Extranei and the market for customary land on a Westminster Abbey manor in the fifteenth century*

Transcription

1 ! / Extrane and the market for customary land on a Westmnster Abbey manor n the ffteenth century* Abstract by PhUpp R. Schofeld Ths artcle attempts, through a case study of a ffteenth-century Essex manor, to explore both the extent of and reasons for outsde nvestment n customary land. The artcle dentfes certan sectors of socety and economy from whch such outsde nvestment may have ssued and dscusses developments wthn the manor whch may have encouraged such nvestment. It s a contenton of the artcle that a softenng of segneural polcy was a sgnfcant stmulus to the ncurson of outsders, extrane, nto the market for customary land. In turn, the long-chershed polces of landlords were, by the dose of the perod, challenged by the expectatons of the new wealthy and hgh status tenants. It s a famlar theme of much of the work on the late medeval peasant land market that, throughout the ffteenth century, t was local men who domnated the land market and that movement n that market was the product of local supply and demand. An early artculaton and, perhaps, the geness of ths thess les wth Tawney, whose study of The Agraran Problem n the Sxteenth Century ncludes a brllant survey of rural condtons before the sxteenth century. In dscussng the growth of a land market n customary land n the later mddle ages and the consequent process of consoldaton and accumulaton of holdngs, Tawney remaflcs that 'the growth of large customary tenances... can hardly be explaned except as a result of enterprse among the tenants themselves'., For Tawney, as for others wrtng subsequently, t was the opportuntes presented to sectons of the peasantry by, above all, growng commercalzaton, a process of commutaton, and the leasng of demesnes, whch generated suffcent surpluses of captal to encourage a peasant land market. In so far as 'commerce and ndustry' had a part to play n ths, Tawney suggests that local ndustry encouraged the use of money and lmted speculaton n land. But the sense s that before the sxteenth century, such speculaton n customary land was confned to the peasantry. 2 It was not, Tawney argues, untl the last decade of the ffteenth century that the demands of larger scale ndustry began to conflct wth the small-scale endeavours of the peasantry? Many of the features of Tawney's argument reappear n the work of later hstorans. In A verson of ths paper was presented at the Brtsh Agrcultural Hstory Socety's autumn conference, Preston, September I am grateful to the partcpants at that conference for ther comments. In partcular, I would lke to thank Professor Rchard Hoyle, both for encouragng the wrtng of ths paper and for hs subsequent perceptve readngs of t. He, along wth anonymous referees, has offered valuable commentary. I R.H. Tawney, The Agraran problem n the sxteenth 2 Ibd., pp century (1912), p Ibd., pp AgHR 49, I, pp

2 " 2 THEAGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW partcular, the convcton abounds that the land market was ntensely local and made up of customary tenants drawn from the peasantry. Rodney Hlton's dscusson of the land market on the Lecester Abbey estates n the fourteenth and ffteenth centures s couched very much n terms of a local market n whch certan members of the peasantry emerged successful at the end of the ffteenth century. 4 The mplcaton of the wrtngs ofm. M. Postan on the peasant land market s also that, even by the end of the mddle ages, t was predomnantly a means by whch peasants redstrbuted resources amongst each other. 5 Postan, n an early statement of hs deas on the peasant land market, argued that the ffteenth century provded fewer opportuntes for the wealther peasantry than t dd for the smallholders. Wth lowerng rents and entry fnes but rsng wages, t was the poorer vllagers who were best placed to take on more land and clmb nto the socety of the vllage 'kulaks'. 6 On the Westmnster Abbey estates, also, accumulaton of holdngs n the ffteenth century has been characterzed as a farly slow process and, most mportantly, a local one. It was, further, the expectaton of the monks of Westmnster Abbey.that tenants of large vrgated holdngs should be local. 7 On the estates of the Bshop of Worcester, most dealng n customary land before the sxteenth century also looks to have been between customary tenants. Stablty of large but recently accumulated holdngs s not evdent n the manoral records untl the early sxteenth century; before that, transfer of land has been portrayed as a response to the needs of the peasant lfe-cycle. 8 Most recently, P. D. A. Harvey has made one of the more categorcal statements concernng the nature of the ffteenth-century peasant land market, argung that 'on the whole t was dearly stll unusual for lands to be held n copyhold by members of the gentry, or even by the moderately well-to-do... Nearly all copyholders were local tenants whose estates were not only small but transtory'.9 Explanatons for ths localsm vary but hstorans have dentfed, drectly or ndrectly, a number of nfluences whch, as separate or composte causes, mltated aganst the emergence of outsders, extrane, amongst the major tenants of customary land on some manors whlst explanng ther emergence elsewhere. Amongst these key nfluences are to be counted the dstance of partcular estates or manors from urban centres and captal markets, the wllngness or unwllngness of outsders to purchase customary land, especally n the face of the base tenure of the land and the lack of protecton at Common Law, and the atttude of landlords to such outsde nvestment. Where one or other of these constrants aganst external nvestment n the customary land market could be removed or reduced n some way - as, for example, where customary land was or came to be stuated close to areas of proto-ndustry or to urban centres - then t was possble 4 R.H. Hlton, The economc development of some Lecestershre estates n the fourteenth and ffteenth centures (1947), pp. 94-1o5. 5 C.N.L. Brooke and M. M. Postan (eds), CarteNatvorum. A Peterborough Abbey cartulary of the fourteenth century (Northamptonshre Record Soc. 20, 196o), p. Ix. Postan dd acknowledge that the land market n the late mddle ages was 'capable of achevng a permanent reshuffle n the socal structure of the countrysde' but dd not elaborate ths pont and t s unclear exactly what he had n mnd, bd., p. lv. 6 M.M. Postan, 'England', n Postan (ed.), The Cambrdge economc hstory of Europe, I, The agraran lfe of the mddle ages (2nd edn, 1966), pp. 63o-1. 7 B.F. Harvey, WestmnsterAbbey and ts estates n the mddle ages (1977), pp See also below, pp. lo C.C. Dyer, Lords and peasants n a changng socety: the estates of the Bshoprc of Worcester, 68o-154o (198o) pp. 293, p.d.a. Harvey, 'Concluson' n dem (ed.), The peasant land market n medeval England (1984), pp. 3z8-9.

