The English Peasantry and the Enclosure of Common FieldsSlater, Gilbert
History
The English Peasantry and the Enclosure of Common Fields
Slater, Gilbert
Agriculture -- England; Inclosures; Peasants -- England; Village communities -- Great Britain
To sum up, we find that in the north-west of Warwick enclosure was
general as early as 1540, while it was practically non-existent in the
south-east of that county and in Leicester, Northampton and Rutland.
We find that the movement towards enclosure of the “champaine” country
began about the year 1600, that it proceeded steadily in spite of
great popular resistance through the seventeenth century, but at a
much greater rate in Leicester, and probably in S.E. Warwick, than
in Northamptonshire, the rate in Rutland being probably slower than
in Leicester, but certainly greater than in Northamptonshire, the
course of the movement being from west to east; that about half of
S.E. Warwick and of Leicester was enclosed when the movement of
Parliamentary enclosure began, but less than half of Rutland, and not
more than quarter (probably not more than a fifth) of Northamptonshire.
We have seen that the enclosure of Bedford was later than this, and we
shall see that the same is true of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdon. In
the midlands of England the course of enclosure from 1600 onwards was
from west to east.
A word may be added with regard to the methods by which
non-Parliamentary enclosure was effected in this district. There was
great diversity in Leicestershire from village to village with regard
to the diffusion of property, as may be seen from Monk’s Appendix, in
which he endeavours to give the names of the principal owners in each
“lordship.” Some were entirely in the hands of a single individual,
others had many owners, but in the great majority the land was mainly,
but not entirely, owned by the lord of the manor. The description of
the enclosure of S.E. Warwick supplied by John Wedge, the consolidation
of farms, and the depopulation of the villages, indicates that there
enclosure, whether by Act of Parliament or not, was carried through by
the authority of the lord of the manor, he being the main landowner.
The method by which this would be done when an Act of Parliament was
not resorted to is fully explained by Edward Lawrence (“The Duty of a
Steward to his Lord, 1727”), Article XIV.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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