Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776Reilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
The villein and his wife and children worked from daybreak to
dusk in the fields, except for Sundays and holydays. He had certain
land to farm for his own family, but had to have his grain milled at
his lord's mill at the lord's price. He had to retrieve his wandering
cattle from his lord's pound at the lord's price. He was expected to
give a certain portion of his own produce, whether grain or livestock,
to his lord. However, if he fell short, he was not put off his land.
The villein, who worked the farm land as his ancestor ceorl had, now
was so bound to the land that he could not leave or marry or sell an ox
without his lord's consent. If the manor was sold, the villein was sold
as a part of the manor. When his daughter or son married or if he sent
his son to school,he had to pay a "merchet" to his lord. He could not
have a son educated without the lord's permission, and this usually
involved a fee to the lord. His best beast at his death, or "heriot",
went to his lord. If he wanted permission to live outside the manor, he
paid "chevage" yearly. Woodpenny was a yearly payment for gathering
dead wood. Sometimes a "tallage" payment was taken at the lord's will.
The villein's oldest son usually took his place on his land and
followed the same customs with respect to the lord. For an heir to take
his dead ancestor's land, the lord demanded payment of a "relief",
which was usually the amount of a year's income but sometimes as much
as the heir was willing to pay to have the land. The usual aids were
also expected to be paid.
A large village also had a smith, a wheelwright, a millwright,
a tiler and thatcher, a shoemaker and tanner, a carpenter wainwright
and carter.
Markets were about twenty miles apart because a farmer from the
outlying area could then carry his produce to the nearest town and walk
back again in the daylight hours of one day. In this local market he
could buy foodstuffs, livestock, household goods, fuels, skins, and
certain varieties of cloth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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