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The Chronology Of Labour Services1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

The chronology of labour services in the Middle Ages has been agitating agrarian historians for nearly a hundred years. In view of this it is surprising to find how many of the dates are still a matter of assumption. On the whole, economic historians know much more about the final demise of labour dues than about their previous history. They may disagree as to the exact dates of the fourteenth-century commutation, or as to the extent to which England had been manorialised and was therefore likely to be affected by the dissolution of the manor.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1937

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References

page 170 note 1 This appears to be Vinogradoff's view, though on occasions he appears to assume a constant tendency to commutation “checked during the feudal period by the scarcity of money.” Growth of the Manor, p. 329. Cf. Villeinage in England, pp. 297–8, 307 and 181.

page 172 note 1 Kosminsky, , The English Village in the Thirteenth Century, Moscow, 1935 (Russian)Google Scholar; “Rents and Labour Services, etc.,” Economic Hist. R., vol. v, No. 2

page 173 note 1 P.R.O. Inq. Post Mort., Hen. III 7/3. Maxwell-Lyte, Two Registers, etc. Somerset Rec. Soc, vol. xxv, 1920. These and other examples will, I hope, be available in greater detail elsewhere.

page 175 note 1 Liber Niger Petroburgensis, MS. 60 of the Soc. of Antiquaries. A photostat has been placed at my disposal by Mr. W. Mellows, whose generous assistance throughout my work on the Peterborough documents has been invaluable. The Camden Society's printed version has not been used here. An Inquisition of the Manors of Glastonbury Abbey of the year 1189, Roxburgh Club, 1882Google Scholar. Hart, W. H. and Lyons, P. A. (ed.), Cartularium Monasterii de Ramseia, 3 vols., Rolls Series, 18841893Google Scholar. Greenwell, W. (ed.), Boldon Buke, Surtees Society, vol. xxv, 1852Google Scholar, and Bishop Hatfield's Survey, ibid., vol. xxvii, 1857. Hale, W. (ed.), The Domesday of St. Paul's, Camden Soc, 1857Google Scholar. Lees, B. (ed.), Records of the Templars in England in the Twelfth Century, 1935Google Scholar. Larking, L. B. (ed.), The Knights Hospitallers in England, Camden Soc, 1857Google Scholar. The Red Book of Worcester, MS. Eccl. Com., 2/121/43698, partly printed in Hollings, M. (ed.), The Red Book of Worcester, part I, Wore. Hist. Soc, 1934Google Scholar. The Shaftesbury Cartulary, B.M. MS. Harl. 61; I am much indebted to the generosity of Prof. Stenton, who lent me his own transcripts of the MS. The Cartulary of the Abbey of the Trinity of Caen, Bib. Nationale MS. Lat. 5650; a photostat of this has been procured, through the kind assistance of the Prof. M. Bloch and Prof. Eileen Power.

page 175 note 2 On some of the Peterborough manors, however (e.g. Irthlingborough), we find labour services partly or wholly commuted in 1308. The commutation apparently took place earlier, but how much earlier we shall not be able to tell until we know something about the Peterborough estates in the second half of the twelfth century: Peterborough Account Rolls for 1292 and 1308. Photostats of the Accounts have been made available through the kind generosity of Mr. Mellows and Miss Wake of the Northamptonshire Record Society.

page 175 note 1 E.g. the Survey of Binham in Douglas, The Social Structure of Medieval East Anglia, 1922, app. ii, no. 3; or the Survey of the Lands of the Cam-erarius of the Abbey of Abingdon; Stevenson, T. (ed.), Chronicon Monas-terii de Abingdon, Rolls Series, 1858, vol. ii, pp. 297 seq.Google Scholar

page 180 note 1 Villeinage in England, p. 207.

page 182 note 1 The dating of the manuscript will be discussed elsewhere. The dates adopted here are roughly those suggested by Miss T. Birdsall in her essay on the English manors of the Abbey in Anniversary Essays in Medieval History by Students of C. H. Haskins (Boston and New York, 1929). PP. 2544.Google Scholar

page 183 note 2 For the dating of the two texts I am indebted to Prof. Stenton.