3 J! THE MARKET FOR CUSTOMARY LAND,/ 3 for that market to become other than locad Smlarly, dluton of the force of lordshp or famlal commtments to land or an ncreased confdence amongst outsder purchasers could all facltate the ncurson of external captal nto the local land market." The followng artcle wll attempt, through a manoral case study, to explore some of the factors whch combned to encourage those who were not local peasants to enter nto customary tenure n the ffteenth century. In partcular, the role of tenural change n facltatng the entry of outsders wll be gven close consderaton. In order to examne these ssues, the artcle wll concentrate upon a sngle manor of the Abbey of Westmnster, the manor of Brdbrook n north Essex. Brdbrook, a demesne manor of the pror and convent of the Abbey of Westmnster from the late thrteenth century untl the Reformaton, s stuated n northern Essex a few mles south of the rver Stour. Land at Brdbrook n the late mddle ages was dvded between the demesne (c. 56o acres), free land (c. 325 acres), unfree land other than customary standard holdngs (approxmately 40 acres), and the customary standard holdngs (~16 acres). '2 It s the,0 See, for nstance, Harvey, 'Concluson', pp. 338ff., wth reference to Fath, 'Berkshre: fourteenth and ffteenth centures', n Harvey (ed.), The peasant land market, pp Also D. Moss, 'The economc development of a Mddlesex vllage', AgHR 28 (198o), pp. lo8ff. P. Glenne, 'In search of agraran captalsm: manoral land markets and the acquston of land n the Lea valley, c. 145o-c. 156o', Contnuty and Change 3 (1988), pp ; E. M. Carus-Wlson, 'Evdences of ndustral growth on some ffteenth-century manors', EcHR sec. ser., m (1959), p. 204; J. Hatcher, Englsh tn producton and trade (1973), pp. 57, 80; dem, Rural economy and socety n the Duchy of Cornwall, 13oo-15oo (197o), pp , 243-5; I. Blanchard, 'The mner and the agrcultural communty n late medeval England', AgHR 2o (1972), pp. 96-8; dem, 'Industral employment and the rural land market 138o- 152o', n R. M. Smth (ed.), Land, knshp and lfe-cycle (1984), pp ; J. N. Hare, 'Growth and recesson n the ffteenth-century economy: the Wltshre textle ndustry and the countrysde', EcHR 52 (1999), pp. lo, 2o-1.,l On lordshp and ts restrctons, see Harvey, Westmnster Abbey and ts estates, ch. lo; R. H. Hlton, The Englsh peasantry n the later mddle ages (1975), p. 69, where the entry of members of the gentry and lawyers nto copyhold tenures n the md-ffteenth century s explaned n terms of confrontaton wth the lord and the ameloraton of condtons of tenure. Dscusson of the famly-land bond and ts persstence nto the late mddle ages can be found n, nter ala, Fath, 'Berkshre, Fourteenth and Ffteenth Centures', pp.lo6-77; and A. Jones, 'Bedfordshre: ffteenth centur]', pp both n Harvey (ed.), Thepeasant land market; C. Howell, Land, famly and nhertance n transton: Kbworth Harcourt, 128o-17oo (1983); Z. Raz, 'Famly, land and the vllage communty n later medeval England', Past and Present 93 (1981), 3-36; dem, 'The eroson of the famlyland bond n the late fourteenth and ffteenth centures: a methodologcal note' n Smth (ed.), Land, knshp and lfe-cycle, pp For an mportant, f partal, recent dscusson of ths materal, see Raz, 'The myth of the mmutable Englsh famly', Past and Present 14o (1993), pp. 3-44, esp. pp For outsde purchasers, see, for example, Harvey, 'Concluson', pp Court and account rols survve for Brdbrook from the thrteenth century untl the sxteenth but not n an unbroken seres. Durng the ffteenth and early sxteenth centures, courts tended to be held just twce a year, typcally around the feasts of St. Margaret the Vrgn (20 July) and St. Matthew the Apostle (21 Sept.). Court rolls survve from most years between 1412 and 1516; the seres of rchly detaled manoral accounts of the balff or serjeant ends wth the leasng of the demesne n 14o5 but thereafter, the farmer's annual account of rents and farms contnues n broken seres untl 1516 (court rolls: Essex Record Offce [hereafter ERO] D/DU 267/28-35, Westmnster Abbey Munrnents [hereafter WAM] z o; manoral accounts: WAM ). For the frst half of the ffteenth century, the accounts, whch nclude wthn moneys receved a detaled and regularly updated secton for farms (frme), are nstructve as to changes n the sze of annual farms and the turnover of lessees. From the mdq44os the format of the farms secton was altered. Instead of the detaled farms secton, there s a sngle entry whch records 'the farms of

