XVI. OTHER FEATURES OF INTEREST
(1) General interest of Final Concords.
In the seventeenth century, and even earlier, final concords had
become dismal and monotonous documents. Allowing for the necessary
changes in the names of the parties and in the particulars of the land,
one concord is exactly like another: 'ex uno disce omnes.' But in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries it is far otherwise. The structure of the
concord became stereotyped before the end of Henry II's reign, but
within that unchanging form are found actions of the most diverse kinds.
Some matters of interest have already been mentioned; but others
remain to be noticed. What Joseph Hunter says of the fines of Richard I
and John is also true of the final concords of Henry III:
Whoever looks in this work for facts, which singly considered, are of a very
striking character, will assuredly be disappointed. The subject of it is the exchange
of property, the passing of manors, advowsons, and lands from hand to hand, the
chief changes, in short, in respect of the possession of these things in the reigns of
Richard I and John. This from its very nature does not present single points on
which the mind can rest, and discern in them matter of high importance. It is in
the multitude of these facts, in the notices which the Fines contain of innumerable
persons, perhaps only to be found here, in whom possessions of manors or churches
inhered in those early times; in the notices of partitions of estates among co-heirs,
with the marriages of those co-heirs; in the mention of the wives—a species of
information which is almost peculiar to the Fine; in the innumerable local terms
which occur in them; in the notices which they not unfrequently contain of
dependencies and connections between contiguous properties, important perhaps
in the adjustment of rights even in the present day; in the mention which they
contain of the course of the ancient roads of the kingdom, [...] in the notices
which they contain of peculiar services, peculiar customs, and the habits of a state
of society which has long passed away; in the view which they present of the
progressive accumulation of property in the hands of the religious, and the
frequent mention which they make of the superiors of the communities of
religious, of whom a catalogue almost complete might be made from this species
of document alone—it is these things, which singly are perhaps of no great
moment, which give the value to the species of document of which this publication
consists. We may add, that each Fine is also the basis, the secure and venerable
foundation, on which some interest of the present day may be resting. (fn. 1)
(2) Names.
The Subject Index, under the head of Names, gives some unusual
and interesting christian names and surnames, and for the notes about
the origin of the former the editor is indebted to Professor F. M. Stenton
and Miss D. M. Parsons.
(3) Marriage settlements.
Several concords are evidently settlements of property before or
after marriage. (fn. 2) On pages 31–32, no 97, there is an arrangement relating
to an interchange of rights of giving several children in marriage, one of
whom is not to be married against her will, nor is she to be disparaged
by a mćsalliance. By a statute of 20 Henry III, cap. 7, an heir might
refuse to marry at the request of his lord, provided that he paid his lord
as much as anyone would have given him for the marriage. (fn. 3)
(4) Customs and Services.
Actions concerning customs and services (fn. 4) provide some interesting
cases. A free tenant pays 44s. 6d. to compromise a claim that he should
do a specified amount of ploughing, reaping, and mowing for his lord,
and find one man for one day at the two great boon-days for mowing his
lord's meadow and reaping his corn. (fn. 5) In 1263, another free tenant
agrees to pay an increased rent and to do suit at the lord's court from
three weeks to three weeks in settlement of a claim that he should pay
merchet (fn. 6) for leave to give his daughter in marriage, and also do two
days ploughing every year with his own plough, and give two boon-days
in autumn with one man for reaping the lord's corn. (fn. 7) Another free
tenant makes a compromise whereby he escapes the liability to ride on
horseback as his lord's messenger, at his own cost within the county of
Lincoln, and at his lord's cost outside the county, and also to be present
every autumn at his lord's great boon-day with all his household except
his wife and eldest daughter. (fn. 8)
(5) Homage and suit of court.
Homage and suit of court led to many actions. Suit is to be done
on two 'lawedays' yearly and on some other solemn occasions in the
bishop of Carlisle's court at Horncastle, (fn. 9) and on two 'laghedays' yearly
in the abbot of Swineshead's court at Hale. (fn. 10) Forty-seven free tenants of
the prior of Spalding in Spalding, Pinchbeck, Moulton, and Weston
acknowledge that they and all the males of their household, being of the
age of fifteen years, and all their villeins and cotters are bound to do suit
every year at the view of frank-pledge. (fn. 11)
(6) Feudal Aids.
The feudal aids rendered to the lord for knighting his eldest son and
marrying his eldest daughter occurs in several cases. (fn. 12) Of quite distinct,
and apparently more ancient, origin, is the sheriff's aid, a contribution
towards his expenses in holding the view of frankpledge and riding his
tourn (fn. 13) in each hundred.
