thus, D. B. i. 231 b: ‘Ipsa Comitissa tenuit Dunitone. Ibi 22 car. et dimid. T. R. E. erant ibi 12 car. Modo in dominio sunt 3 et ... villani ... habent 12 car.’
[1396] To me it looks as if the variations were due to a clerk’s caprice. The Leicestershire survey fills 30 columns. Not until the top of col. 5 has the compiler, except as a rare exception, the requisite information. Then, after hesitating as to whether he shall adopt the ‘x car. possunt esse’ formula, he decides in favour of ‘Terra est x car.’ This we will call Formula I. It reigns throughout cols. 5–13, though broken on three or four occasions by what we will call Formula II, namely ‘T. R. E. erant ibi x car.’ At the top of col. 14 Formula II. takes possession and keeps it into col. 16. Then I. has a short turn. Then (col. 17) II. is back again. Then follow many alternations. At the top of col. 24, however, a simplified version of II. appears; the express reference to the T. R. E. vanishes, and we have merely ‘ibi fuerunt x car.’ In the course of col. 26 this is changed to ‘ibi x car. fuerunt.’ These two versions of II. prevail throughout the last six columns, though there is one short relapse to I. (col. 28).
[1397] The proof of this lies in the Inq. Com. Cant. and the Exon Domesday.
[1398] This appears on a collation of D. B. with the two records mentioned in our last note. See Round, Feudal England, 26.
[1399] D. B. i. 174: ‘In omnibus his maneriis non possunt esse plus carucae quam dictum est.’
[1400] When C varies from B, the statement about C will sometimes be introduced by a sed or a tamen which tells us that things are not what they might be expected to be. D. B. i. 77 b: ‘Terra est dimid. car. et tamen est ibi 1 car.’ D. B. i. 222: ‘Terra est dim. car. tamen 2 villani habent 1 car.’
[1401] As a wheat-grower Devon stands in our own day at the very bottom of the English counties. Its average yield per acre in 1885–95 was 21 bushels, while Cambridge’s was 32. Next above Devon stands Monmouth and then comes Cornwall.
[1402] Marshall, Review of Reports to Board of Agriculture from Southern Departments, 524: ‘The management of the land is uniform; here and there an exception will be found. The whole is convertible, sometimes into arable, and sometimes pasture. Arable is sown with wheat, barley, or oats, as long as it will bear any; and then grass for eight or ten years, until the land is recovered, and capable again of bearing corn.’ See also p. 531: the lands go back to the waste ‘in tenfold worse condition than [that wherein] they were in a state of nature.’ It is just in the country which is not a country of village communities that we find this ‘aration of the waste.’
[1403] Some parts of Worcestershire, for example, show a marked deficiency in oxen. On the lands of Osbern Fitz Richard (14 entries) there are about 102 teams, and there ‘could be’ 32 more. See D. B. i. 176 b. In some parts of Cheshire also there is a great deficiency.
[1404] D. B. i. 122 b: ‘Luduham ... Terra 15 car. vel 30 car.’ In the Exeter book (D. B. iv. 240) two conflicting estimates are recorded: ‘Luduam ... In ea sunt 3 hidae terrae et reddidit gildum pro 1 hida. hanc possunt arare 15 carrucae. hanc tenet Ricardus de Comite. in ea sunt 3 hidae terrae et reddidit gildum pro 1 hida. hanc possunt arare 30 carrucae. hanc tenet Ricardus de Comite.’
[1405] D. B. i. 246 b.
[1406] Often a Yorkshire entry touching a waste vill gives no B. Therefore in my Tables I have omitted the number of the Yorkshire teamlands, lest hasty inferences should be drawn from it. I believe it falls between 5000 and 6000. It is much smaller than A, much greater than C.
[1407] Be it remembered that these waste vills can not send deputations to meet the justices, and that the representatives of the wapentakes may never have seen some of those deserts of which they have to speak. ‘All of these vills,’ they say on one occasion (i. 301), ‘belong to Preston. In sixteen of them there are a few inhabitants; but how many we do not know. The rest are waste.’
[1409] Devon, 2·1; Cornwall, 2·2; Derby, 3·9; Nottingham, 4·4; Lincoln, 5·0. The figure for Stafford is about as low as that for Cornwall; but Stafford has been devastated. See Eyton, Staffordshire, 30. Kent and Surrey would stand high. Kent would perhaps stand as high as Derby. But Lincoln has no peer, unless it be Norfolk, Suffolk, or Essex. Our reason for not speaking of these last three counties will appear by and by.
[1410] An essay by Mr W. J. Corbett which I had the advantage of seeing some time ago, and which will I hope soon be in print, will throw much new light on this matter.
[1411] I have roughly added up the carucates and teams of Norfolk, a laborious task, and have seen reason to believe that the figures for Suffolk would be of the same kind.
[1412] In dealing with Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk an equation connecting the hide or (as the case may be) carucate with the acre becomes of vast importance. I have throughout assumed that 120 acres make the hide or carucate. If this assumption, about which something will be said hereafter, is unjustified, my whole computation breaks down. Then in Norfolk there are (especially I think in certain particular hundreds) a good many estates for which no extent (real or rateable) is given. I have made no allowance for this. On the other hand, I believe that I have carried to an extreme in Norfolk the principle of including everything. I doubt, for example, whether some of the acres held by the parish churches have not been reckoned twice over. Also both in Essex and Norfolk I reckoned in the lands that are mentioned among the Invasiones, and in so doing ran the danger of counting them for a second time.
[1413] Also we may remark that in many respects the survey of Essex is closely akin to the survey of East Anglia; but in Essex nothing is said about the geldability of vills and therefore, unless the Essex hides and acres belong to the order of geldable units (A), our record tells us nothing as to the geld of Essex: an unacceptable conclusion.
[1414] Dorset, 15, 23–24.
[1415] In Dorset 22,000 acres are ‘designedly omitted’; in Somerset nearly 178,000; in Staffordshire nearly 246,000. Mr C. S. Taylor puts the deficiency in Gloucestershire at 200,000 or thereabouts.
[1417] D. B. ii. 160 b: A certain vill is 1 league 10 perches long, and 1 league 41⁄2 feet wide. Surely such a statement would never come from men who could use and were intending to use a system of superficial measurement.
[1418] D. B. ii. 170. Or take Westbruge (ii. 206): Two carucates; two teams and a half; ‘this vill is 5 furlongs in length by 3 in breadth.’ If every inch of the vill is ploughed, the carucate can only have 75 acres, and each team tills but 60. I have noted many cases in which this method will not leave 120 acres for the team.
[1419] D. B. i. 310.
[1420] D. B. i. 307 b.
[1421] D. B. i. 310. In these Yorkshire cases it is needless for us to raise the question whether the totum that is being measured is the manor or the vill.
[1422] D. B. ii. 118 b.
[1423] D. B. i. 303 b (Yorkshire, Oleslec).
[1424] D. B. i. 303 b (Othelai).
[1425] D. B. i. 346 b (Bastune); 4 carucates for geld; land for 4 teams; arable land 8 quar. by 8.
[1426] D. B. i. 346 b (Langetof); 6 carucates for geld; land for 6 teams; arable land 15 quar. long and 9 wide.