4 4 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW ~ ~' ~ I, ' L'-! I = ll! Ill ' customary standard holdngs wth whch we shall be concerned here. In z~92, when the monks of Westmnster Abbey became the lord of the manor, they dscovered that there were 63A vrgates at Brdbrook; these vrgates provded, apart from boon works, all of the labour servces on the manoral demesne and were most probably the same unts as the seven holdngs of the vllan lsted n Domesday..3 It was soon apparent to the monks that no tenant held as much as a vrgate, whch from calculatons based on nformaton n the accounts and court rolls was made up of 32 acres, but nstead holdngs tended to be one-eghth, one quarter or, less usually, half of ths sze. Most often, the standard holdng was a quarter vrgate of eght acres, the acres referred to as ware acres (acra wara), a reference to geldable land of pre-conquest orgn. Attached to each of these holdngs were a couple of acres of pasture and meadow, and t s probably for ths reason that n the ffteenth century standard holdngs are sometmes descrbed as beng composed of ten acres rather than eght.,~ There were at Brdbrook n the later mddle ages, 25 quarter-vrgates, each of eght acres, and four 'eghth' vrgates, each of four acres. Each of these holdngs was referred to by the name(s) of prevous tenants and t s possble, wth a greater degree of certanty n some cases than n others, to chart the progress of the bulk of these holdngs from the fourteenth century through to the early sxteenth century. The vast majorty of holdngs were not fragmented nto smaller unts but appear to have retaned ther ntegrty throughout the perod and, most mportantly, ther dentfcaton as separate holdngs perssted long after they became part of larger accumulated holdngs. In the early fourteenth century and for a number of decades after the arrval of plague n the md-fourteenth century, transfer of customary land at Brdbrook was wholly local and, for the most part, the pont of transfer was at death and the ncomng tenant was the rghtful her (Table x). However, from the late fourteenth century, the transfer of customary land at Brdbrook appears, usually, not to have been between kn and, further, does not appear to have been part of an exclusvely, or even typcally, local land market. By the end of the fourteenth century, there was lttle or no post-mortern transfer of customary standard holdngs and lttle to suggest nter-vvos transfer between kn. Despte the apparent efforts of some vllagers to!:!! the lord's holdngs to dverse tenants ths year' whlst on the dorse of the account a lst of tenants and lessees s presented but wth the mnmum nformaton (WAM 25519, , andafter). A smlar and near contemporaneous (1448) development s noted by Carus-Wlson at Bsley (Gloucs.), Carus-Wlson, 'Evdences of ndustral growth', p. a97. Ths same format was used throughout the remanng accounts, the names and detals on the lst alterng lttle over decades, untl the lst was abandoned completely. For a few years the lst of allowances at the foot of the face of the accoun t became the place to record changes from one year to the next, as t dd elsewhere at ths tme, but ths practce also soon ended and the annual accounts ossfed nto near perfect copes of each other; see P.D.A. Harvey (ed.), Manoral Records of Cuxham, Oxfordshre (Oxfordshre Record Soc., 5o, 1976), pp. 7o-1. Unlke the account rolls, the court rols retaned ther ntegrty nto the sxteenth century; although woefully lackng n much other detal throughout much of the ffteenth century, they were clearly mantaned as careful records of land transfers, and were searched and vouched as such; for the second half of the ffteenth century we are largely relant upon them. 13 p.r. Schofeld, 'Land, famlyand nhertance n a later medeval communt3n. Brdbrook, ~92-141z' (unpublshed D.Phl. thess, Unversty of Oxford, z99z), p. 95. ~4 By the ffteenth century, termnology had also begun to loosen and quarter-vrgates (eght ware acre holdngs) were often referred to as 'vrgates' or 'half vrgates'. In the ffteenth century also the descrpton of acres as ware acres, an ndcaton at the begnnng of the fourteenth century that the land owed weekly labour servce to the lord and was tanted wth servlty, dsappeared.!

5 /,'J / THE MARKET FOR CUS.TOMARY LAND / 5 TABLE 1. Brdbrook: Transfers of customary standard holdng/s, o9 Decade Number of courts Grant fom lord Post-mortem Inter-vvos Source: ERO D/DU 267/28-35; WAM keep ther name on the land by renewng terms of years more than once, and the occasonal appearance of a lessee wth the same name as the tenement he was holdng, surname evdence and other bographcal evdence gleaned from the court rolls ndcates that by the frst decade of the ffteenth century the majorty of lessees of standard holdngs were new to the manor and that any long-standng famly lnks to these holdngs had probably been eroded durng the last decades of the fourteenth century. ~5 There s lttle or no ndcaton that these outsders were dstant lateral kn who had descended on Brdbrook n the late fourteenth and early ffteenth centures to clam ther brth rghts, as Raz fmds they dd at Halesowen. Instead, a sgnfcant proporton of lessees c would appear to have been adventurers who had frst entered the manor as servants. ~6 15 p.r. Schofeld, 'Tenural developments and the avalablty of customary land n a later medeval communty', EcHR 49 (1996), p. 260, Table: Raz, 'Famly, land and the vllage communty', p. 27; Schofeld, 'Tenural developments', pp

6 6 THE~AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW ~ I : I! : ~ L!~! ~ Ths nflux of outsders contnued nto the ffteenth century. Between 1412 and 1426, the frst year of the next survvng account, all but one of the standard holdngs had changed hands; although some of the new lessees are famlar from earler years, others, almost 75 per cent, are not. Undoubtedly, some of these new lessees of customary standard holdngs were ndvduals of farly lmffed means, a possblty supported by ther nablty to mantan ther lease durng a perod of declnng rents and the consequent rapd turnover of lessees for certan holdngs. There was also the constant processon of those who took a lease for a few years and then : vacated t, perhaps abandoned t; the court and account rolls of the second quarter of the ffteenth century are punctuated wth these bref vstors, wth ther unfamlar surnames: Robert Sadde, Roger Mower, Robert Pung, lohn Bottwyhgt, lohn Cornyssh'. If these lessees were smlar to those who speculated n the lease market at Brdbrook n the late fourteenth century, they were the last of a dyng breed. Increasngly, from the second quarter of the ffteenth century, the tenure of standard holdngs appears to have been domnated by wealthy entrepreneurs and, less typ!cally, mnor gentry. The provenance and status of purchasers of customary standard holdngs s especally evdent by the last decades of the ffteenth century. It s clear that the buyers of customary land n ths perod, and notably from the 147os, were frequently from beyond the manor (ther surnames typcally new to the manor), that a sgnfcant proporton were not peasants, and that a process of accumulaton was funded by outsde captal. It was also ncreasngly the case that a sgnfcant number of these purchasers were not resdent on the manor. Although occasonal references and the dentfcaton of certan ndvduals permt some estmate of the proportons of customary standard holdngs n the hands of 'non-peasants' over the ffteenth century, t s only possble to gve mnmum fgures from both the frst and the second half of the ffteenth century. The mnmum proporton of those holdng customary standard holdngs who were not peasants n the early ffteenth century s lkely to have been one n ten; by the close of the ffteenth century, t was closer to one n three) 7 The transfer of sx customary holdngs (accountng for almost a quarter of all such holdngs on the manor) whch remaned as a sngle holdng from md-century llustrates the potental lack of rustcty n the late ffteenth century land market at Brdbrook. One Wllam Southey nherted these holdngs on the death of Robert Southey n 1479; three years later Wllam sold hs land to Sr Robert Tyrell (a member of the Essex gentry famly, whch ncluded, amongst ther number, a speaker of the Commons, and a confdante of Rchard 1II).,8 Tyrell eventually sold hs land, n 15o2, to the most mportant fgure of the early Tudor cloth ndustry, Thomas Sprng of Lavenham, the 'rch clother', whose daughter and nece were to marry, respectvely, Wllam Ernely, son of the Lord Chef Justce of the Common Pleas and Aubrey De Vere, second son of the 15th Earl of Oxford. On hs death n 1523, hs eldest son, John Sprng (later to be t. J! 1 17 Based upon dentfcaton of fullers holdng customary holdngs n the early ffteenth century, for example, 14o4-5 (WAM 255oo) and below p. 8 and of tenants of the accumulated block of sx customary holdngs n the late ffteenth century, e.g. ERO, D/DU 267/34, court of 17 July 1482; ERO, D/DU 267/35, court of 16 Sept. 15o6. s For the Tyrell famly, see H. W. Kng, 'Ancent ~lls (no. 3)', Trans. Essex Archaeologcal Socety 3 (1863), pp ; dem, 'Ancent wlls (no. 4)', Trans. Essex Archaeologcal Socety 3 (1863), pp ; also, P. Morant, The hstory and antqutes of the County of Essex (2 vols, 1768), II, p. 344.