page 185 note 1 Vinogradoff could not help noticing that a process of commutation was at work on the estates of Glastonbury, St. Paul's and Burton, : Villeinage in England, p. 307, 327, 330Google Scholar. He was however prevented from drawing the conclusion, which the texts suggest, by his general theories of the development of feudalism and the absence of money economy. More emphatic are the references to twelfth century commutations in Prof. Douglas's book: op. cit., pp. 83, 123–9.

page 185 note 2 Hale, W. Hale (ed.), Registrum Prioratus Beate Marie Wigomiensis, Camden Soc., vol. xci, 1865.Google Scholar

page 186 note 1 A list and an analysis of these will be included in the book on which the present paper is based.

page 187 note 1 Maitland, “The History of a Cambridgeshire Manor,’ Coll. Papers, II, pp. 366 seq.; Neilson, , Economic Condition of the Manors of Ramsey Abbey, 1898, pp. 26, 4552Google Scholar; Feiling, “An Essex Manor in the Fourteenth Century,” Eng. Hist. Rev., 1911; Douglas, , op. cit., p. 112Google Scholar; Bishop, , “Monastic Granges in Yorkshire,” Eng. Hist. Rev., 1935Google Scholar; Vinogradoff, , Villeinage in England, p. 204Google Scholar; Kosminsky, , op. cit, p. 206Google Scholar, seq.

page 187 note 2 E.g. the fardellers of East Pennard and East Brent, half-virgaters of High Ham: Elton, and others (ed.), Rentualia et Custumaria … abbatum … Glastonie, Somerset Rec. Soc., vol. v, 1891Google Scholar; B.M. MS. Vesp. F. xi. Hall, , Pipe Roll of the Bishop of Winchester, 1209Google Scholar, and MS. Eccl. Com. 2/159447: (e.g. Brightwell and Taunton). Neilson, , op. cit., pp. 26, 4552.Google Scholar Also Douglas, , op. cit, app. ii, no. 3Google Scholarand MS. B.M. Claud. D. xiii. fo. 7 seq.

page 188 note 1 Hollings, op. cit.; MS. Eccl. Com. 2/121/43698.

page 188 note 2 Documents cited above, p. 27, footnote 1: (e.g. Mere, Winterbourne, Bradbury). Maxwell-Lyte, op. cit.: (e.g. Stoke-under-Hamden).1 Jackson (ed.), op. cit.

page 189 note 2 Supra, p. 187, footnote 2.

page 190 note 1 Stenton, Danelaw Charters, p. cviii; idem, Types of Manorial Strucure, etc., p. 26. For Wargrave, see Eccl. Com. 2/159447. For St. Ives, ee the Ramsey Surveys referred to above.

page 191 note 1 Wrottesley, (ed.), The Burton Cartulary, Wm. Salt Soc, pp. 20Google Scholar and 26 (Bromley), 22 and 28, 19 and 25 (Stratton, Mickle Over and Little Over); idem, Staffordshire Plea Rolls, Wm. Salt. Soc, vol. vi, part i, pp. 60, 98, 109 and 116; for the dating of the Survey, see Round, , Burton Abbey Surveys, vol. ix, N.S., pp. 272–6.Google Scholar Round was unnecessarily puzzled by the differences in the amounts of farm in the two surveys.

page 191 note 2 Page, op. cit. Cf. the rents on p. 284 with the table of services on p. 84, and the accounts of Cottenham and Oakington and Drayton, pp. 21 seq., 233 seq., 176–9. Also idem., Wellingborough Manorial Accounts, Northampton Rec. Soc, vol. viii, p. xxvi and text.

page 192 note 1 Cf. the terms of virgate tenures in Merton in the twelfth century Templars' Inquest with those recorded in the Hundred Rolls. Also Scargill-Bird, , The Estates of Battle Abbey, pp. 5882 (Bromeham and Bright Walton).Google Scholar