ii> i i yHliu |i >Oi^ni"}y'^ ' >jfp » fV^TpWW!"'*' I 1 ] OXFORD STUDIES IN SOCIAL AND LEGAL HISTORY EDITED BY PAUL VINOGRADOFF M.A., D.C.L,, LL.D., Dr. Hist., Dr. Jur., F.B.A. CORPUS PROFESSOR OF JURISPRUDENCE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD VOL. Ill THE ESTATES OF THE ARCHBISHOP AND CHAPTER OF SAINT-ANDRE OF BORDEAUX UNDER ENGLISH RULE By E. C. lodge ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF POOR LAW ADMINISTRATION IN A WARWICKSHIRE VILLAGE By a. W. ASHBY OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1912 HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK TORONTO AND MELBOURNE Asa.*- CO en ^ PREFACE "^ CJ The fifth monograph of our series is the result of prolonged studies begun by Miss Lodge in Paris, under the direction of M. Ch. Bemont. The author intended originally to present a general description of the conditions of land tenure and rural life in mediaeval Gascony. A good deal of material was collected for this purpose, but the scheme proved too comprehensive, and its proper elaboration would have demanded years of further study. I proposed to Miss Lodge to narrow the investigation to one district, and, as far as possible, to connect it with the history of a great social organization. The com- plex of estates of the Archbishop of Bordeaux was selected as the principal object of observation, but the economy of estates belonging to the Chapter of Saint-Andre of Bordeaux was also examined, and a good deal of material from other sources used for the purpose of illustration and comparison. With these limitations, the work was carried out under my supervision in the course of 1906-9. The aim was not, of course, to accumulate materials or to discuss points of interest from the point of view of local history. Nor was the subjection of Gascony to England during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the determining factor in planning the monograph on the above-mentioned lines. The 5i'i51.^'4 iv PREFACE importance of the investigation lies in the fact that the husbandry and the social grouping described present an excellent instance of a mediaeval organiza- tion built up on an entirely individualistic basis. The dominant feature of the situation is the culture of the vine, the olive, and of wheat on small, exceed- ingly subdivided plots without any communal con- nexion between them. There are waste lands, of course, and there are occasional rights of common in some places, but the ordinary arrangements of rural life start from the intensive labour of single households and from the dues and taxes imposed on them. The administration of a great landowner like the Archbishop reckons with money and food rents more than with servile work, and the popula- tion presents all kinds of varieties of the status of personally free people subjected to protection and exploitation {hommes de poste). The study of these conditions is instructive, not only in its direct aspects, but also indirectly by way of a contrast to the English, North French, and German manors, charac- terized by customs of open field cultivation and of villain week work. Mr. A. W. Ashby's monograph deals with the range of problems arising from the attempts of eighteenth- century self-government to deal with poverty, sick- ness, and unemployment. The author has been able to draw on interesting first-hand materials in order to illustrate the policy of the squires which put the poor laws into practice. The influence of the re-partition of property and population, the PREFACE V consequences of enclosure, the share of industrial occupations in rural life, the movement of wages and the attempts to regulate them, the reaction of compulsory settlement and work on the morals of the inhabitants, the practice of out-of-doors irelief, and the measures against unemployment — all these points are copiously illustrated in the records of the poor law administration of a Warwickshire village. They acquire enhanced reality from the fact that the examples cited come from the same local sur- roundings. It is hardly necessary to appeal to the contemporary interest attached to the administra- tion of the poor law in order to justify the insertion in our series of a monograph dealing with the self- government of the ancien regime in England. PAUL VINOGRADOFF. THE ESTATES OF THE ARCHBISHOP AND CHAPTER OF SAINT-ANDRE OF BORDEAUX UNDER ENGLISH RULE BY ELEANOR C. LODGE VICB-PRINCIPAL AND MODERN HISTORY TUTOR, LADY MARGARET HALL OXFORD (PART V) ST.A. INTRODUCTION So great is the interest felt at the present day in all social history, that perhaps no apology is needed for attempting to examine, however inadequately, the condition of the rural population in the Bordelais during the Middle Ages. The district round Bordeaux, now known as the Department of the Gironde, was for centuries the heart of our English posses- sions in South-western France. From the time when the profitable marriage of Henry II brought the rich Province of Aquitaine to the Crown of England, until the final loss of this region in 1453, through varying fortunes and many changes of boundary, Bordeaux itself remained in English hands. A district so long looked upon as English territory, so long numbering Englishmen amongst its inhabitants, and so long ruled by English ofiEicials under the direct rule of an English king, seems particularly deserving of consideration during the period of this English occupation. The whole of Gascony is of the greatest interest from the social point of view, but there are several reasons for studying it in separate districts rather than as a whole. The country itself is very varied in its physical characteristics. The Pyrenean valleys, the vast stretches of the Landes, and the fertile well-watered soil of the Bordelais offer widely differing conditions, which have affected materially the character of the inhabitants. It is true, no doubt, that a general similarity prevails amongst the rural classes of any country under a system of feudalism, but the local variations are sufficiently marked to render general conclusions for the whole very unsafe. It seems better, therefore, to work out the social and economic history of individual provinces in special detail. For such a purpose there are many reasons for choosing the Bordelais. This district has certain very marked charac- B2 4 INTRODUCTION teristics of its own. First and foremost there is the geo- graphical situation of Bordeaux, on the magnificent stream of the Garonne. The river here is wide enough for the passage of large vessels to and from the sea, and it has access to the inland country, both by its own waters and by its tributary river the Dordogne, thus offering an ideal position for trading purposes. From early times the history of Bordeaux was the history of a commercial centre, and this could not fail to have important results on the neighbouring country and on the social characteristics of its inhabitants. Next to this must be noticed the pecuHar predominance of viti- culture in the Bordelais, owing to the great advantages of its soil for the production of wine. Even in the Middle Ages almost all the land was occupied by vineyards. Corn- growing and cattle-rearing were subsidiary to this all-prevailing industry ; and the history of agriculture and of the labouring classes has been profoundly affected by this special charac- teristic. Bordelais, in the Middle Ages, like the rest of the country, was divided amongst numerous landlords. The King of England had much private property in its rich soil, especially in the district of Entre-deux-Mers between the Garonne and the Dordogne, which claimed to be royal demesne by inalien- able right, and to enjoy many important privileges in conse- quence. Besides this royal property, portions of which were to be found in all directions, scattered territories were in the hands of the great seigneurs of Gascony, both lay and ecclesias- tical. Church lands, lay lands, and royal demesne lay inter- mixed in perplexing variety. One estate, however, stands out amongst the rest, distinguished by its great extent, its wealth, and its importance. The Cathedral Church of St.-Andre of Bordeaux was probably the richest landholder in these parts, and the possessions of the archbishop and chapter together comprised not only a very considerable proportion of the Bordelais, but territories which extended into other outlying provinces. The similarity of soil and cultivation throughout the whole of this region, and a comparison of the lands of St.-Andr^ INTRODUCTION 5 with others of which records still exist, show that this estate may be taken as a typical example for this part of the country : typical, at least, of Church property and of the most flourishing estates. Possibly Church tenants may have had some special characteristics of their own. They may have enjoyed rather more permanent conditions and a few extra privileges ; cer- tainly their services had to be so arranged as to meet the requirements of large religious establishments whether secular or regular. There is, however, little reason to believe that the household of a great noble was very unlike that of a great ecclesiastic in its material requirements, and the management of his estates was doubtless very similar. Unfortunately less information exists for lay estates than for Church property in Gascony, so that absolutely exact comparison is not possible. The lands of the lesser nobles would probably show rather greater divergence. Their tenants often had holdings smaller and less advanced than those of the richer lords, whilst they suffered more possibilities of seignorial oppression and direct interference. As a type, however, of large and prosperous estates, well cultivated and carefully supervised, the property of St. -Andre may be taken as one of the best and is well- suited for purposes of study. The characteristics of this estate resemble those of other large properties. The lands of archbishop and chapter lay in scattered portions, separate little pieces here and there, need- ing a considerable staff of officials to see that due rents were paid and proper services performed. Amongst these various possessions all the chief forms of tenure can be found repre- sented. Some lands were let out to churches or to ecclesiastics to be held by spiritual tenure ; others were fiefs in the hands of lay lords who owed noble service ; some territories were censives paying fixed rent ; others questaves owing labour or the payment of arbitrary quete. Some sub-tenants rendered dues in money, some in kind ; in the latter case generally a certain proportion of the produce. Leasehold property let out for a term of years also existed on the estate, though not to any very great extent. Besides lands sub-infeudated or sublet in these ways, there was a considerable amount of 6 INTRODUCTION private demesne. A very good series of accounts, which has been preserved, throws much light on the management of this, and illustrates the usual methods of cultivation and the machinery for supervision. Another special advantage for the study of this property is offered by the nature of the material at hand. It is possible to compare territories and conditions in the thirteenth century with those in the fifteenth, and to draw some conclusions as to the general line of advance, and the principal developments which took place within that period. For all these reasons it is hoped that a description'of the lands of St. -Andre may be useful as a type of social conditions during the Middle Ages in the vine-growing districts of South-western France, and especially of the Bordelais. The chief sources of information for this work are to be found in the Archives D^partementales of the Gironde, a rich collection very fully catalogued. A few records are still kept in the Archives of the Archeveche at Bordeaux, but these are chiefly of an ecclesiastical nature. Some manuscripts have been printed in the valuable pubhcation known as the Archives Historiques de la Gironde. For the lands of the archbishop the documents are as follows : 1. A register of 1259 preserved in the Archives Departe- mentales.^ This is a bound volume which once belonged to Monsieur de Monteil, and which contains a record of rents and other dues paid to the archbishop, chiefly in Lormont, Bassens, and Ambares. The register is in Latin. There is no indication as to the name of the official who compiled it. 2. A series of accounts kept by different procureurs of the archbishop, which extend, with considerable gaps, over the period from 1354 to 1459.^ The most important of these have been published in volumes xxi and xxii of the Archives Historiques de la Gironde with introduction and notes by Leo Drouyn.^ ^ Arch. Dept., Revenus de r Archeveche, 1259. Not catalogued. ^ G. 240, 241. (All references of manuscripts are to the Archives Departementales unless it is otherwise specified.) ^ Published by Gounouilhan, Bordeaux, 188 1 and 1882. INTRODUCTION 7 3. A collection of documents bound together containing a notary's record of homages, chiefly in Montravel, during the fourteenth century.^ This has also a list of the archbishop's vassals who owed homage lige in 1306. 4. A bundle of documents, chiefly feudal recognitions, relating to the seignory of Caudrot.^ 5. Various other bundles containing similar documents ; homages, land grants, deeds of sale, gifts, and leases for Bordelais, Saintonge, Perigord, Bourges, and Blayais.^ 6. Various registers containing similar documents for Bordeaux and the banlieue. Chiefly originals, some copies.* 7. Registers concerning the Seignory of Montravel.^ 8. Registers concerning the Seignory of Belves and Couze in Perigord.^ 9. Customs of Lormont, 1444.' 10. Documents concerning tithes and quarticres due to the Archbishop.^ 11. A register concerning the Temporel de I'Archeveche, 1336-1340-^ The documents concerning the possessions of the chapter are no less interesting. I. Cartulairc de St. -Andre. 13'' siecle.^o A quarto volume ' G. 82. - G. 84. (G. 83 contains copies and extracts of these.) ' G. 94. Lormont, Reconnaissances feodales. G. 95. Lormont, Recon- naissances feodales, dimes et agridres, &c., 1420-1731. G. 104, 105. Sain- tonge and Perigord, Recon. feodales, 1 308-1456 (originals and copies). From a general review of the property of the chapter as compared with that of the archbishop, it seems to have been very much more concentrated round Bordeaux itself, and to have consisted of small pieces of territory rather than large estates and chdtellenies in the hands of important vassals. Very few nobles appear to have held land from the dean and canons, and it is rare to find mention of homage being done for a holding. This occurs from time to time in the thirteenth- century cartulary, but it is quite the exception. In 1230, land which the chaplain of Begles had given ^ to provide for the celebration of his anniversary, was granted out by the chapter for rent and homage, to be done to the dean ; but there is nothing to imply that the new tenant was a knight or that the homage was noble homage. Indeed, in another place, homage of this kind was expressly stated as forming part of the duties of the servile tenants.^ The only instances of homage from a noble tenant were in return for a share in the tithes of Beautiran in the thirteenth century,* and for La Motte-de-Faugueyres in 1378.^ Certainly by far the greater part of the lands belonging to the chapter consisted of small censives. Rents in money and kind, generally very low in value, were collected from houses, vines, and lands in the possession of burgesses, small free- holders, and villeins ; and both cartulary and terrier are chiefly occupied with accounts of these. Neither does the chapter appear to have had much land in private demesne. Dues, which it received in kind as well as in money, took the place of produce from a home farm. This cannot be asserted with absolute assurance, since there * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, iv. 7. * Cart, de St. -Andre, f. ^,6^ : ' 4s. census ecclesie et i2d. census decano et homagio junctis manibus.' ' Ibid., f. 6i'»^. Under the heading, ' Questales de Legia,' we read that a man and his son ' dedunt se, junctis manibus in manu domini G. decani, homines ligios et questales Deo et ecclesie beati Andrie '. * Ibid., f. 49^. Three parts of the great tithe of Beautiran were held by the son of Porcia de Beautiran ' cum quinque solidis sporle et homagio '. * G. 524, f. 60. Held for homage and a pair of white gloves as esporle ' senhor mudant '. 26 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. ii are no early account-books preserved, and the fragments of those which exist for the fifteenth century do contain some record of expenses for vintage. Nothing in the other docu- ments, however, gives any information on this subject, or imphes the cultivation of private lands for the use of the chapter as a body. The forest of Lege was the special posses- sion of the canons, but that was merely for hunting purposes. Lege was the one really important seigneurie in the hands of the dean and canons, who had some curious and interesting rights over its inhabitants, which the cartulary has preserved for us.^ As a result of various quarrels which had arisen between the canons of St.-Andre and the reeve [prepositus) of Lege, the archbishop arranged a compact to avoid such disputes in the future, and laid down regulations concerning the management of the estate and the rights of the chapter over it. These were as follows : — 1. Any disputes arising later were to be settled by arbitrators, and should they fail to be unanimous, the majority was to decide. 2. At any time when the dean or others of the chapter came to visit Lege, they were to receive food in the reeve's house, and to this meal they might also invite any one they wished. 3. If any judicial question should arise whilst any one of the canons was present in the place, the case was to be tried before him should he wish it. If none of them were there, the reeve was to see that justice was done. 4. During harvest-time, the canons, whose work it was to supervise the same, were to live ' de communi ville '. On the day in which the sheaves were collected, six of them and no more were to be bestowed on the reeve as his share. 5. Out of the proportion of millet due to the canons each year, the reeve was to have three escarts. The rest of the grain was to be in his custody. In measuring the number of escarts put under his charge, alternately one was to be a heaped up measure, the other even with the top ; but in the latter case the grain was to be shaken in the measure, and this was not to be done in the former. Corn, however, which was paid out again for any purpose, was all to be measured even with the top [rasa). ^ Cart, de St.-Andre, fif. 91^-94. CH. ii] LANDS OF THE CHAPTER 27 6. Twice a year qucte was to be collected from the villeins, and the amount of this quete was to be fixed according to the will of the canon or canons. Out of these quetes the reeve was not to receive more than twelve coins ; and should any extra quite be levied besides these two, he was to receive nothing at all, 7. This quite was to be paid directly into the hands of a canon should one be present. Otherwise the reeve was to collect and keep it, until he could safely convey it to the chapter. 8. On the death of the reeve, his heirs were to pay 1005. as esporle^ to the dean. Should there be no dean at the moment, a year might elapse before it was paid. 9. The reeve must be responsible for guarding the fields and the cattle, should no canon be in the place. 10. Payments for beasts were to be : for a pig id., a cow 2d., a horse 6d., and for a sheep one egg for each foot. If a canon should be present, his servant together with the reeve's servant was to guard the field and receive these dues for the beasts, if he should wish it. Corn might be given instead of money should the canon prefer it. 11. Neither the reeve nor his son might do hurt to any one in Lege, whether a native or a stranger. Should he do so, the canons must inquire into it at once. 12. The forest was private demesne of the canons, but the reeve was to have the guardianship of it. 13. The canons might hunt in the forest when they wished, and whatever beast they killed, whether stag, boar, or hare, was all their own ; but if the reeve or any one else had assisted at the hunting, a portion of the beast was to be given to him. Should any great personage, staying in the place, come hunting on the invitation of the canons, the reeve should present him with the whole of the slain beast. 14. Of rabbits caught, two parts were to the canons, the third to the reeve, 15. The guardianship of the coast belonged to the canons, and they might entrust it to whom they would. Any one found there without licence from canons or coastguard was to be kept in custody. If traces of footprints were found there, and any one was suspected, he might be summoned to trial. Corn, wine, amber, or any other commodity found on the coast, belonged by right to the canons. 16. If any vessel should be shipwrecked, all the goods in ' A payment in recognition of feudal overlordship ; see p. 112, 28 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. n it, of whatever kind, were to belong to the canons. The reeve, however, was to have sails^ cords, and anchors. Of the hulk, unless it could be kept whole, two-thirds were to go to the canons, one-third to the reeve. 17. From the fish caught by the men of the town, a portion was to be given to the canons. If none of the canons were present, the reeve was to receive it and send it on. If any of the canons were there, and wished to eat the fish on the spot, they were to do so in the reeve's house. This compact was sworn to by the reeve and others, who promised to obey all the conditions. It appears from these customs that the chapter certainly possessed no place of residence in L^ge, since they always looked to the reeve for hospitality, and the tenants do not appear to have owed labour services on any private demesne land. So far as can be judged from the existing documents, the chapter possessed no such full rights as these in any other place. Certain seignorial dues and judicial powers in Cadau- jac and Berneye ^ imply that the dean and canons were founts of justice there as well as landlords ; but, as a rule, their tenants were chiefly bound to them by the payment of rent or a portion of the produce of their lands, which they cultivated as they wished. Almost the whole property of the chapter was split up into these small holdings in the hands of censitaires. * Cart, de St.-Andre, f. iii. CHAPTER III THE SOIL AND THE SETTLEMENTS The lands of St.-Andre were situated in what is now, for the most part, a very fertile district ; neither archbishop nor chapter had very many possessions in the Dunes or the Landes. Along the coast from the mouth of the Gironde to the Adour the loose sand of the Dunes still defies cultivation, and presents undulating hills of dry and flinty soil, though even here some land has been reclaimed and trees have been planted wherever possible. The Landes of Mddoc, a flat unbroken stretch of country to the north-west of Bordeaux, with very sandy soil intermixed with some clay and peat, has been largely brought under cultivation and has been proved suitable for viticulture ; though the best vineyards lie along the river valley where the soil is much less dry. The Graves, as the land is called on the left bank of the Garonne and Gironde, with a soil composed of sand, gravel, and sihceous deposits brought down by the river, which retains the heat to an unusual extent, are peculiarly fitted for the growth of vines, and are renowned for the wines of Medoc, Sauternes, and Langon. The Grandes Landes to the south of Bordeaux, for the most part outside the limits of the Bordelais, are far more sterile than those of Medoc. Here little can grow but pine- trees, which stretch in endless succession throughout the flat country, so dry and bare in summer, so marshy and cold in the winter months. Here and there clearings have been made, and hamlets flourish in little oases which have been drained and brought under cultivation. Rye and millet are the principal crops, but the country is chiefly used for grazing purposes. On the right bank of the Garonne, in Bordelais itself, as well as further east in Perigord, the country is undulating, 30 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. hi well wooded, and extremely prosperous. There is great variety in the soil. Sand, gravel, clay, limestone deposit, and marl, all occur in varying proportions, sometimes one pre- ponderating, sometimes another, but it is always fertile, particularly in the valleys. Along the river banks, notably by the Garonne and Dordogne, the alluvial soil of the Palus is very rich, and this was the case in earlier days also, even though flood and less scientific draining diminished its value to some extent. Probably the chief difference between the Middle Ages and the present day, in the natural features of the country, was a greater amount of forest and more extensive Landes, wild, undrained, uncultivated, and largely uninhabitable, though of some use for pasture. In the Medoc there were forests in mediaeval times, which have since disappeared, where the seigneur of Lesparre hunted boars and stags along the coast. The sea has encroached to some extent, and the shifting sands, which probably buried the old forests, are known to have destroyed various parishes in whole or in part. Grayan, Talais, Soulac, have all suffered, and the old church of Soulac is now once more reappearing from the advancing sands in which it has lain hidden since the thirteenth century. Round Bordeaux itself there lay an extensive forest, which was, however, constantly being let out in small pieces during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in order that it might be brought under cultivation.^ A description of the Landes in the sixteenth century can be taken as giving a fairly true picture of what they must have been like in the preceding period. ' Le pays qui s'etend de Bayonne a Bordeaux s'appelle en gascon " las lanas ". . . . II est inculte, sterile et tres peu habite, les villages n'apparaissent que la ou un bouquet d'arbres ou une source leur a donne naissance : partout ailleurs le terrain n'offre ni agrement ni utilite. Le parcours en est fort difficile ; on enfonce dans le sable, ou Ton s'embourbe dans les eaux qui le detrempent et en font une boue tenace dont on ne voit pas la fin. ... II faut chercher la route, obstruee et cachee par d'interminables champs de ' Gascon Rolls, passim. CH. Ill] THE SOIL AND THE SETTLEMENTS 31 tamarins et de fougeres. Ces plantes et d'autres herbes epineuses font a chaque pas broncher les chevaux et leur coupent les pieds.' ^ The archbishop and chapter had territory scattered here and there through the whole of this region. In the sandy Medoc ; in the Pays de Cernes immediately to the south, fertile and well wooded ; in the Pays de Buch and the Pays de Born stretching down into the Landes ; and in the fertile valleys and coteaux on the right bank of the river, Bordelais and the neighbouring districts. The country round Bordeaux, especially in the coteaux, must have been already populous even in mediaeval times. Bordeaux itself was a commune and a large and important trading centre composed of many parishes and numerous streets and lanes.^ Round the fortifications were outlying suburbs, now included in the town itself, such as La Taugue, La Recluse, Au Peugue, Campaure, Gratacap, and others. The banlieue, over which the mayor and jurats had jurisdiction, extended for nearly twelve miles round and included over twenty important parishes.^ There were other places in the neighbourhood, known as filleules of Bordeaux, since they too enjoyed privileges of a similar nature in the way of self-govern- ment, which were fortified towns and growing centres of population. These were Libourne, Bourg, Blaye, Castillon, St.-Macaire, St.-£milion, Rions, and Cadillac. But this by no means exhausts the number of fortified places. Gascony was rich in bastides, often little more than villages, but with strong walls and gateways for defence and with charters of privilege granted by the king and their immediate lords. Sauveterre, Castelnau, Villeneuve, Creon, Cenon-la-Bastide, and many others still show traces of their ancient fortifi- cations. There has been much discussion in France, as to whether concentrated villages or scattered farms and homesteads were * Viaggio del Andrea Novagero in Espagna ed in Francia, 1528. Quoted by Luchaire in Alain le Grand Sire d'Albret, Paris, 1877. ' See map of Bordeaux in 1450, in Leo Drouyn. ' Archives Municipales de Bordeaux. Livre des Privileges, edited by Barckhausen, p. xi. 32 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. hi the most prevalent form of original settlement.^ Certainly Bordelais in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries illustrates the tendency of population to form itself into groups, rather than to scatter in isolated dwelling-places. The soil was fertile and capable of intensive cultivation, so that it was less necessary to wander far afield in search of a living, and the turbulence of the times rendered grouping together a very natural method of seeking mutual support and protection. The peasants gathered round the castles of their feudal lords, or in the neighbourhood of abbeys and monasteries. Grants of privilege caused them to flock to hastides whenever possible, and the general tendency to unite for common well-being led to the formation of a few rural communities, though they were far less frequent here and less important than further south in the mountains. Villages were very numerous, and all but the smallest had their own churches. The list of quartihes, paid to the arch- bishop from the different divisions of his diocese, shows how many churches already existed in the fourteenth century. The archipretre of Entre-deux-Mers contained 45 parishes, that of Entre-Dordogne 41 ; Cern^s had 39, Benauges 38, Lesparre 35, Fronsac and Bourg each 31, Blaye 23, and Moulis 72. Buch and Born, where habitations were bound to be more scarce in the wilder country of the Landes, had only 12 and 10 respectively ,2 Nearly all the modern villages of any size appear in these lists ; the chief difference is in Les- parre, where the old settlements are all within a few miles of the river banks, and the Dunes, where now towns and hamlets are to be found, were then left apparently untouched and uninhabited. It is difficult to gauge with any certainty the size of these villages. The fiefs of the archbishop and chapter were scattered from place to place, and did not necessarily comprise the whole of any settlement, so that the docu- ments concerning their property leave this question largely un- answered. Lormont, however, was in the direct demesne of the archbishop, and the accounts throw much light on its character ^ A. de Foville, Enquete sur les conditions de I'habitation en France, 2 vols., 8°, Paris, 1899, vol. ii. Introduction by Flach. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. CH. Ill] THE SOIL AND THE SETTLEMENTS 33 and development. It was a place of considerable size, with a castle, a mill, a garden containing vines, and at least seven streets.^ In 1361 only a few more than sixty names are given in the list of censitaires, but this means a very much larger number of inhabitants, even possibly of households, for as many as nine, ten, and twelve fiefs are sometimes entered under the one name, and sometimes a man will pay for himself and his partners. In 1367 and in 1389 a few new names occur and the town appears to be spreading, though the far longer list in 1367 is chiefly due to the fiefs being entered separately, and the same name occurs again and again. In a few instances the fiefs have already begun to break up in the six years which have passed, and more households have been formed even without fresh lands being taken up. Other villages which figure in the accounts and appear to have been of considerable size are Cussac, which had two churches,^ Ambares, which was growing steadily,^ Coutures, a rural community, where a hundred and six inhabitants owed fouage in 1354,^ and Cadaujac, where the archbishop had many tenants in 1400, although the majority of the inhabitants held from the chapter. There were certainly others equally or more important amongst those paying their cens elsewhere, which cannot, therefore, be estimated from the material in hand. In some cases these villages formed a nucleus for little hamlets which clustered round them, occasionally old settle- ments, but more frequently offshoots from the original centre, due to the spread of cultivation, the growth of population, and perhaps, as Monsieur Flach suggests, to the need for reconstruction after the damages done in the Hundred Years' War.^ It is very usual to find when a fief is granted in any parish, that it is said to be situated in such and such a place within this parish. Thus, for example, amongst the rent-paying tenants of Ambares in 1360 we find the heirs of Arnald ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 606. In 1361 the following are men- tioned : Magna Rua, Rua Petri-Vitalis, Rua de Mcrcato, Rua de Portu, Riia de Cantalupo, Rua de Veyreyras, and Rua Forthonis de Grava. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. y6. ' Archbishop's Accounts, passim. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 209. * .\. de Foville, Habitations en France, ii. 83 sq. (PART V) ST.-A, D 34 SAINT-ANDRfi OF BORDEAUX [ch. in Austencius paying for a ' stagia quam tenent loco vocato au Porge' ; John Sequin holding land 'a Papa-Grua'; another tenant ' a la Caussada ' and still another ' loco vocato a Sana- rega ' ; while two lepers had establishments at Campestan.^ Cadaujac, in 1400, contains an even greater number of these small dependencies. Lands and vines are held at Esclau, La Barba, Picacalhau, Las Gotas ; meadows at Boquau, La Costa, Les Puyons, &c. There are, however, one or two points to notice in reference to this before deciding that these names imply separate homesteads. In some cases, as appears especially at Cadaujac, the names are only given to the fields or vineyards, and the holders of these lived in the town or village with the other parishioners. Nearly every little scrap of land in the Middle Ages had its own individual name, and thus a place might be increasing in population and bringing fresh lands under cultivation, without necessarily sending out actual colonies to form a fresh nucleus of population. In other cases the name did not apply to a new settlement, but was only given to the property itself, which might be situated in the original village, or in any case in its immediate neighbourhood. Thus at Ambares ' au Porge ' was the name of the stagia (property, habitation) itself, and that was situated near the gate of the church ; ^ Sanarega was a stagia with a house ; it occurs in various years, and no places are ever named within it;^ Terssan, the onlyplace mentioned separately in Lormont, though it contained more than one stagia, was always in the hands of the family of Terssan and probably formed a private holding, not a separate hamlet.* La Souys, a place at Floirac, which started with three holdings, had fifteen tenants in 1375, but only contained vines ; it was not apparently an outlet for population. On the other hand, some of these places were doubtless the germ of later hamlets or isolated houses. Campestan must have been more or less isolated, containing as it did the estate of a leper ; and whereas in 1354 there was only one settlement there, in 1362 another leper, possibly a son, had a new ftef not part of the original ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 540. "^ Ibid. xxi. 53Q. ^ Ibid., pp. 541, 610 ; xxii. 81, 131. ' Ibid. xxii. toS. CH. Ill] THE SOIL AND THE SETTLEMENTS 35 holding.^ In 1389 there were still two stagia, hut held by two new tenants.^ Ambares in modern days contains seven villages ; Cadaujac included an unusual number of separate homesteads ; Bassens, Artigues, and Floirac, all with numerous fiefs in the Middle Ages, have isolated houses belonging to their parishes in the present day. It is, however, in the Landes that the very small hamlets and homesteads are now principally to be found, and they had not yet begun to appear in the fifteenth century; the few there were at Lege in the fourteenth century seem to have been swallowed up by the encroachments of sea and sand. On the whole, therefore, the region of the estates of St. -Andre was one in which the nucleated village and fortified bourgwere the prevailing types, and in which the people tended to group themselves together and live near to one another, even though their fields and vineyards might lie in scattered pieces at a distance from their dwelling-places. An important point to note, in considering the nature of a mediaeval estate, is the very rural character of the towns ; those on the lands of St.-Andre were no exception. Not only did most of the burgesses live on the produce of their strips of land outside the walls of their borough, but the towns themselves were seldom thickly covered with houses, but contained numerous gardens and plots of land, sometimes of considerable size. This was the case in Bordeaux ; but in the small hastides the walls did not often include sufficient space for much soil to be cultivated within them. Yet their inhabitants were almost wholly rural labourers, and only had their dwelling in a town for the sake of protection. It has already been said that trade developed early in the Bordelais, and it is true, therefore, that towns became trading centres there sooner than in many places, but this did not destroy their rural character. The trade was chiefly con- cerned with rural commodities, very often the natural products of the soil which their inhabitants had cultivated. Concerning the division of property within these towns and villages, the tendency was towards minute subdivision ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 290, 610. ^ Ibid, x.xii. 431. D 2 36 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. hi and very small holdings. This was in part due to the nature of the soil, which rendered small holdings sufficiently profitable, and in part to the custom of the country in the matter of succession. There was a very strong feeling for the family in the south-west provinces, and despite local variations Bor- deaux, Bazas, and Agen all seem, originally at least, to have practised a system of equal division amongst the children. Down to the thirteenth century this was the usual custom both for noble and simple property ; ^ according to the Fors of Bazas, division was to take place even when there were children of several marriages, and no child could be disinherited for any offence less serious than that of striking a parent.^ By degrees the system of primogeniture began to spread amongst the nobles, for the sake no doubt of feudal con- venience. The customs of Bordeaux state that the eldest son of a baron must retain the barony and the eldest son of a knight the maison nohle^ although the father may freely dispose of a third of his property and leave goods to the other children.* A noble who has only daughters must leave most to the eldest girl ; if he dies intestate the principal demesne {lo mayne) will go to the first-born, and the rest of his posses- sions be divided equally. In 1447 the conveyance of a holding in the Bordelais stated that it was granted on condition that the eldest son should succeed, although, as the donor remarked, the custom of the country was in favour of equal division.^ A roturier was, however, allowed to dispose freely of two- thirds of his property, instead of only one-third, if he wished ; but there was a tendency to imitate the practice of the nobles ^ Jarriand, Histoire de la Novelle 118 (Paris, i88g, 8°), 325-9. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, vol. ii, No. 2. Coutumes de Bazas, §§ 10, II, 12. ' Arch. Mun. de Bordeaux, vol. v. Livre des Coutumes, p. 59, art. 57 : ' Entreus barons et los cavoys, que lo prumey filh reten la baronia, et lo prumey filh deu cavoy la taula.' * Ibid., p. 61, arts. 60, 95. ' Gascon Rolls, 25 Hen. VI, m. 72 (Record Office). A grant was made to Bernard Angevin, and although the custom of the country was that after his death ' omnes filii ejus et filie de corpore suo in legitimo matrimonio descendentes omnia bona paternalia et maternalia inter eos per equales portiones habent et debent dividere ', the land was so poor and reduced that it was granted out in a new way, so that ' primi filii heredum suorum, gradatim castra, &c., tenebunt et possidebunt quilibet in dominio suo '. CH. Ill] THE SOIL AND THE SETTLEMENTS 37 and to recognize extra rights in an eldest son. In the case of questaves the sons of a serf shared his land, but, according to customary law, the lord would succeed should one of them die childless ; ^ daughters might also divide the property if they lived inside their lord's estate, but any girl marrying outside the quete would forfeit her right to any succession.^ The extreme subdivision, produced by this old custom of family inheritance, was occasionally obviated by the family combining together and allowing one of their number to represent the whole estate, which they would cultivate in common. Co-parcenage was very usual, especially amongst brothers,^ sisters,* and cousins.^ Such property might be held as a really joint-possession belonging to the family rather than to the individual ' en commun e per no devis ' ; ^ but in some cases the partnership meant nothing more than collective cens, and the interest of the tenants remained separate in reality.' Illustrations of inheritance of family property and division amongst children occur frequently in all the documents, leaving no possibility of doubt as to the usual practice. To take one page of the archbishop's accounts in 1361, we find there : ' Heredes Petronille de Rogerio solverunt pro domo xl5. ; Heredes domini Galhardi de Beauteiano solverunt pro domibus xvi^. ; Blanche de Castelfort, filia condam Catherine, solvit pro domo et solo, xii^. ; heredes Arnaldi solverunt pro domibus x^.,'^ and this is nothing exceptional. At Ambares, A. Austencius held a stagia in 1360,^ his heirs in 1367.^^ At Lormont, the fiefs, held by Maria Bogesius in 1361,^ had in part been inherited by her daughter in 1367.^^ * Livre des Coutumes, p. 105, art. 131. * Ibid., p. 14s, art. 189. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 607 : ' A. et G. Gombaudi, fratres, solverunt pro iiii° feudis suis que tenent in Laureomonte viis. Bord.' * Ibid., xxii. 42 : ' J et Alemana Symeonis, sorcres, debent pro vinea et aliis terris . . . xii^.' * G. 1 1 56, f. 34'^. A very usual phrase is such and such a tenant ' cum parcionariis suis '. * Brutails, Introduction to Cartulaire of St.-Seurin, p. 49. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 598 : ' Johannes de Muynuda solvit nomine heredum Johanne de Montebonetonis pro censu dicti anni . . . xvs. viid.' ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 600. ' Ibid., p. 539- " Ibid. xxii. 81. " Ibid. xxi. 606. " Ibid. xxii. 62. (S- 4151.74 38 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. hi On the whole it would appear that in most cases these shares were real shares and that holdings, therefore, tended to become exceedingly small. As a result the cultivation necessarily became very intensive, and only those things were grown which could be turned to account in small quantities. It is hard to distinguish cause and effect. The custom of subdivision could not have been carried out literally if the land had not been fertile and suitable for small holdings. But whether the real reason was the nature of the soil or the regulations of the country, the result remains the same.-'- The chief product of the Bordelais, even as early as the thirteenth century, though increasingly so as time went on, was the vine. Corn-growing was chiefly carried on in the outlying fiefs of Perigord and Saintonge, where vineyards were less numerous than in the Bordelais.^ Some corn was grown, nevertheless, in almost all parts. An estate in early days was supposed to be self-sufficing, and each man attempted to supply his own needs from his own land. This led, naturally, to much unprofitable cultivation. Things were grown because they were wanted, not because the soil was fitted for them ; as for instance, in Normandy, where vines were planted despite the obvious disadvantages of climate which they had to face. Bread was an article of food which all required, and so at first corn was universally cultivated, though vineyards were undoubtedly more profitable in the Bordelais. Besides the demand for corn to supply the actual wants of the tenant, it was sometimes needed for rent ; and the quartieres, paid by diff'erent parishes to the archbishops, once consisted wholly of grain. The places round Bordeaux where corn was cultivated most extensively, to judge from the rents paid in it, were Lege, Blanquefort, Cadaujac, Blaye, Bassens, Lormont, and Ambares ; there was a good deal throughout the whole of Entre-deux-Mers, Some corn-rents were paid for houses in 1 For further details as to subdivision and for the usual methods of cultivation see chapter vii. * In Caudrot (i 308-1470) there is more mention of corn than vines, and corn rents are occasionally paid (G. 83). The same is true for Belv^s and Couze (G. 177). In Blaye (fourteenth century) a good deal of corn was paid, and also loaves. Sometimes these were due even for vineyards (G. 109). CH. Ill] THE SOIL AND THE SETTLEMENTS 39 Bordeaux itself. This can scarcely have meant the existence of arable land within the walls of the city, but the burgesses may have procured it from their fields outside. The fact, however, shows that the existence of corn-rents cannot be taken as an infallible proof that the actual soil of the place produced the corn which it had to pay. Probably it did so in the first instance, but rents long fixed by custom took some time to change to suit altering conditions, and arable land converted to vineyard might still continue to owe its old payment of corn. As a general rule, however, corn-rents came from corn-growing land, and wine-rents from the vine- yards. When any land had ceased to produce sufficient corn for the purpose, the tenant would occasionally get the lord's leave to commute his rents in kind for money payments. Quartieres in corn were paid from all the archipretres. In the revenues of the archbishopric (1259), twenty-eight churches in Entre-deux-Mers are enumerated as paying wheat and oats, and fifteen at La Sauve.