7 / / / THE MARKET FOR CUSTOMARY LAND 7 / knghted on the accesson of Edward VI) nherted the holdng but soon surrendered t to hs brother, Robert. ~9 It s clear, therefore, that by the end of the ffteenth century, outsders had long been nvolved n the purchase of customary land at Brdbrook. Most mportantly, from the md-ffteenth century, gentry and merchants were prepared to take holdngs n customary land. What were the condtons that may have prompted them to do so.~ II J,! 1 I In ths secton, we need to return to the lst of constrants whch are perceved as dscouragng non-peasants from takng customary land n ths perod. To what extent dd thes e preval at Brdbrook n the ffteenth century and why were they overcome, as they seem to have been. ~ We wll dwell, n partcular, on ssues of lordshp and tenure. However, before we turn to questons of tenure, we need to establsh that there was a potental 'market' and an external clentele for customary land at Brdbrook. Although Brdbrook does not occupy an urban hnterland, there were two sgnfcant sources of external captal whch may have fuelled the market n customary land. The frst of these was the local rural cloth ndustry, the second was the local gentry. In the later mddle ages, Brdbrook was stuated n one of the three prmary 'non-urban' centres of the cloth ndustry. 20 The economy of the Stour valley, as a result of the local cloth ndustry, was recognsably dstnctve n the later mddle ages. Notably, the populaton of the regon was relatvely large, the ndustry and ts offshoots attractng mmgrants. The towns of northern Essex and southern Suffolk were noted for ther cloth producton and provded a vtal nexus wth ther rural hnterlands. In the second half of the fourteenth century, Hadlegh, Melford, Sudbury, Clare, Colchester, Halstead, and Haverhll all mnstered to and provded outlets for the rural cloth ndustry. In the ffteenth century, Lavenham rose to partcular promnence as a centre of cloth producton. 2~ From at least the md-fourteenth century, merchants and traders vsted the surroundng countrysde, buyng up wool and, ncreasngly, organsng the local producton of cloth. Accordng to a petton to parlament n 1393, the greater part of the people of Essex, Suffolk and part of Norfolk had no other employment than that suppled by the cloth ndustry, v- Although self-evdently an exaggeraton, the petton s 19 ERO, D/DU 267/35, court of 16 Sept. 15o6; ERO D/DU 267/36, court of 16 July 15z3. For bographcal detals for Thomas Sprng III, see B. McClenaghan, The Sprngs of Lavenham (1924), esp. pp and App. D., pp. 86-8; also, D.P. Dymond and A. Betterton, Lavenham: 700 years of textle makng (1982). 20 H.L. Gray, 'The producton and exportaton of Englsh woollens n the fourteenth century', EHR 39 (1924), pp. 3o-1. As well as the small area ether sde of the rver Stour n the countes of Essex and Suffolk, Gray dentfed two other non-urban regons of the cloth ndustry n rural Somerset and rural Berkshre. For partcular detals, see Schofeld, 'Land, famly and nhertance', pp , See also, for dscusson of Brdbrook and ts market nexus n the mddle ages, D. Farmer, 'Marketng the produce of the countrysde, lzoo-15oo' n E. Mller (ed.), The Agraran Hstory of England and Wales III, oo (1991), pp. 35z, 363-5, 384, For studes of local doth towns, see G. A. Thornton, A hstory of Clare, Suffolk (19z8); R. H. Brtnell, Growth and dedne n Colchester, 13oo-1525 (1986); Dymond and Betterton, Lavenham. 22 Rotul Parlamentorum (6 vols, 1783), III, p.32o, quoted VCH Essex, II, p. 381 and L. R. Poos, A rural socety after the Black Death: Essex, 135o-1525 (1991), p. 59.

