Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition — John Shaqi
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
The lands of the large landholding lords were administered by freemen.
They had wheat, barley, oats, and rye fields, orchards, vineyards for
wine, and beekeeping areas for honey. On this land lived not only farm
laborers, cattle herders, shepherds, goatherds, and pigherds, but
craftsmen such as goldsmiths, hawkkeepers, dogkeepers, horsekeepers,
huntsmen, foresters, builders, weaponsmiths, embroiders, bronze smiths,
blacksmiths, watermill wrights, wheelwrights, wagon wrights, iron nail
makers, potters, soap makers (made from wood ashes reacting chemically
with fats or oils), tailors, shoemakers, salters (made salt at the
"wyches", which later became towns ending with '-wich'), bakers, cooks,
and gardeners. Most men did carpentry work. Master carpenters worked
with ax, hammer, and saw to make houses, doors, bridges, milk buckets,
washtubs, and trunks. Blacksmiths made gates, huge door hinges, locks,
latches, bolts, and horseshoes. The lord loaned these people land on
which to live for their life, called a "life estate", in return for
their services. The loan could continue to their widows or children who
took up the craft. Mills were usually powered by water. Candles were
made from beeswax, which exuded a bright and steady light and pleasant
smell, or from mutton fat, which had an unpleasant odor. The wheeled
plough and iron-bladed plough made the furrows. One man held the plough
and another walked with the oxen, coaxing them forward with a stick and
shouts. Seeds were held in an apron for seeding. Farm implements
included spades, shovels, rakes, hoes, buckets, barrels, flails, and
sieves. Plants were pruned to direct their growth and to increase their
yield. Everyone got together for feasts at key stages of the farming,
such as the harvest. Easter was the biggest feast. When the lord was in
the field, his lady held their estate. There were common lands of these
estates as well as of communities. Any proposed new settler had to be
admitted at the court of this estate.
The land of some lords included fishing villages along the coasts. From
the sea were caught herrings, salmon, porpoises, sturgeon, oysters,
crabs, mussels, cockles, winkles, plaice, flounder, and lobsters.
Sometimes whales were driven into an inlet by many boats. River fish
included eels, pike, minnows, burbot, trout, and lampreys. They were
caught by brushwood weirs, net, bait, hooks, and baskets. Oysters were
so numerous that they were eaten by the poor. The king's peace extended
over the waterways. If mills, fisheries, weirs, or other structures were
set up to block them, they were to be destroyed and a penalty paid to
the king.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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