^ These are all entered at this date. In 1410 quarteria were paid from Lesparre, Moulis, Buch, Born, Cernes, Benauges, Entre- deux-Mers, Entre-Dordogne, Fronsac, Bourg, and Blaye.^ In 1459 the same places again appear in the accounts, where they are shown very much in arrears with their payments.^ Corn was evidently grown in all these districts. The principal crops were wheat, oats, rye, and barley. Of these, wheat was cultivated much the most extensively nearly everywhere. From Buch and Born, however, only millet was due, which may mean that the soil was fitted for nothing else, or at least that they could only grow sufficient of the other grains for their own consumption. In considering the amount of corn-land, it is important to note that very early * Floirac, Cenon, Montussan, Cambanis, La Tresne, Sadirac, Lignan, Loupes, Bonnetan, Fargues, Quinsac, Caillau, Cameyrac, Salleboeuf, Carignan, Bouliac, St.-Loubes, Izon, St.-Sulpice, Lormont, Bassens, Caminaynac, Duiras, Artigues, Pompignac, St.-Pierre-d'Ambares, Beyssac, and Tresses. These are in the district of Entre-deux-Mers known as Ubert Inferius ; the others in Ubert Superius. St.-Martin-du-Pont, St.-Vin- cent-de-Creon, Cursan, Espiet, Vayres, Camiac, St.-Philippe-d'Aiguille, St.-Martin-du-Bois, St.-Quentin, Nerigean, Avaron, Gcnissac, Gresillac, Cissac, and Moulon. * G. 241. ' G. 240, f. 468. 40 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. hi some of these dues began to be commuted for money. In 1259 all the quartieres were paid in actual grain. In 1307,^ 1367,2 1401 ^ and onwards, money was substituted in increasing amount. This need not necessarily mean lack of corn, but it is very probable, and occasionally this is expressly stated.^ In 1401 the churches unable to pay in corn were at Lignan, Queyrac, Uch, Cussac, Le Pian, Begles, Leognan,St.-Christophe (Entre-Dordogne), Cerons, and Portets. In 1459 a long list is given of commuted quartihes, and a long list of arrears which had to be made up in money .^ The fact of so many arrears at this date may have been due in part to the dis- turbances of the recent war, which had wrought havoc in the neighbourhood. In any case, there is no doubt that corn dues had largely disappeared by the fifteenth century; and this fact, combined with other evidence, helps to prove, not only that money was much more used, but that vineyards had been extended at the expense of corn-growing land. As to the distribution of the vines, the main product of the estate, they are found more or less everywhere. In the thirteenth century there were numerous vineyards ; by the fourteenth these had increased extraordinarily ; by the fifteenth they had become practically universal, and had largely usurped the place of arable land. The war must have affected disastrously the welfare of the country, and done great damage to rural cultivation ; but the nature of that cultivation was fixed beyond any doubt, and it was by the produce of their vines that the inhabitants strove to recover from the loss and distress which had been caused.* ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 456. ° Ibid. xxii. 135. ' G. 240, f. 1 1 1'^. * Ibid., f. 107 : ' Capellanus sancti Ilarii a CajTaco pro quarteria dicti ecclesie sue ex composicione facta quia non habebat bladum, 5 sol.' F. i07'»' : The same for the chaplain of Ste.-Marie-d'Uch (Oytz). * G. 240, f. 393. * For the results of the war in the Bordelais see Denifle, La devastation des eglises (Paris, 1899, 8vo), i. 131. The first College of Studies founded by the archbishop in Bordeaux (1443) could not be properly endowed, ' propter tenuitatem mensae archiepiscopalis.' P. 132 : 1477. ' De Pessaco, de Caldeaco, de Calamiaco . . . ob guerrarum turbines, mortalitatem pestis, terrarum sterilitates aliaque, habitatoribus et iiicolis carent ; propterea eadem mensae penitus inutilia et nullius valoris sunt,' &c., &c. CH. Ill] THE SOIL AND THE SETTLEMENTS 41 It was especially in the Bordelais that the land was so com- pletely given to up viticulture. There were vines in the outlying parts of the estate, in Perigord and Saintonge, but not in such numbers as in the district round Bordeaux.^ It is here, therefore, that the increase in this form of cultiva- tion can best be traced out. In the thirteenth century the town of Bordeaux itself contained a considerable number of vines. These were chiefly near what were then the outskirts of the town, in the parishes of Ste.-Eulalie, St.-Paul, St.-Christoly, and the quarters known as Ha and Campaure.^ The parish of St.-Seurin (the church then stood without the walls), later very rich in vineyards, had already several at St. -Martin-de-Mont- Judee, La Recluse, and Cantagric. The Graves of Bordeaux were, even at this period, richer in vines than almost any other district ; but the sparse notices of the thirteenth-century cartulary are very different from the descriptions given in later documents, in which we find the Graves devoted almost wholly to the growth of the plant for which their soil so peculiarly fits them. Besides the vineyards round St.-Seurin there were others at St.-Caprais, La Motte-d'Ayre, St.-Laurent-d'Escures, Fourc, and going rather further afield, at Merignac, Talence, and Gradignan ; one or two lay still more to the south at Leognan, Cerons, and Leogeats. Across the river, Entre-deux-Mers was beginning their culture in many parts ; but at Lormont, in especial, vines were already numerous.^ Here they were being grown all round the archbishop's palace and garden, in various roads, one in particular being known as the ' Rue de Vineis ', and in the neighbouring district. Next to Lormont, Tresses and Bouliac seem to have possessed the greatest number of vineyards ; ^ Floirac, Bassens, Ambares, and Artigues all had * G. 106. Homage in 1304 for lands in Portets, Arbanats, and Lamotte- d'Arbanats, for ' tolas las vinhas et terras coutas et hermas '. 1306. The same for Mureil ; ' terras, vineas, pratam.' G. 83. ' Trens de vigne ' mentioned here and there at Caudrot, but not so frequently as ' trens de terre ' (1308-1470). G. 177. A few vines mentioned at Belv6s in 1462: ' jornau de vigne,' ' treille de vigne,' &c. * Cart, de St. -Andre. See Leo Drouyn, Bordeaux vers 1450, for a map of old Bordeaux. * Revenus de l'Archev6ch6, 1259. * Cart, de St. -Andre. 42 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. hi a few ; and to the north of the Dordogne the chapter possessed some vine property in Bourg and its neighbourhood, Lansac, and Marcamps, In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries each place mentioned above had a far greater extent of its land planted with vines than in the thirteenth. Bordeaux itself was perhaps an exception, since it was becoming more thickly inhabited, and rents there were paid more frequently for houses than for vines within the walls. These had not, however, entirely disappeared, and all round were numerous vineyards in districts which are now included in the town itself. This was the case all about St.-Seurin, and at St. -Genes, Puy Crabey (near the Port du Ha), St.-Julien, and the Palais Gallien. In the Graves more and more did this form of agriculture prevail. The richest and most abundant in vines were Fourc, Pont Long, Pissaboup, and La Codane ; these are entered over and over again as containing different vine holdings ; but there were many other places in the same region in which vineyards flourished, e. g. La Taugue, Naujac, Pippas, Brunon, St.-Nicholas, La Saye, Campeyraut, Fosse- Lobeyrc, and La Motte-d'Ayre. Outside the town also various new places had planted vines in these later centuries. Pessac, where Pope Clement V had bequeathed a vineyard to the archbishopric ; Cadaujac, where a few were intermixed with much arable and meadow land ; Blanquefort, Lysines, St.-Medard-en-Jalles, Merignac, Begles, and Gradignan on the left bank of the river ; Port Peyron, La Souys, and Les Queyries on the right bank immediately facing Bordeaux ; Camblanes and Carignan in the canton of Creon ; Ambares, Bassens, Montussan, Nerigean in that of Carbon Blanc, and many others ; whilst Lormont was becoming increasingly important for its vine-growing all through the period. The archbishop, on his private demesne, went in almost exclusively for the cultivation of the vine. He had a few meadows, often farmed out for money, but he grew no corn, of which he obtained what he needed from quartieres, tithes, and a few rents. The accounts consecrate a few pages each year to corn expenses ; but these are not expenses for reaping and gathering, but for collecting, measuring, and storing. Occasion- CH. Ill] THE SOIL AND THE SETTLEMENTS 43 ally the whole est.ate did not supply him with sufficient corn for his household needs, and he was obliged to buy some in addition. These purchases were sometimes made from British merchants, but the procureur does not always give information as to where he went for his goods.-*- The fifteenth-century terrier of St. -Andre shows that nearly all the burgesses of Bordeaux possessed, at that time, some strips of vine-land in the neighbourhood, and proves that all this district was concentrating more and more upon one occupation. With the exception of those inhabiting Lege and Cadaujac, the tenants of the chapter scarcely held anything but vineyards and their necessary adjuncts, osier- beds and willow plantations; a list of the archbishop's tenants in 1400 shows that in their case also these were by far the most common kind of property.^ This extension of vine-growing is of capital importance for the history of the whole estate. In part, no doubt, the archbishop and chapter were able to plant their Bordelais land with vineyards, because they could supply so many of their necessities from other dues ; but these could not satisfy ^ Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 347 (1383): eight tons of wheat bought from an English merchant, 336 (1382) : exchange of corn for wine, 387 (1385) : purchase of oats, &c., &c. * Taking at random the first twelve folios of the terrier, they contain reconnaissances and baux a fief of land at L^ge and 30 reges of teira biiyta in the Graves, of nine houses, a few of which had gardens, and of twenty- eight pieces of vineland. The proportion continues about the same throughout the whole document, which is almost wholly made up of transactions concerning vineyards in the Graves. A few outlying places also appear and they also show a preponderance of vines. F. 47. At Floirac in 1444 we find : (i) Hostau ab lestatge qui es alentour, (2) vinha, (3) estatge ab la terra et vinha qui si apperten, {4) trens de vinha, ( 5 ) trens de vinha. F. 56. Puch de Messan : ( i ) hostau ab la terra et vinha, (2) Correya de vinha, (3) trens de vinha, (4) trens de vinha. F. 113. Pessac and neighbourhood : (i) tota aguera bona de terra, (2) 26 regas de vinha, (3) 24 regas de vinha, (4) 21 regas de vinha, (5) 65 regas de terra et de vinha, (6) 14 regas de terra, (7) 4 regas de vinha, (8) 3 regas de vinha. F. 126^. Artigues : (i) Mayson, (2) trens de vinha, (3) trens de terra, (4) trens de jaugar, (5) trens de terra deserta, (6) trens de vinha, (7) trens de terra, (8) trens de vinha, (9) pessa de vinha, (10) trensot de vinha, (11) correya de vinha, &c. In 1400 the majority of the archbishop's tenants were holders of houses and vineyards. ' Land ' is chiefly mentioned at L6ge, Cadaujac, and Bugles. The first fifty notices of vines occur before terra has been entered more than twelve times, with the e.xception of gardens or small plots in which the houses were built. 44 SAINT-ANDR£ OF BORDEAUX [ch. hi every want, and so the estate ceased to be really self-sufficing and had to be conducted on commercial principles. Wine was not only produced to drink, but to sell ; and so profitable was its sale, that the archbishop was content to buy other necessities, and to devote his land to the product which suited it best. The small tenants also must have been unable to live on the produce of their vineyards alone, and had, in their turn, to obtain other commodities by purchase. This fact led to rather different conditions of management and cultiva- tion in the vine-lands from those which usually prevailed on estates with a greater variety of crops. Comparing the characteristics of this estate in the Middle Ages with those of the same districts at the present day, they will be seen to be very similar. The places in which the vine flourishes most have very little changed. Perhaps an excep- tion to this might be made in the case of Medoc, which does not seem to have been planted out so early as the rest. This is, of course, only judging from the lands of St.-Andre in that district, which were not very extensive. Before 1400 there were a few vines in this direction as far north as Blanquefort, St.-Medard-en-Jalles, Le Taillan, and Breillan,^ but only a few. In 1400 the list of the archbishop's tenants, which as a rule is very explicit in stating the nature of the holding, speaks of biens in Blanquefort and Le Taillan.^ Moulis-en-Medoc in 1383 had only a few arreguas of land not vines,^ while Listrac paid corn dues alone.* In the fifteenth century there are traces there of uncultivated soil. Sainte-Helene is perhaps just outside Medoc, but there certainly we find mention only of desert : ^ and the same at La Caussade.^ In 1446 a bail d fief neuf to Arnold of Autelhan-en-Medoc confers ' Trens de terra et de jaugar ' (rough moorland) ; ' trens de terra en desert ' ; ' trens o marret de terra e de jaugar.' Certainly, as far as the archbishop and chapter ^ G. 524, f. 40 (1365). Cens assigned at Breillan on certain lands and vines. Three of Blanquefort pay 5s. cens for vines and aubarides. F. 395 {1389) speaks of ten arreguas of vine at Le Taillan. F. 324 (1364). Vines and lands at St.-Medard-en-Jalles. ^ Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 547-641. * G. 524, f. 328. * Ibid., f. 434. * G. 524, f. 268 (1421). * Ibid.,f. 100'. CH. Ill] THE SOIL AND THE SETTLEMENTS 45 were concerned, they possessed no extensive vineyards in the Medoc, where now the most famous cms are produced. With this exception, however, the chief wine-estates of modern days were already in existence by the fourteenth or fifteenth century. In the neighbourhood of the vineyards willow-plantations and osier-beds were constantly found, since they produced what was necessary for staking and binding the plants. They were particularly numerous in the Graves and Palus of Bor- deaux, but existed practically in all parts. As regards meadows, some hay no doubt was grown in most places, but meadow-land was of very secondary importance in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux. The damp soil on the banks of rivers was the most suitable for grass-growing, and meadows were chiefly situated in the Pains of Bordeaux. They were also fairly extensive in Blanquefort, St.-Medard- en-Jalles, and above all Cadaujac.^ On the private demesne of the archbishop we find hay- making going on in the large meadows of Lormont and Ludon, and in various smaller fields in the Palus, at Les Pesettes, Le Fresne, and Las Coalhas. In addition to these, he sometimes had the grass cut and stacked in his own garden. Beyond these few instances of regular meadow land, only very occa- sional mention is made of it in land-grants. Possibly it may sometimes have been included in the vague term terra, which is most usually associated with the idea of arable land. There was not much waste land or wood on the estate of St. -Andre, which was very intensively cultivated for so early a period. Many of the larger grants of land comprise * G. 431. Meadows in Cayssac, 1360 and 1388, terrier, f. 17. Cadaujac, 1443 : a lot of waste land ; some meadows. Artigues evidently had much meadow, it is mentioned in 1365 and 1389 (G. 524-24). In 1445 a quantity of land conferred on the tenants contained various ' trens de prat '. G. 1 10 : 1 326, 6 sadons de pre ; 1406, trens de pre aux Pesettes ; 1429, 9 sadons de pre; 1465, trens de pre. Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii (List of Tenants, 1400), Cadaujac : 3 sadons of meadow at Las Gotas ; I piece at Berneye ; 60 sadons of land and meadow at La Rausilhon (near Cadaujac) ; i bit of meadow (Bidalenx near Cadaujac) ; 2 sadons of meadow (Grand Talhadin) ; and 2 at Boquau. G. 524. 60 enumerates documents concerning all sorts of meadows. G. 524, 339. In the Palus, Pradetz, &c. 46 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. iii ' boscas, landas, pastengas, e paduentz ' ; but these are very common formulas, which give no absolute certainty as to the character of the property so described. The real waste and uncultivated moorland, fit only for very rude pasture, was in the Landes, and neither archbishop nor chapter held very much in that region. There was a forest of Bordeaux, but that lay mostly in royal demesne,^ and was, in any case, fast being brought under cultivation in the fourteenth century. The chief woods on this estate were the Forests of Bretenor in Montravel,^ and Confolens ^ in Saintonge, both of which were held by homage from the archbishop ; and the Forest of Lege in which the dean and canons had their rights of hunting.^ Mention is made of small woods at Cenac,^ Artigues,^ Pugnac,' and elsewhere. Of waste land there was a quantity all round Caudrot,® at Sainte-Helene-la-Lande,^ and also at Cadaujac.^^ On the whole, however, land was most fully cultivated and only enough waste retained to serve as pasture for the necessary animals. Not many beasts were kept on this estate. The archbishop himself had a great many horses, but these were chiefly for private use, not for work on the land. Oxen were used for ploughing and also for carrying, though for the latter mules and asses were also employed. Ploughing, however, was chiefly for corn-land, since vines in the Middle Ages were worked almost exclusively by hand. In the fourteenth century we do find ox ploughs in use on some vineyards — notably at Pessac,^ but this was the exception — nothing is said of such a thing on the other parts of the archbishop's private demesne. Oxen, therefore, were not required in all parts nor in great numbers, and many of the tenants did not possess them at all. Where they were kept, one or two were considered an ordinary amount for one individual. At Blanquefort ' manoeuvre a boeuf ' is owed by the questaux * Cart, de St. -Andre, f. i. The chapter paid somethmg on feast days to the guardian of the king's forest, from which it might take some wood. ' G. 139. * G. 104. * Cart, de St.-Andre, f. 92. ' Ibid., f. 75. « G. 524, f. 24. ' Ibid., f. 357^. " G. 83. ' G. 524, f. 268. 1° G. 408. " Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 184. CH. Ill] THE SOIL AND THE SETTLEMENTS 47 if they have oxen. In Belves and Couze various men make a declaration that they have two oxen or occasionally ' two oxen for ploughing and one which does not work.' ^ At Cadaujac and Berneye also, the inhabitants paid, dues to the chapter reckoned in proportion to their beasts. Two measures of millet from the man who had two oxen, one measure for one, and those who had none were to pay one penny. 2 The archbishop used to hire oxen when he required them for work on his demesne and for carriage.^ This was especially at harvest time for the collection of tithes and quartihes, but it occurs also at other times of the year for various odd jobs, so that he must have kept very few, if any, of his own. He had, apparently, a few" sheep and pigs, as he kept a shepherd and a swineherd. Meat was eaten so ver}' little on ordinary occasions that the keeping of beasts was less necessary than in some countries. Bread, wine, cheese, eggs, and* poultry were by far the most common articles of food ; bacon was used from time to time ; mutton and beef much more rarely. A few places were better suited for pasture than others, and more beasts were kept in consequence. One of these was Cadaujac. In the thirteenth century its inhabitants had an active dispute with a neighbouring lord, who complained that they were trespassing on his lands, whilst they declared that they were only exercising their due and ancient pasture rights, which they had ' tam in bosco quam in piano '. These were adjudged to them eventually by the chapter of St.-Andre, but a payment was exacted from them for the future in return for these same rights.* At Lege there were dues for cows, pigs, and sheep. At Couturcs and Loutrange, besides payment for ' herbage and glandage ',^ the archbishop received dues for all sales of animals which took place, so much for each horse, ox, mule, cow, sheep, pig, or goat. There was one rate for selling them alive for use, another when they were sold at the butchery.^ Here, therefore, they seem to have reared * G. 177. ^ Cart, de St.-Andr6, f. iii-^. " Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 195, 409, 416. 440, 450. ' Cart, de St.-Andre, ff. 96, in''. * G. 240, f. 391 (HSQ). • Couturaes de Coutures, 1276. 48 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. hi animals, instead of only keeping the necessary beasts for agricultural work, and at Bigarroque and St.-Cyprien special dues were also paid for sales in the market.^ In the more immediate neighbourhood of Bordeaux, however, few traces of this kind appear. Lormont seems to have had a sheep farm of some importance, being one of the very few places in which mention is even made of these animals. During the fourteenth century purchases of sheep were made there from time to time,2 and the archbishop had a shepherd there.^ There was probably good pasture on the slopes behind the town, where vines were not universally planted. On the whole, therefore, we gather that pasture land was chiefly found in the outlying fiefs ; that near Bordeaux, with the exception of Lormont and Cadaujac, there was little attempt to keep more beasts than the few necessary for the ordinary working of the estates ; that the archbishop him- self kept scarcely any animals on his demesne, which was almost wholly planted with vineyards, and that he gener- ally hired any labour that was necessary. In consequence, compared with other parts, disputes as to pasture were extraordinarily rare. Very different was this estate from the country nearer the Pyrenees, where land was of very little use for anything but grazing, and where there were endless disputes, not to say open wars between village and village, on the subject of their several rights. The lands of St.-Andre, on the contrary, were very fully brought under cultivation, and this cultivation, especially in the Bordelais, was almost exclusively viticulture. Corn land and meadows were only interspersed here and there to supply immediate necessities. ' G. 139. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 502 ; purchase of 100 sheep, 1357. ' Ibid, xxii (1387). CHAPTER IV LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) Free Property — Alod, Fief, and Censive The estate of St.-Andre furnishes us with information on all the chief forms of landed property, on alods, fiefs, censives, and questaves, and on their possessors the nobles, the freemen, and the serfs. The whole subject of land and landholding is one of such great difficulty, and so many problems have been raised concerning it, that it is necessary to treat of it very warily. One estate, indeed, cannot furnish material sufficient to allow any general conclusions to be drawn from it. Of all questions that of the alod is one of the most contested ; and the informa- tion which is supplied by the documents concerning alodial property belonging to St.-Andre must be supplemented from other records of the neighbourhood to make it intelligible. Gascony, according to old tradition, was essentially a country of alods. Monsieur Chenon, writing in 1888, asserts that in Bordelais, Gascony proper, Beam, Soule, and Comminges at least, the maxim held good of ' nul seigneur sans titre ' ; ^ and in 1273 the magistrates of Bordeaux certainly declared ' domus nostri et vinee nostre pro majori parte allodiales sunt '.^ Many of the arguments brought forward to prove the original prevalence of the alod in these parts are historically incorrect. Roman law was not the original basis of the customary law of the country as has been asserted, nor have judicial courts invariably supported the theory of property ' Chenon, Histoire des AUeux, pp. 137-43 (Paris, 1888). * Livrc des Couturaes, No. 63 (Arch. Mun. de Bordeaux, vol. v). (part V)ST.A. E 50 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX (ch. iv being alodial unless proof existed to the contrary.* Never- theless it is true that alods were disseminated widely through- out all this region. Lands, rents, tithes, even men, could be possessed alodially.^ What then does this exactly mean } Monsieur Chenon explains an alod as property in contrast to benefice ; in its primitive sense, an hereditary possession rather than a holding for years or for life. As the feudal estates likewise tended to become hereditary, the alod would mean something freer than that ; a real bit of private property, owned not held, over which the owner had absolute rights — to alienate by gift or sale, to use in any way he liked, and which was free from all seignorial charges ; subject perhaps to a judicial lord, but entirely independent of any feudal or territorial sovereign. Before accepting such a definition there are various points to consider. The legal alod may be one thing, and the actual alod something quite different. The word may be used in different senses : it may imply real property as contrasted with personal, hereditary as contrasted with acquired, free ownership as contrasted with feudal landholding ; and sometimes these different meanings cut across one another and refuse to combine. Above all, the ideas of the time were thoroughly vague, and no term was used very strictly. Owners were often obliged to make a monstree of their alods — a feudal obligation which should not have been demanded were the property free from all seignorial control ; and sometimes even, a landowner claimed to have an alod because he paid fixed rent and no heavier due.' * Brutails, Cart, de St.-Seurin, Introduction, p. 65 sq. (Bordeaux, 1897). On the slight influence of Roman law in this part of the country until later times, see Jarriand, Histoire de la Novelle 1 18, p. 325. Accord- ing to the Customs of Bordeaux it was only resorted to in the last instance if neither customary law, local practice, nor natural reason met the case. * Roles Gascons, vol. ii. No. 906 : grant in perpetuity to Jean de Greilly, 'sexaginta libras rendales monete burdegalensis in allodio.' Bibl. Nat. MSS. Lat. 5460 A., f. 20', Cart, de St.-Jean-du-Mont, diocdse d'Auch: * Arnaldus miles dedit rusticum unum ad alodium jure perpetuo." Ibid., f. 24^ : ' unum paisium in alodio.' Cart, de St.-Seurin, p. 218 : ' 1 1 homes e tot les dreitz e totas las senhories que medis en W. ave . . . cum son fui ale' ' Cart, de St.-Seurin, Introduction, p. 69. Dispute between chapter CH. iv] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 51 Contemporary documents alone can throw light on this vexed question, and show at least the usual characteristics of the actual alod, whatever it ought to have been according to strict legal theory. There is no doubt that alodial property was the freest sort of possession a man could have, ' Ouedam sunt allodiales que tenentur ad manum ipsorum dominorum, qui locant eas vel inhabitant, et eas vendunt et distraunt, et faciunt de ipsis pro suo hbito voluntate, ita quod non oportet eos f acere verbum alicui de eisdem : inde dictum est allodium, et antiqui nostri referunt quasi sine sermone ; et ita ivit et observabit ista civitas a primis cunabulis et aspiciis inconcusse, et etiam temporibus Saracenorum ut credimus.'* In Entre-deux-Mers in 1238 it is stated that any man may freely sell this alodial land to whom he pleases without leave or licence.^ The cartulary of the Abbey of La Grande Sauve ^ simply abounds in gifts of alods, without any mention of leave being accorded by lords or by heirs ; freely and alodially are used as though synonymous.^ The hereditary nature of this property is also shown in many instances. In 1310 two citizens of Bordeaux speak of possessing an alod ' jure hereditario a tempore quo non extat memoria pacifico tenuissent ' ; ^ and in the cartulary of Ste. -Croix we find, ' sicut ad ipsum ut proprium allodium jure hereditario expectabat.' ^ But there were not only these old hereditary alods ; property of this sort could be acquired and inhabitants of Cauderan, &c., on subject of alods. As Monsieur Brutails points out, the vagueness of contemporary theory on alodial property is well illustrated by this case, in which a light money cens was claimed to be the test even though a monstrie was due from the supposed alods, and when the chapter interfered as seigneur justicier in what was obviously a territorial question. ' Livre des Coutumes, p. 508 : Reconnaissance par la ville de Bordeaux de ses obligations envers le roi d'Angleterre, 1273. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, iii. 1 18. * Cart, de Sauve Majeure, 13^ siScle (Bibl. Mun. Bordeaux). * Ibid., f. 35. After gifts of land it adds : ' Hoc totum libere et allodia- liter.' And on the same page a man gave himself to the abbey, ' de allodiale et libere possessione.' (Alodially in this connexion may specially mean hereditarily.) * Ga-scon Rolls (Record Office), 3 Ed. 11, m. 2. * Bibl. Nat. MSS. Lat. 9136, f. i. E 2 52 SAINT-ANDRfi OF BORDEAUX [ch. iv by marriage, by gift, by prescription, and this by any class free or servile. Perhaps the best information on the subject is furnished by the report preserved of an inquest ordered by Edward I in 1274, for the purpose of discovering who held fiefs and who alods.^ The returns made by the different landowners show that the latter, though in a minority, were still fairly numerous ; and here emphasis is more especially laid on their freedom from feudal dues. Some of the old hereditary owners went so far as to declare that they were not bound to answer any questions even to the king, and refused to specify their property ; ^ but as a rule the reply was that for the alods they owed nothing : ' tenent in allodium liberum sub domino rege . . . ita quod nihil debent inde facere.' * Others were under seignorial jurisdiction, but not under a territorial lord : ' habent in allodium liberum oblias et terras quas eorum pater et mater et ipsimet adquisiverant, pro quibus debent facere jus coram domino.' "* A definition, given in the same document, probably represented the usual idea of the period on the subject. ' Quandam terram liberam seu allodium . . . de quo nunquam dedit alicui censum nee sporlem,' which in case of dispute ' coram dicto rege habet respondere ', and in case of forfeiture ' ad dictum regem devolveretur '.^ In the terrier of Comprian (1309), where alods are especially abundant, the constant formula is : ' dixit se tenere dictas terras in franco alodio, et nullum deverium sibi facit domino Regi.' « * Recognitiones Feodorum. Martial and Jules Delpit, Notice d'un manuscrit de la BibliothSque de Wolfenbiittel. (Notice et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothdque du Roi, Sec, vol. xiv.) ^ Ibid., p. 238. * Ibid., p. 313 : 'Quod non debet facere homagium nee sacramentum nee debet facere alia deveria.' * Ibid., p. 364. * Roles Gascons, vol. i, supplement, No. 121 1 (1243). Notice the change which is implied when a man who had formerly possessed an alod is stated now to hold by service of homage and a lance as accapte. Cf. also Lanery d'Arc, Du franc alleu, p. 76 (Paris, 1885). He quotes a fourteenth-century description of an alod, which says it is ' terra libera de qua nemini servitium nee census nee tenetur ab aliquo domino, et per hoc dififert a feudo quia tenetur ab aliquo et ipsius ratione cognoscitur superior, et mutato domino oportet solvere et in allodio nihil ' (Desmarcs). * Brit. Mas. Cotton MSS., Julius E. i (copied by Brequigny, xviii. 209, Bibl. Nat.). CH. iv] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 53 This freedom from feudal obligations seems to be the really essential characteristic of true alodial property. It was owned, not held, it recognized no feudal superior save the king as lord of the whole land, and in consequence its possessor was free to dispose of it or to treat it in any way he would. An alod, by reason of this independence from other lords, was brought very closely, as a rule, under the immediate control of the king. In the Manuscript of Wolfenbiittel it is stated that any disputes about alodial land were to be tried before the king ; that if a possessor died intestate his property should pass to him, and this would also be the case in the event of confiscation.^ The Customs of Bordeaux help to bear out this idea of special royal rights.^ But though this may have been the theory of alodial property generally accepted in Gascony during the Middle Ages, as usual theory and practice were not always in harmony, and the definition given above will by no means meet every mention of alodial property. Some alods, for instance, appear to have been held at a money rent. Vivien de Veyrines gave ' xii denarios cen- sualiter super mansuram suam . . . et super totum alodium suum '.^ In 1270 a sale was made of the cens and esporle owned by two brothers on a land in free alod.* And in 1376 a piece of land was sold to a burgess of Bordeaux on the condition of a yearly cens of five sous and two deniers of esporle, and this was guaranteed for all time ' franquament in alo '.^ In these cases it is probably the hereditary character ' Recognitiones Feodorum, pp. 333, 334. Another interesting question is as to whether the owner of an alod had rights of jurisdiction over it, or whether that remained an essentially feudal right attached to a fief; unless, indeed, the king chose to grant it, Cf. Chenon, Hist, des Alleux, chap. ii. ^ Livre des Coutumes, No. 63. Reconnaissance par la ville de Bordeaux de ses obligations envers le roi d'Angleterre, 1273-4. (a) Justice: 'Si autem sit allodium, sibi curia remanebit, et exitus sue et exequtionem habebit.' (b) Escheat : ' Allodia penes dominum remanebunt, et feuda ad eorum dominos devolventur.' (c) Forfeiture : ' Si contingat aliquem sic delinquere quod ejus bona debeant confiscari, allodia fiscus habebit, et feuda domini eorumdem. Et sic claro Claris exstitit dominos in alodiis multa jura habere et habere posse.' * Cart, de St.-Seurin, p. 44. * Cart, de Ste. -Croix (Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxvii. 239). ' G. 1716, f. 112. Cf. also Roles Gascons, vol. ii, No. 478 (9 Ed. I, m. 8). An alod was changed into a fief, but be;>ides homage and esporle it owed 54 SAINT-ANDRE OF BORDEAUX [ch. iv which is especially emphasized. In speaking of alods it seems as though sometimes one aspect predominates, sometimes another, and the term may get applied to property which has only one of the characteristic attributes. The explanation probably lies in the fact that no definition was absolutely correct in these early times ; things were not really divided by the hard-and-fast lines which we should like to draw. There were not of necessity any written titles for alods; each man in 1273 was called upon to state his own liabilities, and it was easy for tradition to vary and uncertainties to arise. The general vagueness is shown by some of the answers given at this inquest. One man does not know whether he has a fief or an alod ; another is not sure, but will answer to-morrow ; ^ a third says that he holds his fief in alod.^ Again, the duties incumbent on all alodarii would tend to connect them with feudal tenants ; and it was not so very great a step to interpret their relation to the king as that of ordinary tenants-in-chief.^ Alods in the hands of simple freemen, similarly, would become confused with the lands for which they paid cens.'^ Thus the term alod fluctuated in meaning from an estate in absolute and independent owner- ship, to hereditary property in free tenure, to land in some special relation to the king, and even to territory held by rent and service of a peculiarly light description. Besides the increasing vagueness of the term, the thirteenth other services ' que antea debebat et consueverat facere, sicut alii tenentes allodia '. (These are not specified, however, and may only mean ordinary duties to the king from possessors of alodial property. ) ^ Recognitiones Feodorum : ' dixit se dubitare utrum tenet in allodium vel haberet in feudum.' * Ibid., p. 329. * Alodarii owed to the State the essential duties of every good citizen at that time ; military service, suit of court, and maintenance of fortifica- tions. These duties are defined in Bazas (Recognitiones, p. 333) : ' Omnes alodarii sui qui habebant allodia in dicta diocesi debebant dicto domino regi Angliae, si mandet, campum seu bellum campestrem inter portus et flumen Garonae.' This, however, was only to be for one day at their own expense. Wherever required, it is stated a little later, they must appear in court either to assist in justice, or to answer accusations against them- selves. In the customs of Lectoure it is expressly entered that possessors of free alods were to repair the walls of the town, together with the capcas- saux and serfs. (Druilhet, Coutumes de Lectoure, p. 41. Arch. Hist, de la Gascogne, vol. ix.) * Brutails, Cart, de St.-Seurin, Introduction, p. 69. CH. IV] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 55 and fourteenth centuries were marked by a rapid diminution in the old alodial property. To have free land was all very well, but sometimes a feudal lord was a protection in troublous times.^ When war was so constant the obligation of military service was no sinecure and could be commuted more easily by a tenant than by a free alodial proprietor.^ The king was anxious to enforce his sovereignty, and an alodarius was easily induced to do homage and pay a lance or some other fancy article as esporle.^ A noble needed money for his wars : he let out portions of his alod at money rent ; ■* or he was engaged for the Crusade, his land was safe in the hands of the Church, and if he returned the usufruct would be all he needed.^ A man was on his sick-bed : he would gain the favour of heaven by bestowing his alodial property on a church ; if he recovered he would receive it back as a fief and live as a favoured tenant for the rest of his life ; ^ or possibly a religious house would receive him altogether, bestow food on his body while he lived, and prayers on his soul after his decease.' For these reasons alodial land was fast diminishing, though instances of old free property long continued.^ Alods were, however, too much mixed with other estates to affect very greatly the general condition of classes ; and instead of wholly independent proprietors we find feudal tenants holding ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, iii. i. * Ibid., v. 243. * Record Office, Reg. Mun., Liber B, f. cccix. 1281. J. de Podio did homage to Edward for lands in Bazas : ' que omnia ego et mei antecessores tenuimus in allodium liberum, et que recepimus a dicto domino Rege tenenda ex nunc ... in feudum immediatum cum dicto homagio et uno pari ciro- ticarum albarum (white gloves) in mutatione domini de acapte.' * Livre Velu, MS. 234, f. 120. ' Cart, de St.-Seurin, p. 33. * Ibid., p. 47 : ' Alodium meum dedi ac indesinenter concessi ; postea vero a predicto decano et a canonicis presentialiter ibidem existentibus domum predictum in feudo accepi, tali pacto quod ego et successores mei duos nummos tantum de acquisitione ac duos censualiter darent.' Ibid., p. 58. Usufruct kept for life at cens ; on death whole property to the church. ' Ibid., p. 31, &c., &c. * Notice various judicial decisions on the subject in sixteenth, seven- teenth, and eighteenth centuries. Cart, de St.-Seurin, Introduction, p. 77. Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 30753. The Chambre des Comptes declared in 1555 that any land said to be an alod must be put into the king's hand unless a title could be shown. 56 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. iv occasionally certain portions of their land exempt from the ordinary dues and services. On the other hand, though these old alods disappeared, new alodial property would sometimes be created. It was a great object of envy to possess a real bit of private property subject to no burdensome dues and exactions ; peasants would pinch and squeeze that they might have money to buy a portion, however small, that they could look upon as their very own ; and in consequence it is by no means unusual to find a serf, the chief part of whose possessions are still held by base- service, having also a little bit of alodial property, acquired by gift, by marriage, or by purchase, for which he owes nothing of any kind.^ To turn to the alods of which mention appears on the estate of St.-Andre ; there is not very much information forthcoming, but what there is helps to illustrate these general characteristics. The archbishop himself was an alodial proprietor in the most complete sense of the word, since he was allowed by actual grant to retain his territory unburdened by homage to either the King of England or the King of France. The dean and chapter also had a good deal of their land and also of their tithes ' in alodio '. This is mentioned occasionally when new acquisitions are made. In St.-Medard-d'Eyrans they had a tithe ' in alodium ', once belonging to Poncius de Broc ; two parts of the tithe of Eysines were held ' in alodio ex dono Bonifacio ' (Archdeacon of Cernes) ; and an eighth part of the tithe of Bassens, ' in proprietate et alodio.' ^ In 1360 they purchased two meadows at Cayssac ' et sunt in allodio '.^ The meaning of the term alod also appears from time to time in the St.-Andre documents. The free power of their possessors over them is shown in the case of gifts, where the * Terrier de Comprian, 1309. Brequigny, xviii. 193: ' Arnaldus dixit quod ipse dedit . . . sororem suam Guillelmo Calvili homini questali hospi- talis de Compariano in uxorem, et dedit sibi in dotem ii sadones vine in franco allodio, . . . pro qua vinea . . . faciebat dicto domino regi annuatim vj solidos ii denarios et unam gallinam . . . de quibus dictus homo questalis non cognoscit se tenere a rege, nee aliquod deverium sibi facit.' Ibid., p. 211. Sale of land to homo questal is for sixty shillings ' in franco alodio ' ; for ■which the serf owed no duties, &c., &c. * Cart, de St.-Andre, ff. 49% 52. ^ G. 316, f. 15. CH.iv] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 57 donors declare that the property is alodial and that therefore they give it independently by their own act alone. This constantly appears in the foundation of anniversaries, when land, rents, men possessed in alod were bestowed for the maintenance of a chapel or the saying of masses.^ There is also evidence of freedom from service in the case of alodial property. The Seigneur of Ambleville says that he formerly held the chdtellenies of Bouteville and Aubiac free from all service ' en franc alleu '.^ Elsewhere the hereditary character of the alod is implied by its mention in contrast with acquired land.' Other examples show how early the meaning of the term became vague, and how payments were made from alodial property. Sometimes this implies a definite change, the old free land is changed into a censive, but this scarcely seems to happen in every instance. In the rents due to St.-Andre at Cabanac, one man paid for his alod 12 den. cens and 3 den. esporle^ Another tenant at Artigues gave 6 den. cens and I den. esporle ' super omnia alodia sua que sunt in casali suo '.^ Strictly speaking, alods should not have had any connexion with the chapter at all, but seignorial power was developing. The gradual diminution of alodial property is well illustrated. In the example already cited of the Seigneur of Ambleville and his free chdtellenies, he definitely states that he did homage for them to the archbishop in return for protection. Most frequently, however, the alod is changed into a censive held at rent and esporle. In 1226 Martin Faber, who had sold his alod to the chapter, ' rcccpit dictum feodum a domino Decano cum iii. sol. esporle et Ix sol. cens.' ^ Similarly, in 1355, possessions ' francas in allodio ' were sold and received ' in ' G. 316, passim. F. 38' for anniversary of Wm. of Benauges : ' homines questales et talliabiles in corporibus et bonis ad voluntatem dicti Arnaldi in allodio franco ' (1349). ' G. 107 (1214). * Cart, de St.