8 8 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW l I:! testmony to the perceved ubquty of elements of the ndustry by the close of the fourteenth century. By the last decade of the century, the regon was responsble for nearly sx per cent of the producton of woollens natonauy.23 ~ There s clear evdence from the md-fourteenth century onwards of Brdbrook's nvolvement n the cloth ndustry, a relatonshp whch drew both rch and poor to the v. As early as 1349, a Roger of Lavenham was reported as havng fled Brdbrook after a nght-tme attempt to steal cloth from the flalng mll there; by the early 137os, regular vsts by merchants from the neghbourng cloth towns were systematcally recorded n the manoral accounts, a practce that contnued nto the early ffteenth century. 24 The growth of the cloth ndustry from the md-fourteenth century also saw nvestment n the demesne fullng mlls, a process that drew outsde captal nto the manor and came to mpact upon customary landholdng. In the 135os and 136os the mll stood dle but, by the end of the fourteenth century, as cloth exports began ther dramatc ncrease, the mll was rebult and leased to fullers. In , the rebulder of the mll leased the fullng mll as well as the demesne's watermll and wndmll for three years for the szeable farm of 8 for the frst year and 9 6s. 8d. each year thereafter. In 139o-1, a John Fuller of Haverhll leased the fullng mll and pasture for 4. 2s Lessees of the demesne mll, by the early ffteenth centures, also took to leasng customary standard holdngs. In 14o3, the fullng mll was leased to John Aspelon, fuller, for a term of 2o years, John also leasng a customary standard holdng known as Wthelards at the same tme and for the same term. 26 A process of accumulaton by demesne lessees and lessees of the lord's mlls accelerated n the ffteenth century. 27 Fnally, n the second half of the ffteenth century, customary land became the target of ndvdual clothers, as the example of Thomas Sprng of Lavenham, quoted above, shows. 2s Throughout the perod, n addton to the presence of proto-ndustral wealth, there was also landed wealth. 29 A recent county study of the Essex gentry for the fourteenth century ndcates that 'county' and 'parsh' gentry were present n suffcent numbers to mpact upon any 1 ~N 23 Gray, 'Producton,ad exportaton', p. 34, App. II. 24 Roger of Lavenham: ERO, D/DU 267/29, court of 20 July Purchasers of wool and hdes are recorded n fourteen of the manoral accounts for Brdbrook between and 14o3-4. (The accounts run from Mchaelmas to Mchaelmas.) , John Borel de Sudbury (WAM '25469); , John atte Rothe and John Borel (WAM ~5472); , Wllam Fykewyne de Haverhll (WAM 25473); , Robert Yne de Sudbury (WAM 25474); , John Deghstere de Halstead (WAM 25477); , John Deghstere de Halstead (WAM 25478); , Wllam Turnour (WAM 25479); , John Goodyng (WAM 25480); , Wllam Toppesfeld (WAM 25484); , John Breggeman and Thomas Goldynge de Sudbury (WAM 25488); , John Sklful and lohn Trewe de Halstead (WAM 25489); , Wllam Maron (WAM 25490); , Wllam Reede de Brancaster (WAM 25491); 14o3-4, John Coldham (WAM 25499) (WAM 25481); 139o-1 (WAM 25486). 26 ERO, D/DU 267/31, court of 24 Sept. 14o3. See also, Poos, Rural socety, pp For example, n September 1436, Robert Laurence, otherwse called the Meller or Mller, was admtted to 'one messuage wth one bond tenement and a half bond tenement called Boylonds, Wythelards and Cotemans'. Robert can be dentfed as lessee of at least two of fllese holdngs n earler accounts, ERO, D/DU 267/33, court of 18 Sept. 1436; (WAM 25508); (WAM 25508); (WAM 255o9). 2s See above, pp For dscusson of the gentry and ther wealth n the ffteenth century, see H. L. Gray, 'Incomes from land n England n 1436', EHR 49 (1934), pp ; T. B. Pugh, 'The magnates, knghts and gentry' n S.B. Chrmes, C. D. Ross and R. A. Grffths, Ffteenth century England, o9. Studes n poltcs and socety (2nd edn, 1995), pp For a more general dscusson of gentry, see C. Gven-Wlson, The Englsh noblty n the late mddle ages. the fourteenth century polfcal communty (1996), ch. 3. :t I

9 THE MARKET FOR CUSTOMARY LAND 9 j" / :t / market n customary land should they have chosen to do so. 30 There were resdent lords and substantal tenants n a number of manors and vlls adjacent to Brdbrook whlst wealthy freeholders had for long held land n the manor. 3~ In the late fourteenth century, for example, Henry Engleys or Englyssh, at varous tmes sherff of the countes of Cambrdgeshre and Huntngdonshre as well as of Essex and Hertfordshre, held substantal tracts of free land at Brdbrook.32 He also held small parcels of land 'by roll of court'.33 However, the appearance of Sr Robert Tyrell, n the last quarter of the ffteenth century, amongst the tenants of customary standard holdngs, s the frst clear ndcaton that the gentry were prepared to make substantal nvestment n such holdngs. 34 It seems clear, therefore, that the prevalng economc condtons are lkely to have ensured a supply of potental wealthy tenants capable of buyng and accumulatng customary standard holdngs. Furthermore, gven that, as we have already seen, extremely wealthy ndvduals were, n the second half of the ffteenth century, prepared to take customary standard holdngs, t s evdent that outsders felt, by that tme, suffcently confdent to enter customary land and that, even before the md-ffteenth century, t seems that there was an appette for customary land amongst buyers from beyond the manor. That confdence may have ncreased n the last decades of the ffteenth century as land held n vllenage cast off tants of servlty, prncpal amongst whch was the lack of protecton aganst lordshp and ts more onerous demands, a pont to whch we shall return.35 The behavour of farms and rents certanly suggests that demand for land remaned reasonably hgh throughout the perod but that t mght have shown renewed vgour n the late ffteenth century. All but fve of twenty-one observable farms of standard holdngs suffered some decay of rent between the 142os, a decade from whch only one account, for , survves, and the 143os and 144os, wth the majorty sufferng a dramatc drop n 1438, whch would be consstent wth the very poor harvest and near famne condtons of that year. 36 However, few holdngs! 4! /I 30 Jennfer C. Ward, The Essex gentry and the county communty n the fourteenth century (1991), p. 16. For other nvestgatons of county gentry n the late mddle ages, see K. S. Naughton, The gentry of Bedfordshre n the thrteenth and fourteenth centures (Department of Englsh Local Hstory, occasonal papers, thrd ser., 2, 1973); N. E. Saul, Knghts and esqures. The Gloucestershre gentry n the fourteenth century (1981); M.J. Bennett, Communty, class and careersm: Cheshre and Lancashre socety n the age of Sr Gawan and the Green Knght (1982); B. Webster, 'The communty of Kent n the regn of Rchard II', Archaeologa Cantana, loo (1984); C. Carpenter, Localty and polty: a stud 7 of Warwckshre landed socety, 14o (1991). 3, For the proxmty of neghboarng gentry n the ffteenth century, see, for example, Morant, County of Essex, II, pp. 307, 311, 345, , 356-7, 361, 363, 365-7, For Englyssh's offce-holdng, see VCH Cambrdgeshre, II, p. 4oo n. 99 and A. Steele, 'Sherffs of Cambrdgeshre and Huntngdonshre 'n the regn of Rchard II', Proc. Cambrdgeshre Antquaran Socety, 36 (1934-5), pp ; also, Ward, Essex gentry and the county communty, p. 4. Englyssh was also escheator, bd., p. 5. He was certanly actvely engaged n the acquston of land n the late fourteenth century" n Cambrdgeshre, VCH Cambrdgeshre, II, p ERO, D/DU 267/61; also 267/30, courts of 14 Dec and 23 Sept Members of the Tyrell famly were nvestng n customary land elsewhere n Essex n the late ffteenth century. The wll of John TyreU (d. 1494) ncludes menton of a tenement and lo acres of land 'holdeth jontly wth me by copes of court roll of "Moch Wakerng"...', Kng, 'Ancent wlls (no. 3)', P. 89 3s For an ndcaton of the real threats that may have faced the free tenant takng up unfree land, see P.R. Hyams, Kngs, lords and peasants n medeval England. The common law of vllenage n the twelfth and thrteenth centures (198o), ch For 1438, (WAM 25511); entres n the court rolls look to ndcate an ncreased dslocaton n the early 143os, ERO D/DU 267/33, court of 20 Sept

