XII. EXPLANATION OF CERTAIN TERMS
(1) Foreign Service: Utwara.
Few expressions are commoner in final concords than 'foreign (Lat.
foris, outside) service.' (fn. 1) The term meant service due to some person
other than the tenant's immediate lord. Thus on page 6, no. 17, Richard
enfeoffs Roger of land at a rent of a pair of white gloves. But there is
service due from the same land to A, the lord who enfeoffed Richard;
and, in the concord whereby Richard and Roger make their bargain,
this is called foreign service because it is a service which Roger has to
render beyond the service which he owes to Richard, his immediate
lord. The chief lords, who are so often mentioned, are generally the
tenants who hold immediately of the king; but occasionally the term
chief lord may mean any lord who is superior to the tenant's immediate
lord.
Professor F. M. Stenton has kindly written the following valuable
note on foreign service (fn. 2) and utwara for the purpose of this introduction:
The difficult phrase foreign service in its widest application includes any form
of service which lies outside the relation created between feoffor and feoffee by the
act of subinfeudation. If A grants to B a bovate of land at a rent of a shilling
yearly, all service to the king or to other lords incumbent on this tenement while
it was in A's hand is foreign from the standpoint of the new relationship established
between A and B. Such burdens, therefore, as suit to the court of A's lord,
communal burdens like the sheriff's aid or, in the twelfth century, the Danegeld,
and service in the feudal host, may all legitimately be included under the foreign
title. In the thirteenth century, however, military service, or rather the payments
levied in respect of it, being the most important form of foreign service, are
commonly intended by the phrase when it is used without qualification. Indeed,
there are frequent traces of a usage by which foreign service means scutage, no
less and no more. This may well have been inaccurate in strictness of law, but it
was convenient. It would be going too far to say that foreign service always or
nearly always bears this exclusive sense of scutage in final concords, but one can
certainly say that this payment was foremost in the mind of a clerk who wrote
forinsecis exceptis, or words to that effect.
Perhaps the best way of regarding the phrase is to consider it as a translation
into feudal language of a native word which occurs once only in these concords,
the Utwara. (fn. 3) This word, in the combination cyninges utwaru, is recorded already in
the tenth century, when it certainly means service due to the king. Fundamentally
this service seems at this early date to cover taxes, and this usage persists into the
later part of the twelfth century. If any one in the time of Henry II spoke of four
bovates ad utwaram he meant that the tenement in question, whatever its areal
content, was rated to the Danegeld and cognate burdens at four bovates. Really,
it might consist of one bovate or ten bovates or any other number of bovates. On
the other hand, in the north of England the king's outward, as people there called
it, certainly denoted military service, and this looks like an ancient usage, though
there does not seem to be any definite pre-Conquest authority for it. The meaning
of the word becomes more evident from the fact that in the twelfth century, as
before the Conquest, the utwara was contrasted with the inwara. The inwara
meant the service at which a holding was rated for the purposes of the lord of the
estate of which it formed a part. If a piece of land was said to consist of 4 bovates
ad inwaram, this meant that the tenant of this land would do to the lord such
service as was expected according to local custom from a tenement of 4 bovates.
If it was said to consist of 4 bovates ad utwaram, this meant that it paid geld
according to this amount, and, at least in the north, provided military service such
as was demanded, by custom again, from a holding of this size. Here, as in the
case of foreign service, the distinctive force of the word is that of a service which
goes outside the estate, and it is probable that in Lincolnshire and the northern
shires the conception of the utwara was easily replaced by that of foreign service,
the feudal service of this region being conditioned as to its incidence by the
tenurial arrangements created in the Old English period.
The word foreign is also used in the concords in other connections.
The foreign merchants at Barton (fn. 4) and the foreign men (homines forinseci)
at Ruskington (fn. 5) are traders who come from outside those places to attend
the markets. The foreign beasts (forinseca animalia) at Bucknall and
Burreth, (fn. 6) like the averia aliena at Little Hale, (fn. 7) are beasts which belong
to persons who are outside, or not parties to, the bargain recorded in the
concord.
The word 'forinsec' is sometimes used instead of 'foreign' to
translate the Latin forinsecus; but it is doubtful whether forinsec was
used in former days except in legal treatises. In common speech men
probably used the English word foreign, as it is still used in the District
Probate Registry at Lincoln to describe wills of testators who were
domiciled outside the county. In the present volume, therefore, it has
been thought best to use the word 'foreign' rather than to speak of
'forinsec service', 'forinsec men,' 'forinsec beasts.'