-Andre, f. 56'. Gift by the chaplain of Bugles of rent imposed ' super allodia sua et conquestas '. * Ibid., f. 15^. * Ibid., f. 76. A rather obscure payment in kind is mentioned in the same document (f . 1 ), which the chapter gives to those who come with certain dues : and it especially adds, ' pro omnibus alodiis suis habitis et habendis.' • Cart, de St.-Andr6, f. 61. 58 SAINT-ANDR£ OF BORDEAUX [ch. iv feodum ab eodem cum dictis censibus et sporlis '.^ This change is becoming quite common. The contrary tendency to acquire new alodial property is seen at Belves, where a labourer in 1462 had, amongst other possessions, ' trois cartonnades de terre . . . et le tient franche- ment sans en paier rien '. Ther'e is nothing very new to be learnt from the St.-Andre document touching this form of property, but at least the few examples which do occur bear out the general interpretation which can be gathered from the fuller information obtainable in other parts. The lands held from the archbishop by noble tenure were on the usual terms of homage and esporle.^ What arrange- ment was made as to military service does not appear. Since the archbishop held all his estates freely it was not he who was responsible for the service of knights in the king's armyj and nothing is said on the subject. The actual amount of service due was often left vague even on secular property ; probably the whole thing was very indefinite, and the lords fought or did not fight much as they wished.^ Occasionally service is systematically apportioned on to the land, and its obligations are entered at the time of its grant,^ but this is rather exceptional. The king would doubtless come down on the archbishop's vassals when he needed help, and even the neighbouring lords 1 G. 316, f. 49. '^ In this district the word fief was by no means exclusively applied to this noble land ; it is used for any sort of free property whether held by homage or by rent ; indeed, the usual term for a censive is to be held ' en feu feuaument ' ; and the Gascon Rolls speak of a ' feudum seu cen- sum ' worth £iS ^ year (14 Ed. Ill, m. 2). ' When Edward III wished to raise an army he sent to the different lords and asked them to supply him with so many men, without any special regard to any fixed service due. A. de Greilly, the seigneurs of Langoiran, Lesparre, Mussidan, and others were each asked to send thirty soldiers to serve with the English army (Gascony Rolls, 51 Ed. Ill, m. i). * In 1287 a. militia was granted to St.-Seurin, which owed the service of one knight and three foot-soldiers (Brit. Mus. Cotton MSS., Julius E. i, f. 109). In the diocese of Agen an estate was held for ' unum servientem peditem de exercitu et unum par calcarum ratione sporle ' (Gascon Rolls, 8 Ed. I, m. 5). One piece of land, divided between six men, had to send one armed knight for forty days, whenever the king had war in Gascony (Record Office, Ancient Petitions, 141 15). CH.iv] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 59 did so when occasion arose. Amanieu d'Albret in 1306 made a declaration to the effect that the men of the archbishop who had followed him in arms outside the seignory were not bound to do so, but had done it for love of him, and their action should not be any prejudice to their liberty in the future.^ It remains, therefore; only to consider the services done to the archbishop himself. Homage, we learn, could be either homage lige, homage franc, or homage plein. Homage lige was done by Pierre of Bordeaux in 1305 : ' in tunica, sine cucufa gladio et zona, flexis genibus, manibus complosis.' ^ The free noble homage of Helie de Chalais seems to be much the same thing : ' homenatge franc et paratgium cum lo nobles bars, Helias de Chales cavoys senher de Chales qui fo tene cum feu franc de paratge de i'archibesquau de Bordeu . . . lodeit bars sagenolhet per davant lodeit senhor archibesque en cota et sens coutet et sens coffa e meto las suas mans juntas entre los mans deudeit senhor archibesque, et lodeit senhor lo bayset en lo boca.'^ Homage plein was a simpler ceremony and did not imply the unconditional obedience of homage lige. The Seigneur of Montmoreau did ' homagium plenum junctis manibus et stando prout in talibus homagiis moris existit '.* The difference between the two bonds is shown by the declaration made by Fulk of Mastacio, who had done liege homage for tithes in Bourges and was not sure if he need have done so. He begs that if it appears in the archbishop's books that he only owed simple homage, that having performed the ceremony of liege homage need not be to his prejudice.^ Every noble fief besides homage owed the duty of esporle or accapte, on any change of seigneur. This was a due in recognition of lordship rather than a payment for the use of the land * (see chapter vi). * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, iii. 321. * G. 133. A woman who did liege homage for goods at Montravel (1364) was allowed to perform the ceremony ' sine capucio et zona in sola tunica et cucufa non amota ' (G. 82, No. 7). ' G. 133 (1301). * G. 106 (1304). ' G. 106 (1307). ' Recognitiones Feodorum, p. 369. A knight of Bourg-sur-Mer said he held nothing in fief of the king, because ' il n'y a fief que 1^ oil il y a esporle on investiture '. 6o SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. iv For noble fiefs this esporle was very constantly some fancy article, though occasionally it was paid in money. In the list of vassals holding fiefs in the chdtellenie of Montravel all the usual things appear — a pair of white gloves, a lance, ten shillings, a marhotin of gold, gold spurs, horseshoes, and so forth.^ Occasionally some unusual esporle is imposed on a fief by way of variety. One of the Montravel tenants owed a piece of cloth ; a domicellus of Arbanats an over-tunic {supertuniculus) ; ^ and William Brun for the castle of Cosnac a bow with green silk cord.^ A few of the noble tenants paid some cens in money as well as doing homage ; (the castle of Blanquefort, for example, was held by homage and a payment of £y4) ; and there was nothing to prevent them from holding actual censives, which they did increasingly as time went on. Numerous houses in Bordeaux were held by nobles paying a money rent.* The tendency was for the feudal tie to become gradually weaker, — for money relations to be much more common. The censive everywhere grew at the expense of the fief. A censive strictly speaking was free land, distinguished from a fief by being non-noble and non-mihtary ; but sometimes simple homage was exacted from the censitaires,^ nobles could hold censives, as we have just seen, and in Gascony they were called fiefs in legal language. The usual conditions of tenure were the annual payment of cens (fixed rent either in money or kind), and an esporle, generally of money, on change of lord or tenant or both. Censives could also be held by the rendering of a portion of the fruit, known as agrieres. ' G. I39,f. 3sq. (1306). ='0.106(1328). * G. 104 (1417). * G. 106 (1307). Liege homage for tithes and /20 cens. Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 547 sq. : amongst the tenants of the archbishop in 1400 we find a domicellus holding a house for twenty bushels of wheat. The Prior of Cayac paid six shillings for a meadow in Cadaujac. The Bishop of Dax had a house for one quarter of wheat and the fourth part of a hen. Ibid. XV. 539 (1283-7) '■ the archbishop himself paid a rent of 20s. for half the church of Caudrot. * G. 106. In 1371 a burgess of Ste.-Foy did homage, but probably in this case for noble land, as it was in Montravel and the conditions were a pair of gloves as esporle at every change of the archbishop, and ' pro homagio pleno franco & simplici faciendo '. Cart, de St.-Andre, f. 29 : P. de Brost owed i2d. cens, 6d. esporle, and homage. Ibid., f. 56^: Chaplain of Bugles, '4s. census ecclesie i2d. decano, et homagio junctis manibus et i2d. sporle.' CH. IV] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 6i Money rents varied to almost any extent. There seems to have been no attempt to equalize the sums paid for equal portions of land ; nor is it easy to find any rule as to the relative values of vineyards, arable land, meadow, or pasture. A question which would in any case be difficult is rendered practically impossible by the fact that the extent of land is so seldom given in the documents : these constantly say terra vinea, or trens de terra, &c., &c. In the instances, also, where the extent of land is given, the measures are of doubtful quantity. A very usual way of reckoning is by reges, reguas, or arreguas, which means in the case of vineyards a row or furrow. This differs according to the method of planting, but Monsieur Brutails thinks we may roughly consider it as covering a width of 24- feet.i As, however, there is usually no attempt to give the length of the rege this may vary to a considerable extent, although some rough average may be supposed. Another term in frequent use is sadon when the piece of land was a plot rather than a strip. ^ The significance of such terms often varied in the different localities, and was certainly never very exact.^ Another great difficulty in making even a very rough estimate of different rents is the uncertainty in money values and the great variety of coins which were sometimes used. Fortunately the archbishops' procureurs employed very generally in their reckonings the pounds, shillings, and pence which were the ordinary money of account, irrespective of the actual coins in which the payments themselves might be made. Twelve pence went to the shilling and twenty shillings to the pound, and this was the legal and recognized standard for the calculation of money payments. Guyenne had a special money of its own, distinct from the tournois or money of account in France and also from the sterling money of England.'* There was a mint at Bordeaux, and money throughout the province was expected to approxi- ' Cart, de St.-Seurin, Introduction, xxxvii. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xviii. 8. A sadon is said to be a marcha long and wide. * On the general size of holdings see chapter vii. * Brissaud, Les Anglais en Guyenne (Paris, 1875), p. 23. 62 SAINT-ANDRE OF BORDEAUX [ch. iv mate to the Bordeaux standard.^ A pound of Bordeaux money was less than a pound sterling, more than a pound tournois. French money fluctuated so much, owing to the royal practice, introduced by Philippe le Bel, of tampering with the coinage, that no comparison can be permanent.^ English money varied perhaps less than any other, though in some reigns it was bad. The Bordeaux money was occasionally altered, but not to anything like the same extent as that of France. In 1357 the accounts reckon in three different values ; the first, the second, and the third coinage of Bordeaux.^ In 1368 the Black Prince issued a new money worth almost double the old, and by exalting the price of the actual current coinage reduced that of the money of account.^ In 1376 a Bordeaux pound has been said to equal one-sixth of a pound in English sterling money, but to be worth twice as much as a livre tournois, which had then sunk very low in value.^ Avenel, in his Histoire £conomique, attempts a comparison between mediaeval and modern money. In the last half of the thirteenth century he considers that a pound sterling was worth about seventy-five francs, nearly four times the livre tournois, which he estimates at twenty francs. From that date to the sixteenth century the value of English money went down, though in nothing like the same proportion as that of the French ; until in 1562 a pound sterling had reached its modern value of twenty-five francs; but was worth eight livres tournois.^ Possibly a Bordeaux pound in the fourteenth century equalled from twelve to sixteen francs of modern money. This very low value of money must be remembered in later calculations concerning wages, which seem extra- ordinarily high. No gold coinage was introduced into Guyenne until the reign of Edward III. The actual money most used were the • Guyennois noirs ' and the ' Guyennois sterlings ' ; the latter ^ Venuti, Antiquites de Bordeaux (Bordeaux, 1740), pp. 146-99, Dissertation ^sur les monnayes. * Vuitry, Etudes sur le regime financier de la France, nouv. serie (Paris, 18S3), i. 187, 223, &c. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 517. * Ibid. xxii. 197. ^ • Ibid. iii. 177 note. * Avenel, Histoire Economique (Paris, 1894), i. 35. CH. IV] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 63 made of white money {alba or blanchie) being worth five of the former.^ A ' Guyennois d'or ' in 1420 and 1430 was reckoned as equal to twenty-five shillings of Bordeaux money.'* A great variety of coins are mentioned, however, in the accounts. French money was often introduced from the outlying districts and, unless its value is given at the time, confuses prices and makes comparison impossible. The estimate of rent values has, therefore, only been attempted as represented by the standard money of account. A few rents appear to be almost nominal. As, for instance, in Bordeaux, where a knight only paid id. for his house ; ^ and in Pessac,- where 10 regnas of vine were also rented at id. ; * 19 reguas of vine at 2d., and 41 reguas of land and vine at 3^.^ In Caudrot there were some very low rents or oblies as they were called, a term often used for these especially small sums, 2d., ^d., and the like ; but these may have been for correspondingly small bits of land, as there was plenty of variety there. One ' trens de terre ' was held for as high a price as 50 shillings.* The only hope of making any sort of comparison is to take prices at the same date, and as much as possible in the same place. As the archbishop's accounts give a list of his rent- paying tenants in 1400, this is a good year to choose for the calculation, although it is impossible to arrive at any very definite conclusion, Bordeaux houses in 1400 are at every sort of rent from ^d. to £s 14^- This latter sum is paid for an old stone house, but it is very unusual ; only in three other instances does rent rise to over j^i, A carpenter paid ^^5 for a house ; another including a wine-press and garden was rented at 30s. ^\d., and a ' big house ' paid 305. annually. There is only one more instance of house-rent rising even to 205. The average lies somewhere between 2s. 6d. and 155. Very frequently the extremely small rents which exist, ^d., id., ^d., and 6d., were ' Brissaud, Les Anglais en Guyenne, p. 24. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, vii, 417 (1420). Ibid. i. 34 (i434)- * Ibid. xxi. 595 : ' B. Calculi miles pro domo. i den.' ' Ibid. xxii. 547-641. Held by the priest of St.-Michel (1400) * G. 524, f. 351 (1340). 'G. 83(1324). 64 SAINT-ANDRfi OF BORDEAUX [ch. iv paid by clergy, who may have been particularly favoured in consideration of their ecclesiastical work. Some sort of rough comparison can be made between the value of land, presumably for arable cultivation, and the value of vines. A rege of land was not generally very valuable, although the instance at Begles of 74 reges for only is. o^d. is exceptional. Other land at Begles varied from ^d. to 2^d. the rege ; at Bordeaux from ^d. to i^d. The highest rent was paid in Fourc, where as much as 3^d. was given per rege. A sadon of land was rented a good deal higher. 3c?., ^d., 6d., y^d., are all found round Bordeaux, and once at Cadaujac as much as is. was paid ; the average comes to just under 6d. Vines in the register are reckoned, when the amount is given at all, only in reges, and these vary very much. In the Graves one vineyard was rented at less than id. the row, whilst for another at St.-Seurin 15. 3^. was paid. Both these extremes are unusual. There is only one other instance of more than is. for a rege {is. id.), and only two are as much as IS. ; all these three are in Fourc. It is fairly rare for the r^ge to fall as low as id. The most constant rents are between sd. and 8d. In Pessac, on the contrary, they are only once over id., but there are not many pieces let out at rent here at all. Sometimes corregia (strips) of vine are mentioned, but these are apparently uncertain in size : their rents vary between lod. and 12.J. dd. Meadow land is occasionally reckoned by the rege, which only seems to be worth ^d. or f^. One mention of a sadon of meadow at Cadaujac as being rented at 35. 6d. must surely be a mistake ; as a rule they run between id. and 15. id. ; at an average of about 6d. These estimates are extremely rough, as only in a few cases are reges and sadons given : and many instances have had to be omitted because land and meadows, or land and vines, or vines and orchards, have been reckoned together. The general conclusion can be drawn, that vineyards were the most valuable possessions and were rented considerably higher than arable land or meadow, and the two latter were much on an equality. This is curious in the Middle Ages, CH. IV] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 65 when meadows generally fetched a high price. The small number of beasts requiring hay may possibly account for this. To turn from rent in money to rent in kind. This was generally in corn, but sometimes wine was paid, and hens very frequently ; these latter as a rule in addition to money pay- ments. Corn was the usual rent for mills. Four belonging to the chapter all paid wheat annually.^ In Blaye, amongst other places, a good many holdings were rented for corn, and occasionally loaves were either given instead or in addition.^ This corn did not always complete the obligation of the tenant, but was often supplemented by a payment of so many hens,^ and sometimes by a money ce7is also.* Corn and wine were both rendered occasionally,^ but wine does not occur very frequently as a cens because it was so constantly paid as an agriere. Corn and hens were by far the most common of these cens in kind, but other things occur here and there, such as pepper and ginger, or wax, w^iich was much needed for church purposes.^ Quite a number of the archbishop's tenants in Bigarroque each owed a torta ' (cake), and in Belves one man's rent consisted of a load of chestnuts.^ Here and there meals or parts of a meal were promised by the tenants ; and this, although often a servile rent, was not necessarily so. These comestiones occur most frequently and most continu- ously on the lands of the chapter at Ambares, near St.-Andre- ' G. 410 (1273). Two mills at L^ge. Two escarts of wheat and three of millet. G. 408 (1434). Mill of Cazau in parish of Gradignan, 36 bushels of wheat. G. 423 (1460). Mill at Villeneuve, 8 bushels of wheat; 40 paid that year for arrears. ^ G. 109 (fourteenth century). ^ Hens were often owed for houses in Bordeaux (Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. ■;■; sq.), but this was common in many other places also. * Revenus de I'Archeveche, 1259, f . 1 1 : ' Homines de salvitate Laurei- montis debent vii solidos sensus pro uno porco, et xx duos panes qui faciunt unam scartam frumenti veterem, et xvi scartas veteres avene ' (commuted rent in kind). G. 177 (1462). Lands in Sallebceuf : 655. 30 cartons frumenti, 6 cartons de avene. Ibid., f. 36. One hostau in Belvds from the archbishop for i8rf., and half a carton of wheat. " G. 109. House, vineyard, and lands in Blayais owed a bushel of oats, a picket of wine, and a loaf. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 25 : (1367) G.de Blaye i lb. of wax. Ibid., p. 49 : house in Bordeaux 8 lb. of pepper. Ibid., p. 122 : (1367) house in Crcon i lb. pepper, i lb. ginger. ' Temporel de I'Archevfiche, f. 5. • G. 177, f. 73. (fart V)ST.A. F 66 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. iv de-Cubzac.^ One man, for a house, vineyard, and land, owed 205., and ' sa part de deux mingars (mangers) de rente annuelle ' ; and another ' ^d. d'esporle, 8^. et maille et sa part d'ung mingar de cens ' (1365). The archbishop also had possessions in the same place, for which he received similar rents. In 1360 the meals are specified as consisting of bread, wine, and meat boiled with ' caulibus et cinapi et cum gallinis assatis '.^ There are a few instances of nuts and vegetables being provided by the tenants,^ but on the whole there was no great variety in the way of food dues on this estate, produce being so much alike in all parts. To these fixed rents in kind were occasionally added so many days' labour. This in the case of censives was seldom more than boondays, and on this estate even boon work was very rare. Haymaking and vine work were the most usual corvees, but sometimes a day's work with oxen was specified. In Bordeaux (1341-2) some curious instances occur of such corvees split up amongst several tenants. One man, as he holds only a quarter of a stagia (property, habitation) owes a quarter of millet, a quarter of a hen and a quarter of a man for haymaking. For forty-six rows of vine a rent was due of two measures of grain and one-third of a man.* Houses in Bordeaux occasionally owed vintage work, but rarely more than one day of it.^ In Belves various tenants gave corn, hens, and one or two journaux (boondays).^ * G. 524, S. 98-104. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 1S9, 539 (1360) ; xxii. 81 (1367). See also Cart, de St. -Andre, f. 19^. At Leognan 'prandium panis et vini ' (f. 54). F. 4^ : ' Dominus darrions unoquoque anno, in festo Sancti Andree reddit censualiter ad mensam canonicorum xl magnos panes, vinum quantum possunt portare duo asini, et duos magnos porcos ciliares, et hoc reddit pro magna terra quam habet ab ecclesia Sancti Andree.' ' Ibid., f. 5V : 'In parrochio de Camelhano . . . modum de nucibus et unum de vineis.' F. 13 : ' Apud Legiam . . . izd. cens, 12 aves, 12 sepias.' * Ibid. xxi. 74-7. * Cart, de St. Andre, f. is''. In the parish of St. -Simeon : ' id. et I vindemiatus.' F. 29 : ' 2d. et i vindemia.' G. 524, f. 390^ : ' Maison avec les maderas ... 2s. cens, 6d. esporle et ung vendangeur.' Terrier de St.-Andre (1440) : ' i deney et i vendemihador cascun an de cens.' G. 84 (1300): Caudrot, 'i manoeuvre.' Leo Drouyn (MS. Collection in Arch. Mun. Bordeaux), xxvii. 25. Free men of Izon, besides 100 dolia of vnne and a hen for each hearth, owed 2 manoeuvres of oxen ; those who had none worked with their hands. * G. 177, fit, 35, 36 (1462). CH. IV] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 67 It is obvious that labour of this kind could be of very little use, and quite early it was commuted for money. These divided rents in Bordeaux, mentioned above, all had their equivalent in money entered by the side in 1340. In the fifteenth century it was a regular thing to pay is. instead of the day's vintage-work, if desired.^ Not only labour, but cens in kind began to disappear in most places at an early date. It was usual to give food to those who brought the rent, and this must have helped to diminish its value.^ The subdivision of property, which led to the splitting up of these already small dues, was an additional reason for exacting a sum of money in their place. In Ambares one rent was reduced to the thirty-sixth part of one meal ! By 1360 these meals were often commuted. One man paid 8s. Bordeaux money for his share, and several others fulfilled their obligation in money. ^ In the fifteenth century ordinary rents were paid from lands in Ambares and no mention made of meals.* Rents of corn and hens were not wholly superseded, but commutation was made fairly frequently. For a hen a tenant was sometimes made to pay quite a high rent. In 1341, IS. seems to have been the usual value,^ but in 1354 as much as 2S. id. was imposed in place of the original fowl.^ Corn rents, though they did not disappear entirely, were very much diminished. Among the tenants of the archbishop in 1400, only eight are entered as paying rent of this kind, and two of them owe it for mills ; the others for houses in the Rue du Faur and the Rue du Ha. In the terrier of the chapter (1440-56), only five instances occur. These are for houses in ' G. 524, f. 393: (1409) ' Ung vendangeur ou I2d.' Ibid., f. 393'^: {1405) ' 6 den. pour 6 demy vendangeurs de cens.' Terrier, f. 2 : (1440) ' O per lodeit vendemihador dotze deneys.' For value of money see p. 61. * Cart, de St. -Andre, f. 59. Blanquefort : (1226) 'Debet istis duobus et tercio qui veniet cum eis dari comestio.' F. 76 : ' Illis qui attulerint censum debemus dare prandium.' ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 539. * Terrier de St. -Andre, f. 129. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 78. Half a hen, ' censualium,' 6d., two hens, 2s. * Ibid., p. 282 : ' 25. jd. receptis pro valore unius galline debite ratione dicti feudi ' (House in the Rue de Bassens). F2 68 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. iv the Rue du Faur, in the parish of Ste.-Eulalie and at Cambes in Entre-deux-Mers. Beyond this gradual commutation of labour and corn to money, rents do not seem to have varied as a rule from year to year. The cens was a fixed amount owed at fixed dates, though the payment of it was very far from regular. Con- stantly in the accounts arrears of rent are mentioned, either as owing or as being paid ; and sometimes tenants have to make up three or four years that they have missed. When more rent is collected for the archbishop in any place, it is generally because new fiefs have been let out, more land brought under cultivation, or fresh houses built. At Ambares the stagia at Sanarega and the two holdings at Campestan change hands, but remain at I2d. respectively from 1360 to 1389.^ In La Souys (Floirac) a certain Vital Taqua owed 1085. for vines in 1340 ; ^ in 1356 the same was due from G. de Cortey- rac, who had married her daughter.^ Later the estate was split up amongst a number of tenants. A stagia in Bassens known as Audat is entered at one date as held by A. d'Audat and his partners for 6d., at another G. d'Audat is said to hold one stagiaior 2d., A. d'Audat stagia and vine ^d., Compter d'Audat a stagia for id. ; "* thus showing both fixity of rent and the real divisions so often existing in apparent co-parcenies. Comparing the rents of Lormont in 1361 and 1367, although the entries are made very differently and what is called a house or a fief in 1362 is generally put down as a sol at the later date, the money payments seem to work out exactly the same, except where more possessions have been added. Far more frequent than cens in kind, and, for vineyards at least, quite as common as money rents, was the payment of agrieres, some definite proportion of the produce of the soil ; and this form of landholding continued undiminished in the fifteenth century.^ In the thirteenth century it is not rare to find as much as half the fruit being demanded from the tenant,^ but this was a very high proportion, and later the ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 541, 611 ; xxii. 83, 431. - Ibid. xxi. 38. ^ Ibid., p. 365. * Ibid., xxi. 286; xxii. 44. * Terrier de St.-Andre, ff. 14, 22, 33, 6i\ 86. ' Cart, de St.-Andre, f. 69 : ' Hec sunt vinee que dent medietatem et 2J. custodi et prandium nisi aliter specialiter sint excepti. Sporle decano." CH. iv] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 69 rent generally varies between one-third and one-sixth. Some holdings already paid in this way at the time of the cartulary.^ In all cases of this tenure it was necessary to have a supervisor of the harvest, to see that the rightful partition was made, and this guard the tenant was bound to feed and pay. As a rule also, when the land was granted out, special conditions were imposed concerning the duty of cultivating it properly as the lord naturally wished to get what he could from the property. One typical example will give an idea of the usual stipulations, which var\^ very little from place to place. In 1441 a burgess of Bordeaux, for several correyas of vine, made the following recoiinaissance. ' I recognize that I have and hold in fief feudally ... for two pence of esporle on the change of lord, and for a quarter of the produce as well as the tithe {deyma talhada) - of the grapes and of the vintage, which may grow and increase each year in the said three strips of vineyard ; and I am bound to carry and render every year in its season the said fourth part and tithe of the said fruit, at the command of the said lords the dean and chapter, to the wine press of the said church at Bordeaux. Moreover the said tenant must ask for a guard when he wishes to gather the grapes from the said three strips of vineyard. And further, he owes to the said guard two pence of the said money for his supervision, and his dinner, or else two shillings and a half of the aforesaid money for the said dinner, whichever the said guard shall prefer.* And the same on every day that shall be required for gathering the grapes from all the said three strips of vine, the which aforesaid three strips the said tenant is duly bound and has expressly promised to work, to till, and to cultivate every year ; that is to say, to cut, to clear, to bind, and to dig at three different times, and to perform all the other labours and workings which are necessary for vines in the Graves, at good Then follow names of places all in Graves of Bordeaux, or in what is now the town itself. F. 83' : ' W. Bebia habet vineam (Rue de Casaus) et reddit mediam et portet ubi voluerimus apud Floriac' ' Ibid., f. 1 10^ : Two vines at one-sixth, two at one-third. ' Dime taillade is often mentioned with the agriire. It means probably the ordinary payment, owed not as rent but as an ecclesiastical due. With land paying cens it would be entered simply as tithe. With land paying produce it means that tithe also is due, ' cut off ' from the agriire. * Sometimes 2s. covered the dinner, instead of 2S. 6d. 70 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. iv times and in good seasons, according to the said customs of Bordeaux.' ^ This condition is repeated constantly with but slight variations. The tenant must always ask for the guard and pay him twopence a day and his dinner. The guard may have 2S. 6d. in place of the dinner if he prefers. The censive was hereditary property, at least by the thir- teenth century. The tenant constantly speaks of his land as having been acquired by succession from his father.^ When division of property was made amongst the children, it generally meant the splitting up of several censives, since each one, strictly speaking, was indivisible. Even for rent- paying land, however, primogeniture gradually tended to become the custom. A censive owed, in the same way as a fief, the duty of esporler; i. e. of giving a monstree or description of the property whenever required. Within certain limitations the tenant was allowed to alienate his land, either by sale or gift, so long as lods and ventes were paid to the lord, but he might never alienate to a noble, nor to a religious body. Also the new possessor must never pay less rent or less esporle, by which the lord might suffer loss in any way ; nor must the tenant sublet at an increased rent in order to augment his own ^ Terrier de St. -Andre, f. i'' (June 13, 1441) : ' Reconogo auer et tener en feu feuaument . . . per dos deniers d'esporle a senhor mudant et per la quart et la deyma talhada deu fruyt de vin et de vendemiha qui bayran et creysseran cascun an en las deltas tres correyas de vinha portadas et rendudas cascun an en sa sadon las deltas quarta part et deyma talhada deudeit fruyt au comandament deusdeitz senhors dean et capitre, au truilh de la delta gleisa a Bordeu ; et deu demandar garda aqui medis lodeit affeuat quant borra vendemihar las deltas tres correyas de vinha. Et plus que deu a lodeita garda dos deneys de la delta moneda de gardaria et a diner, o dos soudz et mech de la moneda surdeita per lo deit dinar loquau meys pla^Ta a la delta garda. Et aquo per cascun jorn que triguera a vendemihar totas las deltas tres correyas de vinha, las quaus avant del- tas tres correyas de vinha lodeit affeuat deu et estengut et a mandat combent et promes obrar, laborar et coytivar cascun an, soes assaber podar, levar, plegar, fudir, magestar et tersar (the second and third famous of digging or ploughing which have to be given to a vine) et far y totas autras obras et faissons que a vinhas de gravas se appertenen en bons temps et en bonas sadonas, segont lodeitz fors et costumas de Bordales.' ^ G. 94. Lormont (1253). Terrier, i. 18^ : (1441) land received 'cum son et tornaleyra '. CH. IV] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 71 income.^ The following example shows the ordinary con- ditions of the tenure as it existed round Bordeaux ; throughout a quantity of documents the essential features remain the same. ' 2'^ Nov. 1360. Ramon Mengans carpenter, dwelling in the parish of Sainte-Croix of Bordeaux, recognizes and confesses that he holds, and that his heirs and successors shall have and hold in fief according to the customs of Bordeaux, from the honourable and discreet lords the dean and chapter of St. -Andre of Bordeaux, the whole of this house with the outhouses [madeyra) and the land and place on which it stands, with all its appurtenances ... at 13 pence of the money current at Bordeaux for esporle on change of lord, and at 6 shillings of cens ... in which aforesaid fief in whole or in part neither the aforesaid Ramon nor his wife nor his heirs can put tenant or sub-tenant, nor give nor lease at less cens or at less esporle, nor do any other thing by w^hich either the aforesaid lords, the dean and chapter, or their successors could lose their rights, or their dues on sales, or their feudal dues : neither can it be diminished or spoilt in any way in whole or in part.' The dean and chapter on their side promise : ' to be good lords and bear good and firm guarantee of the same holding, saving their own rights and dues above mentioned, and any other rights and dues which they may have as lords of the fief in the fief and over their tenants, according to the for s and customs of Bordeaux.' ^ The lord sometimes imposed other conditions when he granted out the censives, besides these general stipulations. Amongst other things the freeholders occasionally promised residence, tenir feu vif as it was called, a condition more usually connected with servile tenure, when the tenant was regularly bound to the soil. However, the lord was naturally anxious to retain his free tenants also, and often insisted that they should not leave their censives without licence, on pain of forfeiting the samc.^ There were generally some restrictions imposed on the ' Terrier de St. -Andre, 1440 : ' ni balhar ab meys (more) cens ni ab meys esporle ni ab mench (less).* ' Bibl. Nat. MSS., Documents relatifs k Guienne, 9131, f. 44. * Terrier, f. 4^ (1439): 'Moreover the said Helias by his good and agreeable will, for himself and for his heirs and his descendants, has com- manded, agreed, and promised to the said seigneurs, dean and chapter, that from this time onward he will not lease nor cause to be leased the said 72 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux Ich. IV right of alienation, but nevertheless censives appear to have passed more easily from hand to hand than fiefs. By the customs of Bordeaux, a roturier was allowed to dispose of two-thirds of his patrimony, a noble only of one-third, and that on condition of leaving half at least to his eldest son.^ As primogeniture increased, the consent of the heir was generally necessary before any gift of land could be made at all. A censive could not be let by the tenant for a lower rent, nor allowed to pass into the hands of a knight or a corporation, but otherwise the only limit on alienation inter vivos was the obligation of paying the regular dues on the sale. The advantage to the lord of receiving esporle and lods et ventes must have rendered him favourable to such transactions, whereas a new noble tenant was a more serious matter. He might be unfriendly and prove a dangerous vassal, or he might be unfit to perform the requisite military service. This explains the regulation against alienating vineyard, bounded as described above, to any one to cultivate the same, without the will, consent, and licence of the dean and chapter ; and if the said Helias or his said heirs or descendants do to the contrary, the said tenant wills, ordains, agrees, wishes, and consents by the tenor of this present letter, that henceforth the said lords the dean and chapter, or their court in their name, can take and seize in their hands and by their own authority, all the said vines and do with them according to their own will, without asking consent, licence, or authority from the said Helias. [Aqui medis lodeit Helias per so bona et agradabia voluntat per ed et per totz sons hers et ordenh, a mandat, combent et promes ausdeitz senhors dean et capitre, que ed dassi en avant no balhera ni balhar fera las deltas vinhas dessus confrontadas a fasanduras a nulla persona per aquera laborar sinoque sia ab voluntat congeyt licensa deus deitz senhors, D. & C. ; et si lodeyt Helias o sons deitz hers o ordenh fase deu contrari, volgo et ordenet et se consentit et vol et se consent lodeit affeuat ab et per la tenor daquesta present carta aras per la betz et alabetz per aras, que losdeitz senhors D. & C. o lur cort deputat pusquen prendre et sasir a lurs mans de lurs proprias auctoritatz totas las deltas vinhas et far daqueras a lur propria voluntat sens demandar congeit licensa ni auctoritat audeit Helias.] Ibid., f. 83 (1447). Promise of residence and repairs : 'The aforesaid Arnaud, tenant . . . stipulating and conceding that from henceforth every year he will keep the habitation enclosed, repaired, habitable, and in good condition ; and that he will keep the fire burning and will himself dwell and reside there in person and not elsewhere, unless it be according to the will, licence, and consent of the said lords.' [Lavantdeit Arnaud affeuat . . . stipulantz et recebentz que ed lo tendra dassi en avant cascun an estang claus recaperat habitable et ben enderg. Et en aquet tendra fue biu, estera demorara habitara et fare residencia personare, et no en antra part sino que sia ab voluntat liccensa et congeit deusdeits senhors.] * Livre des Coutumes (Arch. Mun. de Bordeaux), p. 216. CH. IV] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 73 censives to knights. The stipulation that they should not be granted to corporations was to avoid the loss of the lucrative profits from marriage, wardship, and escheat, which a community naturally would never pay. To sum up shortly the information gathered from the estate of St. -Andre concerning censives. Rent-paying land was undoubtedly the most common form of property, whether at fixed cens, or at part fruit ; and almost all exceptional rents in kind had been commuted for money by the fifteenth century. Labour services for censives had also practically disappeared, and great uniformity in the method of land- holding prevailed amongst all the immediate tenants of archbishop or chapter. Leasehold property existed also upon this estate, but not, it would seem, in any very great quantity. The usual term for letting out land for a term of years was hail a gaudence or hail a fasendure ; and the arrangement most frequently entailed the payment by the tenant of part of the profits and some sort of rent as well. A careful enumeration of the property was made when the lease was effected and a promise exacted from the new possessor that he would restore every- thing in good condition at the end of the time. When, as occasionally happened, these leases were made renewable, they differed very slightly from the ordinary grants of censives, except that the payment of esporle was not a necessary con- dition. There was generally a guard to supervise the harvest, as in the permanent holdings in which the produce was shared, and he had to be fed and sometimes lodged by the tenant.^ ' G. 2681. (1425) Property in La Tresne : ' B. Cedassey has given and granted leased and handed over to Pey Damas to till and cultivate by this conveyance of leasehold property at part produce ... all this habitation and all this plot of vineyard ... to have, to hold, to use, to labour, and to possess from the feast of St. Martin from nine years to nine years ... by the payment of a sixth part of the vintage . . . and he must demand guard and give twopence to the guard . . . and twenty shillings of gaudenssas by reason of the said habitation.' [B. Cedassey a dat donat et autreyat balhat et livrat a laborar e coytivar ... a Pey Damas . . . aquesta balhansa de affazenduras . . . tota aquera cambra e tot aquet trens de vinhas . . . haver tener uzar laborar e possedir de la festa de Sent Martini . . . de nau ans en nau ans . . . per la seysma part dcu fruit deu vin &c. e demanda garda e deu dar dotz deneys de guardaria per dinar . . . e plus per vint soudz de gaudenssas per rason de la delta cambra.] 74 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. iv The earliest example of a lease occurs on the archbishop's property at Lormont in 1367. Land, which had formerly- been questal, was let out for nine years, at an annual payment of fifty shillings.^ A similar agreement was made by the chapter with a tenant at Blanquefort, who was to pay a fifty- five shilling rent for the period of the lease. In a lease of land near Cadaujac, a fifth of the fruit was exacted. There seem to be no peculiarities attaching to the few leases which are found on this property. Nine years was the usual period in this part of Gascony, and the terms of grant were always much of the same pattern. The examples of baux a fasendure are not so good here as in some neighbouring places, and a typical example, showing the usual conditions, has therefore been borrowed from the documents which concern the property of St. -Michel in Bordeaux (see Appendix). * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 81. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV G, 94. December 22, 1355. New Enfeoffment. Bail a fief nouveau. Be it known that the wise Coneguda causa sia que lo and discreet Monsieur Pey de sabi et discret mossen Peys de la Fita, Vicar and Procurator- la Fita vicari et procurador general of the Reverend Father generau deu reverent payre en in Christ, Seigneur Amanieu, crist deu senhor n'Amaneu per by the grace of God Archbishop la gracia de deu arcebesque of Bordeaux on the day on de Bordeu lo jorn que aquesta which this charter was granted, carta fo autreyada aventz having full power and special plener poder et manament authority to enfeoff and let out especiau de enfeusar e ba- at fief the lands, the vines and Ihar feuaumentz las terras las the possessions which are held vinhas e las possessions que from the church of Bordeaux, moven de la gleiza de Bor- and to perform and grant the deu et deffar et autreyar las things which follow below in causas qui plus bas senseguen this charter, in accordance with en aquesta carta per ayssi the said power and authority; cum lodeit poder e manda- I, the notary below named, ment, jo notari dejus nomp- that they may be more fully nat si plus pleneirament estre contained in letters patent contengut en letras patentas CH. IV] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 75 sealed with the seal of the said lord archbishop, of which letters the tenor is as follows : sageradas deu saget deudeit senhor arcebesque de las quaus lettres la tenor es ataus : Amaneus, miseratione divina archiepiscopus Burdegalensis, ma- gistro Petro de Fita vicario et procuratori nostro generali salutem. Cum propter guerras epidimiam et alia accidentia terre vinee et alie possessiones a nostra ecclesia in feudum seu perpetuam emphiteosim antea moventes ad heremum et inutiles sint redacte, nos volentes in hac parte meliora prospicere et eiusdem nostra ecclesie indempnitati prout possimus providere, aut easdem terras vineas seu alias posessiones quantum iura permittunt personis ad hoc ydoneis in feudum seu in perpetuam emphiteosim dare, salva nobis seu dicte nostre ecclesie annua pentione eas- demque personas iuxta patrie consuetudinem de ipsis investire, et super portanda garentia bona nostre ecclesie mobilia obligare valeatis vobis tenore presentium plenam damus et concedimus facilitatem. In quorum testimonium sigillum nostrum presentibus est appensum datum Avinloh in domo habitationis nostre penul- tima die Julii anno domni m ccc lo quarto, . . , seeing and knowing, as I say, the things written below to be for the profit and amelioration of the aforesaid lord archbishop and the church of Bordeaux by his good will, in the name and person of the said lord arch- bishop and by the power given him in these said letters, has given and granted, bestowed and delivered feudally in fief, according to the fors and cus- toms of Bordeaux, in return for the rights and dues contained lower in this charter, to Helias Miton of the parish of St.