10 II 10 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW [ '! I!,! ~!! [ 1 ~! b t ~J needed to be let to more than a sngle farmer at any one tme. There was also a degree of stablty: by comparson wth the account for 1426, four farms of standard holdngs had ncreased by the md-144os, seven had stayed the same, and sx had fallen (a further four had no farm separately! recorded because the lessee pad a lump sum for all of hs leasehold land); the total recepts from' farms n 1426 was not dramatcally dfferent, n fact slghtly lower than that n From the md-ffteenth century customary standard holdngs returned a money rent rather than an annual farm and the farms lsted n 1445 appear to have become fxed as rents for the remander of the perody By the early 146os, all transfers nter-vvos were accompaned by the payment of an entry fne. Fnes appear to have ncreased over the late ffteenth century, and fnes of between los. and 2os. were not uncommon n the last years of the century, features reflectve of an ncreasngly buoyant market n customary standard holdngs. However, t also dear that, before the md-ffteenth century, those enterng customary tenements were not from amongst the ranks of gentry and the wealther merchants. That such ndvduals can be counted amongst tenants n the late ffteenth century may be explcable n terms of developments n segneural polcy and customary tenure, both of whch may have encouraged ths new clentele, and perhaps were ntended to do so. Consequently, we now need to consder n what ways the condtons wthn the manor became suffcently conducve to entce outsde buyers. III Contemporary statements descrbng developments n segneural polcy are not easly unearthed. However, consstency of developments across the estates of Westmnster Abbey ndcates that the monks attempted to mplement what was largely a blanket polcy n response to the developments of the late mddle ages? s A long ffteenth century- (from c c. 1520) saw, on Westmnster Abbey's estates, tenure n bondage gve way frst to contractual tenances and then to heredtable and saleable nterests n customary land of a knd whch foreshadowed copyhold by nhertance. Standard holdngs whch, at the begnnng of ths perod mght stll owe labour servces and were descrbed, even nto the md-ffteenth century, as held n vllenage or n bondage, owed a true money rent by the end of the ffteenth century and were held by customary tenure of a knd that made no lttle or no reference to the servle condton of the land. 39 Throughout the perod the monks attempted to nsst on certan condtons of tenure. In partcular, restrctons on the accumulaton and fragmentaton of customary standard holdngs, as well as requrements of mantenance and resdence, are evdent throughout the estate. The monks were generally reluctant to move from ther preferred polces, even n the face of economc realtes: among the western manors of the estate, stuated n wool-producng regons, the monks were prepared to resst the attempts of 'outsders' who had begun 'to cast covetous eyes on the pastures of these manors and the tenances havng the rght of access to them'. 40 Restrctons on non-resdental possesson of customary standard holdngs at Todenham, for example, were explct and perssted nto the late ffteenth century? ~ Many of the tenants of standard holdngs were local 37 See below, pp s Harvey, Westmnster Abbey and ts estates, ch. m, passm. 39 Ibd., pp o Ibd., pp Ibd., pp. 254 (tenure), , 261, 270 (labour servces), (accumulaton), 276, n. 1 (resdence). >1! ] I L t,4 ll.!! I IC _~/._._,.±2--L! ~... L

11 / f~ THE MARKET FOR CUSTOMARY LAND II l / men. 42 The monks also ressted any attempts to lay waste to holdngs or to explot them n ways that were deemed napproprate. 43 It was only n partcular crcumstances, essentally of sem-urbanty, that the monks appear to have allowed any devaton from such polces. 44 Developments at Brdbrook were largely consstent wth the developments observed elsewhere on the estate. The two centures between 1300 and 1500 wtnessed a transformaton of customary tenure at Brdbrook, the essental feature of whch was a growng securty of tenure as vllenage was transformed nto copyhold. Before the Black Death at Brdbrook, the only form of tenure recorded n the court rolls for the unfree standard holdngs was tenure n bondage (n bondago). The term 'n vllenage' (n vllenago) appeared at md-centnry but both had gven way by the close of the fourteenth century to the more complex tenural phrase 'at the lord's wll n bondage by roll of court' ( ad voluntatem domn n bondago per rotulum cure). However, customary tenure was n retreat at Brdbrook by ths date: n the second half of the fourteenth century there was a gradual and all but unversal replacement of customary tenure by leasehold, or what we mght term contractual tenances, a process that has been descrbed n detal elsewhere. 45 By the end of the frst decade of the ffteenth century all but one of the standard holdngs was held by one or other form of contractual tenure, that s, by term of lves, term of years, or for a sngle year (hoc anno). Wth the md-ffteenth century came a further change n the tenure of standard holdngs. As early as 1411 one ndvdual had leased land on terms smlar to copyhold by nhertance: a grant of a customary standard holdng to John Gagryrne n that year was made 'at the wll of the lord n bondage by roll of court' to the lessee and hs hers. 46 Ths was a premature glmpse of Matland's 'modern tmes' when the frst object of the court roll was 'to afford the vllan and custumar wrtten evdence of ther ttle' and t was not untl 1436 that smlar entres are to be found. In that year Robert Laurence, otherwse known as Meller, was admtted to hold three tenements, at least two of whch were customary standard holdngs, to hmself, hs hers, and assgns 'at the wll of the lord n bondage by roll of court'. 47 Ths formula was soon replaced wth what was to become the standard tenural form for the remander of the perod: the admttance of Thomas Wynter, n 1438, to hold 'at the wll of the lord by roll of court', presaged the shape of thngs to come. Thomas Wynter was admtted solely to hmself and hs assgns; there was no heredtable nterest. 4s Increasngly, however, from the 145os, new tenants of standard holdngs were admtted to hold to themselves, ther hers and assgns 'at the wll of the lord by roll of court', and by the md-146os ths form of entry was unversally appled, wth fxed money rents, seemngly based on levels attaned n mdcentury. Ths formula was agan modfed at the very begnnng of the sxteenth century: n the last years of Henry VII's regn and the frst of Henry VIII's, tenants were admtted to hold 'from the lord at the lord's wll' (de domno ad voluntatem domn) whlst the outgong tenant 42 Ibd., pp bd., pp Ibd., pp Schofeld, 'Tenural developments', pp.255-6o; for a full dscusson, see Schofeld, 'Land, famly and nhertance', ch ERO, D/DU 267/31, court of 21 Sept. 141t. The same holdng was granted n 1423 for a term oflo years, 267/33, court of 21 Sept. x F.W. Matland (ed.), Select pleas n manoral and other segneural courts (Selden Socety, II, 1889), p. xv. The same holdngs were granted wthout the heredtable nterest n 1453, when they were granted to ]ohn Tynford and others n 1453, ERO, D/DU 267/33, court of 20 July ERO, D/DU z67/33, court of zo July 1438.