(7) Castleguard.
Another service that is demanded is castle-guard, that is the duty of
helping to garrison a castle of the king or of a feudal lord—Belvoir,
Lancaster, Lincoln, Richmond, or Rockingham. (fn. 14) By Henry III's time a
money payment had generally been substituted for personal service.
(8) Drainage.
The drainage of the low lands and the protection of the marsh
land from the encroachment of the sea have always been matters of
importance in Lincolnshire. Neighbouring owners agree to have a
common sewer with a gowt (guttera) at the sea-bank, and bridges (fn. 15) ; and
the maintenance of the sea-bank is an important service. (fn. 16)
(9) Rights of Way.
Disputes about rights of way, of chase and rechase, are sometimes
settled by a final concord, (fn. 17) and ancient roads or causeys or bridges or
streams or waters or fisheries are often mentioned. (fn. 18)
(10) Rights of common.
The open fields and rights of common pasture are fruitful of
disputes, and lead to many final concords. Whose beasts and sheep,
and how many, and at what times, are to be put into the fields; what is
to be done in the way of temporary enclosure (fn. 19) ; what rules are to be
followed about impounding beasts which have no business to be there (fn. 20) —
all this provides work for the curia regis. It is necessary too to deal
with obstructors who maliciously leave their corn and hay in the fields
and meadows, and thus deprive their neighbours of pasture; and with
those who bring in foreign beasts. (fn. 21)
(11) Sporting rights.
Hunting and fishing furnish some interesting suits. Robert de
Tateshale is to have the right to take game in the woods of his neighbour,
the abbot of Kirkstead. If he is refused the keys, he may break the
locks and enter the woods. But in the abbot's woods of Old and New
Dowood he must not hunt. If his dogs enter those woods, Robert must
wait outside, and call them back by mouth and horn. But he has the
right to any game which they have chased into the woods and caught
there, and the abbot's men must bring it out to him, if he has the
patience to wait for it, unless, indeed, as it is wisely provided, the dogs
have been too quick for them, and have already devoured it. And if
they have devoured it, their guilt is by no means to be imputed to the
abbot. (fn. 22)
There is also an agreement between the same abbot and another
powerful neighbour, Philip Marmion. The abbot complains that Philip
has deforced him of certain fisheries in the river Witham with the
neighbouring booths. These fisheries with their booths have archaic
names, which for the most part are long since forgotten, Langrake,
Nokefub, Tynebering', Swetybyth, Inganwater, Dryedisk, Tawylewes,
Rauncewater, Asegerwel, Aldebythe, Lytlewater, Brotherwater,
Mermuthe. The abbot and Philip agree to divide the fisheries, and the
abbot's shepherds are to swear upon the relics every year that they will
not let his cattle trespass in Philip's woods. (fn. 23)
(12) Rents. (fn. 24)
The rents covenanted to be paid by the tenant to his lord are very
varied in character. Money rents whether of a substantial or of a
nominal amount are common. Of the other kinds the majority consist
of very small amounts, partaking of the nature of quit-rents. Some of
the commonest are a pound, or other small quantity, of cummin or of
pepper, or a pair of gloves, or a clove gillyflower, or a rose, or a pair of
gilt spurs. Rents of corn are not uncommon. Some other kinds occur
less often; sticks of (i.e. lots of twenty-five) eels, herrings, mallards, a
sore sparrow-hawk (i.e. a bird in the first year), salt measured by the
sextary, incense, wax, hens, and eggs. Warnoth, which is due from a
free tenement in Claxby by Normanby (fn. 25) , is an ancient form of rent,
occuring already in the Lincolnshire Domesday. (fn. 26)
(13) Corrodies, liveries, estovers.
Corrodies were annuities consisting of victuals and other necessaries
granted by religious houses. Thus Adam de Flexburgh and Emma his
wife, grant to Selby Abbey in frank almoign land in Stallingborough,
and in return the abbot grants to them for their lives a messuage and an
acre of meadow with two monks' corrodies and a corrody for a servant,
and a yearly allowance of money, cheese, and butter for their suppers,
two pairs of monastic boots, turfs, firewood, oats, hay, straw, salt, tallow,
wax, and hog's grease. (fn. 27) In another case (fn. 28) a corrody, or livery as it is
there called, consisting of fourteen loaves a week, four carcases of
mutton, two stones of cheese, four stones of butter, two hundred
herrings, and a pair of boots every year, and sevens ells of russet every
other year, is quitclaimed to the abbot of Revesby in return for a small
rent of corn.