- Martin of Lormont, by this same present enfeoffment and other things contained in this charter, (Helias) stipulating and receiving for himself, his heirs and his descendants, all this piece of land, in which there is about three plots or so as has been said, with all its appurtenances which are in the said parish of Lormont, in the street by which one goes to vedentz et conoyssentz si- cum disso en las causas de- jus escrutas per lo profieit et lamelhurament de lavantdeit senhor arcebesque et de la glej^sa de Bordeu per sa bona voluntat en nom et persona deu medis senhor arcebesque et per lo poder a luy dat en las deltas letras a dat et autreyat balhat et livrat en feus feuaumentz segont los fors et las costumas de Bor- dales ab los dreitz et devers plus bas en cesta carta con- tengutz a Helias Miton de la parropia de sent Martin de Larmont a qui medis pre- sent et lodeit affeuadge et autras causas contengutz en aquesta carta stipulant et recebent per siu et per sos hers e per son ordenh tot aquet trens de terra en que ave in sous o entorn sicum fo deit, ab totas sas appertenensas qui es en ladeita parropia de Larmont en lanua per laquau hom ba 76 saint-andr£ of bordeaux [CH. IV the port of Vayres, lying be- tween the land of Alays Faune mother of Arnaud Andreu on one side and the land of Maria Miqueu on the other ; and run- ning length\\ise from the said common road at one end and the ditch of the sauvete of Lormont at the other end ; the which aforesaid piece of land contain- ing the said three plots or there- abouts, was formerly the pos- session of Thomas de Lome of Lormont, the whichThomaswas present at the granting of this charter and also for himself and his heirs and descendants, aban- doned and gave over into the hands of the said procurator the said piece of land, and renounced all right, all reason and action which he or his heirs or his descendants had or ought and could have there in any way whatsoever; after which the said procurator in the name of the aforesaid, invested feudally the aforesaid Helias Miton ^^'ith all the said piece of land and its appurtenances, the whole as one lief ; and the same Helias took and received investiture of it for seven pence of the current mone y of B ordeaux as esporle at change of lord, and for seven shillings and threepence and a half each year of the same cur- rent money for rent ; when the said Helias must and promises to render year by year to the said lord archbishop or to his lieu- tenant, carrying and paying the same y/^i^ of rent to the Palace of the Lord Archbishop at Lor- mont ; and he must make feudal recognition {esporlar) or do right in the said place if any action should be taken against the said deu port de Vayres per ayssi cum es entre lo sou de Alays Faune molher Arnaud Andreu d'una part, e lo sou de Maria Miqueu la conuersa dautra part, e dura e ten en lone de la delta rua comunau de lun cap entro au fossat de la saubetat de Larmont de lau- tra cap loquau avant deit trens de terra contenent los- deitz III sous o entom fo saenreire de Thomas de lome de Larmont, loquau Thomas era present sobre lautrey da- questa carta, e aqui medis per siu e per sos hers e per son ordenh gurpit e delaysset en las mans deudeit procurador lodeit trens de terra e quitet tot dreit tota arradon e action que ed o sous hers o son ordenh y agos o aver y degos o pogos en auguna maneira, e en apres lodeit procurador en nome que dessus de tot lodeit trens de terra ab sos ap- pertenensas vestit feuaumentz lavantdeit Helias Miton deu tot cum de i feu, e lomedis Helias ne prengo e recebo bestidon de luy ab set deners de la moneda corsabla a Bordeu desporle a senhor mudant e per set soutz III deners e mealhe a cascun an de cens de la medissa moneda corsabla a Bordeu que lodeit Helias Miton ne deu et mandat e promes dar rendre e pagar an per an au deit senhor arcebesque o asson loetenent portatz e rendutz losdeitz VII soutz et lii deners e mealhe de cens au palays deu medis senhor arcebesque a Larmont, e deu esporlar o far dreit endeit loc si tort lo corelhave quon fes endeit CH. IV] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) ^^ fief, in which fief, in whole or in part, neither the said feoffee nor his heirs nor his descendants must put tenant or subtenant at increased rent, esporle, or any other duty, nor do anything else by which the lord archbishop or his successors might lose his rights of sales or his seignorial dues, or suffer loss in whole or in part ; and in the said manner the said procurator, in the name of the said lord archbishop and under pledge of the goods and chattels of the said church, has promised and agreed to be good lord of the said fief and to give good and firm guarantee against any encroachment of any claim- ants and others of the property or of any seignorial rights be- longing to the said lord arch- bishop or his successors, saving his rights above mentioned and saving his other dues which the lord of a fief ought to have in that fief and from that tenant according to the fors and cus- toms of Bordeaux ; and of this were made two charters of one tenor, one by the said lord archbishop and the other by the said tenant : actum fuit duo- decima die introitus novembre anno domini m.ccc lo quarto, regnante serenissimo principe domino Edwardo dei gratia Anglie et Francie rege Aqui- tanie duce prefato domino Amanevo eadem gratia domino archie piscopo. Testes sunt, Moss. Peys Gaucem called Colom prestre, Peys Guitard, Amaud, Andreu, Amaut Gar- ren, Guillelmus Boer of the said parish of Lormont, and I John de la Crota public notary in the whole duchy of Guyenne, feu, en quau feu en tot ni en par- tida lodeit affeuat ni sos hers ni son ordenh no deu ni pot metre acasat ni sotz acasat ab creys- sensa de cens desporle ni de antra dever ni far deguna antra causa per que lodeit senhor arcebesque o sons successors ne pogos perdre sas vendas ni sos senhorias ni suy dever ne fossan dapnadgatz en tot ni en partida, e en aquesta maneira lodeit procurador en nom deudeit senhor arcebesque et sotz obli- gation deus bens et causas moblas de la delta gleysa a leu mandat e promes estre bons senhor deudeit feu, e portar bona e fenna garentia de totz emperadors torbadors deman- dadors e autras de la proprietat e de part senhoria las senhorias deu medio senhor arcebesque et dessos successors saubas e sos dreitz dessus mentaugatz sau- bas e SOS autras devers cum senhor de feu los a e deu aver en son feu e sobre son affeuat aus fors e costumas de Bordales, e dasso foren feytas doas cartas duna tenor, una per lodeit senhor arcebesque e antra per lodeit affeuat. Actum fuit duo- decima die introitus novembre anno domini m ccc lo quarto regnante serenissimo principe domino Edwardo dei gratia Anglie et Francie rege Aquitan duce preffato domino Amanevo eadem gratia domino archiepi- scopo. Testes sunt ^loss. Peys Gaucem aperat Colom prestre, Peys Guitard, Amaud, Andreu, Amaut Garren, Guillelmus Boer de la delta parropia de Larmont, e io Johan de la Crota publicus notarius en tot lo dugat de Guiayna 78 saint-andr£ of bordeaux [CH, IV which this charter requires and my accustomed sign I place here, the which John Doyde by my will writes +, the day of the feast of Saint Michael in September. qui cesta carta enqueri e mon senhau acostumat hi pausen, loquau Johan Doyde per vo- luntat demin escruo + lo jour de la fest de sent Miqueu de Setembre. G. 2276 (Beneficiers de St. -Michel), December 13, 1374. Lease of land to he held at part produce. Pey Saint - Symphorien knight . . . gave, granted and delivered for payment of part produce, to Pey Bonon Car- penter, parishioner of Saint Michael ... all this farm and all this piece of vine garden and plot of land ... in the place called La Souys in the parish of Floirac ... to have, to hold, to use, to plough, to cultivate and to possess the aforesaid estate . . . and to grow, to train and to gather the fruits of the same from the feast of Saint Martin till the end of the nine years next following, finished, terminated, continued and accomplished . . . and the said lord saves and re- tains for himself and his heirs the power to make the wine which he shall have from his tenants and his other necessar}' rights in the said farm . . . and this aforesaid lease was made and granted to Pey Bonon for the fourth part of the fruits of the vine and vintage . . . and he must also give dinner to the guard and four shillings . . . and a hundred shillings to Monsieur Pey, knight from whom he takes the said farm . . . and two pipes of wine for entry dues and alms. Baillette a ffazenduras. Pey de Sent Samphorin Cavoy . . . balha autreya et livra a fazenduras a Pey Bonon Carpentey parropeant de sent Miqueu . . . tot aquet bordiu et tot aquet trens de vinha casau et plassa de terra . . . au loc apperat a la soys (La Souys) en la parropia de Floyrac . . . aver tener, usar, laborar coytivar et possedir lavantdeyt bordiu &c., et los fruyts daquetz levar pendre et culhir per lo diet Pey Bonon de la festa Sent Martin a la fin de nau ans apres sequinti finitz accabatz continuatz et complitz . . . et lo diet Senhor se sauba et arreten assui et assons hers &c. que pusca far son vin quil aura de sons affeuatz et sas autras neces- sitatz en lo deyt bordiu . . . e cesta avandeyta balhanssa . . . affeyt et autreya a Pey Bonon per la quarta part deus fruytz de vinha et de vendemiha . . . e pi usque deu dar a disnar a la guarda a quatre soudz . . . et per cent soudz a mosseu Pey cavoy de cui lo deyt bordiu &c. manen . . . et doas pipas de vin de intradas et de caritat. CH. IV] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 79 G. 2202. February 9, 1432. Contract of part produce sharing. A. de la Mothe has granted and delivered at part produce in the name and in the manner of such leases, according to the/ors and customs of Bordeaux, to J . Salamon parishioner of Saint Pey of Quinsac (Ambares), a piece of willow plantation ex- cepting the osier beds which are in the same place ... to hold, to use, and to possess in return for part produce, from the date of this present charter onwards until nine years are finished and accomplished, and nine harvests have been taken and received by J. Salamon or by his heirs . . . and from the end of this nine years for another nine years also taking harvests and receipts . . . and from another nine to another nine and so on for all time from nine years to nine years. And this lease the aforesaid A. de la Mothe made and granted to the said J . Salamon for half the pro- duce of stakes, laths and osiers . . . which J. Salamon must give, render and pay each year when they are cut. J. Salamon pro- mises to stamp down [estrepar ?) every year at the right season and to clear out when he shall have cut the said willow planta- tion and to plant and do all the lawful and necessary works. Contrat de faizendure. A. de la Mothe ... a baJhat et livrat a fazenduras en nome et per maneyre de fazenduras sogont los fors et las costumas de Bordales, a J. Salamon parropiant de Sent Pey de Quinsac — trens d'aubareda exceptat los vimeneys qui son en lo mey loc . . . tenir usar et possedar en sas affazenduras de la data de quest a present a carte entro a nau ans finitz acabatz continuat et complitz et nau culhidas ajudas presas et recebe- das per lodeit J . Salamon o per sons hers . . . et de la fin deus- deitz nau ans entro a d'autres nau ans ayssime presas culhidas et recebedas . . . nau culhidas et daquetz autres nau en autres nau et daqui en abant per totz temps et de nau en nau. E aquesta affazendura lavant- diit A. de la Mothe affeyt et autreyat audiit J. Salamon per la meytat deu fruit de pau de lata de carrasson . . . que J. Salamon leu deu dar balhar et paguar cascun an quant sera talhaduyra. ... [J. Sala- mon promises] ' estrepar cas- cun an en bon sadon et curar quant aura talhat la deyta aubareda et plantar et far de totas hobras lejudas et necessarias'. G. 2681. 1425. Lease of usufruct at part produce. B. Cedassey has given, granted, leased and delivered to labour and cultivate to Pey Dauros of the parish of Cari- gnan ... by this charter of Bail a gaudence. B. Cedassey ... a dat donat et autreyat balhat et livrat a laborar et coytivar a Pey Dauros de la parropia de Carinhan . , . aquesta balhansa 8o saint-andr£ of bordeaux [CH. IV lease at part produce all this habi- tation . . . which is in the estate and farm of the said B. Cedassey . . . and all this plot of vine . . . to have, to hold, to use, to culti- vate and to possess from the feast of St. Martin from nine years to nine years . . . for the sixth part of the fruit . . . and to demand guard and to give the said guard two pence and dinner . . . and further for twenty shillings of regular payments by reason of the said habitation. de affazenduras tota aquera cambra . . . qui es en lostau et bordiu deudeitz B. Cedassey . . . et tot aquet trens de vinhas . . . haver tener uzar laborar et possedir de la festa de Sent Martini de nau ans en nau ans . . . per la seysena part deu fruyt . . . et deman- dar garda et deu dar dotz de- neys de guardaria per dinar . . . et plus per vint soudz de gaudenssas per rason de ladeita cambra. G. 94. Sale by Amanieu de la Sauve to P. Guiraut, 1355. The two parts of all this plot of land with the two parts of the wooden buildings which are be- side it, before and behind, and the two parts of the exit behind the said plot, for 12 leopards of gold. . . . Amanieu de la Sauve has bound and does bindthesaid P. Guiraut ... to be under the jurisdiction, constraint and au- thority of the said noble lord the Seneschal of Gascony and of the honourable lords, the Official of Bordeaux and the Provost of the Ombriere of Bordeaux . . . and of any other lord or judge, ecclesi- astical or secular, in case any outcry or complaint were made or shown, without any appeal and without any claim upon any other court or any other seign- ory ; renouncing also all written and unwritten right, all privi- leges and benefits of having taken or being about to take the cross, all exception customary and legal, all custom and fran- chise of burgage tenure, all other privileges given or to be given, legally awarded or to be awarded, all appeals made or to be made, Las doas partz de tot aquet sou de terra ab las doas partz de las maderas qui son aus costatz e davant e detras e las doas partz de la eyssida qui es detras lodeit sou . . . dotze leopartz daur. . . . Am. de la Seuba a obligat e obliga audeit Peys Guiraut ... a la juri diction costrensa e com- pulcion deu noble senhor lo senescaut de Guasconha e de londrables senhor officiau de Bordeu e deu prebost de lom- breyra de Bordeu . . . e de tot autre senhor e juge de gleysa e de seigle, per davant ung clamor o complanta ne fos feita o demostrada, sens appeu e sens reclam dautra cort ni dautra senhoria, renunciantz sobre asso a tot dreit escruit e no escruit, e a totz privileges e benefices de crotz presa e apprendre, a tota exception de for e de cort, a tot for, a tota costuma, a tota franqueza de bordesia, e antra a totas gracias donadas o a donar, empetradas o a empetrar, a totas appellations feytas o affar, CH. iv] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (i) 8i all franchises and liberties given to the hastide of Flamacort and to allotherfeas^z^gsmade or to be made, and to all rights and laws bestowed in case of fraud to those who have been deceived, except the half of the rightful place and the customs of Bordeaux, which do not allow that any cost or expense which shall be incurred or losses suffered in default of guarantee shall be paid, restored or amended; renouncing also any other right and custom which ought to be or could be of value, or which might confhct in any way with this same agreement. a tota franquesa e libertat dada a la bastida de Flama- cort, e a totas autras bastidas feitas o affar, aus dreitz e a las leys amdantz aus dece- butz, antra la meytat deu dreiturer pretz e a la costuma de Bordales, que no bou ni soffre que costz ni messions que sian feitz ni dapnatges suffertz en fauta de guarentia sian pagatz restituitz ni esmen- datz, e a totz autres renuncia- mentz de dreit e de costuma qui aidar ni baler lo degos- san o p'ogossan per venir en contra. . . . (part V) ST. -a. CHAPTER V LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) The ' QuESTAVE ' and the ' Homme Questal ' It is impossible to consider the question of servile land held by unfree tenure without bringing up the whole subject of the serf himself, the homme questal, as he came to be called in Gascony. Status and tenure are inextricably interwoven, and it is not always easy to distinguish between them, or to say whether unfree services were most concerned with the man or his holding. Before examining the special conditions of servile tenure on the estates of St. -Andre, it is worth noting from other contemporary records the essential features of this Gascon questalitat. The distinctive term, homines questales, does not appear to have been in general use before the close of the thirteenth century ; during the fourteenth century it practically took the place of every other term. The question of name has some bearing on the actual condition of the men themselves. In the twelfth century the variety of names was probably the result of the vagueness of the condition ; no fixed rule existed as to serfdom, and the same word was used for free and unfree. In the thirteenth century, as the theory of serfdom became more defined, this abundance of nomenclature gradu- ally gave place to uniformity, and by the fourteenth the word questal, or questau, implied a system of unfree tenure the duties of which were more or less universally recognized. Throughout the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, villanits and rusticus, both generic rather than specific terms, were used constantly in speaking of members of an unfree class, interchanged from time to time with such names as decimarii, casali, paisii ^, and homines ligii,^ all employed in 1 Cart, de St.-Jean-du-Mont (Auch), Bibl. Nat. MSS. Lat. 5460 A. * Cart, de St.-Seurin, edited by Brutails (Bordeaux, 1897). CH. v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) 83 a similar manner. The cartularies of St.-Seurin and the Abbey of La Grande Sauve, besides those of other religious bodies, are full of examples of gifts of men, who most undoubt- edly were serfs. They were given as a rule with their land, ' vil- lanum . . . cum omni possessione sua,'^ but in some cases no mention is made of any property, and they appear to have been handed over as mere chattels from one lord to another.^ That these men could be transferred without consent asked or given is evident, and is enough to brand them as serfs, although little is said to distinguish their actual condition and method of holding. It may very well be the case that when no mention is made of services, that the new lords could exact what they wished as an understood thing in the case of villeins. Round Bordeaux the term hommes liges was often employed for rural cultivators, before the designation questaiix came into ordinary use, and, though not very definite, it was, cer- tainly, frequently connected with serfdom. It is the cartulary of St.-Seurin which lets most light on the meaning of the term. In that document throughout the twelfth and first half of the thirteenth century it is the name constantly applied to serfs, and gradually gives place to that of homines questales, as the villein of more or less uncertain condition degenerated into the homme questal, ' taillable et corveable a merci.' The indefinite position of these hommes liges is shown by a dispute as to the services owed by some of them in Yvrac (Entre-deux-Mers). They were given the title of en, by which as a rule the names of nobles are distinguished from those of simple freemen in an enumeration ; ^ but at the same time the duties demanded from them sound very like those of serfs. (1256) A canon of St.-Seurin for £4 gave up to ' Cart, de St.-Seurin, p. 36. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxviii. 117 (Cart, de Ste. -Croix) : 'duos rusticos . . . fratres quoque alterius eorum in domo Helie (the donor) tunc manentes et servientes.' 1 168. ' This was not by any means an invariable rule. It may at one time or in some places have implied this, but in the Pyrenees we find it con- stantly used not only for simple freemen, but even for serfs, being a term of politeness used much as the modern monsieur and madame. G 2 84 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. v the chapter the rights he claimed over ' home lige en Bar- tholemeu de Labatut d' Yvrac ' and his nephews, and acquitted them of all homage and of all servitude.^ Again we find the gift of an homme lige but to be regarded as free ' dedit in puram et perpetuam eleemosinam Petrum in hominem ligium, sicut ilium qui immunis erat et liber ab omni subjectioneetdominio alterius '. But Peter was a censitaire also, for the document adds : ' dedit cum ipso stagiam illam de qua predictus Petrus reddet ii solidos vi denarios censuales cum i denario sporle.' ^ Another instance of this is found in a register of the chapter of St.-Seurin, where in 1256 a gift is recorded of twenty sous of cens and one dernier of esporle on ' hominem suum ligium '.^ But often the homme lige would appear to be more definitely servile than this. In 1274 a man making himself a serf of St.-Seurin expressed the gift thus : * fecit se hominem ligium et questarium ecclesie Sancti Severini.' And in a gift of men a little later they are called ' homines suos ligios et questarios '.^ There is no doubt that the two words lige and questal, and the ideas contained in them, are getting connected ; and a similar use of them in designating serfs occurs as late as 1339, when certain men belonging to the hospital of St. Jacques de Bordeaux declare themselves ' esse homines ligii et questales ad misericordiam prions et fratrum ' ; they promise to pay arbitrary quete and not to quit the land without leave.^ The first instance in which the actual word questales is used in the St.-Seurin cartulary is in 1287, and it seems to indicate men subject to arbitrary rather than fixed payment. The chapter are to have ' omnia quecumque obveniant quacumque ex causa ab hominibus questalibus, vel illis qui dudum que- stales fuerunt et postmodum ad certum census taxati ' ; ^ emphasis being laid on the change to certain cens, presumably from the uncertain quete. The expression questal is, however, applied to serfs rather earlier in some documents than in the cartulary of St.-Seurin. ^ Cart, de St.-Seurin, p. 253. " Ibid., p. 131. * G. 1030, f. 96V. * Cart, de St.-Seurin, pp. 271, 277. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxiv. 346 : ' Reconnaissances feodales par des serfs questaux en faveur de I'Hopital St. -Jacques-de-Bordeaux.' • Cart, de St.-Seurin, p. 341. CH. v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) 85 An illustration from the cartulary of St.-Andre in 1226, speaking of ' ligios et questales ' is the earliest I have found ; but in the second half of the century the term becomes much commoner. In 1252, in consequence of a bull authorizing the chapter of St.-Seurin to alienate goods to pay its debts, the body came to an agreement with the hommes questaux to the effect that, if they gave a large sum of money and a large piece of land at once, their qucte should be commuted and fixed at 1,000 sous each year.^ In 1254 land belonging to Ste.-Croix was described as de feodo qiiestali as distinguished from feodum pure and simple, although in this instance the dues which it paid do not appear to have been arbitrary, but rather to have resembled cens. ' In isto territorio solebat esse stagia Petri deu Brosterar, et ultra deberia questaha solvuntur huiusmodi, octo capones et due galline sensuales quod territorium est et debet et consuevit ab antique in sohdum de feodo questah '.^ Again, in a Register of Monsegur the homes questales of the knights and nobles of the town are excluded ; evidently in order that these lords might not lose their serfs by the latter residing long enough in the town to gain their freedom ; and any new-comers to the same place had to relinquish those lands which they held of the seigneur as questaves.^ A similar reason must have prompted the mandate of King Edward in 1289 which promised that the homines questales of barons, knights, and nobles should not be received into royal hastides without the consent of their lords.* The name, from this time onward, becomes one of universal apphcation, and it is therefore necessary to consider the actual meaning of the term, and the conditions which rendered an homme questal a serf. It is impossible not to connect the questal with the payment of questa or quete. The regular formula is ' homme questau a questa talha et merci ' ; or ' homines questales et tallia- biles '. This questa or taille was, by the fourteenth century * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxiii. 7. » Censier de Ste.-Croix, MSS. Bibl. Nat. Fr. 1 1637, f. 130. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, v. 5 (Esclapot de Monsegur). * Roles Gascons (edited by Bemont), vol. ii, No. 992. 86 SAINT-ANDR£ OF BORDEAUX [ch. v at least, a personal tax paid by the man himself, and above all arbitrary — entirely regulated according to the pleasure of the lord. Earlier the word had not always had the same significance : terms generally being vague, questa also was used vaguely in the thirteenth century in much the same way as cens, or as a sort of tribute or tax ; it was often a fixed amount, and may have meant any payment sought rather than brought. It is also used repeatedly in reference to fixed payments to the sovereign ; an enumeration of the king's revenue in 1254 includes ' census, quaestas et pedagia ' ; ^ and in 1279 the parishioners of Ste.-Croix of Bordeaux were declared to owe twelve denarii annually ' a la quete du roi '.^ These two different kinds of quite are explained in a petition of the chapter of St.-Seurin in 1487, where the word is defined in its ordinary meaning as a seignorial due, representing the right of patronage over tenants of servile condition ; but it is also stated that questa regis is a sort of tribute to the prince as a mark of his sovereignty, a payment for the pro- tection granted to all his subjects.^ Leaving on one side this royal qucte or taille, a tax which might be demanded from any class, the payment of quete in the first sense may be taken as a feature of the questalitat of Gascony, and this quete implied almost always an arbitrary exaction. In 1347 the chapter of St.-Seurin is declared lord of certain questales ' cum plenissima potestate questandi eos ad voluntatem et arbitrium suum '.* In 1358 the chapter of St. -Andre interdicts for disobedience some of their tenants, who are declared ' taillables annuellement a la volonte du chapitre ' ; ^ and so on ad infinitum. Arbitrary quJte was without doubt practically universal in the case of serfs. That it may have been, and often was, commuted and fixed later does not destroy the fact of its original character. The next question to consider is whether the quite was strictly speaking a personal or a territorial payment. Was it the man or his land which was servile ? Property could certainly be questal. Some land was held ^ Roles Gascons, vol. i, supplement, No. 4317. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxviii. 208 (Cart, de Ste.-Croix). ' G. 1395. * Cart, de St.-Andre. « G. 524, f. 38. CH. v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) Sy by base services, its possession involved the payment of quisle, and its tenant was an homme questal of the lord from whom he was holding, as far as that special piece was concerned. But a free man with plenty of free land might have a questave also, and not lose his free status, although he would be liable to certain unfree services. Nevertheless, in the typical instances status and tenure went together, and a man who held servile property was a serf in some really personal sense as well. A man could be born a serf. He would find it hard to shake off the tradition of his servitude even though he might have acquired free property in addition to the old holding, held for years on servile conditions by his ancestors. In the payments which he made, though doubtless they were based on the land and determined by its extent, it is impossible to exclude entirely the personal idea, the fact that he paid them for his body as well as for his land. The two were most frequently coupled together. A typical homme questal was a serf by status as well as by tenure ; he paid servile dues by reason of his landholding, but he was subject to servile inci- dents, not only on account of his questave^ but as a consequence of his birth and of his social standing. Occasionally a man will declare himself a serf ' by reason of his house and lands ' alone,^ but this is rare ; the usual formula is ' by reason of body and estates ' ; ^ and mention is frequently made of the serfdom of their ancestors and of similar conditions being handed down to their children. For example, in 1423 the Seigneur de Roquetaillade affirms ' that the said Bernard and Ramon were and ought to be, and their ancestors had been, the hommes questaux of himself * Archives departementales des Basses-Pyrenees, E. 180: (1317 Seigneurie de Langoiran) ' P. de Lamardera reconogo que ed es hom questaus per arradon de las maisons e de las terras.' ' Ibid. E. 200 : (Ste.-Mayne 1291) Certain men ' fossan home questable e talhable a questa e a merce . . . per radon de lors personnes e de las maysons de las estatges de las vinhas de las borias de las terras cautas e hermas,' &c. Ibid. E. 153: (1357)' Robert Quan tern de la parropia de Ludedon reconogo &c. que ed es home questau a questa talha e merce . . . per los cors per las maysons maynes e estatges. . . .' Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. Fr. 8875, f. 62 : (Enfranchisement 1433) ' Madona Isabe . . . agossa e aya affranquetz e manumes las personas e bens . . . e extrematz gitatz treytz e foragitatz de tot ligame de questalitat e servitut de homenest.' 88 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. v and his predecessors in taille and in mercy of body and goods ; and that he and his predecessors were in possession of the quetes and tallies which were rendered by these men each year as hommes questaux, and had been so for so long that there was no memory of the contrary and this by reason of their bodies and their two houses '.^ Similarly, in charters of enfranchisement, it is always the man himself who is declared free, although it is generally added that his possessions share the same privilege ; or else the late serf is to hold in future at rent and esporle, showing that the dufes owed by the land are changed, as well as his own position. ^ A man is free in body and in person, in lands, in goods, and in inheritances. But although birth had to be taken into consideration, and a man born of villein parents was a serf, unless he had received a special grant to the contrary, it was always possible for a free man born of free parents to sink in the social scale by the very fact of his landholding. Campana includes prescription of thirty years in his list of the ways in which a man might become a serf ; ^ it woujd only be too likfely that a man holding in villenage and performing villein services through a long period of years would un- * Ibid. E. 872 : Mossen B. de la Mota senhor de Roquetalheda . . . dise e afiermave que losditz Bernard e Ramon FAu eran e deven estre e lurs ancestres aven estat sons homes questaus e de son predecessors aquesta talha e a merce en cors e en bens ; e ed e sons predecessors eran en posses- sion de las questas e talhas quant binen cascun an com a lurs homes ques- taus, c aven estat per tant de temps que no era memoria deu contrari e assi per rason de lurs cors e de totz aquetz dos hostaus.' Ibid. E. 153 : (1357) ' Ed es home questau a questa talha e merce e ed e sos successors ben vivent . . . estar homes questaus deu noble e poderos baron mossen Arnaud de Lebrit de Cubzac e dessos hers e desson ordenh.' ^ Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, vii. 231 : (Archives du Chiteau du Cros, 1303) ' Bernard a Legur . . . acquitted and freed, from all and in all, the body and the person, and all the goods, chattels, and inheritances of Ramon Martin — late homme questal.' Arch. dept. des Basses-Pyrenees, E. 186 : (will of Amanieu Labrit, fourteenth century) ' I, the said lord, having learnt of the death of Pey Blanc de Dandas, w^ill and ordain that his sons and heirs and their heirs and all their descendants . . . and the house and inheritances of their goods and chattels, for all time shall be quit and free henceforth from all questalitd and from all servitude.' [Item volgo e ordenat le dit senhor volent fer cosiensa de la mort de Pey Blanc de Dandas que sos filhs et hereters de los hers e lor ordenh descendent de lor . . . e lor mayne e heretatge de los bes e causas per tostemps, sian franc e quitis e foras de tota questalitat e de tota servitut.] . * Campana, Etude sur le colonat et le servage (Bordeaux, 1883, 8°.). CH. v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) 89 consciously assume the status of a villein, whatever he might have been to start with. Thus when disputes arose upon the subject the contending parties always endeavoured to prove what had been the conditions of the tenure during past times ' as far back as the memory of man could reach '.^ Simon Vert argued in proof of his freedom that his land had been free from questalitat for the past twenty-five years ; ^ a tenant opposing the claims of Ste.-Croix of Bordeaux, said that he had been clerk and burgess of Bordeaux for a long time — thirty years and more, and that he was therefore in freedom and liberty, without any obligation of paying queste, or taille, or rendering other servile incidents.^ But it is not enough to say of the homme questal that he was the descendant of a servile family and that he held land burdened with the duty of paying arbitrary qvJte. There were many other conditions involved in the theory of serfdom, and a typical questal had other disabilities apparently just as essential to his position as this liability to be taxed at the will of his lord. Other, things were also at the will of his lord : the most burdensome feature of his tenure was its uncertainty. He had to supply labour to cultivate his lord's demesne, the amount and nature of which would remain unfixed ; he had to provide his lord with corn and wine, and the demands ^ Gascon Rolls, 21 Ed. II, m. 5 : 'a tanto tempore quod memoria hominum in contrarium non existit.' * G. 11 16, f. 19. ^ Terrier de Ste.-Croix, 1 375-1445 (uncatalogued), f. 39''. In the Customs of Dax there is a rule which claims to be applicable to Gascony generally, to the effect that freedom can be acquired by prescription for forty years : Livre Noir de Dax (edited by Abbadie), No. 645, p. 140. ' Si ung home que sie questau de ung autre esta e damore en pocession de libertat fore de questalitat per I'espaci de quoaraate ans bedent e audent de quet home e de sons ancestres deu quoau sere questau, schetz que nulhe question no li es feyte suber la pocession de la libertat, que segont la costume generau d'Ax e de Gasconhe aquet atau home no pot ni deu estar diit questau, avans deu per totz temps estar soult e quitis e franc, e deu esser mantengut per lo seinhor en sa libertat en laquoau lo trobe.' (If a man who is the questal of another should have been in possession of liberty and outside all questalitS for the space of forty years, they may see and hear of that man and of his ancestors of whom they were serfs, without any question being made as to their possession of liberty ; and that according to the general custom of Dax and Gascony this man can not and ought not to be called questal, since all this time he has been quit and free, but must be maintained by the lord in the liberty in which he is found.) 90 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. v might, in some cases, swallow up the whole of his little store : he had to do cartage, or castle guard or personal attendance on his seigneur, without being sure when he would be required, or for how long his service would last. But more important and more universal than the uncertainty of his dues, was his connexion with the land. He was almost as much a part of it as the house, the farmyard, the very soil itself. If the land were given away, he was naturally given too ; the purchase of an estate would include the purchase of the serfs, as well as the other appurtenances, and he could not leave or change his holding without his lord's licence, for which he would doubtless have to pay a heavy sum, in most instances a prohibitive price. Bound to the land, alienable at the will of his lord, and obliged to fulfil his behests, a questal of a really typical description would be burdened by servile conditions, which marked him off in many practical ways from the free cultivators on the estate, whose actual services may have much resembled his own. He would have to pay a fine for the marriage of his daughter ; he could not educate his children, nor train up his sons for holy orders, without express leave from his overlord ; he would have little protection from his seigneur's jurisdiction, however unjust, and he would be unable to sign contracts, to bequeath his land by will, to sell, give or in any way alienate his property, which strictly speaking would not be his own, but completely in the possession and under the control of his feudal superior. To realize the usual combination of these services and disabilities, and to estimate their real effect, it is best to examine a series of servile reconnaissances of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, which set forth the duties of certain serfs, and are probably typical of the general state of affairs at that time. On October 24, 1322, a grant of servile land was made on the following conditions.^ (i) The new tenant was to hold as a serf ' a homenest questal, a questa, a talha, et a merce ', and to promise loyalty and obedience as a serf should be * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, viii. 93 (Arch, de M. le Baron de Bouy a Vayres). CH. v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) 91 obedient to his lord. (2) He was not to leave the land, but ' tendra fue byu (feu vivant) et rezidenssa de son cors '. (3) The land was to be kept intact, to be thoroughly cultivated, and not to be alienated nor diminished in any manner. (4) He promised not to leave his holding, nor to seek a new lord, nor to obtain freedom by residence in a chartered town, nor in any other way. (5) Should he break these promises and flee the land, the lord could bring him back wherever he might be. In 1371 still more severe conditions were imposed upon a questal at Izon.^ He is as usual ' a questa a talha a merce ' of his seigneur ; he renounces the right to seek any other lord, to change his house without licence, or to profit by the advantages of town, bastide, or castle. His lord can arrest him wherever he may be, can forbid him to appeal to any court, can seize his goods, imprison him where he will, and keep him there as long as he likes without appeal ; he can demand any money he wishes from him, and seize his person in default of payment. The serf takes an oath to observe these conditions, on his knees with bare head, and promises in addition not to send his children to school, nor allow them to enter any rehgious order, and not to marry his daughter without leave. Similar clauses reappear in a recognition of the same date made by a serf to the Seigneur of Vayres. Here special stress is laid on the fact that the tenant must always be ready to obey the lord's summons to work. He promises that he will perform ' all the labour services, that he will guard his lord's person night and day, and do all other duties, subjections, and submissions, which an homme questal ought to do to the lord of his land ... at any time at the request and summons of the said lord baron '.^ In August 1304 we find the same thing repeated almost word for word.^ These documents show that the condition of serfs was more strictly defined in the fourteenth century than in the twelfth and thirteenth ; but they also indicate, by the anxiety of ' Arch. d'Anglades — Leo Drouyn, ' Izon ' — in Actes de I'Academie de Bordeaux, vol. xxxvii. ^ Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, viii. io6, No. 28. * Ibid. i. 70, No. 34 (Arch, de la Mairie de Bordeaux). 92 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. v the lords to have a written declaration of their rights, that there was a tendency to shake off their authority ; and by allusion to chartered towns and ordination we learn the usual means adopted to attain this end. We gather then, that an homme questal was subject to arbitrary exactions of all sorts, unable to escape from them by seeking new settlements, and forced to submit to his lord's control in the management of his own family, and in the cultivation of his land, and debarred from judicial privileges and rights of appeal which might have been some sort of protection for him. By far the most constant disability, however, was the obligation of paying quite at the will of the lord.^ Labour services were also arbitrary sometimes, as in the recognition to the Seigneur of Vayres quoted above, and in 1384 a tenant promises ' labours and services at any hour when the lord shall summon him '.^ To be absolutely ' cor- veable a merci ' was not, however, universal ; often the amount of labour services was fixed, only the time and nature of them were subject to the lord's will. For example, in 1349 certain questales of St.-Seurin were bound ' facere tam capitulo quam singularibus canonicis annis singulis in perpetuum trecentas manoperas dumtaxat dividendas et ordinandas. Et est sciendum quod dictas rrianoperas facient et facere tenebuntur cum bobus, asinis, et aliis animalibus, quilibet quae habebit, et caeteri qui non habebunt facient manoperas prout erit rationis, videlicet cum corporibus si alias facere non poterunt dolo et fraude cessantibus, sumptibus victus dicti capituli memorati, et non tenebuntujr praedicti homines a casu infor- tunato seu inopinabih nisi dolo, fraude, et lata culpa dum- taxat '.^ These men may have been somewhat privileged, since they had been trying, though in vain, to prove that they were not questales at all. That a serf had no judicial privileges meant rather that he was not able to act himself as assessor in a local court than that he had no trial granted him ; or it may have expressed his exclusion from royal courts. This was a general rule ; * G. 524, f. 38''. " Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, i. 72. ^ G. 11 17. CH. v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) 93 a serf was only brought before his lord's court, where the lord or bailiff as president would probably impose his own will unchecked. ' Jean Milan dwelling in the parish of St.-Seurin- de-la-Marque in Medoc . . . confesses that he is homme questal . . . and that he cannot be in judgement, nor do anything without leave, nor make any contracts without authority, leave or licence,' ^ Again in 1349, i^i the case of Simon Vert and his claims to freedom, it was stated on his behalf, that whereas it was the usual custom ' quod questalis sive servus non potest stare in judicio sine domini sui licencia ', Simon 'potest stare in judicio, sive in agendo, sive in deffendendo, non petita licencia '.^ The exact extent of judicial disabilities varied from place to place apparently : no definite rule is laid down by the Customs of Bordeaux. To some extent they would depend on the judicial powers exercised by their immediate lords. There was a general understanding that serfs were to be protected in life and limb ; but when their lord, as was so often the case, exercised rights of high, middle, and low justice, there was little possibility of escape from him. Low justice covered only the civil powers of an ordinary manorial court, but middle justice allowed the infliction of penalties of mutilation, and high justice included power over life and death, and in fact, complete criminal jurisdiction.^ According to the strict theory a serf could not appeal to a higher court, and in the lord's court could not act as witness, claimant, or defendant without permission. As to the inability of hommes questaux to make contracts and dispose of their property, we read that the above-mentioned Jean Milan and his heirs, when granted freedom, were given power ' to act and dispose, according to their own wills, of their persons, their land and goods, in life and in death ; and to make wills and bear witness, form marriage alliances, * E. 38. " G. 1 1 16. * Revue de Gascogne, i. 30. It will be remembered that both arch- bishop and chapter had been given rights of high and low justice in their sauvetis and elsewhere. In 1484 the chapter claimed to have high justice in Cadillac, asserting in proof that thirty years before it had caused a woman to be burnt and a man to be hanged (G. 482). 94 SAINT-ANDRfi OF BORDEAUX [ch. v buy, sell, and make any other contracts in any manner, as free men can do.' ^ This shows that such powers were not allowed in a state of serfdom. Similarly in an enfranchisement of two serfs in 1425, they were allowed ' to use, direct, and exercise all actions, all businesses, all civil and criminal affairs, to buy, sell, alienate, give, bear witness, and make all other manner of contracts as free and enfranchised persons '.^ The ' bearing of witness ' in these two last illustrations is only another form of saying, that in their previous state they were unable to take part in justice : their oath would have been of insufficient value for a witness, their importance too slight to enable them to act as doomsmen, their subjection to the lord too great to admit them as appellants. On the subject of the limitations of the rights of serfs over their holdings, we learn from a compromise between the chapter of St.