12 12 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW!, ~I =~!!, ' '! ~l! ~!:! :' f! H 12' was descrbed as holdng 'by roll of court' (per rotulum cure) and, occasonally, 'by roll of court and by better securty' (per rotulum cure et per maorem securtatem). Ths last element, the. menton of better securty s, presumably, an oblque reference to copes. By the early 149os,.r reference to copes as evdence of rght to surrender was a standard feature of surrenders ad opus (to use). 49 There were also marked developments n the form and flexblty of transfer and admttance recorded n the court rolls over the ffteenth century. Untl the md-century, the vast majorty of admttances ( , 23 out of 27; 85 per cent) were n the form of grants by the lord for a term of years, typcally wth a rght to assgn but seldom wth a rght to nhert; on one occason, an ndvdual was admtted to hold for the lfe of another (put autre ve), another was admtted to the resdue of a term of years, and two lessees entered 'at the wll of the lord'. The admttances for the remanders of the terms of lfe and of years are the only survvng examples of explct assgnment of terms; however, the numerous admttances to standard holdngs for sngle years, whch~ as we have seen, are well-evdenced n the accounts for the frst half of the ffteenth century, may ndcate that resdues of terms were assgned extra-curally wth some frequency, a suggeston supported by the observaton that the names of lessees changed n the manoral accounts. The pattern was very dfferent n the second half of the ffteenth century. There were three grants of leaseholds by the lord for terms of years n 145o and 1451 but, as already noted, these were the last. Thereafter, tenants, who, as we have seen, had come, by ths tme, to receve ther holdngs 'at the wll of the lord to themselves, ther hers, and assgns', also tended to transfer ther holdngs by surrender and admttance ad opus, to the use of the buyer, a feature that stands n marked contrast to the stuaton a century earler. Between 145o and 15oo, there were twenty-nne dentfable transfers of standard holdngs, of whch three were admttances for terms of years; there were also seven admttances at the wll of the lord, one transfer post-mortern and twenty-one transfers nter-vvos by surrender and admttance ad opus. These developments permtted and encouraged the development of the condtons of tenure and transfer whch would have been nconcevable n the early fourteenth century. Notably, there was an ncreased freedom n the transfer of customary land whch prompted a 'real' market n that land. A market n customary land ntroduced further noveltes. As customary standard holdngs became marketable assets rather than famly holdngs - the terra unus farnle of an earler perod - ther tenants looked to explot them dfferently. By the end of the ffteenth century, the monks were prepared to tolerate certan excesses whch they would once have condemned. In partcular, the accumulaton of holdngs, the absenteesm of tenants 49 It s only n the last two decades of the ffteenth century that the copy starts to make regular appearance n the court rolls at all but by the early 148os, unlke perhaps earler, the copy of the roll was clear ly presented as evdence of secure ttle on sale of standard holdngs; thus, n July 1482, Wllam Southey's surrende r of sx standard holdngs en bloc was supported by copy of the court roll entry of hs admttance three years prevously (ERO, D/DU 267/34, court ofu July 1482). Ths use of the 'copy' of the court roll as securty of ttle comes late on the Westmnster Abbey estates: Harvey, Westmnster Abbey and ts estates, pp ; also Schofeld, 'Land, famly and nhertance', pp. lo6-7. Although some, f not all, late fourteenth-century leaseholders possessed copes of ther leas es, detalng, nter ala, the condton of the tenement on admttance, reference to copes are few and nowhere n the late medeval munments for Brdbrook do we meet tenure 'by copy'. Throughout most of ths earler perod, the copy was, n fact, used as much or more to regulate and prove relatons between lord and tenant/lessee as to show good t tle to a prospectve buyer.!1 ] l I.! ] l L

