Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776 — John Shaqi
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
There was a great expansion of arable land. Some land had been
specifically allocated to certain individuals. Some was common land,
held by communities. If a family came to pay the dues and fines on
certain common land, it could become personal to that family and was
then known as heirland. Most land came to be privately held from
community-witnessed allotments or inheritance. Bookland was those
holdings written down in books. This land was usually land that had
been given to the church or monasteries because church clerics could
write. So many thegns gave land to the church, usually a hide, that the
church held 1/3 of the land of the realm. Folkland was that land that
was left over after allotments had been made to the freemen and which
was not common land. It was public land and a national asset and could
be converted to heirland or bookland only by action of the king and
witan. It could also be rented by services to the state via charter. A
holder of folkland might express a wish, e.g. by testamentary action,
for a certain disposition of it, such as an estate for life or lives
for a certain individual. But a distinct act by the king and witan was
necessary for this wish to take effect. Small private transactions of
land could be done by "livery of seisin" in the presence of neighbors.
"Seisin" is rightful possession. A man in possession of land is
presumed to have "seisin", unless and until someone else can establish
a better title by legal process. All estates in land could be let,
lent, or leased by its holders, and was then known as "loenland".
Ploughs and wagons could be drawn by four or more oxen or
horses in sets of two behind each other. Oxenshoes and horseshoes
prevented lameness due to cracked hooves. Horse collars especially
fitted for horses, replaced oxen yoke that had been used on horses. The
horse collar did not restrict breathing and enabled horses to use the
same strength of oxen. Also, horses had better endurance and faster
speed.
A free holder's house was wood, perhaps with a stone
foundation, and roofed with thatch or tiles. There was a main room or
hall, with bed chambers around it. Beyond was the kitchen, perhaps
outside under a lean-to. These buildings were surrounded by a bank or
stiff hedge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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