-Seurin and the inhabitants of Cauderan in 1349, that ' dicti homines (called earlier questales) non possint vendere hospicia, tenementa, terras, possessiones que tenent, neque ea diminuere sine licencia capituli ; quod aliquis de parenthela dictorum hominum nee aliqiii alii preffatis homini- bus seu eorum bonis non succedant, nee ad dividendum dicta bona admittantur, nisi in dicta terra permaneant et ibidem residenciam faciant personalem prout defuncti faciebant, nisi hoc processerit de licencia capituli memorati '.^ Not only must they not sell, alienate, nor diminish in any way, but the lord could decide on the nature of their crops, and the method of their cultivation, and would not let them take up and work new land on their own responsibility. In a later dispute between the same men and the chapter, the usual custom as to this is shown, when, in defence of their freedom it was said that they could plough and work their land without asking licence from any one ; but in deciding that they were questaux ' that none of the said men could plough or bring under cultivation any land, wood, moor, or any other waste ', but that if they wished to do so, they must request leave 1 E. 38. ^ Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xviii. 376, No. 241. 3 G. II 16. CH. v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) 95 from the chapter.^ This shows fairly clearly that they were not allowed to form ideas of their holdings as private property, and even the stock on the land was scarcely their own. Perhaps the seizure of beasts from the serf was rather an abuse of power than an actual right possessed by the lord ; but he certainly exercised it with impunity, and that it was looked upon as a legal act is imphed in the Customs of Meilhan (fourteenth century) where it says : ' the seigneur may not take beasts from any inhabitant of the town, unless he should be his homme questal.' ^ Not only was the condition of serfdom burdened by all these disabilities, but legally it was extremely difficult to rise from it : and, as in some of the instances quoted (p. 91), a definite promise was frequently exacted that no attempt should be made in this direction. In 1384 a serf at Izon not only renounced all rights, privileges, and ways of getting free, but especially the law which said that there was no harm in any act of a man contesting his serfdom.^ In many charters granted to bastides, serfs of the lords of those bastides were often expressly excluded.* To sum up shortly, the typical homme questal appears to have been a dependant fixed to the soil, completely under the control of his lord, and, above all, liable to arbitrary exactions rather than fixed payments.^ ' G. 1116. * Arch. dept. des Basses-P3rr6nees, E. 190. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, i. 73. * Roles Gascons, vol. ii, 17 Ed. I : 'Mandamus ut homines questales prelatorum, baronum, militum et nobilium, contra eorum voluntatem in bastidis nostris factis vel faciendis vel locis seu proprietatibus nostris non recipiatis nee retineatis.' ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxiv. 341 : (1275) ' They confess themselves to be homes Itges et questaus of the Lord Prior and the Brethren of the Hospital of St. James, by reason of the house, lands, vines, possessions, and pasture lands which they hold from the said lords ; and have promised to reside there continually and to pay to the said lords the quStes, failles, dues, and services as homes liges et questaus ought to do.' E. 744: (Terrier de Cartes, 1384) 'They recognize themselves to be homes questaus by quetes, tallies, labour services, driving flocks (biantz greytz), and other servile duties as an home qiiestau ought and is bound to do — and to be in permanent residence with lighted fire ' (tendran feu vif residencia). G. 2681 : (May 25, 1422) a sale of two men — Fey Doat and Arnaud Doat of the parish of La Tresne, serfs owing arbitrary quite and taille for their bodies, their houses, lands, vines, and other inheritances, and goods and 96 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. v Serfdom, however, despite its disabilities, brought with it many advantages, in the shape of protection and support. The lord was responsible for the fines of his serf, he might be called upon to pay his debts, and it was to his interest to see that his rural tenants were in good material condition. The dues of serfs when fixed were generally lower than those of free men,^ their land was practically hereditary, divided as a matter of course amongst the male children,^ and no esporle was due as from free tenants. Above all, the theory of serfdom was chattels movable and immovable . . . and the said Pey and Arnaud agree and promise that they will pay all the quetes, tallies, aids, labours, and services to which the said A. Germon and his heirs hold them bound without any contradiction . . . and if they leave the said houses and property of the said qnestalit6, A. Germon can take them in any place outside sanctuary and take them wherever it may please him and he may think good to do, without asking will or licence of any lord or judge.' [Pey et Arnaud Doat de la parropia de la Trena homes questaus a questa talha et merce per lurs cors e per las maysons terras vinhas et autres heritatz et bens et causas moblas et non moblas . . . et lodeitz Pey et Arnaud combent et promes que edz lo pagueran totas las questas talhas ajudas manobras et servitutz en que lodeit A. Germon et sons hers los questeran et talheran sens tota contradiction . . . et si eds se parten de las maysons et estatges de la delta questalitat A. Germon las pusqua prendre en totz Iocs foras de segrat et menar aqui ou a luy playra et sera vist fazador, sens demandar licencia ni voluntat a nulh senhor ni jutge.] Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, i. 66 : (May 1 372) Method of investing a serf : — he confesses publicly by word of mouth as a serf, and asserts that having no franchise nor liberty he is home qiiestau at taille and mercy with all servitude and subjection . . . and that he and his heirs in the same manner are servile men and women (homes et homnas questaus) at taille and mercy of the noble gentleman Monsieur Arnaud d'Angladas knight, of the parish of Izon, . . . and of the powerful lord baron Monsieur Bernard d'Albret, Seigneur of Vayres, &c. * There are frequent instances of promises being exacted from holders of censives not to let them fall into servile hands, since the lord would thereby lose. In 1375 a censitaire promised not to let his land come into mortmain, &c. : ' ni en man de home questau, ni que home questau pusca succedar ni heretar, ni far deguna antra causa per que los ditz senhors . . . ne paguossan perdre lurs vendas ni lurs senhorias ' (Terrier de Ste. -Croix). ^ Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xix. 28. In 1423 a questal belonging to Ste.-Croix-de-Bordeaux having left only two daughters the land reverted to the lord : ' per so que eren fempnas.' But females do not seem to have been always excluded. Many questaux held ' selon los fors et costumas de Bordeaux ' (Livre des Coutumes, No. 3, art. 130), according to which no daughter of a serf could be married outside the seignory without the lord's leave ; but if she married another servile tenant of her own lord, a portion of the questal land might be bestowed as a dowry. The land was to be divided amongst the family as long as there were relations left to inherit, but excluding any daughters who had married outside the quete ; and the soil was to revert to the lord on failure of heirs. CH. v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) 97 something very different from the practice, the class was very- wide and very various, and there were many so-called questaux who were in a far better position than the study of servile reconnaissances would lead one to expect. For example, legally a serf had no power of making a will. In the Customs of Pouy Carrejelart, however, it was only the goods of those questaux who died heirless and intestate which could be divided according to the will of the lord and the consuls of the town.^ The lord was not even given full power over the persoi^al property of his serfs. In theory, again, serfs could not sell, could not alienate, could not make contracts. But in reality they are found receiving legacies over which they may exercise considerable powers, and which they can sell if they wish, although for this the lord's licence is sometimes required.^ Thus in 1377 some serfs belonging to B. d'Albret received house and lands from an uncle who was a priest, and sold it again on the presentation of a guarantee from the lord that their questalite should not invalidate the transaction in any way.^ A serf, according to theory, could not give evidence ; but in 1340 an homme questal is mentioned as present at the livery of a censive, presumably to give evidence as to the validity of the grant should it ever be called in question.'* The legal idea also was that a serf was completely under his lord's jurisdiction and could not appeal against him ; yet we find a dispute between the Abbot of Ste.-Croix and certain of his homines questales coming before the royal officials, and the king's flag placed above the servile houses in sign of his protection.^ The rules about serfs in regard to justice, were perhaps, of all their disabilities, the least clearly defined, and the * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, vol. xvii, No. i, art. 20 : (Coutumes de Pouy Carrejelart, 1303) ' Algus homes questals . . . al poder dels dits senhors . . . mors series heret, e sses tornar, e ses testament, tots los bes del mort que seren portats a I'eastet ne en poder des senhors que seren foras de las terras questals . . . e fossen partits a coneguda dels senhors edel cosselh.' '' Ibid., vol. xxvi. No. 3 : (1367) Bequest by an homme questal with his lord's leave of all his lands to a free man. ' G. 7^. * Arch. dept. des Basses- Pyrenees, E. 176: (Langoiran, 1340) ' Guilhem ... a deit balhat livrat en feu feuaument . . . present Peys de la Maderas son home questau ... a Arnauda deu Pin.' '* Gascon Rolls, 13 Rich. II, m. 10. (PART V) ST. -A. H 98 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. v least rigidly observed in practice. There was considerable chaos of jurisdictions in the Bordelais, as elsewhere, in the Middle Ages. Besides the seignorial courts, both lay and ecclesiastical (the latter with full powers over their tenants in secular as well as spiritual matters), the Mayor and Jurats of Bordeaux exercised rights of justice in the town and the banlieue, and the royal officials could hear appeals, as repre- sentatives of the king, in the Cour de Gascogne. After 1360, when Guyenne came to the English king in full sovereignty, a Cour Superieure was introduced, which was above the Court of Gascony and exercised powers similar to those of the Parlement of Paris.^ Whatever the lords or the servile reconnaissances might assert to the contrary, the questaux are frequently found pleading before one or all of these upper courts. In many cases, no doubt, they were claiming to be free and could thus excuse their action, but rules must have been lightly interpreted or fairly easy to evade. In 1391 certain questaux were defending themselves against the claims of the Abbey of Ste.-Croix and a knight, Bertrand de Caillon. They first pleaded before the mayor and jurats of Bordeaux and won their point ; but the case was then carried to John of Gaunt, who reversed this decision, whereupon the serfs appealed to the king himself and a special tribunal was appointed to arbitrate on the point.^ In 1347 in a dispute between the chapter of St.-Seurin and certain serfs, in the banlieue of Bordeaux, though the chapter was allowed all civil jurisdiction, the mayor and jurats were given authority over burgesses and questaux in criminal matters or in any case in which the fine exceeded 655., except in the actual sauvete of the chapter.^ If the questaux were on royal lands their appeals could naturally go to royal courts, and often this privilege was retained even when the king alienated his royal demesne,* though efforts were constantly made to stop it. ' Brissaud, Les Anglais en Guyenne, pp. 45-8. Livre des Bouillons (Arch. Mun. de Bordeaux, vol. ii) for rights of the fouade. Brives-Cazes, Origines du Parlement de Bordeaux (Actes de I'Academie de Bordeaux, xlv). ^ Brissaud, Les Anglais en Guyenne, p. 60. ' Livre des Bouillons, p. 424 sq. ' Brequigny, Collection of Documents, vol. xvii, f. 7. Gascon Rolls, <) Ed. II, m. 17 ; 15 Ed. II, m. 5. CH. v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) 99 In 1394 a special promise was exacted from the Duke of Lancaster that he would not grant letters of safe-conduct which enabled serfs to bring their lords to trial before royal judges.^ Ordinary trials would naturally have been conducted in seignorial courts and according to ordinary rules, although the vagueness as to the position of the serfs must have led, as in England, to a very uncertain line of division between their status in these courts and that of the simple freeman. Cases, however, especially concerning serfs, of which record has been kept, were almost entirely disputed claims to freedom. Such cases were frequently heard before the Seneschal of Gascony,- or else before special courts of arbitration chosen for the purpose. The great frequency of these disputes as to status between lords and tenants shows how very indefinite all rules as to servile condition must have been. Often the serfs showed a wonderful amount of boldness and independence in asserting their claims, although the result nearly always seems to have been a decision in favour of their questalite. Occasionally, however, the trial might lead to a greater certainty as to dues and services or even to the attainment of a few privileges and exemptions, and in a very few instances the tenant won his case.^ It is no wonder that much uncertainty existed, for some of the lesser freemen were scarcely distinguished from serfs. They were almost as frequently bound to labour services ; they were often tied to the soil, promising personal residence and hable to be brought back by force in case of escape ; or they could only leave with difficulty on making extremely heavy payment to their lord.* • Livre des Bouillons, p. 73. ' Arch. Hist, de laGironde, vi. 38: ( 1318) Transaction between Marg^ of Gironde and men of Ste.-Helene and Listrac. ^ G. 11 17 (p. 430). * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, x.xv. 488 : ' Reconnaissance feodale des habitants de Salles et de Mios.' They do castle-guard and cut and carry v.ood ; if they neglect services they can be compelled to perform them. Ibid. xvii. 146 : ' Sentence entre le Seigneur de Montferrand et les habitants tie Veyrines 1356.' The men were to do six days' labour sers-ice a year, to carry corn and barrels, and to reside permanently, and if they left could be forced to return. Ibid. i. 6 : (1326) Freedom granted on con- dition of continued residence ; if the freed man goes to a fresh seignory he must pay the lord ;iioo and payment may be enforced by seizure of H2 100 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. v Despite these complications the general rule holds good. The most distinguishing feature of the homme questal is his quete, and this is, in the majority of cases, arbitrary. The most distinguishing feature of the simple free man is his regular cens and fixed esporle on change of seigneur. The typical free man, not one merely on the border line, would be free to use his land as he wished, to alienate freely, making contracts, wills, and marriages without licence, and to seek other lords and other lands if desirous to do so ; none of which things would be possible for the typical serf. The most striking feature concerning serfdom on the estates of the archbishop is its apparent rarity. Even in early days the hommes questaux were few as compared with the censitaires, and the commutation of services and fixing of payments began from the first. The instances which do occur seem completely to support the ordinary view of questal services and disabilities. The cartulary of St.-Andre furnishes some good instances of the use of the term homme lige to signify serf, and its early connexion with quete. In 1226 we read that ' homines ligios et questales et filios suos qui tunc extabant ' were given to the chapter of St.-Andre, without whose consent they were not to leave the land, and who ' faciant alia que faciunt alii homines nostri questales de Legia '. There is no doubt that their quete was arbitrary, in its origin at least. At the same date, certain men in Blanquefort are said to owe five shillings of cens and a hen every other year, and ' questam pro volun- tate capituli * ; ^ and later at Bouliac ' questam sicut nobis placuerit '.^ The places round Bordeaux where the hommes questaux seem to have existed in greatest numbers were Lege, Blanque- fort, Carignan, Caucenes, Floirac, Pessac, and Cadaujac. The men of Lege are frequently cited, as above, in a way which makes them appear as typical villeins ; but beyond speaking of them as tallaged at the will of the canons, the cartulary land and goods. Arch. dept. des Basses-Pjrrdnees, E. 200 : ( 1 29 1 ) Freedom granted to certain men ' de tot ligame e de tota servitut d'omenest'. They are only to pay cens and esporle ' e totz devers . . . quen tengut de far aissi coma personas franquas feuateiras . . . e fues tener vins audeit senhor '. Cart, de St.-Andre, f. 59. ^ Ibid., f. 83. CH. v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) loi throws little light on their actual services.^ That they did labour services, however, is obvious, since in ending a great dispute as to status it was decided that the tenant was to do all the services done by the ' questales of Legia ', with the exception of angaria, a corvee with a horse. In the fourteenth century a servile reconnaissance to the chapter, by certain men of Blanquefort, shows the usual conditions still prevailing. They avow themselves to be bound to arbitrary quite, to labour services with oxen, or with their own bodies, and to be tied to the soil ; the chapter may drag them back if they ever leave without permission.^ Most of these examples imply that the questalite was both personal and territorial, body and goods alike were servile. The usual formula is ' hommes questaus, taillables a mercy dudit Seigneur en biens et personnes ' ; ^ or ' homines questales et talliabiles in corporibus et bonis ad voluntatem ', &c.* Occasionally, however, the special connexion of quete with the questave is more clearly put. One of the tenants of the chapter, in the thirteenth century, is expressly told that he need not pay ' questam vel talliam ' for his tenement, but only the rent of two shillings, ' nisi ei terra accreverit que questam dare solita fuerit ' ; ^ and in 1367 the archbishop's accounts speak of a house in Lormont, ' quod maynile est questale.' ^ As early as the thirteenth century the serfdom on the lands of St.-Andre began to change its character. It was not a very progressive tenure, and not one suited to so prosperous an estate. Quite long continued, at least in name, but little by little lost its arbitrary characteristic, and tended to become a fixed sum. At Bouliac, in 1225, a house and garden was let at cens and esporle, and five shillings dequesta ; a tenement at Melac also rendered the same sum in addition to the rent.' At Floirac rent in kind and arbitrary quite were together commuted to an annual cens of thirty shillings.^ In 1252 the inhabitants of Cadaujac and a few neighbouring places, serfs of the chapter of St.-Andr6, paid 100 marks down for their ' Ibid., f. g''. '■' G. 524 (Blanquefort, 1349)- ' G. 524, f. 38 (Blanquefort, 1347). ' G. 316, f. 38 (Teich, 1360). ' Cart, de St.-Andre, f. 73. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 81. ' Cart, de St.-Andre, f[. jj and 77"- ' Ihid., i. 83. 102 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. V freedom, and had their quete, formerly a volonte, fixed at i,ooo sous a year.^ Sometimes the quete was changed into cens, and the questal became a free censitaire, but in other cases where no actual enfranchisement seems to have been contemplated, the fixed quite differs so little from cens that the free and the unfree become very indistinguishable. Some of the conditions of tenure were, in any case, extremely similar. As we have seen, it is quite common for a small freeholder to promise to keep feu vif. The difference is but slight between this promise once made, and the obligation of the serf to remain on the soil without special licence to go elsewhere. The provision of food to the lord on certain occasions was another condition which could be equally laid on serf or freeman, and it is not easy to say what actually constituted the difference between ' mingar questau ' and ' mingar censau '.^ Despite commutations and enfranchisements, St. -Andre still possessed serfs in the fourteenth century ; sometimes still bound to arbitrary payments and services, sometimes owing fixed sums and working only on boon-days. In 1346 men were given to the chapter, who promised to be ' obedientes et questales ', and who paid in tallage about ^^12.^ In 1361 the archbishop's procureur went to St. -Laurent in Medoc, to collect tallage from ' quosdam homines questales '.* In 1375 the daughter of an homme questal formally declared that she was bound to the chapter for any quetes or any labour which they chose to impose upon her.^ Still, on the whole, this class is mentioned surprisingly little amongst the tenants of archbishop and chapter : the fixing of dues went on more and more, and labour services were far less common than fixed rents in money and part fruits. 1 G. 415, &c., &'c. * This food-rent is most common at Ambar^s, where it could be paid by free or serf (see chapter iv). G. 524, f. 98 : (1365) ' 6s. 6d. de cens, de queste, et demy mingar'. F. 100 : (1389) ' 14s. de cens et de queste, et sa part d'ung mingar questau '. F. 103 : ' sa part d'ung mingar de cens.' . » G. 316, f. 38^, &c. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 681. * G. 524, f. 352^: (Reconnaissance de Marie du Tastas, 1375) 'Que Gme Tastas son pere estoit perpetuellement home questal a taille, a queste et a merci, de son corps, et de tons ses biens dudit chapitre ; et a promis CH. v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) 103 A comparison between the thirteenth-century cartulary and the fifteenth-century terrier gives a very strong impression that serfdom is rapidly disappearing. At Blanquefort, where there had been so much serfdom in earlier centuries no quite is mentioned at all in the terrier : there are a few vine labourers who are bound not to quit their lands without licence, but these are probably free. At Lege, several inhabitants were paying cens in the fifteenth century, but they still promised personal residence and good labour, and to renounce all privileges of burgage tenure, of taking the cross, of privileged jurisdictions and so on.^ At Cadaujac nothing is noted but rent-paying land, and this continues all through the rest of the terrier. Amongst the list of the archbishop's tenants in 1400 also, only one allusion is made to quite, when a fixed sum is received from all the goods in a parish, which used to be questal. This latter, however, only purports to be a record of censitaires, and does not therefore preclude the existence of qiiestaux. It does show, however, the great number and importance of the rent-paying tenants, and labour dues are certainly of little account. This is proved by the constant expenses incurred for hired labour on the demesne land, as testified by the accounts of the procureurs. Here and there signs of serfdom linger on, and in the sixteenth century there are still questaux belonging to the chapter who are only just acquiring freedom and the fixing of their quite. In 1520 there is an interesting case at Vertheuil, where the tenant is declared to be free and exempt from questalite, but still promises to go on with his labour services and old dues. It is only fair to remark, however, that he only seems to have owed boon- days, such as many a freeman could do, without any idea of servitude. - la dite Marie a lauthorite que dessus, de paier et rendre chascun an audit chapitre les questas, tallies, et manoeuvres que ledit chapitre luy voudra iinposer, a son loyal pouvoir.' ' Ibid., fif. 83, 84. * G. 524, f. 411 : (1520) Transaction between the chapter and a parishioner of St.-Est^phe-de-Calon in Medoc. . . . ' homme questal tant k cause de sa personne que de ses maisons, vignes, terres, pres, bois et autres possessions, par laquelle est accorde que ledit A. Eymeric demeurera exempt de ladite questalite, et que au lieu de tallies, questalite et autres debvoirs qu'il deboit faire audit chapitre, a cause de la seigneurie de 104 SAINT-ANDRE OF BORDEAUX [ch. v The accounts of the archbishop, all through the fourteenth century, have only the very scantiest notices of hommes questaux, and show that nearly all dues were paid in money. The meals at Ambares, for example, are still noted year by year, and always according to their money value, and there is no word as to their having any questal character. The procureur once or twice speaks of going to seek the quite that was due, and in 1354 he receives a pig from Naudon, an homme questal. Naudon never appears again, so that one is tempted to ask whether this pig was something like the heriot which we find in England — the best beast-which the lord might take on the death of one of his villeins. Most interesting, however, are the notices which occur from time to time of Arnaud Constantin, an homme questal of Lormont. This description is added to his name on several occasions, and his quite is described as consisting of an annual pipe of wine, for which the procureur himself sends when the time is due. This is the only questal payment which Arnaud seems to owe, and in every respect the accounts show him to be a prosperous and well-to-do tenant, who holds most, at least, of his possessions in return for a money cens. In 1354 he paid 145. 6d. as rent for his tenements in Lormont, and gave twelve gold florins for the hay of the archbishop's meadow in the same place. The next year he had committed some offence against the reeve, which was atoned for by a fine paid in wine : the same in amount as that taken from him for quite. In 1357 he again paid money for the meadow. This he apparently farmed, paying a fixed sum for it to the archbishop ; a little less this year than usual, on account of English devasta- tions. A little later we find that he had as many as seven different rent-paying tenements in Lormont, feuda they were called. Two of these included houses, the others were only Vertheuil, il paiera audit chapitre, a perpetuite, une barrique de viii, bon et marchand, pur et net, le fust neuf . . . et fera au mandement du dit Chapitre chescun an deux manoeuvres, I'une a boeuf et I'autre a corps ; et paiera tons autres cens, agridres, rentes, ventes et droits de seigneurie qu'il leur a accoustume de paier chescun an pour raison de ses biens.' G. 427 : 28 questaux of St.-Corbian in the same seignory petitioned to be en- franchised, and promised to pay a barrel of wine annually to be carried to the castle of Vertheuil. CH. v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) 105 pieces of land and for all of them he paid in money. His questal property was evidently separate, and this is a good example of the way in which the land might be servile rather than the person. It was a maynile questale at Terssan in the parish of Lormont. There were various other tenants of the archbishop bearing the same family name, none of whom had any sign of qiiestalite about them, but paid ordinary rent like the other censitaires. Whether Arnaud died in 1367, or what exactly happened, we do not know, but in that year his servile property was let out by the procureur on a nine years' lease to two parishioners of Lormont, who paid fifty shillings annually in return for the same, and were in no way subjected to any servile conditions. After a break we once more hear of Arnaud Constantin, though very probably this was a son, and not the original tenant. In any case the term questal is no longer applied to this Arnaud, and we hear no more of the pipe of wine. Some wine he did pay, and in 1389 a barrel was carried to his house apparently to receive it, but this was for the tithe of his vines at Audeyole. Also this new Arnaud was a much more extensive proprietor than the old one. In 1400 he is called a parishioner of Puy Paulin in Bordeaux, and the cens which he owed for lands and vineyards and orchards near the town amounted to as much as fifty-seven shilhngs and tenpence. This Httle history, even should it be that of a father and son, shows how a serf could grow in power and importance, and add free land to his servile holding, until in the end he might cast off his questave and appear himself as a freeholder to all intents and purposes. The St. -Andre documents show that it is quite a usual thing for a serf to have also some land at money rent as did Arnaud Constantin,^ and this must often have caused an uncertainty as to his status. In other places very good examples of this occur, ' G. 415 : Some questalcs, belonging to the chapter of St. -Andre, are granted ' en feu feuaument . . . tot lo remanen de I'avantdeyta palee de Cadaujac ... so es a saver queeds andat cada sadon per dotze deners de cens rendutz an per an . . . et vint sos d'esporle '. G. 309 : (141 1) A priest of St.- Andre ' assensat a Arnaude de Pradias home questau a questa a talha et a merce . . . tota la deyma de Beautiran '. Brit. Mus. Cotton MSS., Julius E. I, f. no : ' Homines questales . . . pro terris que tenent dc censu . . . vi den. et vi den. de sporla et ii capones.' io6 SAINT-ANDRE OF BORDEAUX [ch. v Monsieur Drouyn points out that there may have been actual advantages in the position of the questaux, which prevented men from buying their freedom, when they had every oppor- tunity of doing so. He cites in illustration of this, the case of a serf at Izon (1371) who held, besides his questave, a great deal of land in the most fertile part of Izon for various cens, rents, and payments in kind ; his son was a cure, and therefore free, and yet he himself seemed quite content to remain as he was, without seeking a charter of enfranchisement.^ The general conclusion as to hommes questaux on the estates of St.-Andre is, that they were never very numerous, that their arbitrary dues began early to be fixed, and their uncer- tain labour services commuted for money ; and that although questal conditions did not wholly disappear during the four- teenth and fifteenth centuries, both archbishop and chapter let out far more of their property at cens and agrieres than in any other way, and payments in money or kind rapidly became universal. The reasons for this state of things are probably to be found in the nature of the soil and the rather peculiar character of its cultivation. Labour services were not very necessary on an estate where the private demesne was not very extensive in proportion to the size of the whole, and where corn, wine, and food of various kinds were so largely provided by ecclesi- astical dues (see chapter vi). Land, also, was so much subdivided, that money was far easier to collect than the odd days of labour and scraps of food, which each little holding might be bound to provide. But above all it was on account of the widespread cultivation of the vine, and of the early development of trade. The estate was not necessarily self- sufficing. Wine was produced more than any other com- modity, and other things procured by exchange or purchase. Money was needed to obtain the necessaries of life, to say nothing of the luxuries, which were far from being despised in the rich archiepiscopal establishment. It was the fact that the archbishop was a great trader as well as a great landholder, that his property was turned to account for ^ Leo Drouyn, ' Izon ' (Actes de TAcademie de Bordeaux, xxxvii. 147). CH.v] LANDHOLDING AND LANDHOLDERS (ii) 107 commercial purposes, and provided exports for foreign countries as well as food for home consumption, which really affected the character of tenants and tenures. Rent-paying tenants and wage-paid labourers were more suited than servile cultivators to an estate, which was managed on economic and productive principles, and which was cultivated with an eye to foreign demand, not merely for the needs of the actual inhabitants. CHAPTER VI REVENUES AND DUES The income of a great ecclesiastical seigneur was not dependent only on the rent of his lands, nor were his needs bounded by the goods which his private demesne supplied. A large amount of his revenue consisted of payments rendered to him in his spiritual capacity, which he received in addition to all the ordinary dues of a great lay landlord. The rest of his income may be subdivided into : (i) territorial revenue, which came to him from the land and was paid in virtue of his temporal estate. (2) Seignorial revenue, which was paid to him in return for those duties and responsibilities which were inseparable from the position of a feudal overlord.^ To treat first of the ecclesiastical revenue of St. -Andre, Both archbishop and chapter were possessors of immense quantities of tithes, owed to them not only by tenants, but by all dwellers in the diocese. These tithes, in their origin always payments in kind, might be a portion of the produce of the soil, chiefly corn and wine ; or might be a certain number of beasts from the flocks, or a proportionate supply of eggs, milk, cheese, or other rural produce. The great tithe was for important crops, corn, and wines ; the little tithe of smaller produce, such as vegetables, &c."" Constantly tithe is entered with the rent, almost as if a condition of tenure. A portion of the produce, and ' deyma talhada deu fruyt ', is a constant entry for vineyards, especially for those in the Graves of Bor- deaux and the neighbouring country.^ These tithes, when still paid in kind, were apparently ^ The actual rents or purely economic payments from the land have been described in chapter iv, in connexion with the censives. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, vii. 432 : (1409) The parishioners of Cadaujac pay ' decimam ortalicorum, porcellorum, pisarium, fabarum et aliorum minutorum '. ^ G. 94, passim ; vassals of archbishop at Lormont ; terrier of St. -Andre, passim (see note 2 on p. 69). CH. VI] REVENUES AND DUES 109 collected by the officials of the archbishop or chapter. The accounts of the former contain details of expense for this work at Ambares and Lormont as late as 1388.1 The usual arrange- ment for tithes, however, was to commute them for money, or, a very frequent custom on this estate, to subinfeudate them in return for a fixed sum. The accounts of the arch- bishop enter quite as long a list of cens paid for tithes as for land. Each year there is a section devoted to ' summe recepte ex censibus decimarum que tenentur in feodum a domino Archiepiscopo '. The actual tithes themselves were often very much subdivided. Not only do we find sums of money paid * pro censu decimarum ', and ' censu decime ', but ' pro censu partis decime ' ; and even ' pro censu quarte partis alterius quarte partis decime de Marsans, 6d.' - Some- times the tithes of a whole place were farmed out. In 1392, for example, the tithes of Ludon, consisting chiefly of corn and wine, were rented by the chapter to a burgess of Bordeaux for 76 guianes ^ (each giiiane amounted to 255.) ; and in 1409 those of Bouliac for 100 francs a year.* The same man very often found both tithes and the rents in kind from the same place, and paid one sum ' pro firma seu assensa decimarum et agreriarum '.^ Occasionally the archbishop did not farm the profits, but sent his collectors to answer for the whole : ' assensa de Solaco remanet super dominum nostrum archi- cpiscopum, qui suos ibidem tenet collectores qui de exitibus et proventibus exindc provcnientibus tenentur respondere.' ® This, however, was both troublesome and expensive, and the other plan became increasingly general. In the accounts of the archbishopric in 1459 the total sum for farming of tithes and agrieres amounted to £'^75 i5-^- ; the cens of tithes to £1^ 12s. i\d. : none were apparently collected in kind.'' A dispute concerning tithes in Ambares shows how the ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 424. * Ibid. xxi. 572. ^ G. 431. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, vii. 434. A franc was probably French money. A franc of gold in 1360 equalled a livrc touinois, in 1437 £1 los. of the same money (Avenel, i. 482). The terrier of St.-Andre in the fifteenth century (f. 220^) reckons a franc as 25s. bordclais. " Ibid. xxi. 113: Accounts, 1342-3. ' Ibid. xxi. 112: Accounts, 1342-3. ' G. 240, f. 467. Jio SAINT-ANDRE OF BORDEAUX [ch. Vt payment of these ecclesiastical dues was liable to complications. A certain Gilbert de Pelaymo was proprietor of these tithes, which he held from the archbishop and for which he owed an annual cens. The rector of the place apparently claimed them, and the matter being referred to the pope, they were adjudged to him, although in the end he was only paid a fixed sum. Eventually Gilbert's widow restored the tithes to the archbishop to whom they rightfully belonged, and the annual payment formerly due was then remitted. It was the practice of subinfeudating these dues which caused so many com- plications, and which makes their exact value so difficult to estimate. Without doubt, however, they formed a very considerable item in the revenue of St. -Andre and its clergy. The other ecclesiastical dues seem to have only been paid to the archbishop, not to the dean and chapter. Of these, by far the most important were the quartieres. These were annual payments of corn owed by all the cures of the diocese. In 1259 they are entered as paid from the parishes of Entre- deux-Mers alone, and were then entirely rendered in wheat and oats. In the fourteenth century the accounts record what was due from all parishes of the diocese, enumerated in their different archipretres. At this period corn was still usually given, and no doubt it was a valuable commodity for the archbishop, who grew so little on his own lands ; but occasionally this was commuted for money, and a regular scale was drawn up to fix the price of the different measures. In the following century commutation was becoming increasingly common, although some corn was still rendered as well as money. A few instances occur in the fifteenth century of the farming out of these quartieres, although that was much rarer than in the case of tithes, and occasionally the whole amount due from one place would be sold outright. In 1361 the quartieres due from the ecclesiastical district of Benauges were sold to the Captal de Buch, and those of Blaye to the seigneur of Mussidan. The see was vacant at the moment and possibly less corn was needed for practical use. The weak point about the quartieres, from the archbishop's point of view, was the great expense incurred in their collection. According CH. vi] REVENUES AND DUES iii to his accounts it was usual for his officials to go in person to the different places and to provide for the carriage of the corn to the house or barn where it was to be stored. From the districts adjoining the river, carriage by water was the general rule, but it was the archbishop's procureur who hired the vessel or vessels required, who sent live or six men to receive the grain, and who paid for the sacks and the carriers required for its transport. It seems probable that the cures arranged for the due amount to be carried to the nearest port, for the accounts generally enter expenses of conveyance from the river to the granary, and not explicitly from the field to the river.^ In 1410, although a certain number of these quartieres were paid in money, and those for Buch and Born were farmed, the cost of collection amounted to ^43 25. 9c?. ; in 1409 to j^34 6s. 6d. In this latter date, the money paid for those which were commuted amounted to £82 105. 6d., so that the total value was obviously very great and the expenses of collection not thrown away. The remaining church dues were synodes, paid for the expenses of two great assemblies held twice a year for ecclesi- astical matters ; pensions, owed by churches which had vicaires perpetuels ; and occasional procurations? These were payments made to a new archbishop and they were given various names. The pallium, a tax to meet the expense of the sending of this sign of his office from Rome ; ^ the prime siibventionis for his ' jocondo adventu ',"* and the caritativum subsidium, which was paid by certain churches 'in sui novitate', or perhaps when he first visited them.^ Another very common entry in the accounts, due chiefly to the time of trouble and disturbance during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was that of reconsiliatio ecclesiarum. ^ Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, x.xi. 250, 511, 671 ; xxii. 317, 351, 406, 445, 479- ' Ibid. xxi. 6, 48, 93, 201, 577. * Ibid. xxi. 639 : ' debito in sua nova translatione facta ab ecclesia Sarlatensi ad ecclesiam Burd.' * Ibid. xxi. 18 : .\rrears paid in the second year of his office. * Ibid. .x.xi. 124, 301, 468 : ' Recepta ex caritativo subsidio . . . pro suo jocundo adventu concesso.' xxii. 162 : ' Fuit concessum caritativum subsidium domino nostro archiepiscopo, per benefficeatos sue diocesis . . . quando visitatur ecclesias et beneficia eorumdem.' 112 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. VI This was a sum paid for the purification of a church or ceme- tery, as a rule after it had been used for mihtary purposes, or if blood had been shed there. Both French and English were accustomed to employ religious buildings either as fortifications or storehouses, and after such an event they were considered to be polluted, until their official cleansing had been purchased. Other causes might also necessitate this payment even in time of peace. Purification was needed, for example, if an excommunicated man had been buried in holy ground.^ To turn to the ordinary feudal income. The territorial dues, owed to both archbishop and chapter in their character of landlord, were rendered both by the noble fief and the rent- paying censive. The arbitrary impositions often levied on the questaves have been sufficiently considered under that heading. Both fiefs and censives owed esporle, a payment in recognition of feudal superiority, which was paid whenever a monstree or view of the property was required. The lord might come in person or send to inspect the land, and some customary offering would then be made. The usual formula, however, states that the esporle was due ' a muance du seigneur ' ; a new lord in all probability requiring to look into the extent of his property and the nature of the holdings in the hands of his immediate tenants. Sometimes the esporle was to be made when either the lord or the vassal changed : *In mutatione domini hinc et inde ',^ or ' in mutatione domini utriusque partis',^ or again 'a senhor o affeuat mudant d'une part e d'autre '.^ It is difficult to be certain whether any real meaning lies beneath these different formulas. Monsieur Delpit has sug- gested that tenants-in-chief paid at the change of seigneur only, while sub-tenants paid at the change of either lord or tenant. In support of this he shows how we have a whole 1 Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 5, 19, 62, 98, 116, 145, 169, 200, 311, 379, 524, &c. * G. 82, No. 3 : Homage of a knight, 1307 (Seigneurie de Montravel). 2 G. 106 : (1458) Homage of knight in Monpouillan. * G. 139 : (1447) Fief in St.-Paxens. CH. vi] REVENUES AND DUES 113 list of the esporles due from the different nobles, when the Black Prince was invested in 1363, and no record of subsequent payments. This theory is not, however, easy to maintain. If tenants-in-chief mean only those lords holding directly from the Duke of Aquitaine, all the archbishop's tenants ought in every case to be stated to pay on change of lord and vassal, whereas ' a muance du seigneur ' is certainly the commoner form. In one instance of homage for land in La Roquette (Mon travel), it is very precisely worded as ' in qualibet mutatione domini Archiepiscopi Burd : ut est moris.' ^ On the other hand, if tenant-in-chief means all those holding directly from the chief lord, in this case from the archbishop, we should never expect to find, as we certainly do, an immediate vassal of the archbishop owing for a change on either side. A proof that the formula was entered rather vaguely, but that most probably £5/?(jWg might be demanded either by a new lord or from a new tenant, is found in a document of investiture in the fifteenth century.^ The Prior of Soulac purchased a house, which he is said to hold from the dean and chapter for a small cens and an esporle of 2S. lod., ' a senhor mudant.' Later in the document, however, the phrase occurs ' ab lodeit esporle a senhor prior mudant ', and again ' a senhor mudant d'una part o dautra '. Here at least an immediate vassal very clearly is liable to make a monstree of his goods and render the requisite payment on either occasion. Something as to the nature of esporles for noble fiefs has already been said in the chapter on the conditions of land- holding. Although money might sometimes be due, a fancy article was by far the most common form of payment from a baron or a knight ; a pair of gloves, a lance, gilded spurs, and so forth. Only a few exceptional payments were made on this estate ; a little brown cloth, a tunic, a bow with a green cord (see p. 60). In the case of censives, the esporle is practically always a small sum of money, and the formula ' a senhor mudant ' is almost universal. From time to time ' ^ muance du seigneur et du tenancier ' is found, but not often ; and still » G. 106 (1 37 1). » Terrier de St.