Another concord records the purchase of a livery. William quitclaims to Bartholomew all his right in a carucate of land, in consideration
of an undertaking on Bartholomew's part that he will find him for life
in victuals in an honourable way at his table, and give him a yearly
allowance of twenty shillings. (fn. 29) Or again, Elena makes a grant of land
to Peter, who covenants to provide her with all her estovers (Old French
estover, estovoir, to be necessary), that is all necessaries for her maintenance. (fn. 30) The word estovers, it may be noticed, is used with a different
application at page 296, where it means a reasonable allowance of wood
for the reparation of certain mills.
(14) The Poor.
It will be seen that the poor are not forgotten in the final concords.
Certain lands are charged with a yearly payment in the church of
Raithby by Louth of 6s. 8d. to provide bread for distribution amongst
the poor for the salvation of the founder of the charity and his kin. (fn. 31)
Another concord effects the foundation of an almshouse: a messuage
and mill and land at Gedney are given to a chaplain who is to celebrate
divine service in the chapel, and to maintain five poor people there,
giving them daily one loaf apiece of the weight of fifty shillings, and one
mess of flesh or fish or other food, according to what the season requires,
between two of them; and every year a tunic of cloth apiece. (fn. 32)
(15) Lands of the Normans.
The lands of the Normans, mentioned as having escheated (Old
French escheoir; Latin excidere: Med. Latin escaetare), that is fallen to
the king. (fn. 33) were the English lands of those who preferred to keep their
possessions in France when King John's loss of Normandy and Anjou
compelled them to choose whether they would be subjects of the King
of England or of the King of France.
(16) Lands of the Bretons.
The lands of the Bretons (fn. 34) were the possessions of the earldom of
Richmond which were forfeited to the king when Peter de Braisne,
duke of Britanny and earl of Richmond, in 1234, renounced his homage
to the English king.
(17) Knights' fees.
A knight's fee is sometimes divided into minute parts. Thus we have
a sixtieth part of a fee (fn. 35) or a twentieth part. (fn. 36) But for the commutation
of military service for scutage, a money payment which could easily be
apportioned, such subdivision would probably have been impracticable.
A concord of 1179 from the Nun Coton cartulary, for a copy of
which I am indebted to Professor F. M. Stenton, provides a case of the
division of a knight's fee amongst three coheiresses. (fn. 37) It seems that
William the grandfather left three daughters and coheiresses (1) Emma's
mother, who was the eldest (primogenita), (2) Richard's mother, and
(3) Maud, who was probably the youngest, since she received less than
Emma and Richard, whose mothers were evidently dead. 'Amita,'
properly a paternal aunt, seems here to be used in a general way, for
aunt. The service of Emma and Maud's parts of the fee is to belong
to Richard, seemingly by virtue of his tenure of the capital message;
and it is worthy of notice that he is not to have the wardship and
marriage of Emma which, according to feudal law, would fall to him as
her lord. This case is interesting because the sub-division of the fee
seems scarcely in some respects to agree with the later law of England
as recited in a statute for Ireland, 14 Henry III, a.d. 1229:
We do you to wit, that such a Law and Custom is in England in this case,
That if any holding of us in chief, happen to die, having daughters to his heirs,
our ancestors and we, after the death of the Father, have always had and received
homage of all such daughters, and every of them in this case do hold of us in
chief. And if they happened to be within age, we have alway had the Ward and
marriage of every of them. And if he be tenant unto another Lord, and not to
us (the sisters being within age) the Lord shall have the Ward and marriage of
them all, and the eldest only shall do homage for her self and all her sisters. And
when the other sisters come to full age, they shall do their service to the Lords of
the fee by the hands of the eldest sister: yet shall not the eldest by this occasion
exact of her younger sisters, homage, ward, or any other subjection, for they be
all sisters, and in manner as one heir to one inheritance. If the eldest should
have homage of the other sisters, and demand wardship, then the inheritance
should be divided, so that the eldest sister should be seignioress and tenant of
inheritance (simul et semel) that is to say, heir of her own part, and seignioress to
her sisters, which could not stand well together in this case, for the eldest can
demand no more than her sisters, but the chief mease by reason of her ancienty.
Moreover if the elder sister should take homage of the younger, she should be as
a seignioress to them all, and should have the Ward of them and their heirs;
which would be none other but to cast the Lamb to the Wolf to be devoured. (fn. 38)