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
Laxton "had 2 carucates of land [assessed] to the geld. [There is] land
for 6 ploughs. There Walter, a man of [the lord] Geoffrey Alselin's has
1 plough and 22 villeins and 7 bordars [a bordar had a cottage and a
small amount land in return for supplying small provisions to his lord]
having 5 ploughs and 5 serfs and 1 female serf and 40 acres of meadow.
Wood [land] for pannage [foraging by pigs] 1 league in length and half a
league in breadth. In King Edward's time it was worth 9 pounds; now [it
is worth] 6 pounds."
Ilbert de Laci has now this land, where he has twelve ploughs in the
demesne; and forty-eight villani, and twelve bordars with fifteen
ploughs, and three churches and three priests, and three mills of ten
shillings. Wood pastures two miles long, and one broad. The whole manor
five miles long and two broad. Value in King Edward's time sixteen
pounds, the same now.
That manor of the town of Coventry which was individually held was that
of the Countess of Coventry, who was the wife of the earl of Mercia.
"The Countess held in Coventry. There are 5 hides. The arable land
employs 20 ploughs. In the demesne lands there are 3 ploughs and 7
bondmen. There are 50 villeins and 12 bordars with 20 ploughs. The mill
there pay[s] 3 shillings. The woodlands are 2 miles long and the same
broad. In King Edward's time and afterwards, it was worth 22 pounds [440
s.], now only 11 pounds by weight. These lands of the Countess Godiva
Nicholas holds to farm of the King."
The survey shows a few manors and monasteries owned a salthouse or
saltpit in the local saltworks, from which they were entitled to obtain
salt.
In total there were about 110,000 villani [former coerls regarded as
customary, irremovable cultivator tenants]; 82,000 bordarii; 7,000
cotarii and cotseti [held land by service of labor or rent paid in
produce], and 25,000 servi [landless laborers]. There are no more
theows. This survey resulted in the first national tax system of about
6s. per hide of land.
The survey also provided the Conquerer with a summary of customs of
areas. For instance, in Oxfordshire, "Anyone breaking the King's peace
given under his hand and seal to the extent of committing homicide shall
be at the King's mercy in respect of his life and members. That is if he
be captured. And if he cannot be captured, he shall be considered as an
outlaw, and anyone who kills him shall have all his possessions. The
king shall take the possessions of any stranger who has elected to live
in Oxford and who dies in possession of a house in that town, and
without any kinfolk. The king shall be entitled to the body and the
possessions of any man who kills another within his own court or house
excepting always the dower of his wife, if he has a wife who has
received dower.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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