-Andr6, f. 6i^. (PART V) ST. A. J 114 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. vi more rarely * a muance du tenancier ' alone. This latter condition was made in the case of land held from the chapter as a body,^ when there would not be much chance of change of lord, unless the dean could be considered to represent the corporation. In the terrier of St.-Andre, out of the great number of entries which it contains, the form is invariably ' a senhor mudant ', except in three cases. One of these is that of the Prior of Soulac already cited ; another is that of a canon, who held on the change of either lord or vassal ; ^ and the third is the widow of a burgess, whose tenure was in no way peculiar.^ Little can, I think, be based upon these formulas. Unfor- tunately neither accounts nor legal enactments do much to clear up the actual practice. The old Customs of Bordeaux have something to say about the esporle. The tenant who does not monstrer his fief to the lord, on the day fixed by the latter, is liable to a fine of 65 sous.* The burgess also, with land of a certain value, must feed the lord on the occasion of this mofistree, but then apparently is not bound to pay the esporle, reckoned here as 2 denarii. In the outskirts of the town, however, this sum of 2 denarii has still to be paid, and it must be proffered to the lord while he is actually upon the territory.^ Probably this personal view was very seldom carried out, and when the esporle was so small it would often be allowed to lapse. Turning to the archbishop's accounts, there is no sign that his tenants paid him esporle when he came newly into his office. Large ecclesiastical payments were made to a new archbishop, but otherwise there is nothing in the accounts to show when the office changed hands. On the other hand there are signs that esporle was paid by a new tenant when he entered into the estate, since it very constantly accompanies the sale of property, and is paid in addition to the dues of the sale, although this is not invariably the case. In 1339 a parishioner of St.-Paul of Bordeaux ' sporlavit de una sazone * G. 524 (1372). * Terrier de St.-Andre, f. 28 (1443). ^ Ibid., f. 45 (1443). * Livre des Coutumes, iii. loi, No. 124. * Ibid., No. 125. CH. vi] REVENUES AND DUES 115 vinee' bought by him at La Taugue, ' i denarium '. A priest, when he purchased a house, ' solvit sporlam 12 denarios ' ; and a few similar instances follow.^ In 1341 there are a whole series of sales with the esporles also entered, these varying from 2d. to IS. 4d.^ There are only a few entries of sporla apart from sales. In 1340, A. de Via sporlavit for a house, which once belonged to Wm. of Landiscana, i2d. The heirs of a certain Benedict for a house which he used to have, 2^.^ But in later accounts, 1354, 1356, 1361, and 1367 the lists of dues on sales comprise no sums for esporle; and though in one or two cases they add that the new tenant sporlavit his property, they do not enter any price for this, unless it is included in the ventes. The amount due as esporle from rent-paying land was generally insignificant, and has little apparent connexion with the value of the cens or the extent of the territory. One characteristic, however, was invariable. The esporle was always for one fee, and could neither be divided nor multiplied. One man might have many estates and owe many esporles, but however large a single fief might be, a single esporle alone would be due from it. The most common esporles for censives were from 2 to 6 denarii, occasionally they amounted to i solidus, but anything above this may be considered as exceptional. The Customs of Bordeaux seem to take the sum of 2 denarii for granted, as we have already seen in one of the articles. In another it is stated that a tenant must ' show ' a fief when required and offer 2 denarii to the lord ; but the lord can only require the same fief to be shown once, and not at all if he has himself let it out newly in this way.* Curiously enough, however, it is chiefly in Bordeaux itself that very large esporles occur. Here they occasionally equal the cens and even rise above it. The fact that the largest esporles are often found with corn-rents leads one to think that they may be a rough attempt to equalize payments. Corn became less valuable, and fixed ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 43 (1339). ' Ibid. 88. » Ibid. 44. * Livre dcs Coutumes, iii. 146, No. 190. ' Fief ' should strictly be confined to noble land, but was used in Gascon for censives also. 12 ii6 SAINT-ANDRfi OF BORDEAUX [ch. vi corn-rents might be very low in comparison to the payments from lands which had been let out in return for some proportion of the produce. This smallness of the rent was often made good by imposing a very heavy entry due, and possibly a similar reason might influence the sum imposed as esporle. The cartulary of St. -Andre has a considerable number of examples of high esporles. In the parish of Notre-Dame we find 55. cens and 55. esporle ; los. cens and 105. esporle ; ^ and even a holding, rented at 35. 6d. and a hen, owing 55. esporle.^ In the parish of Ste.-Croix there were several houses owing 2d. for rent and as much as 35. for esporle ; ^ and other parishes at this time frequently offer one or two similar examples. With corn-rents, in the same register, esporles varied from 2S. 6d. (28 of these) to as much as 105.* These high esporles, although particularly noticeable in the cartulary, are still to be found in the fifteenth-century terrier.^ They are not wholly confined to Bordeaux, but have penetrated to the surrounding country, although to nothing Hke the same extent. At Iliac in 1450, half a house and garden for which corn-rent was paid owed 4s. as esporle.^ At Floirac esporle amounted to 2S. 6d. with a rent of 55. 6d., and again to the curious sum of 105. 8^. with a rent of 3 mealhas '^ (a small coin of variable value, sometimes worth about a farthing) ; and there are a few instances in Quinsac and other places.^ Nevertheless the smaller sums are by far the most common, and for the vines in the Graves, held as a rule for a share of the produce, 2 denarii is without doubt the usual amount. The general conclusion from this varied information seems to be that esporles were very largely a matter of local custom. Both amount and times of payment might differ not only from place to place, but from fief to fief. A tenant was always liable to have to make a monstree of his possessions, once at least, and would then pay esporle ; this was most commonly ^ Cart, de St.-Andre, f. 13''. ^ Ibid., f. 16. ^ Ibid., f. 17. ^ Ibid., f. 36. * Terrier de St.-Andre, passim. Houses with high esporles : Rent 13/- 10/- Corn Corn 15/- 2/6 6/6 Esporle 5/- 4/2 4/4 4/- 2/6 2/6 7/- There are numerous instances of an esporle amounting to i /-. « Ibid., f. 83>'. ' Ibid., f. 112. » Ibid'., f. 129V. CH. vi] REVENUES AND DUES 117 required when the property changed hands, above all when it went to a new family of holders, either by sale or by a break in the succession. A new lord might also look into his tenant's holdings and receive the due in recognition of his overlordship. This would be more frequently exacted in the case of nobles than in the case of simple censitaires, and particularly so in early days when the feudal tie was still strong. As time went on, and the money connexion became more prominent than the seignorial, the old fancy payments were often dropped. The money esporles from censives in their turn tended to be disregarded. A small sum of two or three pence, in early days of quite an appreciable value, became insignificant in later centuries and was often allowed to drop. Larger payments on sales of property, on entry upon an estate, or on the death of a tenant, gradually sprang up and more than took the place of the old esporle. Even by the fifteenth century the collection of this due was falhng into disuse, and the repeated mention of it in the terrier may often be little more than a meaningless formula. The documents treating of land and its conveyance often continued to retain the old-established wording, after it had lost much of its real force and significance. From early times a lord expected to be paid considerable sums when any property held from him changed hands. A noble could not ahenate his fief without hcence, for the homage of a new tenant was a matter too important to be decided by any one except the chief lord himself ; but a censive might be sold by one tenant to another, so long as it was still liable to the same rent and esporle, and if a considerable sum, known as lods et ventes, was paid to the lord (see p. 72). The old Customs of Bordeaux allude to these payments, which were only due when the actual sale took place, and according to them it was the seller who had to pay, although the purchaser was sometimes called upon for half the amount.^ The arch- bishop's accounts have generally a section devoted to the payments on sales, and these often amounted to quite large sums. They were in some sort of rough proportion, apparently, to the price of the property, which is always mentioned with ' Livre des Coutumes, p. 98, iii. 119 ; p. 103, iii. 127. ii8 SAINT-ANDRE: of bordeaux [ch. VI them. In 1339 exactly a ninth was paid : ' pro vendis et revendis ' ;^i3 4s., the price of the house being ;^i20.i Other examples also bring the due on the sale to about a ninth or tenth of the actual price. Thus for a house costing ;^20, the vente was 44 sous ; for one at ^32, £^ 12s. ; and for ^^85 a sum of ^9 ys. was paid ; but this proportion was not universally observed with any exactness. The only curious point about these instances of venda is that all through the accounts they seem to be paid by the purchaser, not by the seller. This is evident from the wording ' et de viii° leopardis auri, &c., receptis ab Helio de Fontepadello, pro vendis cujusdam domus per ipsum empte in rua Fabrorum, Burd, a Jordano Comite, pretio iiii^^ leopardorum auri '. And again, ' De iiii°'^' scutis antiquis, receptis a Menaldo de Monteauserio pro vendis duarum domorum, que fuerunt Johannis Porquarii, quarum pretium fuit lxiiii°^ flor. auri.' ^ They seem, in fact, to correspond to a due on entry, rather than to a payment for the licence of selling. On one occasion the heading runs ' pro vendis sive intratis casalis et domus '; but the usual expression nevertheless is ' ex vendis et retrovendis '. Some difference is also implied when the Prior of Soulac (1445) paid ^^20 ' de intradas et de caritatz en loc de vendas et reyrevendas '.^ This sum, though paid apparently at the time of the purchase, was to be given again on the appointment of any new prior. Occasionally a special arrangement was made in regard to this payment, and the due was given ' pro compositione facta super vendis et retrovendis ', or ' pro financia facta '. This does not seem in any way to have reduced the amount rendered, which was quite as high in proportion to the price as what is called ' pro justis vendis '. In 1367, besides the ventes, a new due, ' jure retentionis,' was sometimes added, which much augmented the price. For a tenement which cost ^^50, as much as ^12 was paid to the lord as his share of the trans- action.* Besides payments for taking up an estate, no censive could * Arch, Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 42. The revenda appears to have been a part taken by the collector of these ventes, as compensation for his trouble. * Ibid., 210. * Terrier, f. 61''. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 144. CH. vi] REVENUES AND DUES 119 be surrendered without a due to the lord known as droit de gurpisson. The fifteenth-century terrier has a good many- instances of surrender on account of poverty. The tenant no longer able to pay the rent or cultivate the estate was obliged to pay five sous for the privilege of giving up the property and had to restore the charter with which he had been invested.^ It is interesting to notice that in such cases the land was, as a rule, let out again at a money rent, whereas this might before have been paid in corn ; and the esporle was sometimes increased. Very few other dues can strictly be called territorial, or considered as paid to the seigneur solely as lord of the land. Payments for the use of wood and pasture may perhaps come under this heading, since they imply a use by the tenants of property which the lord claims as his own. There are, however, very few instances of such payments on the lands of St. -Andre. As has been already seen, it was not a pastoral country (chapter iii), and the plough-oxen or other beasts necessary for cultivation may often have been fed free of ^ Terrier, f. 22 : (1441) ' And afterwards the said Marquesa (widow) was there and came into the presence and before the said seigneurs (dean and chapter), to whom she had surrendered and abandoned the said two fiefs . . . since the said Marquesa had said and declared that there was now no profit nor use in continuing to hold the said half hostau and its exits . . . at the cens above stated, and also that they were very much wasted and ruined and that she had nothing wherewith to repair them in any manner, owing to her great poverty . . . and therefore she paid five sous of the current money of Bordeaux for the surrender {gurpisson), and restored the charter of esporle according to which she had paid and made recognition for the said two fiefs as was the custom in Bordeaux.' [Et empreo ladeita Marquesa (vepda) seu fossa et sia venguda en la presencia et per devant losdeits senhors quaus agossa gurpit et desemperat losdeitz dos feus . . . per so quar ladeita Marquesa agossa deit et confessat que aera no era pro- feit an utilitat de tenir lodeit meich hostau et yssida . . . ab los cens dessus declaratz, et aysi medis que eran belho freules et grandament roynos, et no ave de que poscos repar aquetz en nulha maneyra arrenduda la granda pauvretat en que era, ... en payant sine soudz de la moneda corsable a Bordeu de gurpisson et restitucion la carta de I'esporle aissi cum era aue esporlat deusditz feus aissi cum es for e costuma eu Bordales.] Ibid., f. 24: (1441) Surrender of vine at Cantagric held at one-third of the fruit, because it brought its possessor more damage than profit ; ' et ayssi que no aven aur ni argent de que los poscossan far laborar ni coytivar en nulh maneyra.' He also paid 55. ' de gurpisson,' and the land was eventually let out again at a quarter of the fruit instead of a third, but with 55. added by way of cens. 120 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. VI charge. Occasionally a small payment was demanded from those who had beasts of this kind, without any express state- ment that it was in return for their grazing. The men of Cadaujac, who claimed the possession of old rights of pasture, were made to pay ^^lo for them (see p. 47). Possibly the foire, a peculiar payment given here and at Berneye,^ may have carried some such idea with it, since it was paid in proportion to the number of oxen possessed ; one amount of corn for the man with two oxen, a smaller share from the man with one. But there was also a penny due from those who had no beasts at all, which renders this explanation doubtful ; the oxen may only have been a rough sort of property qualification. The accounts of the archbishop's procureur are almost wholly concerned with the vine-land round Bordeaux, which was, with few exceptions, cultivated by hand, and contain nothing about pastoral payments. In 1459, however, when the revenues from some of the outlying property, Montravel and St.-Paxens, are also entered, considerable sums are noted as proceeding from rights of pasture, the cutting of wood and grass, and the feeding of pigs. Forestage and cornellage were reckoned at £30 155. ; herbage and glandage at X120 tournois} The seignorial revenue may be divided into profits of justice, tolls, and trading dues granted in old days by the King or Duke of Aquitaine, and the various payments which the tenants made to their feudal superior because of this superi- ority, and in return for his jurisdiction and protection rather than on account of his position as landlord. The archbishop was a powerful temporal ruler. He had ' high, middle, and low justice ' in his estates, and could try great lords as well as simple vassals in his court at Bordeaux, and could punish temporal as well as spiritual offences. The chapter had also the power of administering high justice in a few places such as Lege ; and in the Sauvete of Bordeaux the archbishop had delegated to it the right of judging cases in the first instance free from any preliminary inquiry (see p. 21). * Cart, de St.-Andre, f. i. * G. 240, f. 390. CH. vi] REVENUES AND DUES 121 Judicial powers were very closely connected with money payments, for justice was distinctly a branch of the revenue, and punishments were apt to take the form of pecuniary fines. The archbishop's accounts show what large profits came to him from his Curia ; but unfortunately they frequently enter the mulcta, without specifying the offence for which they were incurred. Some misdeeds of a spiritual character involved very heavy payments. Ten florins were imposed on a clerk for celebrating a secret marriage ; two florins for performing the ceremony when no banns had been called ; and as much as twenty-five florins were exacted for usurious contracts and for perjury.^ Sometimes fines were paid in kind instead of in money, as in the case of Arnaud Constantin the serf, who was fined a pipe of wine for an offence against the reeve (see p. 104). In 1356 a special official was appointed to collect these profits of justice and see that the fines were duly paid, so that the profits of the Curia ceased after that date to be an item in the account books of the procureur. Very valuable also were the profits of the seal, as they were called ; payments for obtaining the official sanction for various transactions. These were chiefly of an ecclesiastical nature, such as letters of permission to a man to receive the tonsure, to celebrate mass twice, or to perform the service at a certain church. Sometimes letters of non-residence were also required, but these again were generally demanded by clergy, who might be needing a hoHday for the time. The smaller fines which would be exacted in the ordinary courts of justice for manorial offences, can be gathered from the customs of Lormont, where all jurisdiction was in the hands of the archbishop, and Lege, in which the chapter was supreme. At Lormont any one who neglected to attend the court when summoned was fined five sous for the first offence, and if four times the summons was disregarded his body and all his goods were forfeited to the archbishop. Goods were also confiscated in case of murder, and for attacking and fighting on the high road the hea\'y fine of 300 sous was executed. * A florin in 1 360 was said to be equal to 20 albi and an albus to 2 sterlings or 10 denarii old money. That would make the florin worth i6s. 8d. of ordinary Bordeaux money. 122 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. VI Other penalties were left to the discretion of the court, but fines were imposed for all the usual forms of rural misdoings, such as allowing beasts to trespass and do damage, cutting greenwood, impeding a roadway or blocking up a watercourse, selling bad meat, using false weights, causing a fire or throwing dirty water out of a window. Other more special regulations were laid down, infringements of which involved fines of a considerable amount. No one, for example, might bake in an oven, or sell wine in an inn, or trade in any wine except that grown in the place without special licence and the pay- ment of a due to the archbishop. All inhabitants were to help in building or repairing the palace when required, no tenant could begin his own harvest without sending information of the same to the lord. On every article sold in Lormont some sort of toll was to be rendered to the archbishop, and the inhabitants were to bring him some portion of any beast they sold, a measure of salt and a basketful of oysters and mussels out of every boat-load.^ The profits from the seignory of Lege, though less fully described than those of Lormont, were somewhat similar. As an official was placed in charge there, the dues were divided between him and the canons of the chapter who had delegated their duties to him. Hunting dues, fishing dues, harvest payments, wreck and treasure-trove, all brought in profitable returns to the overlord (see Customs of Lege, p. 26). In many cases these judicial rights, hke so much else on this large estate, were farmed out to under officials. In Montravel and St.-Paxens (1459) the archbishop received a fixed sum for ' arbitrages, confiscacions et amendes ' ; and should have had the same from Coutures and Loutrange, where he also had high, middle, and low justice, only nothing was paid that year, ' car Monsieur de Lebret occupe tout '. Evidently the usual practice was to farm the judicial rights of distant territories ; to place officials over small courts of justice, where ordinary rural offences were tried and punished ; and to supervise directly the larger affairs and ecclesiastical ^ G. 93. Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xix. i. CH. vi] REVENUES AND DUES 123 offences, the fines for which were collected by the procureur or some other immediate official. The trading rights of the chapter were confined chiefly to toll from the places held in sovereignty. From Soulac dues were paid for the sale of oil, meat, and cloth, besides a tribute of salt which came from the mines of the place.^ In Cadaujac no wood could be sold without a portion of the profits being rendered to the canons ; ^ and in Lege various profitable customs duties were collected. In the case of the archbishop, tolls were a far more important part of the revenue. Not only had he dues on sales throughout his whole estate, but he received payments from ships passing on the Garonne, tolls on goods entering or leaving the district, from Montravel, Bigarroque, and other distant parts of his dominion, and a variety of local customs duties from different places. The collection of these local duties was either farmed out to the chief vassal of the neighbourhood, or put in the hands of a salaried official of the archbishop, appointed for that particular business. The collection of dues in Bordeaux was the work of two men at least. In 1339-40 the official, who was responsible for the toll on cloth and hides coming into the town, was paid 40^. as salary. The clerk, who received customs duties from the castrum of Bordeaux, paid in ;^30 to the archbishop's procureur, his salary having been first deducted.^ In the following year the same official rendered as much as ;^50.^ The tolls of Pierrefite at this time were collected in the same way and brought in over ;^8o. At Bourg, on the contrary, they were farmed for a fixed sum ; a man and his son owed ' pro firma seu assensa pedagii et coustumarum quod et quam idem dominus noster archi- episcopus habet et percipere assuevit in villa de Burgo ' £$0 for the year.^ The customs duties of Blaye were also farmed, a lump sum being paid not only for them but for tithes and agrieres also. In 1459 the archbishop had farmed the ' ptagcs, traicts et passage ' of Bigarroque ; ' peages et travers ' of Montravel ; and the revenues of other places. ' Cart, de St.-Andr6, f. 62V. » Ibid., f. 96. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 50. * Ibid., p. 95. Ibid., p. 94. 124 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. v His customs duties from Caudrot brought in nothing that year, because he had made a present of the same to ' Madame la Mareschale de Xainctrailles '.^ There were not many very peculiar tolls on this estate as there were no very unusual products, and, with the exception of salt dues from Soulac and oysters from Lormont, little was paid but corn and wine. One exception to this was a curious payment in tiles from certain men at Breillan.^ Any one there who had an oven, apparently to cook for others as well as himself, was to pay ' i millenarium de tegulis '. At Montravel the archbishop had set up his own oven, which the in- habitants were forced to use, and for which they paid him jornage? The names of the different dues often vary according to the locality, and it is not always obvious for what they are paid. Foire (see above) at Cadaujac and Berneye is explained in the cartulary as being a corn due to be paid on the feast of St.-Severin. Two measures of millet for the man with a pair of oxen, one measure for the possessor of an ox or a cow, one denarius from the man who has neither. Of this payment, the denarii were given to the canons of St. -Andre, but the bailiff retained those from Berneye.^ The coraria owed to the chapter from Lege is left unexplained.^ At Bigarroque, St. Cyprien, and Belves a due was owed, known as leyde^ which was sometimes farmed out.^ This was simply a toll on the sale of beasts, for which the seller was responsible ; it varied from id. to \d. according to the animal that was sold.' A few payments seem to resemble taxes rather than regular dues. Such were the focagium and sirmanagium demanded from Coutures in 1353. These were collected by the notary of the place, and handed over to the archbishop's procureur^ who allowed him some of the proceeds for his trouble. As * G. 240. In 1 67 1 the tolls of Montravel were confirmed to the arch- bishop and fixed as follows : pipe of com, 6d. ; cask of wine, 6d. ; load of cloth, iSd. ; feather-bed, 35. ^d. ; piece of salmon, lod. ; a dozen of colas, 4if. ; of lampreys, 4^. (G. 139, f. 30). " Cart, de St.- Andre, f. 54. ' G. 139. " Cart, de St.-Andre, f. iiiv. » Ibid., f. i. * Temporel de I'Archeveche, f. 94: {1336) J. de Monserc de Bellovidere levator et assensator leyde eiusdem loci. ' G. 139, f. 30. CH. vi] REVENUES AND DUES 125 much as 55. seems to have been levied on each inhabitant, but two years later it was still in arrears. ^ All information points to the varied character of the feudal revenue, and to the general tendency of a lord to demand some kind of due, however small, on every possible occasion. Buying, seUing, carrying from place to place, hunting, fishing, mining, all were to be profitable in some way or other to the overlord, who protected the tenants in their holdings and their industries. Amongst these dues, however, two are particularly interesting and seem to represent distinctly the individual protection supplied by the seigneur, and the original com- mendation of the tenants, who had put themselves in a state of dependence for the sake of the defence which it afforded. Captennium was paid by certain tenants of the archbishop in St.-Morillon, Barsac, Pujols, Preignac, Sauternes, and Lassats.^ It appears to have been a sort of poll-tax ; certainly a personal payment paid by the man himself, and without any regard to his tenure. The amount varied according to the locality. In Barsac the original due must have been IS. a head; in St.-Morillon 2s. ; and at Pujols is. 8d. When the archbishop's accounts first make mention of this capten- nium^ it looks as though its collection already began to be neglected, the payers were all so very much in arrears. In 1355, Blanche of Barsac paid 45. for the four past years.^ In the following year, various inhabitants of Pujols had to make up for as many as eight or nine years of omission.* The due was considerably broken up, but one whole captennium for a year was clearly 20 denarii in Pujols. Two men owed ' pro medietate captennii ', 10^. each year ; another ' pro tribus partibus ' (3 quarters), i^d. ; Vitalis Ayquehn for captennium due for nine years past, 2od. each year. In 1360 the parishioners of St.-Morillon are entered as paying this due.^ Here the land was often held by a group of co-owners, in a few cases actually divided between them ; but the amount * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 208. ' It only occurs once amongst the tenants of the chapter. The cartulary speaks of one man in Sareilles who owes one shilling as captennium. There is no trace of this in later documents. ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 193. * Ibid., p. 366. ' Ibid., p. 529. 126 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. vi works out at 2S. for the whole captennium as a general rule. Three men together paid 6d., 6d., and i^. Two men divided their due into 8^. from one and i6d. from the other. A few, however, paid is. when alone. This was the case with a questal, who was included amongst these captenniers. Apparently the original due was a personal and a fixed sum. When a man died it is often stated that his heir or heirs paid for him} If his land was divided amongst several successors, together they made up the amount that he had owed.^ This may have been when he had not made his last year's payment, for the dead man is often entered as owing himself, when he has left his land without an heir. There are instances of this at Barsac in 1360. ' Vitalis de la Hossa debet i2d. Iste decessit excommunicatus et non habet heredes.' ^ When the heir has established his own position as captennier and no longer owes for his predecessor, this is made clear by adding to the record of his payment, ' iste est pro se ipso.' In the next year's accounts, the group which had taken up the property of the dead man and made good his whole captennium, has very often divided and its former members are entered as separate units. Thus the due itself sometimes gets split up until the original amount is obscured. The accounts are not always quite trustworthy on these matters. Occasionally the scribe seems to be drawing up his accounts with the last year's record before him, for he enters the captennium with its old payer. At St.-Morillon in 1367, exactly the same names are repeated as in 1360, even that of R. de Manheto, who was before said to have died without heirs. In the 1367 accounts for Pujols, those who had formerly paid for the dead man now pay for themselves ; and some of the holdings have been broken up, although a few groups still remain as co-partners.* When partners held the land they seem to have paid the lump sum between them ; ' Comptor with her partners owes 2od.' Such a custom would gradually tend to obliterate the old personal character of the due. Similarly the fact that the ^ ' Guillelma, filia Florentie, qui nunc moratur a Portet, debet 2s. Ista est pro dieta Rorentia.' ' Raymundus Ricardi debet Sd., Arnaldus Seguini debet i6d. Isti sunt pro Guillelmo Seguini.' 2 Ibid., p. 530. 2 Ibid., p. 531. * Ibid. xxii. 43. CH. vi] REVENUES AND DUES 127 successor in the property, whether a relation or no, generally became a captennier, must have helped to render the original meaning of the payment more obscure. But there is no doubt that it was not a tax on the land but on the person, however much it might lose of its original character as time went on. There were two places which paid their captennium in a lump sum, and in which the due does not seem wholly to correspond with what has been gathered from other instances. In 1399, the men of Talais paid ' pro captennio debito pro terris quas habent in parrochia de Talaytz prope Solacum 255.' ^ And this same sum, although never before called anything but cens, had been paid by them, at the time of the Easter Synod, ever since 1333.^ The men of Lassats also paid a lump sum which appears for the first time in the accounts in 1354, when the 405. owed by them ' pro captennio ', was rendered through the hands of their court. In 1375 this 405. is entered as accaptamentum, but was due at the same date ; in 1399 they were again paying through their court, this time only 155. All these places, with the exception of Talais, are in the archipretre of Cern^s. There is no reason that such a payment as captennium should be strictly local, but since the due at Talais only once receives the name, and appears to be on the land, it is possible that it was really a different payment. The fact of Lassats paying in a lump sum may merely mean that the court was receiving the individual dues instead of the archbishop. This captennium, whatever it exactly represents, was paid very irregularly, and as we have already seen was constantly allowed to fall into arrears, with the result that little by little it disappears altogether from the accounts. In 1375 far fewer were paying than in 1367 ; ^ in 1399 only the men of Lassats and of Talais are entered ; ^ but in 1459 the due has not yet been forgotten, although the collection of it seems to have been discontinued for a time. ' . . . des hommes de Maurillon en I'archipretrd de Sernaiz, ' Ibid., p. 537. * Ibid. xxi. 15. * Ibid. xxii. 215. * Ibid., p. 233. 128 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. vi pour ung devoir appele captennium qui donnent 2 sols per cap chascun an le jour de St.-Andre, ainsi que appert par le livre du petit role, dont ne s'en fait point pour le present de recepte jusques ad ce qu'on aye este sur le lieu.'^ The scribe adds that 20^. a head was owed in Preignac, Pujols, and Sauternes ; i2d. similarly from the men of Barsac. Here at least the tradition as to its original character was still retained. The commiin de la paix, a special due in Belves, Couze, Bigarroque, and Millac, was also in all probability a payment for protection. Ducange shows that in some places it was originally a due for the maintenance of the treuga Dei,^ and doubtless it continued to represent a special kind of peace, for the inhabitants of those places in which it was paid. Its actual significance, however, was not well understood even at the time by those who paid it, and considerable controversy arose upon the subject. The document concerning the temporel of the archbishopric shows that quite large sums were paid for this commun. £60 from Belves in 1337. The due for Bigarroque that year was in the hands of the immediate lord, and next year farmed out, together with another un- explained due called cotum,^ for the sum of £160. Individual payments are entered for Campania and Lussac, which varied from 2d. to 6s. 6d. In 1459 it is explained in the accounts that all non-noblemen over twelve years of age, dwelling in the four places mentioned above, were bound to pay this commun to the lord.'* By this time much vagueness had arisen as to the actual reason of the payment, and an idea grew up that it was connected with feudal subjection, or even actual servitude. In consequence a good many inhabitants tried to shake off the obligation. One man refused to pay because he was a noble and the man of nobody: . . . 'dit qu'il est clerc et bourgeois de la ville, e est noble e ainsi n'est homme de nul, e n'a pour accoustume de paier commun, ni ses predecesseurs.' Another, a labourer, claimed ' qu'il n'est homme de negun et qu'il ni los seons no pageren james comun 1 G. 240, 349V. ' See Brutails, Populations riirales de Roussillon, p. 293. ' Ducange says ' tribute to be paid for merchandise sold '. * G. 240. CH. vi] REVENUES AND DUES 129 a nul homme.' A third said he paid no commiin because he was tonsured, as though the free status of a priest was a safe- guard against the impost ; whilst another objected to the payment because he had no oxen, although there seems no reason to connect this due in any way with pasture rights or the possession of beasts.^ The main idea running throughout is that it was a due to the immediate lord, and certainly a due implying rather a close connexion ; it was not paid necessarily to the arch- bishop himself. Four or five lords received the commun from different inhabitants of Belves, but there seemed to be no need for them to be always the landlords of the payer. One labourer held several scattered possessions from different lords, and then ' dit qu'il est home de Seigneur de Serval (not before mentioned), et luy paie le commun '. Another paid to the archbishop, although his possessions were all held from sub- ordinate landholders. In one instance the connexion involving this payment is expressed in the phrase 'home communau'. But there is one illustration which shows in especial that personal commendation in return for protection was at least the origin of the due. ' Pierre Barrau laboureur dit qu'il est homme de Paleyrat et lui paie le commun, et dit que luy estant audit lieu per avant quil fust marie, il navait rien, mais Seigneur de Paleyrat luy deist que sil voulou estre son homme, quil le soutiendroit bien, et de lors fut son homme.'" On another occasion, a parishioner of Lussac changed from being the ' man ' of Paleyrat and ' est fait homme de Monseigneur ', to whom he promised to pay the due ; and in 1463 all the inhabitants of Cabanac bound themselves to pay commun to the archbishop.^ About this time there were so many disputes over the payment of this due, and so much difficulty in its collection, that legal proceedings were instituted to investigate its nature."* In 1500 the royal officials forbade its levy in Bigarroque because they asserted that it had been paid instead of the tallies royales, which had now been resumed. The court which ' G. 177, passim (Belves and Couze, 1462). ' Ibid. 71'. » G. 180. ' G. 225. (PART V) ST.-A. K 130 SAINT-ANDRfi OF BORDEAUX [ch. vi examined into the question declared, with what amount of truth it is impossible to say, that it was a very old payment levied as compensation for letting out holdings at peculiarly low value. The king, so it was asserted, had given the right of receiving this payment to the seigneur, that he might the better strengthen his hands to guard the kingdom against her enemies ; and that thus the archbishop lost considerably when the commun was dropped, since the low cens for which it was supposed to compensate still continued. On the whole the most probable explanation of the due seems to be, that it represented a guarantee of special protection on the part of the lord, and that individuals, or even districts, paid for the benefit of enjoying this extra form of ' peace '. It would be easy for the idea of special protection to carry with it an idea of special submission also, and thus to render the payment unpopular as a mark of subjection, until eventually resistance led to its disappearance. To sum up, it may be said that the estates of St.-Andre were not rich in examples of peculiar dues, whilst those that did exist tended to die out early, or at least to be fixed at some definite sum of money. Tenures and methods of cultivation were so very uniform, that naturally we do not find the curious services and payments, which abounded in districts with more varied and unusual conditions. There were too few beasts kept for many tolls and dues to be connected with them, and so more and more land dues, or tolls on sales and transport became the staple part of the revenue. The constant tendency in this, as in other things, is always towards uniformity and money payments. CHAPTER VII DIVISION OF THE SOIL AND METHODS OF CULTIVATION It is not easy to estimate with certainty the extent to which the subdivision of the soil had been carried on the estates of St. -Andre, nor the exact nature of its partition. There is no doubt, however, that the sub-tenants were extremely numerous. Only a comparatively small portion was home farm (see chapter iii), and the rest was held from archbishop or chapter as the case might be. There were a few large seignories such as Chalais, Ambleville, Bouteville, &c., which have been already mentioned (chapter i), but, with a few exceptions, the nobles of Gascony seem to have been numerous rather than rich, and there were quantities of small domicelli and milites with little bits of land held on noble tenure or quite frequently in return for money rent. This is well illustrated by the number of tenants in the seignory of Montravel, all holding from the archbishop by homage and esporle. In 1306 there were over fifty vassalli, donzelli, milites, and others only entered by name, with no special designation. Several women were amongst the number. The term, feodum, which should strictly apply to these noble estates, was used very generally in Gascony ; and the docu- ments distinguish noble from non-noble fiefs, instead of fiefs from censives. Other terms were also in use for noble holdings with slight shades of difference between them, but not always applied with great exactness and precision. Nobles are sometimes spoken of as holding a maison noble,^ which imphes the whole estate, not merely the house itself ; in the same way that a manerium could equally \\e\\ be called a mansio ; this term mansio is also found, but is not one of the most usual. In the case of the domicelli, their houses and * G. 104 : (1417) Maison noble de Cosnac. K 2 132 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. vii surroundings are more frequently called maynamenta,^ of which they might hold several. There seems to be little real difference between mansiones, maynamenta, reparia, or repaires} These words are, as a rule, kept particularly for noble fiefs, though they are occasionally found applied to the holdings of rent-paying tenants. This is very rare in the case of repaires, but there is a curious instance of it at Belves, a place which has various peculiarities in the way of nomen- clature. Here a labourer is said, amongst other possessions, to hold ' le repaire de la mote . . , avec 8 sexterres de terre au commun ', and also ' ung village ou repaire . . . assis en la paropia de Monsac '.^ Specially fortified estates are called castra. This, and possibly castella also, implies the fortified house of a noble with the cluster of cottages which have collected round it, generally surrounded by a wall for their defence, and under the lord's particular protection. The chdtellenies are the property of the chdtelains or military commanders, numerous in these turbulent times. Chalais was a chdtellenie as well as a ' ville et seigneurie ' * and Mont- ravel also ; there were chdtellenies of Bouteville and Aubiac, in the seignory of Ambleville, and many others.^ The lands of the simple free men tended to be much smaller than those of the nobles, whose estates were generally handed on to the eldest son. Though the censives might vary endlessly in size, a great quantity of them were tiny holdings ; some- times consisting of a few strips of arable land, a row or two of vines, or simply a house and garden, or a portion of one. The names by which the different little holdings are described do not give much idea of size, but are interesting as implying the varying nature of the property. In many cases, however, the terms are rather more those used in a special locality, or by a particular scribe, than anything more definite. The meaning is not always very exact. For the censives perhaps the most common name of all is ^ G. io6 : (1316) Homage for ' maynamentum de Murello ' (Mureil). * G. 106: (1307) ' Homagium ligium . . . pro maynili seu reparrerio suo de Podio Guidonis ' (Puy Guidon). G. 107 : (1538) ' Repaurium seu castrum de Amblevilla.' » G. 177 (1462). * G. 106 (1301). * G. 107 (1214). CH. vii] DIVISION OF THE SOIL 133 stagia, which means the tenant's house, and also his whole estate. It is obviously a vague term, about which no hard- and-fast rule can be laid down, and does not imply any special form of property or particular cultivation. Thus we hear of one man who pays rent for the stagia in which he lives ; another for a stagia or vineyard,^ a third for a stagia stretch- ing from the road to the neighbouring property — evidently, therefore, a piece of land of some size. One man may hold four stagia, while another has only a half, or even a third part.- In 1400 a stagia at Leognan contained eight sadons of land, vine and meadow. The term seems to be more or less equiva- lent to our word estate.^ The word mayne is used in much the same sense, although in itself it applies especially to the house. A ' mayne et sou de terre ' * at Lormont sounds like a house and small plot of ground or garden, ' maison et casau ' they are frequently called. But another example shows that the word may mean the estate or the property, since we find that it contains houses and buildings ; ' tot aquet mayne ab las maysons e hedificis qui son dedins.' ^ The words hordile or bordeu, casale or casau, imply rather smaller bits of property ; casau indeed often means nothing more than a garden. The bordeu is not very frequently found ; it was in origin probably the Httle homestead of the small peasants, the bordiers as they might be called ; but it came to be used very generally for any little rural holding or house. In the holders of maynes and bordeiis we may see something equivalent to the English bordarii and cottarii ; cotters with toft and croft as opposed to strip-holding villeins.^ In Entre-deux-Mers in the thirteenth century many of the inhabitants held casalesP As a rule there is no explanation, the scribe having merely entered the rent owed ' pro casali ' ; but a few paid ' pro casali in quo manet ', * Revenus de I'Archeveche, f . 