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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
It is not without reason that singularities in the tenure of land have always excited considerable interest among antiquaries. For in that state of society which prevailed in Europe during the middle ages, the relation of the individual to the soil on which he lived determined his most important relations with his fellow men and his political and social condition. An accurate and minute acquaintance with the nature of tenures is therefore an object of no slight consequence with the student of medieval history.
page 349 note a See Archæologia, Vol. III. pp. 1, 13,15, 19, 22, 24.
page 350 note a Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Works of Art on Loan, Nos. 212, 215, 216.
page 350 note b Archæologia, Vol. III. p. 1. See also the Archæological Journal, vol. xiii. p. 175.
page 350 note c “An Historical Dissertation on the Ancient Danish Horn kept in the Cathedral Church of York,” by Samuel Gale, Esq. Archæologia, Vol. I. p. 168. “Observations on some Ancient Methods of Conveyance,” by Henry Ellis, Esq., Archæologia, Vol. XVII. p. 311.
page 350 note d See, upon this point, Lysons' Berkshire, p. 326.
page 350 note e See Pusey u. Pusey, Vernon's Reports, vol. i. p. 273.
page 351 note a Kennet, Parochial Antiquities, p. 265.
page 351 note b Liber Nig. Scacc. p. 214; Baker, Hist. Northamptonshire, vol. i. p. 8. This Fulk held the lands, and appears to have been a descendant, of Richard mentioned in Domesday as lord of Beneford, Abinton, and of other manors in Northamptonshire, which lands were held in the time of the Confessor by Alwinus Venator. William, who is supposed to have been a brother of Richard, had other lands of Alwin the Hunter, and his descendants claimed to hold their lands by the serjeanty of hunting wolves, foxes, and other vermin. (Baker's Hist. North, vol. i. pp. 7, 8.) There can be little doubt that these services were in some way connected with the possession of the same estates by the Saxon hunter, but no trace of the services appears in Domesday.
page 351 note c Littleton, Tenures, s. 157.
page 351 note d See Termes de la Ley, s. v. Cornage; Cowel, Interpreter, s. ead. v.; Blackstone, Comm. vol. ii. p. 74.
page 352 note a Camden, Britannia, in Muro Pictico; Gough's Camden, vol. iii. p. 214.
page 352 note b See the Berkeley Peerage Case, House of Lords Cases, vol. viii. p. 111.
page 352 note c Et idem Gaufridus reddit compotum de c.xl. et v.s. et v.d. de cornagio animalium episcopatus. Mag. Rot. Pip. 31 Hen. I. p. 131.
page 353 note a Et idem Vicecomes reddit compotum de c.iii. s. et iii. d. de præterito Geldo animalium …reddit compotum de Geldo animalium. In thesauro, xliii. 1 …[debet].. 1. Mag. Rot. Pip. 31 Hen. I. p. 143.
page 353 note b Ibid. p. 141.
page 353 note c Testa de Nevill, p. 379, 380.
page 353 note d Co. Lit. 107a.
page 354 note a See Co. Lit. 9.
page 354 note b In Norton sunt xxx. villani quorum unusquisque tenet ii. bovatas et reddunt et operantur modis omnibus sicut illi de Boldon excepto cornagio que [quod] non dant pro defectu pasture. Boldon Book, in Domesday Supplement, p. 571.
page 354 note c Surtees, Hist. Durham, vol. iii. p. 151.
page 354 note d Nicolson and Burn, Hist. Westmorland, vol. i. p. 18. The same book, in a glossary at the end of vol. ii., contains the following definition of Horngeld, ‘A tax paid for horned beasts in the forest.’
page 354 note e Since writing the above paper, I have met with a learned note upon the subject of Cornage in the Appendix to the Boldon Buke, edited for the Surtees Society by Mr. Greenwell. His definition of Cornage is as follows: “Cornage, called also geldum animalium, noutgeld, hornbiel, and horngeld, from cornu, a horn, was a payment made in commutation for a return of cattle. In an ‘Explicatio vocum veterum’ in the Registrum Primum of the Dean and Chapter of Durham it is thus explained: ‘Hornbiel (in marg. Horngeld) hoc est quietus esse de consuetudine exacta per tallagium per totam terram, scilicet de omni bestia cornuta.’ A charter of Henry I. gives to the Monks of Durham (inter alia) cornagium de Bortona, quod Unspac tenet, scilicet, de unoquoque animali 2 d.” Mr. Greenwell is of opinion the Cornage rent was paid at first in cattle; “When the kings of Northumbria were moving from one royal villa to another, and of these they possessed a great number, we can easily understand how a return in kind was of more use than one in money. The demesne lands produced corn and other necessaries, while the district adjoining, of which the villa was the centre, provided flesh for the table and live animals for milk. It is in vain to endeavour to / account for the early commutation into money of this service, while so many others were still rendered in kind; this had been done, however, at a time antecedent to any existing record.” Boldon Buke, Appendix, p. lv. lvi. Mr. Greenwell's citations from the ‘Registrum Primum,’ and from the Charter of Henry I., both appear to me to support the opinion I have advanced, that Cornage was a money-rent paid in respect of the tenants’ cattle, probably in return for his right of pasture upon the lord's waste or in the royal forests, rather than a render of cattle, as Mr. Greenwell supposes. The fact that Cornage appears from the earliest times in the form of a money payment is confirmatory.
page 355 note a Testa de Nevill, p. 380, 381. This description of the obligation of tenants by Cornage is cited in the appendix to the Boldon Buke above mentioned, as derived from “an Inquisition; of the reign of King John relating to the Cornage of Cumberland, preserved in the Testa de Nevill.” Boldon Buke (Surtees Soc.) App. lv. I have not been able to find the reference to the Inquisition of the time of John, but the same statement as to the military duty of the tenants is three times repeated.
page 355 note b In the Abbreviatio Rotulorum Originalium of the time of Edward III., the manor of Eslyngton in the county of Northumberland is stated to be held of the King by the service of rendering 40/. by the year at Newcastle, and of performing to the King the forinsecum servicium of Cornage and suit of county and truncage at the castle of Bamburgh. (Abbrev. Rot. vol. ii. p. 8.) In this document Cornage is treated as a military service distinct from the money-rent paid by the tenant. But in several other instances, to be found in the same collection of documents in the same reign, Cornage still appears as a money-payment, and we have seen that at a later date the Cornage of Cumberland was part of the royal revenue.
page 356 note a Abbreviatio Plac. 6 Edw. I. p. 194, rot. 7.