(2) In service: in demesne. (fn. 8)
The case quoted above (fn. 9) will serve to illustrate the meaning of the
terms 'in service,' 'in demesne.' Richard and Roger are both in a sense
seised or possessed of the land. Roger's interest is the possession, by
himself or his servants, of the actual soil; he occupies the land and
sows and reaps it. He is described therefore as being seised in demesne.
The interest of Richard is different. He is seised of a seigniory, the
rights of a lord, a lordship, a dominium, of rents and services, fealty and
homage, which are due from the land. He is said therefore to be
seised, not in demesne, but in service. A too is seised in service.
(3) Mesne.
For this term also we may revert to our case. The king has
enfeoffed A, A has enfeoffed Richard, and Richard has enfeoffed Roger.
A therefore is the chief lord, and Richard the mesne (medius) lord
because he is intermediate between A and Roger. In this hierarchy of
tenures Richard has a double character: he is A's tenant and Roger's
lord. Until the Third Statute of Westminster, Quia Emplores, in 1290,
restrained the practice of subinfeudation, there was in theory no limit
to the number of mesne lords who might own seigniories of rents or
services derived from a particular piece of land.
Actions against mesne lords are very common in the final concords
of the thirteenth century. (fn. 10) In the case on page 24, no. 74, Roger the
mesne lord has enfeoffed the abbot, and has evidently undertaken to
perform the service due to Gilbert the chief lord. Gilbert, however,
distrains the abbot, the tenant in demesne. The abbot's remedy is an
action against Roger, the mesne lord, to compel him to perform the
services which are due to Gilbert.
(4) Frank almoign.
It will be noticed that during the period covered by this volume a
great deal of land was passing into the possession of the Church. This
land was generally held of the donor by a spiritual service called frank
almoign, free alms, libera elemosina. The service was indefinite in
amount—a share in the prayers of the donee. When the spiritual
service consisted of the performance of certain specific actions, the
tenure was usually called, not frank almoign, but tenure by divine
service. (fn. 11) This distinction, however, is probably not much older than the
reign of Edward I. Thus in the interesting case on pages 145–146,
although the service is definite, the land is said to be held in frank
almoign.
The formula generally used in grants of land in frank almoign is
'in free, pure, and perpetual alms'; and often there are added the
words 'free and quit of all secular service, custom, and exaction.' A
gift in frank almoign generally implied that no secular service was due
from the donee to the donor. But sometimes such a service was
reserved. Something perhaps turned on the omission of the word
'pure'; and the final concords of the thirteenth century, like charters
in an earlier age, afford instances of gifts in 'free and perpetual' alms
where a temporal service is to be performed to the donor. (fn. 12)
Where a donor was a mesne lord, a grant in frank almoign did not
necessarily release the donee from the obligation of performing the
foreign service; but when nothing was said about its incidence, it
probably fell upon the donor. In the case of scutage payable to the
king, it seems to have been the practice not to distrain land in frank
almoign, provided that the donor had other lands upon which the tax
might be levied. Here again something perhaps turned on the omission
of the word 'pure,' for we find gifts in 'free and perpetual alms' where
the donee is made responsible for the foreign service. (fn. 13) In one case, (fn. 14)
however, where the gift is made 'in pure and perpetual alms,' (fn. 15) a secular
rent is reserved to the donor, and the donee is moreover to do the
foreign service to the chief lords. (fn. 16)
(5) Frank marriage.
When a daughter married, she might be provided for by a gift of
land in frank or free marriage, liberum maritagium. Such land was free
from all service to the donor, who moreover did the foreign service,
until the land had been thrice inherited by the heirs of the donee's
body. When that degree had been passed, the tenant was bound to do
homage to the donor's heir, and to do the foreign service. (fn. 17) If the issue
of the daughter failed, the land reverted to the donor and his heirs. (fn. 18)
Besides land held by the tenure of frank marriage, final concords
afford instances of marriage portions given with daughters. While such
a gift might reserve a rent or service to the donor and his heirs, it might
on the other hand carry equal or even greater advantages than a gift in
frank marriage. (fn. 19)
(6) The Courtesy of England.
The subject of marriage-gifts leads naturally to a consideration of
tenancy by the courtesy of England, (fn. 20) or, as it is otherwise called,
tenancy by the law of England. This refers to the practice of English
law which gave a husband a life-estate in the lands of his wife from the
moment when a child capable of inheriting the land from the wife was
born—'born and heard to cry within the four walls.' This life-estate
endured even though the child died before the wife, or though the
husband married a second time. (fn. 21)
(7) Selion.