12. * Ibid., f. 13^. * The same word is also used as equivalent to etage, a storehouse in which are two s/a^ia — and so on. * 0.94(1353). ' Ibid. (1354). * On borde and manse see Brutails, Populations rurales de Roussillon, p. 28 ; Avenel, i. 185. A borde was the smaller of the two. ' Cart, de St.-Andr6, f. 72. 134 SAINT-ANDR£ OF BORDEAUX [ch. vii or ' ubi manet '. One had to give as much as 20s. cens ' pro casaH, et debet ibi facere stagiam suam ', an unusually large sum. The casau is generally mentioned with the house, and if not always exactly what we should call a garden, seems at least to have generally been the space surrounding the actual dwelling-place. Very often they were walled-in spaces, and the rent was paid for the ' casau ab los murs que si apperten '. These casaus were very frequently attached to town houses, which makes them appear as likely to be gardens. By the fifteenth century the word jardin itself was occasionally used,^ and sometimes artiga meant much the same thing. This latter term, however, generally conveyed the sense of assart, land newly cleared and brought under cultivation. So much of the property of St.-Andre was in Bordeaux itself, that houses naturally formed a large part of it. Some- times domiis or hostau is entered without anything further, but the majority of houses had some piece of land attached, however small, and we find ' house and garden ', or ' house and yard ', or ' house with the land belonging '. The orts and ayrals occasionally found in this connexion seem to have been small empty places and yards rather than gardens ; but all sorts of descriptions occur ; a house and garden, a house and stagia, a house and vineyard, and so on. A very usual term, especially in Bordeaux, is solum. This may simply mean the actual land on which the house is built, the payment for it being practically equivalent to ground rent ; ^ but it is also used for a plot of land which need not be for building purposes. Thus we find ' pro uno solo ubi est vinea ', and ' pro solo sive casale ', as well as ' solum sive domus ', or ' pro uno solo in quo est domus '. As a rule, however, solum is used for a town tenement and is not a mere equivalent for terra ; there is generally some sort of building upon it. In the terrier we read of ' tot aquet sou ab los murs et maderas de peyra que si appertenen, en loquau sou aver hostau ab la ^ Terrier de St.-Andre, f. 84 : ' Terras, pastenxs, ribeyras, paduentz, jardins, pesquys,' &c., let out as a new fief. F. 26 : ' Trens de jardin ' in Cadaujac. * In the list of rents due from Lormont in 1361 and 1367 the scribe speaks of domus in 1361 and of solum in 1367. The term solum is used invariably at the later date for either fief or house. CH. vii] DIVISION OF THE SOIL 135 terra et loc en que es '. Both houses and sola were constantly divided, and rent was often paid for mech hostau, or for half a solum, not shared with a co-partner, but held apparently as quite individual property, separate from the other half.^ Other names by which property is described have some reference to the actual nature of the soil, or the methods of its tenure. Very frequently terra agreyra appears in the documents ; arable soil evidently, and soil which is held for a portion of the produce [agrieres), not for a fixed cens. Terra cultura may be also used and contrasted with terra huultura ; but there are quantities of words to express land that is waste and unculti- vated. Desert, terra obsa, terra buyta, herme, all mean the same thing. Various names, too, are employed for moorland and tracts of wild country covered with gorse and bracken. Landes, bruges, jaugar, genestar, feugueyres, rausarii, all imply some kind of wild land, the name varying according to the sort of plant which most abounds ; but probably the terms were fairly vague and interchangeable. Besides houses, gardens, arable land, and uncultivated waste, the estates of St. -Andre contained woodland [bosc, segiia), meadow [pratum or pre), pasture land [paduentz), a few orchards {bernadarii), and plenty of willow plantations (aubaredes) and osier beds [viminaria). These two last were generally situated in the neighbourhood of vineyards, to which they supplied a good deal of necessary material for the vintage. There is no doubt, however, that the largest and most important part of the property consisted of vinea. These different kinds of land were not divided regularly amongst the tenants, nor indeed did the estate itself form a compact district. The archbishop and chapter had posses- sions here and there, scattered about and intermixed with property of others ; and in the same way their tenants held land from them similarly dispersed. Very rarely did one man hold a continuous stretch of territory. Estates were generally built up little by little ; lands might be given, and inherited or purchased in many different places, and thus the ' Cart, de St. -Andre, f. 17. Esporle owed 'pro duabus partibus do quinque partibus cuiusdam domus divisa in quinque partibus '. 136 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. vii richest landholder might still have scraps of land here and there, and draw his profits from rents in many separate districts. Even one fief was not always a connected whole geographically, although it was always a juridical unit, and only one esporle could be demanded from it. In many cases, no doubt, one httle piece of compact land was called a fief and paid for separately ; or the vineyards and woods and lands included in the one fief might have been contiguous ; but there are illustrations which show that a fief could also be built up of scattered bits. A merchant and burgess of Bordeaux, in 1446, had vines in the neighbourhood of Pessac, at Brenars, Percy, Poyaus, and Milon ' tot cum d'un feu ' ; and he only owed for them 13c?. of cens and 4^. esporle ' a senhor mudant '} More frequently, however, so much land would be counted as a number of fiefs, for it was quite usual for one man, even a peasant, to hold several fiefs. In the list of the archbishop's tenants, in 1400, the number of fiefs held by each is entered against his name, and although a majority of them held one fief, two, three, and four are very common, and some had as many as thirteen or fourteen. Sometimes these fiefs might lie side by side, so that a considerable block of territory was formed, but they still remained separate as concerned their payments. Doubtless the owner was gradually purchasing or acquiring contiguous territory as the opportunity offered.^ Single fiefs might vary in size almost to any extent ; but the tendency was for property to break up into small pieces and for the estate of the rural cultivator to be very minute. These httle holdings, due to the nature of the soil and the custom of division amongst the children, have already been mentioned (see chapter iii). Even those tenants who were rich and powerful and gradually acquired more land, had to be content with a bit here and a bit there, so that possessions were scattered even when extensive. One burgess 1 Terrier, f. 113 (1446). * Arch. Hist. xxi. 540 : ' pro quinque feudis que tenet contigue ' (1360). Ibid. xxii. 584, vii. f. : ' G. Berardi de Becgla, debet 2s. pro viii regnis vinee apud St.-Ujan, 11^. pro xii regnis terre contiguis ; xi^. pro xxxvi regnis terre contiguis,' &c., &c. {1430). CH. vii] DIVISION OF THE SOIL 137 of Bordeaux, in 1400, held ten valuable fiefs and paid as much as ;^4 2s. in rent annually.^ As far as it is possible to judge, there does not appear to have been any general average for the size of the holding in the hands of the ordinary cultivator. The documents which we possess are hardly ever explicit upon the subject, but are con- tent to enter that such and such a tenant held a piece of land or a piece of vine : ' trens de terre ', or ' tresis de vigne '. In the few instances in which the extent is stated, the difficulty of calculating the exact significance of the term is almost insur- mountable. Not only is the modern equivalent for the measure often unknown, but very frequently it did not represent a fixed quantity even in those days. Measures varied from year to year ai)d from place to place. Neither does there seem to have been any limit to the number of holdings which one tenant could have. We do not find the virgatarii, the semi-virgatarii, and the ferdingi of English manors. There were various names in use to describe these land measures. The following occur most frequently in the description of arable land : — A journal seems to have been a rough estimate of what one ox could plough in a day : ' terra in qua est una jornale boum.' ^ If this was the origin of the term, however, it must soon have come to mean a measure of size without any special reference to the plough, since it is used for other kinds of land besides arable. ' 20 journaulx de dezert silve ; ' ^ ' 4 journeaux de terreouverte,'*'i journal et demi de pr6,' and '4 de vigne'. ^ In other parts of France, according to the tables drawn up by Avcncl, a journal was sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less than an acre in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Unfortunately he gives no illustrations from the Bordelais. Much more common than the journal is the sadon or sazio, a term in use particularly for arable land, but also for other things, such as vines and meadows.^ One instance in Cadaujac, ' Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 630. ' G. 316, f. 3 : Bouliac (1367). ' G. 83 (1466). * G. 177 : Belv^s (1462). * G. 524, f. 24. • G. 1 10 : 9 sadons of land and meadow and 6 sadons of willow planta- tion. At Cadaujac 6 sadons of meadow brought in a rent of 6s. 6d., and 138 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. vii when the sadon is described as one marca both in length and .breadth,! leads one to think that the term may possibly imply a field or more or less square piece of land rather than a strip ; and this idea is supported by the fact that it is used in some sort of contrast to a rege or furrow, which is a still more usual term, especially for vineyards. If the sadon was a measure of land, it must have either been of different sizes according to the locality, or the value of land must have varied to an extraordinary degree from place to place. A sadon of arable land worth about 6d. in Cadaujac (1400) was as much as 85. in La Souys through the latter half of the fourteenth century. In La Taugue a sadon of vine was rented at 25., two sadons at 45. ; half a sadon at is. In each place, however, it seems to have been fixed. In Cadaujac at least eight examples of the same rent occur in 1400 : and in La Souys not only do the old sadons remain at the same rate from year to year, but when new land is included the sadons approximate to the same value, and presumably, therefore, to the same size. (Occasion- ally the rent for a new sadon works out at about as much as 85-. 2d.) ^ Fiefs and holdings were anything from i to 100 sadons, though the tendency was towards the smaller size ; a great number were between 3 and 6 sadons in extent. In Cadaujac (1400) there are instances of very large estates made up of land and meadow. One tenant in 1400 held 60 sadons, and another 88, and another 100. These are very exceptional entries, and, judging by their low value, it was a case of unusually poor soil. One faint indication of extent is found in a grant of land at Gradignan, where 9 sadons of land and vine are said to consist of 23 rows of vine and other land which was waste ; ^ 9 sadons must therefore have contained over 23 rows, but beyond that we learn nothing as to their usual size. The descriptions of land constantly made use of this word ridge, row, or furrow. Reges, arreguas, reguas, are very common in the documents. This is a very natural method of calculation there are frequent instances of sazones vinee. Archbishop's Accounts, passim. * Cart, de St.-Andre, f. 21. ^ Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 38, 39, 77, 365, 596 ; xxii. 38,40, 213, 557 sq. ' G. 316, f. 13. CH. vii] DIVISION OF THE SOIL 139 in the case of vineyards, always planted in rows, and for ploughed land it gives a good general idea ; but arreguas of meadow or woodland, a phrase which does occur, though rarely, seems to have very little meaning ; a row has evidently become a more or less recognized width. ^ In any case the size of the land thus described depends on the length of the ridge, and this is only given in a very few cases, probably in those which are exceptional (see below). The number of reges in a holding varies from 2 or 3 to 30 or 40. Over 30 is, however, unusual. In Begles, where from other evidence we know that land was poor and little cultivated, one man held 74 regas, for which he paid in rent only is. i oh. ; and in the same place another holding consisted of 45 rows at j.o^d} In the parish of Pessac also, where the land was of scarcely any value, 66 reges of vines were held for a rent of ^d} These terms are by far the most common in all parts — trens simply meaning a piece, sadon a measure and possibly a plot, and rege a rough calculation by furrows. But localities had sometimes expressions of their own, and Belves, as usual, furnishes us with one or two new measurements. There the word trop takes the place of trens ; instead of a sadon of land, the usual measures are sexterada and cartonnade.'^ At Salle- boeuf we read of : '7 sexteradas de terre labouree et 33 non labouree ' ; ' i trop de prat contenant 14 cartonnades.' Although rent is generally very little help in estimating the value of a measure, there are so many instances in which 2d. was paid for the cartonnade and i2d. for the sexterade, that the latter may safely be considered the larger of the two. In one instance a new word is used, and a place is said to contain ' 3 brasses de terre '.^ To turn to the words and measures most frequently employed for vineyards. Vines, as has been already said, were very frequently counted by their rows. In a few cases, when these were exceptionally long, the length is also entered. At ^ G. 524, f. 41 3"^ (1366). Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 579. * Ibid. (1400), 567, 599. ^ Ibid., 600. * G. 177 (1462). These names came originally from the land which could be sown with a certain measure of seed. See Brutails, Populations rurales du Roussillon, pp. 58. ' Ibid., f. 66. 140 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. VII Fourc (1282) one holding contained 14 arreguas, and these were ' 140 pas ' in length ^ (a pas was about 2^ feet long 2) ; 7 rows were no pas long, and 16 rows were 80. A term particularly used to describe strips of vine land is correya or corregia. It does not seem to have been an expres- sion very early in use, but in the list of holdings in 1400 it appears frequently, and also in the fifteenth-century terrier. These strips were especially common in the Graves of Bordeaux, but the fact of this name being applied in particular instances renders it probable that ordinary vineyards were not of this long narrow shape, but tended rather more to be planted in square plots, unless the length was specially noted. Some- times the width of the correya is mentioned, in one place 8 pas in width, in another 13. A trens de vigne described (1449) as 9 pas in width and 30 in length must have been similar to these correyas.^ Vineyards, at the present day, tend to very regular shapes, square or oblong ; but occasionally the nature of the land or the position of a road renders this impossible, and the vine has to be planted in a wedge-shaped piece, making some of the rows shorter than others. The word used to express this formerly was cahotz, which meant the shorter rows not going the whole length of the reges. Reges Cabotz Some of the vines were enclosed, or protected by ditches from the inroads of stray beasts ; they might then be called claus de vigne, or casaus de vigne. Other expressions show the manner in which the vines were planted. Treilha, trilea, or arbotus G. 524, f. 247^. Terrier, f. 123. ^ Brutails, Cart, de St.-Seurin, Introduction, p. 37. CH. vii] DIVISION OF THE SOIL 141 was used for the vines which were trained over trelHses or along espahers, instead of being staked in straight rows according to the usual plan in the open fields. This was a system adopted as a rule in gardens or small plots in a town. Joailles were rows of vine planted with considerable space between, which was used for growing other things. Vegetables, small fruit trees, or even corn are still sometimes grown intermixed with vines. In some parts of the country this is more common than in others ; certainly the plan was very usual round Bordeaux during the Middle Ages.^ Very occasionally we read of a marret de vigne also, but this does not occur so often as all the other words.- It may have something to do with cultivation by the marre, a special kind of spade generally used for vineyards, but there is nothing except the name to prove this. In a list of property of 1401 a maret de vinha is entered in between an arrega and a correya as though some kind of difference must have been obvious at that time. Both arable land and vineyards could be divided into bessons or bersanas, which seem to be more or less equivalent to the old English shots. A large open field would generally consist of various bessons, with furrows going different ways as best suited the formation of the ground. In a very large field, when the furrow was long enough for the plough, that plot would end and a new besson would begin. The word came most probably from vertere in the sense of turning the plough, and was therefore originally applied more usually to arable plots. In 1259 we find a holding of ' 14 reges terra de duabus versanis '.^ In 1364, ' 6 bessons de terre et de vigne '. In 1365 (Cenon), ' 4 bessons ou il y a 54 arreguas '. In 1367, ' 5 bessons de terre '.* The question of morcellement within the villages, the extent to which land was split up, and the average size of the holdings, ' Cart., f. 4 : ' Pro trilea que est circa cellarium suum.' Cart., f. 2y : Vinea de 24 joalas. Revenus de TArchevgche (Bassens), f. 1 1^ : 17 joalas vinee uno loco ; 5 joalas in alio loco ; 5 joalas in alio loco. G. 524, 169'^ (1340), 7 joailles, Cazau de Pomeye. Ibid. 406 (1366), 15 joailles, Lambetz. Correya de vigne ou il y a 4 joailles, &c. * G. 524, f. 410. » Revenus de I'ArchevSche, f. 11. * G. 524, ff. 34, 38s'. 142 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. vii is one of the greatest difficulty. There need be no distinction drawn here between censives and questaves ; the possessions of serfs and simple freemen were in no way distinguished by any difference in extent. On one or two points we may be sure. A fief or a censive was indivisible in itself, though it might be shared amongst co-parceners : but most tenants held several fiefs or several censives, generally scattered, but occasionally concentrated so as to form a contiguous territory. In the process of time, though more land was brought under cultivation and thus new fiefs created, the practice of sub- division and the growth of population tended to split up estates, and a smaller number of pieces would be held by one man, until holdings became very minute. This morcellement was occasionally hindered by the direct action of either the lord or tenant interfering with this subdivision and concen- trating the estates in the hands of one member of the family, but as vineyards could be cultivated with profit even in small portions this part of the country was rather specially charac- terized by the small size of the rural holdings. Monsieur Brutails, writing on very much the same region when he treats of the estate of St.-Seurin of Bordeaux, has attempted to make a rough estimate of holdings reckoned by the rege or furrow. Before 1453 he finds the majority of holdings to comprise between 3 and 10 rows ; of the rest, how- ever, more tenants had over 11 than under 3 rows, though only 2 men had as many as 60 furrows. The size of these holdings in acres he has only been able to calculate between 1453 and 1789. Out of 65 examples, 15 were under half an acre in extent ; 15 under a quarter of an acre, only 9 contained about as much as an acre, and 4 alone rose to 3 or 4 acres.^ The estate of St.-Andre, taken as a whole, seems to present similar features to that of St.-Seurin. On the other hand the smallness of the holdings must not be exaggerated, nor were all parts of the territory in quite the same condition. The tenants of the archbishop were often very prosperous, held fair-sized fiefs, and paid good rents. This was particularly the case in Bordeaux, where burgesses formed perhaps the ^ Brutails, Introduction to Cart, de St.-Seurin, p. 38. CH. vii] DIVISION OF THE SOIL 143 largest number of his direct rent-paying dependants. Some of these burgesses had only houses, or house and garden in the town itself ; others had vines in the banlieue where no one held less than 4 reges. The amounts varied from 4 to 40 rows and the rents for single fiefs from is. to 165. Just occasionally very low rents were paid for Bordeaux houses (see earlier, p. 63) : id., 2d., 6d. and 8d. ; very often such cheap houses belonged to priests ; but 55., 105., 155. appear much more frequently. One burgess paid as much as 40s. for half a sol and another had 10 fiefs and owed as much as £4 2s.^ One man for what the accounts call ' a great piece of vine ' in the town itself actually paid £4 12s. for the same.^ The vine holdings outside the walls of the town varied considerably both in size and value. A rege seems to have varied in value from i^. or i^d. to as much as 10^., and even in two cases is. Those in Fourc were generally the most valuable : very often 6d., yd., and 8^. the row, and a fief might consist of from 4 to 12 of them. In Bordeaux town y^d. the row occurs several times. In La Meyt-deu-Forc the values were generally a little lower and the fiefs a little smaller. Occasionally, though less frequently, strips of arable land were held in the Graves, and this was less valuable than vineyards. The archbishop's tenants in outlying places were much poorer than the burgesses of Bordeaux, held as a rule smaller fiefs or fewer of them, and paid lower rents. Occasionally, when the land was very poor, larger holdings had to be given, but at extremely low rents. This was noticeably the case at Brenars, a hamlet of Pessac, where 10 reges of vine were let out for the large sum of id., and of land at the same rate as many as 20 reges. Begles was another place where land went for very little : 74 reges for is. o^d. ; 30 rows for 6d., 12 for 2d., and so forth. Vines here were not even attempted. Some tenants at Eyssines had small holdings in 1400. A whole bordeu with its lands was rented at dd., one or two pieces of vineyard at the same price. In Pessac one stagia was held for 4\d., another including 17 sadons of land for y\d. Several holdings in St.-M6dard-cn-Jalles paid only 9^. of cens. ^ Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 631. ' Ibid. 599. 144 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. vii On the whole the impression gained from the description of the property is that there was nothing so regular as the English strip-holding system in the open fields. Nor was there equal necessity for the three-field system prevailing so generally amongst corn-growing communities. The landscape in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, at least, must have presented a very similar aspect to that which it does at the present day. Large open tracts of country, seldom broken by hedge-rows or enclosures, with plots of vineyard here and there interspersed with corn land, divided into blocks of many different shapes, but with a tendency towards long narrow strips. This is shown by the frequent descriptions of holdings situated on either side between the lands of other cultivators and abutting at the end upon a wood or high road, or another holding. Several holdings will have the same boundaries at each end, and the land of one individual at the side ; so that we get the idea of a number of holdings of equal length lying side by side with one another. But this uniformity is not universal.^ These strips or blocks were generally interspersed. Occasion- ally a man might have acquired contiguous pieces {trens de vigne aqui pres), but over and over again his neighbours are mentioned by name, or he has a few rows of vine in one place, of corn land in another, and a block of territory for various purposes in a third.^ Meadow land, on the contrary, was generally in separate portions, occasionally of quite considerable size. Also there were a good many Httle homesteads in the country, consisting of a house and a small croft by it or round it. In the immediate neighbourhood of towns such as Bordeaux, how- ever, it was very usual for town dwellers to be rural * G. 83, passim. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxii. 581 (1400). A clerk had four vines near one another at Brunon. G. 83 (1364). Jean Hodon had a trens de terre between the holdings of Caseulh and Peaveyra, the common road and the holding of Maurin at the ends ; a irens de terre between the holdings of Seguin and Guiraud ; a trens de terre between the holdings of Brauyre and Larin, the common road and the holding of Chaysoney at the ends ; a.trens de vigne between the holdings of J. de Mote and H. deu Borns at the sides, and those of R. de la Rue and P. de Sebirot at the ends, &c., &c. CH. vii] DIVISION OF THE SOIL 145 cultivators with land in the country outside the walls, vines in the Graves, or meadows in the Palus. Nearly all houses in Bordeaux also had land round them all through the period ; the town was slow to lose its rural character. Most inhabitants had gardens, and for a long time there were vineyards within the walls and empty spaces still unoccupied. The documents tell us disappointingly little of the methods of cultivation employed by the tenants, and what information we can glean from them is negative rather than positive. Thus we gather that there was not much co-operation for purposes of cultivation ; nothing is said of a village plough, of the duty of landholders to supply so many oxen for common use, or of combined labour on the open fields. Probably the small holdings were easily cultivated by the labour of the family, and when these were vineyards hand-labour was what they chiefly needed. The seigneur still retained some control over the cultivation of the land held from him. This was generally asserted in the case of terra agreyra, land held by payment of part of the fruit, since in this case he was particularly interested in the management of the property. As a rule some sort of promise was exacted in the grant ' obrar e laborar ben e degudament aus fors e costumas de Bordales ' ; or a few more details might be added : ' hobrar, laborar et coyturar, boyar et semenar cascun an.' ^ It was always necessary, also, in tenures of this sort to have a surveyor at the time of vintage or harvest, to see that all was properly done and that the due proportion was paid. The tenant had to send word when he was ready to begin the picking or reaping, and he was obliged to pay and feed the official sent to supervise. Twopence and a dinner each day was the usual arrangement, or the guard might have money instead of the dinner if he preferred it. The regular formula in grants of land at ' part fruit ' was ' a ladeita garda dos deneys de la deita moneda de gardaria ct a dinar ' ; and then would follow, in the case of vineyards, a promise of good digging, pruning, bending, and other neces- * G. 94 : Bail 4 fief nouveau (1354). (part V)ST.-A. L 146 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. vii sary work ; in the case of corn land, of ploughing at the right seasons and sowing good seed.^ Good cultivation was expected, and possibly forfeiture might follow if a holding were allowed to get into really bad condition. The tenant was sometimes encouraged to manure the soil, by being allowed to pay a smaller due when he had done so ; ^ but this was not a regular custom, and in some places the lord used to exact more if he did so. ^ Terrier, f. i''^ : (1441) Reconnaissance of a burgess of Bordeaux, who had three strips of vine as a fief : ' for the fourth and the tithe in addition of the fruit which shall grow and increase each year in the said three correyas of vine, carrying and rendering each year in due season the said fourth part and tithe of the said fruit, at the command of the said lords, dean and chapter, to the wine-press of the said Church of Bordeaux ; and that the tenant must demand guard of the same when he shall wish to gather the grapes from the three correyas of vine. And further, that he must give the said guard twopence of the said money and his dinner for his offices, or two shillings and a half of the aforesaid money for the said dinner, whichever the guard shall prefer ; and the same every day that he may spend over the vintage of the said three strips of vine, the which three strips the said tenant ought and is bound, and has promised and agreed to work, to plough, and to cultivate each year, that is to say to prune, to bank up, to bend, to dig, and to give the three necessary fagons and all other labours and workings which are needful for vines in the Graves, in good times and good seasons, according to the said fors and customs of Bordeaux, [per la quarta et la deyma talhada deu fruyt de vin et de vendemiha qui bayran et creysseran cascun an en las deltas tres correyas de vinha, portadas et rendudas cascun an en sa sadon las deltas quarta part et deyma talhada deudeit fruyt, au comandament deusdeitz senhors Dean et Capitre, au truilh de la delta gleisa a Bordeu ; et deu demandar garda aqui medis lodeit affeuat quant vorra vendemihar las deltas tres correyas de vinha. Et plus que deu a la delta garda dos deneys de la delta moneda de gardaria et a dinar, o dos soudz et mech de la moneda surdeita per lodeit dinar, loquau meys playra a la delta garda. Et aquo per cascun jorn que triguera a vendemihar totas las deltas tres correyas de vinha, lasquaus avant deltas tres correyas de vinha lodeit affeuat deu et es tengut et a mandat combent et promes obrar, laborar et coytivar cascun an, soes assaber podar, levar, plegar, fudir, magestar, et tersar, et far y totas autras obras et faissons que a vinhas de Gravas se appertenen, en bons temps et en bonas sadons, segont los deitz fors et costumas de Bordales.] Ibid., f. 83". Bail a fief nouveau in parish of L6ge of ' house, lands, pastures, streams, wastes, gardens, fisheries, and all other things at 66 shillings of cens and 6 pence of esporle '. The tenant promises ' residence and also that he will plough, cultivate, and sow the said lands with good corn in good times and in good seasons as may appertain thereto, according to the aforesaid /oys and customs of Bordeaux '. [' hostau, terras, pascenx, ribeyras, paduentz, jardins, pesqueys et totas autras causas,' at 66s. cens and 6d. esporle. . . . ' aissi medis que laborera, coytivera et semenevera lasdeitas terras de bons bladz en bon temps et en bons sadons aissi cum sa appertendra segont losdeits fors et costumas bordales.'] ^ G. 524, f. 169. CH. vii] DIVISION OF THE SOIL 147 There seems to be little more control than this exercised over the tenants in regard to the cultivation of their land ; and those who paid a fixed cens in money would not necessarily receive even this amount of supervision. Judging from the constant arrears of rent entered in the accounts of the arche- veche, the estate was not managed very strictly, and dues and services were apt to be shirked. It is only from the accounts of the archbishop that much can be learnt as to the system of agriculture and methods of labour. As these are almost entirely concerned with his demesne land, we find things probably at their best, and cultivation of a kind rather more advanced than it would be on the estates of the smaller tenants. On the whole, however, it must be more or less typical, and we can gather from it some general idea of agricultural methods in this region during the Middle Ages. The archbishop apparently put the whole practical working of his property into the hands of one superior official or procureur. This procureur was responsible for the collection of all money and tribute owed directly to the archbishop, whether in the shape of tithes, rents, quartieres, tolls, or fines ; as well as for the cultivation of the demesne. The actual details of management varied somewhat from year to year. Sometimes the fixed sums, owed by the farmers of tithes and dues, were paid through the procureur, sometimes straight to the archbishop. Occasionally other officials were appointed to help in the work ; as, for instance, a sigillator who was responsible for all profits derived from the soil ; or a vicar- general to whom were paid the sums for reconciliation of churches and the fines from courts of justice. There might be several procureurs too for the extensive property. Out- lying possessions such as Montravel, Caudrot, &c., generally had officials of their own, and do not figure in the accounts kept of the Bordelais property. Occasionally the archbishop used to let out a whole scignory at farm, and then no record was kept of the details of its management.^ The series of * This was the case with Coutures and Loutranges in 1361 (and other years also). Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 589 : ' Proventus loci de L2 148 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. vii accounts which have been preserved, and from which most information as to cultivation must be derived, are those of his principal procureur in Bordeaux, who was at the head of all his most important property. He collected spiritual and temporal dues, rents in money and kind for all but those outlying possessions which were not in his administration, and he was responsible for the demesne cultivation. For this he kept all the accounts, although he had working officials beneath him who directly supervised, and saw that labourers were duly provided and the work properly done. The vine cultivation, by far the most important on the estate, will be considered separately in the following chapter. Since there was no corn land in the archbishop's home farm (see chapter iii), information on this subject is lacking. All we can gather is, that the usual time of harvest was the end of July and the beginning of August. The procureur was very busy at that time collecting the different portions that were owed, storing them in barns and granges, and providing for the thrashing and winnowing of the same. There were plenty of uses to which all this com could be put. A great quantity was required for the archbishop's own household, his numerous retinue and important visitors (see chapter i). He had also various hospices which needed provisioning, and fed the poor of the diocese at his own expense. Corn might also be given as a valuable present ; some of the English commanders were not above receiving presents of oats for the use of themselves and their soldiers ; and on one occasion the king's herald was presented with eight bushels of wheat. Corn also was constantly used for the salaries of some of the officials and servants upon the estate. The hordilerius of Pessac received all his wages, apparently, in rye and millet ; the reeve of Lormont was paid in wheat. Not only was it employed for regular salaried officials, but it might be used instead of money in the case of odd expenses. Thus in 1367 the shoemaker and mason were paid for their labour in wheat ; and even the doctor was presented with thirteen bushels of the same. Culturis et prepositure de Loutragio recipiebantur per G. Alberti, domi- cellum \ quare de ipsis non me onero.' CH. vii] DIVISION OF THE SOIL 149 Besides the regular servants who lived at the archbishop's expense, labourers hired for work were generally supplied with food whilst they were working, and a great deal of corn was needed at the time of vintage, when many extra workers were employed and fed. Corn was also consumed by the animals which the archbishop kept. He had a large number of horses, which fed on oats and sometimes millet, but the latter was generally required for the ducks, hens, and chickens of his poultry farm.^ Corn was not only used for food, it was also an article of commerce. Sometimes it was exchanged for other goods, as when sixteen sucking pigs were purchased for two bushels of wheat and one of beans.^ There were years when the arch- bishop had more than he required and used to sell it. Merchants and corn-dealers bought it most frequently, but in 1367 a number of small sales were effected to all sorts of people in and round Bordeaux.^ Probably this was an experiment on the part of the procureur to do without the middleman, who generally managed all this retail selling. It shows how the ordinary tenants, possessing as they did so many vineyards, could not live on their own produce, but had to purchase necessaries whilst they sold their wine. The archbishop him- self, however, did not always have sufficient for his own needs, and instead of selling was sometimes purchasing corn on his own account. This he constantly did from English merchants,* and sometimes instead of money, wine was exchanged for it.^ Foreign trade was important all through the fourteenth century, but particularly towards the close, when corn dues were largely commuted. The accounts from 1382 onwards are full of these transactions with British traders, and the wine trade enabled extensive purchases to be made of other commodities. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 514 ; xxii. 201. ^ Ibid. xxi. 237 (1355)- ' Ibid. xxii. 151 : (1367-8) ' Vendidi domino Remundo . . . medium boys, avene. . . . didi Penoto bladerio 21 escar-avene. Bertrando de Brocario ... 28 boys, avene. Uxori magistri Hamundi ... 10 boys, avene. Bertrando coquo decani Sancti Severini ... 4 boys, avene,' &c., &c. Total : /200 gs. id. new money, ;^88 6s. od. current money. * Ibid. xxii. 347 : (1383) 8 tons of wheat bought from English merchant at ;^i2 IDS. the ton. 387: (1385) 2 tons of oats at ;^i5 7s. the ton, &c., &c. * Ibid., p. 336(1382). 150 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. vii The value of this corn is very difficult to estimate, owing to the various measures used in different places, and to the constant changes in money. The following measures occur most frequently. The escarte or scarte was roughly about 4 bushels on an average, but it varied from place to place. In the archipretre of Cernes in 1459, it was only 3 bushels hordelais ; ^ whilst in Benauges at the same date, it was reckoned at as many as 5.^ Both in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it is said to contain sufficient for 22 loaves. The conque, a measure especially used in Buch and Born was there reckoned as a bushel, or a quarter of an escarte.^ In Benauges, where it is used for measuring wheat, not as in the other places for millet, 2^ bushels are allowed to it in 1460.'* A petra was a stone measure employed in one part of Entre- deux-Mers, whilst the other half of the district reckoned in escartes} The size of the petra apparently varied according to whether it was to be employed for wheat or for oats. It was put down as containing i bushel hordelais in 1459.^ A tonneau appears to have roughly contained about 14 or 15 bushels ; ' an eymine, which only occurs in Fronsac and Entre-Dordogne, was 3 bushels in 1398.^ The same district also made use of a setier, which varied from 6 to 8 bushels according to different entries.* A quartail or quarterium was a measure used in Bourg and Blaye, and contained 7 or 8 bushels : ^® a livrade or livralli also found there was a little less than a bushel : ^ in 1460 it was reckoned only as half,^ and a modureria at Blaye as one-third.^^ To add to the difficulties of comparison, these measures might be used in different ways. The corn was evidently measured out in vessels which held so much, but these might ^ G. 240, f. 449 (1459). ^ Ibid., f. 451'. ^ Arch. Hist. xxii. 139 (1367). See also xxi. 53. * G. 240, f. 468. " Revenus de I'Archevdche, f. 15V. • G. 240, f. 456. ' Arch. Hist. xxii. 153, 387. * Ibid. xxi. 600; xxii. 525. * G. 240, f. 457: (1459) In Entre-Dordogne = 6 bushels hordelais; in Fronsadais=8 bushels hordelais. Ibid., f. 468 : (1460) In Entre-Dordogne = Sk bushels; in Fronsac= 7^ bushels, xxii. 525: In Entre-Dordogne (1398) a sextanum=6 bushels. '• G. 240, ff. 461, 468. " Arch. Hist. xxi. 213. '* G. 240, f. 468. " Arch. Hist. xxi. 62 ; xxii. 134, 530. CH. vii] DIVISION OF THE SOIL 151 be heaped up as full as possible {cumulatus), or shaken down even with the top (rasus). The procureur who had been selling escartes of corn in 1356 said that as much as 5 bushels of wheat difference was made by the use of the heaped-up measure, then apparently introduced.^ In 1357 the Bordeaux measure was said to be ' nee rasa, neque penitus cumulata ' ; ^ but in 1361 corn was being reckoned in heaped-up measures, and the difference was one bushel more in every fifteen.^ On the archbishop's estate a good deal of trouble was taken over this measuring, which naturally made considerable difference in the collection of quarteria and corn rents. Special officials were generally sent to measure the quantity due, and they carried with them their own measures in order to make a consistent calculation. As time went on the practice of commuting these corn payments for money became increasingly common. This was advantageous in various ways. Much trouble and expense was saved over the collection, and more land could be turned to the profitable cultivation of the vine, for which it was so well fitted. The increasing practice of trading rendered it less customary to provide necessary food from the estate, and the steady demand for the wines of Bordeaux rendered it possible to provide corn from other parts. It was largely the commercial connexion which kept Bordeaux so loyal to the English rule and so slow in desiring a change of allegiance. The commutations of the quarteria give the best idea of the average price of corn in different years, and would be extremely valuable if the varying moneys employed did not make the comparison of one year with another very uncertain. It does help, however, to show the relative value of different grains at the same period. Wheat, all the way through, appears to have fetched a higher price than any other kind of corn. Wheaten bread was always a much-desired luxury. Oats ' Ibid. xxi. 426 (1356): Some corn sold in ' mensura cumulata sicut communiter venditur de presenti '. Some ' in mensure que non cumu- iabatur '. ' Ibid. xxi. 512 (1357). ' Ibid. 703: (1361-2) ' Computando 15 boys, dicte measure cumulate pro 16 boys, dicte mensure merchande vel econ verso.' 152 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. VII come next, as a rule, at a very much lower price, and rye and millet seem to be fairly on the same level. The prices paid instead of kind were generally settled by common agreement, and it is interesting to note that the procureur, in making any sale of corn on the estate, managed almost always to realize a rather higher sum than this average estimate. The following table is collected from the accounts, and gives a rough idea of corn values at different dates : Prices of Corn As officially arranged for the sale of Quarteria.^ EscARTE reckoned as 4 bushels Wheat. Oats. Fye. Millet. 1332 25/t 14/t 14/t 1339 43/9 29/2 26/3 20/5 28/§ 1340 54/J 48/t 40/-46/t I34I-2 58/4 22/oi 32/1 29/2 4o/§ 1342-3 70/ & 78/1: 40/t 1343-4 230/t debilium 4o/-46/t 40/t 40/t 1354 2 flor. I J flor. a flor. I flor. 1355 2flor. I J flor. ijflor. I flor. Lesparre 1356 ^ 6/sterl* 4/ sterl. 3/ sterl. 3/ sterl. 4/4i sterl.t 2/8 sterl. 2/2 sterl. 2/2 sterl. Moults 6/8 sterl.* 5/ sterl. 4/ sterl. 4/ sterl. 4/iof sterl.f 3/4 sterl. 2/11 sterl. 2/1 1 sterl 1357 2 1 leop. auri X 2&li leop.J I J leop. J 1360 4J leop. 2 leop. 3 leop. 2^ leop. 4§ 1361 2 leop.J 2| leop.$ Lesparre 1367 9/4 sterl. 4/8 sterl. 4/8 sterl. Moults 10/ sterl. 5/ sterl. 5/4 sterl. 5/ sterl. 12/-13/4I: 6/8$ 6/t 8/ Buch, 6/ Born. 1382 72/1 Lesparre 1398 c 50/ 24/4 29/4 24/4 Moults 52/8 24/4 29/4 24/4 1459 48/t-6o/| 24/ Mixture. 46/t When not the official price, but reckoned by a sale, a mark J is put against it. * Bordeaux measure. f Measure of quartieres. § At Buch and Born. ^ Arch. Hist. xxi. 385. It says against first figure ' ad mensuram Burd.' ; and then ' que reducta ad mensuram quarteriaxum '. c The reckoning was really given in bushels. This is counting 4 bushels to the escarte. CH. vii] DIVISION OF THE SOIL 153 The archbishop had a considerable number of hayfields, although they were not sufficient for all his needs. These meadows were managed in a variety of different ways, upon which the accounts furnish a good deal of information. Besides his own hay, the archbishop obtained some as agreria. This was chiefly from meadows in the palus of Bordeaux, a district with very good soil for grass-growing. In this case the procureur had to arrange to fetch the hay and to pay for its conveyance, and the cost of carriage always seems extra- ordinarily high (see chapter viii). Only very occasionally was carting done de gracia,^ and then food was provided for the carriers, so that some expenses were always involved ; but in the case of hay, as in everything else, the most striking feature of this estate is the amount of hired labour required and the very small number of labour services performed by the tenants. Here and there a man for haymaking ^ was included as part of the rent ; but subdivision had rendered this of little value in the fourteenth century, when half a man or a quarter of a man was often all that the tenement owed. Naturally this was very soon commuted for money, and in 1346 a similar service is only mentioned as one item which had gone to make up the money ceiis.