13 THE MARKET FOR CUSTOMARY LAND 13 and the falure to mantan holdngs were ncreasngly accepted. We wll deal wth each of these developments n turn, begnnng wth the rse of a market n customary standard holdngs. At Brdbrook, n the fourteenth century, partcularly before the ntroducton of contractual tenances after the Black Death, the majorty of customary standard holdngs, as Table I shows, were transferred on the death of the tenant. The nter-vvos transfer of customary standard holdngs was, seemngly, the product of lordly nterventon, as the monks of Westmnster Abbey redstrbuted holdngs to those capable of workng them. s Any nter-vvos market n unfree land, at least n the frst half of the fourteenth century, was confned to the small plots of land whch exsted outsde of the vrgated structure. Dscusson of a market n customary standard holdngs n the fourteenth century s therefore somethng of a non-sequtur: the customary vrgate and ts fractons at Brdbrook were unffs so closely admnstered by the monks thatts dffcult to see the tmng and nature of ther transfer as beng determned by any other party, sl The transfer of customary standard holdngs ncreased sgnfcantly n the second half of the fourteenth century and the frst half of the ffteenth. Wth the ntroducton of contractual tenances, or leasehold, and the total dsappearance of heredtable nterests n customary land, holdngs now changed hands at the expraton of one lease and the creaton of another or, less evdently, on the assgnment of leases. Whle the larger leases were recorded n the court rols, t s the manoral accounts whch provde the most mportant evdence for the frequency of turnover for ths perod. Between 139o and 1412 there were only twelve transfers of standard holdngs recorded n the court rolls; however, examnaton of turnover of named lessees n the farms secton of the manoral accounts shows that there were an addtonal thrty-eght entres of leases? 2 Importantly, not all holdngs changed hands as frequently as dd others: between 14oo and 1412, thrteen holdngs changed hands wth relatve frequency whlst nne remaned n the hands of the same lessee throughout. Ths general pattern of occupancy and relatve stablty of farms, wth dramatc turnover for certan holdngs and sngle occupancy for others, perssted nto the ffteenth century. As already mentoned, only one account roll, that for , survves from the twenty years between 1413 and 1433; comparson of names of lessees n ths roll wth ts survvng predecessor, the account roll for , shows that all but one of the lessees of standard holdngs had changed. Although we cannot therefore dscover for ths perod the proporton of lessees who, through the brevty or nsecurty of ther terms, dd not have ther entres recorded n the court rolls, we do fnd that 21 transfers of holdngs were recorded there, s3 For the perod covered by manoral accounts between 1434 and 1445, when the detaled recordng of farms ended, there were relatvely few admttances to standard holdngs recorded n the court rolls (fve n all); ths contrasts markedly wth the 51 admttances revealed by turnover of lessees recorded n the account rolls. As earler, / /. so ERO, D/DU 267/29, courts of 17 Mar., 25 June, 20 July 1338; also Schofeld, 'Land, famly and nhertance', pp sl Cf. Poos, A rural sodety, pp The landmarket at Brdbrook does not appear to have been typg~ of the regon. s2 Schofleld, 'Tenural developments', p s3 Ths s a number sgnfcantly greater than n the earler perod. All but one of those admtted n the manor court contnued to hold hs farm by the tme of the next account, n 1426, and n the one case, by 1426, where a lessee other than the one admtted n the court rols held, the new lessee was referred to as the assgnee of the orgnal lessee. In other words, n the second and thrd decades of the ffteenth century, possbly n response to an ntatve on the part of the admnstrators of the estate, the court rols may have become, albet brefly, truly representatve of the frequency of transfers of customary standard holdngs.

14 14 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW I:[! I; l::!~:: l. :!! ~ I I~ ~,'~ ~4!~!! ~d~j!~', ~; ~ not all holdngs changed hands frequently n these years: three holdngs were not transferred at all, whlst a further seven were transferred only once. Between 1445, when the farms secton of the manoral accounts ossfed, and 1464, there were/ eght admttances recorded n the court rolls. There were at least - and changes n the names of holdngs n ths perod makes close dentfcaton dffcult - a further eght transfers of standard holdngs between 1465 and Between 1485 and 15o4, a smlar number of transfers of standard holdngs, ten, took place but as n the prevous 4o years, these ncluded large accumulated holdngs. Thus, f, nstead of countng sngle transfers (as n Table 1), we count the number of holdngs transferred, we can produce a more realstc comparson of the state of the land market n the late ffteenth century compared wth earler perods. Thus, we fnd n 145o-9, seven transfers; 146o-9, nne transfers; 147o-9, nne transfers; 148o-9, nneteen transfers; 149o-9, nne transfers; 15oo-9, thrteen transfers. The apparent development of an actve market n standard holdngs from the 148os was reflected n the ncreased number and sze of entry fnesj Although the number of transfers recorded n the court rolls had clearly ncreased by the close of the ffteenth century, the frequent turnover of certan holdngs, evdent n the frst half of the century, s less apparent. Instead, most holdngs now remaned n the hands of tenants for farly long perods, as n the case of the sx customary standard holdngs whch, as a block, were transferred on only three occasons n the sxty years between 1446 and 15o6. Although the possblty remans that sub-tenances of these holdngs were traded as frequently as ever, repeated orders levelled aganst the named tenants for waste and the destructon of buldngs on these holdngs suggests that the land was farmed drectly, often as pasture. 5s The development and ncreasng ease of nter-vvos transfer of customary standard holdngs encouraged the accumulaton of holdngs. In the frst half of the fourteenth century, when frankpledge lstngs offer a frst ndcaton of the number of holdngs per tenant, the majorty of holdngs were held separately and very few tenants held more than a sngle eght- or four-acre tenement. In the latter half of the fourteenth century, ths stuaton was generally mantaned, although two holdngs fell permanently vacant n the aftermath of the Black Death. By the close of the fourteenth century, there s evdence that a process of accumulaton had begun: by the frst decade of the ffteenth century, ten out of 25 observable holdngs were held by ndvdual tenants but a growng proporton (60 per cent), were held as part of a larger accumulaton. 56 Ths process gathered pace durng the ffteenth century. By the second half of the century, of the sxteen customary standard dentfable n the court rolls from these years, only one appears to have been held sngly, the rest held as parcels of larger accumulatons. All n all, these sxteen holdngs were n the hands of just sx tenants. Interestngly, at Brdbrook once engrossment of ths knd occurred, the new composte holdngs appear to have retaned ther form throughout the remander of the perod. For nstance, sx holdngs whch appear to have been vacant when the detaled farms secton of the accounts was abandoned n 1445 and were descrbed as 'n the lord's hands' n the lst on the dorse of the next account were clearly soon let or sold en bloc. Throughout the rest of the century and nto the sxteenth, they, and an addtonal holdng, were transferred together but every effort was made to ensure that they remaned dentfable as s4 See above, p. lo. pledge and the tthng system: an Essex case study', n s5 See below, pp Z. Raz and R. M. Smth (eds), Medeval socety and the 5~ p.r. Schofeld, 'The late medeval vew of frank- manor court (1996), p ;t,1 l!