A selion (Lat. selio, Anglo-French seilon, Old French seillon) was a
strip of land in the great open fields which prevailed in England before
the days of enclosures. Though selions varied in size, the typical selion
was a furlong (i.e. a furrowlong) in length and a perch in breadth,
measuring about a quarter of an acre. A man's selions lay scattered
amongst his neighbour's strips in different parts of the two or three
great fields into which the land of the vill was divided. When written
in English the usual word for a strip is 'land,' (fn. 22) though 'selion' (fn. 23) is
sometimes used, as it is the common word to-day in the Isle of Axholme,
where a large part of the land is still unenclosed, and divided into strips.
The word 'rigg' (fn. 24) (i.e. ridge) is also occasionally found.
(8) Cultura.
A cultura was a group or parcel of contiguous selions lying side by
side, so that the cultura, like the selions, was a furlong in length. The
several culturac in a vill of course varied considerably in the quality of
the soil; and therefore we find that a man's strips, instead of lying
together in a compact block, lay scattered in the several culturae; and it
was the general practice to assign the strips in the several culturae to the
tenants in the same order. Thus William grants two bovates of land,
which consist of selions lying scattered (particulatim) in the open
fields of the vill, and they always lie next the land of Geoffrey. (fn. 25)
Cultura is a difficult word to translate. In the text it is generally
rendered, though not very happily, 'a parcel of arable land,' the Latin
word being generally added in brackets. 'Culture' and 'tillage,' words
which were in use as early as the latter part of the sixteenth century,
and are sometimes found in modern books, seem hardly satisfactory.
The word which was used in Lincolnshire in common speech in the
thirteenth century was probably 'wong,' about which Professor Stenton
has kindly written the following note:
The word 'wong' is a curious example of a word, current at an early date in
both East and West Scandinavia, becoming obsolete in the Scandinavian languages,
but persisting in England, to which it must have been brought in the ninth
century. It stands for the Old West Norse vangr, and the Old Danish vang,
bearing the general sense of 'field.' In Scandinavia it survived in rhythmic
formulas, doubtless, like most of their kind. of high antiquity. In England it may
always be understood to mean a group of parallel strips in the open fields.
There does not seem to be any instance of its employment in this sense in
Scandinavia.
The word is still found in the reign of Elizabeth in terriers of glebe
land: 'Parsonage wonge,' 'Toft Wood Wonnge.' (fn. 26) Other entries in the
terriers give interesting particulars:
One wonge of xxxiiii long landes and iiii shorte landes conteyninge xii acres.
In the said Estfeld one wange of xviii landes arrable with ii bauckes the one on
the one sid and the other on the other syde perteyninge to the said wange. (fn. 27)
The commonest Elizabethan equivalent for cultura is 'furlong,'
'Short Wronglandes forlonge,' 'Ten Acre forlonge,' 'Miclinge Hedge
forlonge. (fn. 28) Neither 'wong' nor 'furlong,' however, seems to be a quite
satisfactory translation, since the one is a local word, and the other has
been appropriated to another use. Perhaps 'shot' (Anglo-Saxon
sceot = a division) is the best equivalent. (fn. 29) At any rate it is unambiguous;
but it does not appear ever to have come into common use in Lincolnshire.
(9) Uilla.
The word uilla has been here translated by 'vill,' as being free from
ambiguity. 'Town' might have been the best equivalent in former
days; but the name has now been appropriated by the larger centres of
population. Of the fact that every village was a town we are reminded
by the survival in our villages of some ancient names: the 'town-street,
the 'town-end,' the 'town-pump,' and the 'town-crier,' the sound of
whose voice has but lately died away. 'Village' is a possible translation,
but it seems scarcely a suitable term to describe such places as Boston
and Spalding. (fn. 30) 'Township' too, which it is the fashion now to use in
the sense of a little town, is inadmissible because it is properly the
equivalent of uillata, which means the people of the uilla regarded as
a collective whole. (fn. 31)
The document printed on pages 334–5, which, however, in spite of
the opening formula, 'Hec est finalis concordia,' is not a true final
concord, affords an instance of two townships, or communities of
townsmen, uillatae, being parties to an agreement: and we see that
some of the leading townsmen on behalf of the rest pledged their faith
to keep the concord, and affixed their seals to the instrument. The
Registrum or cartulary of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln contains two
charters whereby four townsmen and the whole community (communitas)
of the vill of Wellow in Nottinghamshire undertake for themselves,
their heirs, and successors, who for the time being shall be of the same
community, to maintain a chaplain in the chapel of Wellow which
belongs to the mother church of Edwinstowe; and they, as a community
(communiter), bind themselves by an oath, and affix to the charters the
seal of their community (sigillum communitatis nostre). (fn. 32)