^ The demesne meadows were not always cultivated directly for the archbishop's use, but sometimes farmed out. That of Lormont, which the procureur had managed himself in 1356, was handed over to one of the tenants in the following year for four crowns of gold. One of these was eventually remitted because the EngHsh had devastated the field,* In 1367 the hay-harvest of Lormont was managed on a sort of profit- sharing compact, half being kept by the farmer and half going to the archbishop.^ The meadow of Les Pesettes in the same year was farmed to six men, who paid ;^20 between them for the privileges. At Ludon the farming of the meadow brought * Ibid. xxi. 488 : (1357) 'Pro 13 hominibus quos habuit ad parandum et portandum dictum fenum . . . dando cuilibet 7 gros, ultra plaustra habita de gracia.' ' Ibid. xxi. 75, 77 (i343)- ^ Ibid. 160: 'Pro blado et pro valore duorum hominum ad fenum et gallinis debitis per eum, 23s.' For vines at La Taugue. * Ibid. 456. •• Ibid. xxii. 150. 154 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. vii in £2^ in 1340/ six leopards of gold in 1356,^ and ^25 in 1367.3 When the meadows were cultivated at the archbishop's expense, and the procureur was responsible for their working, practically all the labour required was hired, and in some of the larger fields this meant a considerable number of workers, Lormont (1306) only required 7 men to cut, and 12 to make and carry.* Ludon was much more extensive, and here 39 men were employed for making after the reaping had been done, 12 men more to load, and 10 carriers. They were all paid wages and had food given. ^ In 1389 the haymaking in the meadows of Les Pesettes and Le Fresne was an even bigger affair. The actual number of men employed is not given, but 71 days of labour were expended in the cutting ; 82 days of men's work and 21 of women's for making it ; 20 men were used to load, and oxen were hired for 8 days. The river carrier or gabarrarius was paid as much as ^11 5.?.^ In the archbishop's garden some hay was also made ; but this was only a small business ; one reaper and 3 or 4 men to make the hay were generally sufficient.' As a rule there were as many as two crops of hay in the year, of which one was cut some time in June and the second in September, on one occasion even as late as October.^ Some- times, in a good season, three crops might be yielded. This happened in the archbishop's meadow in 1354, when the first and largest crop was cut in May ; the second in the middle of June, and the third in September.^ Women were not so much in demand for haymaking as for the regular work in the vineyards. Of the workers, there seems generally to have been one set of men for cutting, another for making ; and whilst some specially loaded the carts others stacked the hay. The carrying was chiefly done by hired huhulci. In the archbishop's garden the same men made and carried. This meant probably taking large bundles either on their shoulders or fastened to stakes, as men still do so much in the ' Ibid. xxi. 48. ^ Ibid. 384. ' Ibid. xxii. 140. * Ibid. xxi. 488. * Ibid. xxii. 150. * Ibid. 447. ' Ibid. 322 (1382). ' Ibid. xxi. 700 (1361). ' Ibid. 344 (1344). CH. vii] DIVISION OF THE SOIL 155 mountains. For distant meadows the hay was often brought by boat, a form of transit used whenever possible and not so expensive as the hire of ox-wagons and their drivers for the whole distance (see chapter ix). The archbishop's garden, which first appears in the accounts in 1361, was managed by the procureur, who arranged its cultivation and paid for the hired labour that was required. He had under him for the actual work a gardener, evidently quite a subordinate, who took up no authoritative position, and left all real responsibility to the procureur. The garden, besides the hay which has been mentioned, contained chiefly vines, but there was also a vegetable garden in which cabbages, onions, beans, spinach, leek, and garlic were all grown. No mention is made of any flowers being cultivated. This garden was probably newly made in 1361 — not only because there had been no mention of it earlier, but because this year so much labour was expended on it. It was dug, weeded, manured, a bridge was built, and so forth.^ Every year a good deal of extra work was needed, not only for the vines which the archbishop grew here, but also for general weeding and planting. This gave employment to women as well as men, but they were hired at a very much lower rate (see chapter ix). The gardener was probably a permanent servant, who managed the working except on special occasions, as these hired labourers only appear from time to time. The comparative absence of pasture land has already been noticed and discussed (see chapter iii). Nothing further is, therefore, to be learnt from the accounts on this subject, and it only remains to treat of the cultivation of the vine. » Ibid. xxi. 681 (1361-2). CHAPTER VIII VINES AND THE VINTAGE The history of the Bordelais peasants, from the fourteenth century onwards, centres very much round the vine. Whether they were cultivating their own httle vineyard, or whether they were earning wages as day labourers on the land of others, it was the chief object of their work and source of their well-being. The wine they produced was used in every possible manner. Naturally it was drunk by all, from the highest to the lowest. No labourers provided with food during their work would have been satisfied without their regular ration of wine ; the produce of certain vineyards was put aside for use at the archbishop's table ; barrels and pipes of wine were constantly bestowed as presents on distinguished visitors to the country. The archbishop's vineyards gave a great deal of occupation to the inhabitants of the surrounding districts. All the year round men were hired for the necessary labours amongst the vines, for digging, planting, staking, &c. ; and at the time of the vintage employment was given to large numbers at a time, who were fed generously during their work, and could earn a good sum for each day's labour. It was not only directly that vineyards formed such a useful source of occupation. There was continuous demand for tubs, vats, receptacles of all kinds ; besides which, making and repairing, putting the wine presses in order before the vintage, cleaning and mending afterwards, all gave employment to numbers of peasants and townsmen. In the fifteenth-century terrier, the majority of Bordeaux inhabitants were laboradors de vinhas, and the next class in size to be found there was that of the makers of barrels. Then again, there were numbers of men regularly occupied with the work of carriage and transport of goods, CH. viii] VINES AND THE VINTAGE 157 and of these goods by far the chief was wine. There were always dues in wine to be collected from different parts of the country ; there was always wine to be conveyed to the different warehouses provided to store it ; there were purchases made, which had to be transferred from seller to buyer, or there were barrels to be carried to ship-board for export to foreign parts.^ In one way or another, therefore, the Bordelais people were occupied with the cultivation of the vine, and their social history is inevitably bound up with it. The kinds of wine chiefly produced in this district during the Middle Ages, were clairet or vina clara, which was practi- cally universal ; white wine, not apparently very common, but grown on the archbishop's estate at Lormont and Les Queyries ; and red wine, both pure and lymphatic, also at Lormont and Les Queyries, Pessac, and above all, the Graves. Verjuice and vinegar were likewise made more or less generally. The measures most constantly used for wine were the cask {tonnellus), the pipe, and the barrel. Of these, the pipe roughly contained two barrels, the cask four ; ^ but there were local varieties. Other measures are not so easy to estimate. Muyatus was a term used by the procureur in 1382, amongst the accounts of expenses concerning Lormont and Pessac. It was a cask of some kind, which contained apparently about the same amount as a pipe, since the same price was given for the carriage of both.^ Carrales occur in some of the earlier accounts only ; * and for verjuice qiiartones or pitalphi are mentioned.^ Rents and dues of barrels, pipes, or casks are, however, the usual thing, and wine was sold according to these measures. * See chapter ix for carriage and its cost. * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 330: (1354) ' computatis duabus pipis pro uno ton.' This occurs frequently, xxii. 199 (1368) adds ' et duabus barriquas pro una pita ' (probably meaning pipa). See note of editors (Leo Drouyn), xxii. 665. He thinks the barrel was the same as the modern measure, containing 220 to 222 litres. ' xxii. 326: (1382) ' Solvi faysilheriis et bubulcis . . . dando pro quolibet ton. lod., pro qualibet pipa et quolibet muyato &d.' *■ xxi. 230. In 1355 a carral of claret was bought for 30s. sterling and a pipe of wine for 285. sterling. This is the latest date at which the term appears in these account-books. ' xxi. 657 : ( 1 361-2) ' feci fieri agrestam, videlicet 54 quartones sive pitulphos.' The carton probably contained a quarter of a barrel. 158 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. viii There were a good many different ways in which these vine dues were paid. Sometimes the tenant used to render a certain amount of the grapes themselves, which would then be conveyed in baskets or tubs to the winepress of the arch- bishop, either at Lormont or Bordeaux.^ Occasionally the wine would be given, but sine fuste, that is not in barrels, in which case it had to be carried in vessels of some kind, until it could be deposited in the casks of the seigneur ; ^ or it might happen that the tenant owed wine, but the barrels for it were provided and sent to him by the lord,^ who had much trouble and expense over the collection of his various agrieres. The most common form, however, was for the tenant to pay the wine cum fuste, in barrels that is, or as it was often expressed ' vin fust et lie '.* On the archbishop's estate a great quantity of wine was required each year, and it speaks well for the extent of the produce that any was still left to sell. The actual require- ments of his table came to no small amount, since he kept open house and gave generous hospitality ; he used wine also for the salaries of his chief officials (see chapter ix), for his permanent employes and household servants, besides which he had to supply enough for the meals of the large number of hired labourers who worked for him. Nevertheless, a good deal was generally left for commercial purposes. In 1332 ;^iii 115. was realized — by sales, after having deducted the profits of the corretarius or middleman who managed the trans- actions.^ In 1341, the text of the accounts notifies the sale of old and new wine to the value of ;^453 os. ^d. ; or if the marginal additions are included, as much as £7AZ iS'^- 4^-^ In 1361, 31 casks were sold to British merchants, 9 to a Bordeaux merchant, and with other smaller sales to private ^ xxii. 161 : (1367) Money paid from vineyard at Pissaloup for a tithe ' quam omiserat solvere in racemis ' ; and from Lormont, ' ultra illud quod solverat in racemis.' ^ xxi. 391 : (1356) ' Recepi pro assensa decime de Guitinhano 5 ton. vini sine fuste.' * xxi. 655 : ( 1 361-2) ' Recepi a domina Mabilia pro decima vinearum . . . in fuste domini Archiepiscopi, i pipam vini clari.' * xxi. 392 : (1356) ' I tonellum vini clari cum fuste.' * xxi. 9. * xxi. loi. CH. viii] VINES AND THE VINTAGE 159 individuals the total gain was 796I leopards of gold ; probably a little above the same amount of pounds in Bordeaux money.^ In some years far less was left to sell, because the wine dues had been commuted for money. This was particularly the case in 1367, when the section devoted to sales is almost entirely taken up with the receipts of money from tithes and agrieres ; as it says : ' P. de Fraxinii convenit solvere pro valore trium piparum . . . ^-^j 105.' ^ &c. As a rule, however, the arch- bishop made considerable sums by the profitable sale of extra wine to merchants, inn-keepers, and private individuals.^ The methods of cultivation employed for vines in the Middle Ages can be gathered to a certain extent from the archbishop's accounts, in the sections concerning expenses due for the vineyards in his demesne. There, as has been seen in chapter i, were the large Figuer-Belh vineyard at Lormont ; the vineyard called after Clement V at Pessac, and the plants in his garden behind the cathedral. Occasionally the procureur also accounts for the cultivation of those at Ouinsac (Ambares) and Les Chretiens. The bordilerius hired almost all the needful labour. The odd boondays mentioned here and there among the rents were practically always commuted for money ; ' i vendemihador cascun an de cens o per lodeit vendemihador dotze deneys ' ; or put more explicitly as 12 denarii for one vendemihador (day's work in the vineyard). The different ways of planting vines in joailles, trellises, and rows have been already noticed (chapter vii, p. 141). In the case of joailles, which should by rights have had vegetables or other crops growing in the space between the wide furrows, in early days this space was often left fallow, so that the method was not very profitable, and in consequence rare. The vineyards of Pessac and Lormont are worth considering separately, since certain important differences existed between them in the manner of their cultivation ; although the usual labours required by vines were naturally very similar in all ' xxi. 651. ' xxii. 161. ' In 1384 a good deal was sold to a merchant from England, and some was exchanged for corn (xxii. 372). In 1385 cloth was obtained from England as payment (378). In 1387 forty casks conveyed to a vessel for export to the same {416). i6o SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. viii parts. Pessac, however, was one of the few vineyards for which the ox-plough was used as early as the fourteenth century. Almost everywhere at that date, the covering and uncovering of the roots was done by hand, the ground being dug with the marre or special vine tool, something between a hoe and a spade, which is still in use. The plough, during the last fifty years, has almost superseded the marre, although a few vines still continue to be worked entirely by hand ; but in the Middle Ages, Pessac was certainly an exception to the general practice. Four times a year oxen and plough were hired for the work at Pessac ; alternately the furrows were opened and re-covered. The times at which this was done varied somewhat from year to year, but there was generally one ploughing in October or November after the vintage was over ; another in January or February to uncover the roots ; whilst in March or April they were once more covered, and opened again in May or June.^ The exact nature of the plough employed for the vineyard is not very obvious from the accounts. It must have been a small machine to go between the furrows, and one would have almost expected a single ox to have drawn it. Since, however, pairs of oxen are constantly entered, it is possible that a two-ox plough was the kind most commonly in use. The work and its cost vary somewhat from year to year ; also every now and then the accounts are not complete, and only two ' labours ' with the plough are mentioned instead of all the four. In 1354 only two fagons are entered ; one in March which cost 4 florins and another in May, 3 florins.^ Of the four ploughings in the following year, that in January was ^ Jouannet, Statistique de la Gironde, vol. ii. In describing modern cultivation of vines, he gives four fagons with the plough for vines in Medoc. (i) February and March to uncover with the plough called cabat. (2) April to re-cover with the courbe. (3) May with the cabat. (4) July with the courbe. Pessac had four ploughings in 1355, which roughly correspond to these later labours, although the months have altered a little xxi. 247 : ' Expenda prima obdemoda januarii, pro arando vineis 3 fior. . . . ultimate obdemoda marcii solvi pro coperiendo sive arando secundo, 3I flor. ... 15 die junii, feci tertio arari sive cavelhonari vineas ; . . . penultima obdemoda octobris, solvi pro faciendo quarto arari sive coperiri.' * xxi. 341. CH. viii] VINES AND THE VINTAGE i6i slightly more expensive than the other three ; 8^. 2d. as contrasted with js. 3d. and ys. sterling. In 1361-2 (the procureur says from July 11, 1361, to the same date in the following year) there is no account kept of plough- ing before March,^ which looks as though there must be some accidental omission. The three fagons accounted for were in February, April, and May ; the first to uncover the roots, ' arare sive cavalhonare ; the second ' coperire ' ; and the third ' facere sive arare '. The year 1367 is a very interesting one, as the accounts are particularly full and complete.^ We gather from these that only part of the vines of Pessac were ploughed, and that some were still worked by hand, as after noting the ploughing in November, it is added that eight men were required for covering ' alias vineas que operantur cum marra '. The four ploughings were in November, March, May, and the end of June, and each time six pairs of oxen were hired, or as it very probably means, one pair for six days. The November work cost less than the others, possibly because a shorter day's work was done. That amounted altogether to 105. sterling or £2 los. Bordeaux money ; the one in March to £3 (still reckoning a sterling as 5 denarii) ; in May and in June the same number of oxen cost £3 155. for the necessary ploughing. There was also some extra ploughing this year, because new vines were planted. In January one pair came ' ad arandum plantam ' for 85. 4^. Bordeaux money, the same rate at which the six pairs in November were paid : and in April a pair was hired for the entreplantz.^ In 1382-3 * and 1383-4 ^ four ploughings are again entered, so that this appears as the normal amount. In the earlier year these fagons took place in December, or the end of November, April, May and June, each time costing the same sum of £,^. In 1383 no details are given, but £^ 165. was paid for each time the oxen were hired for the work at Pessac. The vineyard was very probably ' xxi. 696. » xxii. 181 sq. ' These may have been new vines started between the old rows eventually to be abandoned. In 1383 this was evidently done (xxii. 359), since the bordilerius was paid ' ad plantandum novas vites intra vineas de Pessaco antedictas '. * xxii. 320 sq. » xxii. 358. (PART V) ST.-A. M i62 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. viii growing in extent. In the fifteenth century the fourth fagon appears to have been dropped ; at least only three are entered in 1401 and in 1459. Unfortunately the series of accounts being no longer so regular, there is more uncertainty as to details. In 1401, the statement is quite clear : ' Compoto cum dicto Geraldo (the bordilerius) pro harando seu boscando et fudendo dictas vineas ter in suis sadonibus ut est fieri consuetum solvi pro quolibet tempore seu sadone 625. 6i.' ^ In 1459, eight pairs of oxen were hired three times, for the reduced sum of 485. a time.^ Besides the ploughing, there was plenty of digging to be done at Pessac as elsewhere. There was always a space between the rows where a plough could not go, which had to be worked by hand ' fodiendum los cavalhons ' ; every year numbers of men were employed for this fudir, as it was called. It did not, apparently, form a necessary part of every fagon, but was done twice in the year after the ploughing which opened the furrow. In 1355, for example, when ploughing was done in January, March, June, and October, men were only paid for digging the cavalhons in February and June.* In 1361, this work is again only entered twice,^ in March and June, in each case following a few weeks after the ploughing called arare or cavalhonare, not after the one with the courbe for the work of re-covering, coperire. In 1367 a great deal of digging was done, and it is a httle difficult to distinguish which was for the plants worked that year by hand (see above), which was for the young vines just planted, and which was for digging the cavalhons. That phrase itself is not used, except in the case of the young plants, for which three men were hired in April, just after the ploughing. Probably the entry which follows the record of the June ploughing which was ' ad cavalhondam ', refers to this work for the regular vines. The entry runs ' solvi pro 12 hominibus quos habuerat ad faciendum vineas predictas que fiunt cum aratro '. There were thirteen men for digging in March after the ploughing in that month also. In 1382 and 1383 there were again four » G. 240, f. 13V. * Ibid., f. 408. * xxi. 247. * xxi. 696. CH. viii] VINES AND THE VINTAGE 163 ploughings and two diggings. At the latter date a connexion is implied between the two, when the accounts enter the pay of ten men ' qui foderunt lo cavalhos in secunda aratura '.^ In 1459 also, the digging of the furrow is only entered twice, so that this appears to be the most usual practice.^ Pruning {pudir, podar, sequar) was an important work which employed many hands. It was done, as a rule, when the vines were bare, either at the close or opening of the year ; December, January, February, or even at the very beginning of March. When this was done, the remaining branches were bent and tied to the stakes [plier, pleguer) ; and generally at the same time the soil was cleared off the stem of the vine, round which it had collected too high {lever). These works are constantly entered together. In 1355, besides 22 men adputandum part of the vine, 14 more were employed to prune the rest and also levandum et saccandum. In 1367 some of this work was done in January, when 6 men cut and cleaned the roots, while 3 tied, and a httle later 19 more did the same. In February 5 men were required for attaching the branches to the stakes.^ In 1382 the pruning was done in December, the tying not till March.* In 1383 men were paid in January for all these different functions.^ As a rule it was the training of the branches, and the work of lever la vigne, which might be left till March ; the old branches were cut off earlier. After the pruning, the small twigs and shoots were collected and made into little bundles, which were useful for fuel [eysser- mentare ; in modern French, faire les sarments). This was generally the work of women, who were employed for the lighter forms of labour in the vineyards ; it was their business to clear away the insects and snails which from time to time made inroads on the vine-plants, and at Pessac a woman was once commissioned to put manure on the vine-roots. Manuring was not one of the regular treatments for the vine, but only resorted to from time to time. In 1367 it was done both in January and December for the new shoots which had been planted ; and in 1459, 12 women were occupied in this work. * xxii. 359. » G. 240, f. 408. * xxii. 182-3. * xxii. 320. • xxii. 358. M2 i64 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. viii The Garonne mud was sometimes used for this purpose, a practice which still prevails in the Medoc.^ New vine-plants were generally put in early in the year ; in 1367 as early as January and February, but other years in April. Sometimes barbeaulx, thick branches cut off at the joint, were planted ; at other times it was smaller shoots {facere propagines) ; and these new plants generally required extra attention in the shape of ploughing, digging, staking, and manuring. These various labours cover, more or less, the usual work in the archbishop's vineyard at Pessac. There was, however, a great deal of incidental employment involved ; such as cutting and carrying willows and oziers and sharpening the stakes. These were generally occupations for the winter months, before the plants were requiring too much attention. In 1383 the Pessac vineyard was enclosed, apparently for the first time. A ditch was dug on the south side and some sort of fencing erected in other parts, for which osiers and hawthorn were required.^ This had to be renewed and repaired in 1430, when 6 men sarat la vinha so that beasts were unable to enter.^ With the exception of the vintage, the busiest months appear to have been from January to June, and a great deal of labour was hired for this one vineyard. The actual number of men employed at once is difficult to estimate with certainty, as the procureur is only interested to enter how many days of abour he has to pay ; and when he speaks of paying 84 men, it does not mean that so large a number as this was hired for one day, but that 84 days of a man's work were employed altogether.* Occasionally also, the details of the payments are not entered, but the hordilerius is stated as receiving so * xxii. 359: (1383) ' Pro 5 brossis vase maris quos fecit apportari idem bordilerius apud Pessacum ; . . . item sex mulieribus queposuerunt vassam in foveis, los.' * xxii. 359 : ' Pro fossato facto in capite vinearum versus partem meridionalem.' ' G. 241 : ' Per claus per sarar lo brisson que las bestias no intressan en la vinha.' * For the proof of this see chapter ix, p. 186, as it is best shown in a consideration of the wasres. CH. viii] VINES AND THE VINTAGE 165 much for one or other part of the work. The later accounts are fuller than those of the earlier years. In 1362 (xxi. 690), besides the ploughmen who came with their beasts, during the three weeks at the close of February and beginning of March, the work required 71 days of men's work altogether ; during one week in the middle of March, 53 men (i. e. in the same sense as above) and 8 women. More were hired for a week in April and a week in May, until the total came to 146 men for digging, pruning and staking. In 1367 (xxii. 151) there was a considerable increase of labour ; only two women were hired, but 213 men's days were occupied altogether. In 1383 (xxii. 158) only 165 men and 6 women are entered as hired ; in 1390, 90 men and 4 women ; ^ while in 1430 as many as 253 men were calculated as though em- ployed. ^ Possibly as time went on more hirelings were required, either on account of the disappearance of labour services, or because of the extension of the vineyard. Certainly more and more labourers were hired as time went on ; but some difference might also be caused by variations in the seasons. Only in the years when the vineyard was farmed out do we hear nothing of wage-paid labour expended upon it, although doubtless the farmer in whose hands it was put must have followed the same methods. The cost of cyltivating this vineyard varied in proportion to the hired labour, since otherwise there was little expense save occasional purchases of laths and stakes, and possibly, some new plants [vites). The expenditure was sometimes increased by the fact that young vines were being started, and extra men were needed to prepare the ground and to plant them. In 1354 the account is, apparently, incomplete, and the expenses are only given for March and May ; these amounted to £6 155. 2d. In 1355, from January to October, ^13 35. od. was paid over to the hordilerius. In 1362, 26 leopards of gold might be roughly reckoned as about ^^27 in the other money. In 1367, when a great deal of labour was hired (new plants, &c.), the highest expense was reached ' xxii. 453. There were also four ploughings, costing ;{i6 altogether. * G. 241 : Sometimes an entry speaks of work done by so many men; sometimes by so many ' jornaus de homes,' &c. i66 SAINT-ANDRfi OF BORDEAUX [ch. viii with £$7 lis. M. After that, only £^2 was spent in 1382 ; ^^45 165. 9^. in 1383, at which date more new vines were being planted. In 1459 the procureur himself has entered the various totals, and the cost of the Pessac vineyard is reckoned as £2'\ ys. od. ; ^ a surprising reduction, but it was rather a year for cheap prices. There is unfortunately no record of the amount of wine produced on the property, so that it is impossible to estimate how far this expenditure was repaid. Much of the foregoing description applies equally to the cultivation of the Lormont vines. These were much more extensive and offer greater variety. Some white wine was produced here, though in far smaller quantity than the red.^ There were several vineyards here. The large one known as Figuer-Belh, others round the archbishop's Lormont palace, and trellises in his garden. These were managed, as at Pessac, by a bordilerius, or as he was sometimes called, a prevot or a sergent, who was paid for his outlay by the procureur, in whose accounts the expenditure was noted. The main difference at Lormont, as far as work is concerned, was the absence of the plough ; all was apparently dug by hand. One very interesting entry is made in 1354, which shows that here at least corvees of vine-work had not quite disappeared. So much was paid for digging ' ultra id quod assensatores domini preteriti solverunt '.^ This does not look so much like work as paying for the work ; the tenants, however, seem to have paid labourers themselves to fulfil their service, not to have given the commutation for this service to the procureur. No such statement is made again, but it may explain the absence of work, which we expect to find entered, and which in later years appears much more regularly amongst the hired labour. There only appear to have been two fagons for the Lormont vines, which is curious.* This digging was done some time 1 G. 240, f. 468. * xxi. 9: (1332) '14 ton: vini albi, receptis de vinis Laureimontis.' xxii. 354, &c. ' xxi. 341. * Jouannet, II. He describes three labours for the red vines worked by the hand ; but this applies to the Graves : (i) hudir in March ; (2) mages- car in May ; (3) terssar in July. CH. viii] VINES AND THE VINTAGE 167 in March, and then again in May or June. The March work is simply entered as fodiendum ; the later labour being known as mayescandum ; but there appears to be no sign of terssan- dum, the third fagon which one would expect to find in July. This is mentioned once in the accounts, but not for the Lormont vines. In 1382 the hordilerius hired six men ad terssandum a small vineyard at Les Chretiens, which was only temporarily added to the archbishop's private demesne, and was managed by the same official as the large Lormont estate.^ A great deal of work was hired each year for these labours, but always a larger for the first fagon in March. There is wonder- fully httle difference from year to year. In 1355, to follow the method of calculation adopted by the procureiir, 109 men (i. e. days of men's work altogether) dug in March ; 89 were hired ad magiscandum.'^ In 1356 the two works were done by 148 and 80 men respectively.^ In 1357, by 153 and 105, the largest number entered at all.* In 1367, 126 men dug in March, 96 in June.^ In 1382 the first digging was as late as April, and 115 men were employed ; the June work was done by 84 men.^ In 1383 wages were given for 137 men in March, and 90 at the later date ; ' while in 1395 only 120 and 69 were hired.® Other work on these vines is similar to that done at Pessac, only on a larger scale, and the periods of work appear to be much the same. Pruning, tying, clearing the roots and the stems and collecting the sarments were all in the early months of the year ; cutting and preparing stakes in the winter ; and in the July of 1367 women were employed to strip off the little unnecessary leaves and twigs {dpamprer), a work which they are still hired to perform.^ Manuring was done here casually from time to time, as at Pessac ; and in 1459 the newly planted shoots and branches *■ xxii. 322. * xxi. 248. ' xxi. 415. * xxi. 506. • xxii. 182. * xxii. 321. ' xxii. 358. • xxii. 510. It is interesting to notice that in one year at least (1367), despite the ploughing at Pessac, these digging works also took place there, in addition to the digging between the furrows, which supplemented the work of the plough. Men were hired that year to dig in March, to tnagescare in May, and tersare in July. This may only be for parts of the vine which had recently grown, and were not done by the plough. * xxii. 185. 168 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. viii were protected by hay being placed at their roots.^ There was a good deal done in the way of planting at Lormont, the young shoots being used as a rule for this purpose. (Men were hired facere propagines in 1357, 1361, 1367, and 1459.) In 1382 a piece of waste land was laid out with new plants,^ and covered with Garonne mud for the good of their roots. In 1459 both barbeaulx and promiaiges are mentioned ; 525 barbeaulx were planted, and 480 promiaiges, and special digging and cutting of stakes was done for them. One year might be taken as fairly typical of the rest, to give an idea of the work done and the amount of labour employed. In 1356,^ for example, the procureur paid over to Pierre Reynaut, alias Pin, the bordilerius of Lormont, about 55 leopards of gold in the course of the year. In January he paid for the labour of 95 men, who had cut stakes, laths, and osiers for use in the vines, the willow plantation having been bought at that time from the Abbot of Bon-Lieu for 4 leopards. Some expense was also incurred for meat and fish purchased for the bubulci who had transported these materials, the actual carriage on this occasion having been done ex gracia. In February, 114 men were paid for pruning all the Lormont vines, and 164 for bending and tying them to the stakes, for which purpose 18 sheaves of osier were bought. In the same month a certain trellis had to be prepared, and the vines grown in that way in the archbishop's garden at Lormont were cut by 3 men. In March the digging was paid for. It had required 148 men altogether, paid in varying rates, some at 6 obols per day, others at 5 and S^. Two men also worked at enclosing the vineyard at this time. For magescandum Figuer-Belh only required 38 men, the vines round the palace 53, all of which together cost over 6 leopards. The only other hand labour entered for this year was that of 8 men hired ad levandum Figuer-Belh. There are always a few differences each year in the way of entering work ; in 1367 snails [cogolhas) and insects [vermiculos) had to be cleared from the vines, and from time to time there ^ G. 240, f. 406. - xxii. 321 : ' Plantaverant vineam in deserto Laureimontis.' ' xxii. 414 sq. CH. viii] VINES AND THE VINTAGE 169 was extra work for planting new shoots ; but the year given above is fairly typical. The regular item was the digging in March and themagescare in May or June, and men are invariably hired for pruning and tying. Such work as lever, epamprer, eyssermenter does not appear each time, although it must have been done. It may have been done by the same labourers who are entered under the heading of the more important work ; or it may be that all labour was not yet hired, and that there were a few permanent workers on the estate, who did a certain amount of the necessary cultivation, whilst day labourers were hired for all the largest undertakings. There is, on the whole, however, very little variation each year in the number of days of work which has to be provided. The smallest amount was in 1356, when 534 'men' were entered altogether ; the largest in 1382, where we find 611 men and 12 women.^ The expenses were naturally very much heavier at Lormont than at Pessac. They were also at their highest in 1367, when about ;^io5 was paid. In 1459 they were reckoned at £42 185. 8^. So great a reduction makes it appear as if some change in the coinage was responsible for a part at least of the difference, especially since Pessac had fallen in practically the same proportion, viz. from £^'j lis. 8d. to ^^24 ys. od. Nothing much that is new can be learnt from the accounts which concern the vines in the archbishop's garden at Bordeaux. Here they were grown on trellises and espahers, but the method of cultivation is all very similar, and, as at Lormont, done entirely by hand. Vine tools are mentioned here ; the marra, a mixture of spade and hoe ; and the destralos, possibly a kind of small hatchet. These were repaired during the winter. The fagons are not very easy to distinguish, since the same men generally dug the vines and other parts of the garden, and the accounts do not always specify for which they were hired ; also new plants were put in fairly frequently, and digging for them is entered at odd times. Such work is entered in different * i354i 577 men ; 1357, 618 men ; 1362, 601 men and 20 women ; 1367, 572 men and 21 women ; 1382, 611 men and 12 women ; 1383, 565 men and 12 women. 170 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. viii years as taking place in February, March, April, June, August, and November. In 1389, however, when fifty-nine men were hired through- out the year for garden work, the list is headed, ' ad fodiendum, magescandum et terssandum ; ' ^ as though three fagons were the regular rule. In some years, nevertheless, it seems probable that only two were actually given. In 1410, for example, the second digging is entered in June, and nothing later appears.^ Women were generally employed here to clear off the leaves and waste branches, and to make the sarments. Perhaps rather more was needed for these espaliers in lattes and traversieres, but the pruning, tying, and clearing away the earth [lever] were all as usual. In 1459 the whole expense for the garden, which, however, included a good many other things besides vines, came to £16 lis. 6d. during the year.^ In 1410 the prociireur calculated his total expenditure for cultivating the vines on the archbishop's private land and, excluding the vintage, it amounted altogether to £1^^ 16^. od.^ The vintage was a period of great energy and interest. The times varied, of course, according to the seasons. The white wine seems to have generally been the first to be made ; at Lormont in 1361 this was done during the last week of August, while the rest was not begun until the third week of the following month.^ The vintage of the red wines usually took place some time in September. In 1355 Pessac began in the second week, Bordeaux in the third. ^ 1361 was an early year ; the vines paying agrieres were gathered at the beginning of September, and in Pessac during the third week of August.'' In 1382 this latter vintage began in August, but only at the very close of the month (Wednesday before St. John the Baptist's Day, i. e. August 29) ; ^ and in 1395 Lormont was, apparently, as late as the opening of October.^ The verjuice was always made earlier. In 1361 this was done at Bordeaux at the end of July.^'^ ^ xxii. 452. ' G. 241. * G. 240, f. 403''. * G. 241, f. 123. ' xxi. 686, 689. ' xxi. 253. ' xxi. 685, 687. * xxii. 354. * xxii. 508. " xxi. 657. CH. viii] VINES AND THE VINTAGE 171 The actual period of the vintage itself was far from represent- ing all the work expended on the gathering of the grapes and the making of the wine. There were numerous preliminary expenses necessary, in the making or repairing of all the vats and barrels for the reception of the wine, in the preparing of the winepresses, and in the washing out of old vessels which could be used from year to year. There was also constant need for carting work. The necessities had to be brought to the different vineyards, and very often the workers themselves came from a distance, and had to be transported to the scene of their labour. Then the w^ine itself often needed to be transferred to other places ; either to the archbishop's cellars, or to some central storing-house, or to the port for foreign exportation. It was necessary besides to make various pre- parations for the sudden influx of extra labourers. Places were prepared for them to sleep in, coverings provided for their beds, fish and meat purchased, and sometimes a woman specially hired to cook for them during the time of vintage.^ Men were also paid for fetching the wood and water required whilst the work was going forward. All the year round wine vessels occur in the accounts for some reason or other ; generally some item for mending or cleaning has to be entered amongst the additional expenditure. It is not always easy to ascertain exactly what the old names mean, but there was certainly a wonderful variety of such things. There were first of all casks and barrels which had to be bought, and all the different parts of the same. These were called tonnelli, cuba, pipa, barriqua, according to their size.^ Rondela and agresseria were specially used for verjuice.* Miiyans was a term occasionally used for a small cask, probably about equal to a pipe, since the cost of carriage was the same.* Besides the casks and barrels themselves, hoops were always being bought for the same, known as bastards^ (half -sized ' G. 241, f. 123^. In 14 10 for the vintage of a small vineyard at Les Queyries, the following expenses occur : A woman to cook, i05. ;y candles, 13s. gd. ; oil, 5s. ; bed-coverings, 55. ; meat, 17s. 6d. ; fish, 15s. * xxi. 252. * xxi. 657 ; xxii. 319. * xxii. 325 : (1282) ' Pro portagiis bayselle vindemie, et unius muyati vindemie.' * xxii. 330 : (1382) ' Pro 3 duodenis de bastardeu.' 172 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. viii hoops), talucia ^ (those near the bottom of the barrel), codres or coldra ; ^ they were generally made of osier. In addition to these, there were barra ^ or planks for the bottom of the casks ; faussetz or spigots, and honda or bungs for the same.* Carts [plaiistraf] for carrying these barrels, &c., were known as charcresa ^ or hrocsP There were also various vessels for carriage of the wine which had to be rendered sine fuste, or for its transport to the various receptacles ; such as comporta ® and biters,^ the latter being made of earth. Baskets for carrying grapes were known as panerii,^^ desquets,^ or calati.^ The trulh or winepress often needed repairing in various parts. It had a spindle or bits ; ^^ agulhas,^^ thin needles of wood which helped to strain the grapes ; and coladuys or colators,^^ sieves or baskets placed under the pressoir, which caught the grape-skins and let the juice run through. Convers^^ were constantly needed in the winepress shed and elsewhere ; they were the pieces of wood put down, so that barrels might be rolled more easily upon them ; and a funnel enfonilh ^' was ^ xxi. 252 : (1355) ' Pro 32 taluciis tarn tonellorum quam piparum.' ^ xxi. 252 : (1355) ' 13 feyssiculos de coudra sive de circulis.' These were sometimes made of young chestnut. ' xxi. 339 : (1355) ' Pro viminibus, taluciis, circulis, barris et meyanis.' (Meyans was the middle plank for the bottom of the cask.) * xxii. 186 : (1367) ' Solvi pro bondis et 200 falsetis que emit pro vinis conservandis.' * xxi. 340: (13S4) 'Pro quodam plaustro cum quo portabant vinde- miam.' * xxii. 326 : (1382) ' I charcresam in dictis vindemiis, los.' ' xxi. 687 : (1361) ' I broc de terra ad portandum vinum.' * xxii. 206: (1375) 'Pro decima ipsarum vinearum, videlicet pro 6 comportis vini.' * xxii. 476 : (1357) ' Pro biters et aliis pitalphis de terra habendis pro buticularis.' ^" xxi. 507 : (1357) ' Pro solvendo 4 panerios sive discos missos ad dictum locum.' (Lormont for vintage.) " Ibid. : ' Pro duobus desquetis missis.' " xxi. 449 : (1389) ' Emi 6 calatos et i colador.' " xxi. 687: ( 1 361-2) 'Pro cepo necessario ad liniendum la bitz que volvitur in torculari.' ** Ibid. : ' Emi 6 convers de corallo pro faciendo de las agulhas pro torquendo torcular et vindemiam.' ^* xxi. 465 : (1357) ' Emi pro trolio unum panerium vocatum coladuy.' ii. 483 : ' Pro uno colatori ad colandum mustum.' " xxi. 687 : ' 6 convers pro ponendo de subtus ton.' " xxii. 189: (1367) ' Emi unum enfonilh cum longa canera ad implen- dum et colorandum dicta vina.' CH. viii] VINES AND THE VINTAGE 173 also required through which to pour the wine when the casks were being filled. Quantities of candles were always bought at each vintage, and occasionally a lantern, since the days were beginning to close early, and the work was carried on after daylight had ended : or in any case the workers needed lights in the sheds where they were lodged for the time. All these things had to be got ready before the vintage began, and they represent, therefore, considerable expense on one side, and a good deal of occupation on the other. These preparations being made, the next thing was to provide workers for the vintage. Numbers of hired labourers, both men and women, were brought in at this time, lodged, and fed whilst the work was going on, and paid either by the day or in a lump sum for the whole time. The women were chiefly employed in cutting the bunches, but they did also tread the grapes,^ except in the archbishop's winepress at Bordeaux, where it was always the work of men. Both men and women are often entered as hired ad vindemiandum without any details ; ^ sometimes it is only the men who are there ad calcandum,^ but this varies frequently. The occupa- tion which was always given to men was the heavy work of carrying and emptying the baskets of grapes, and filling the vats.* Men were also employed in carrying necessary water which was needed for washing out the vats (we read of four waters being used ' escolare cuvas '), and ^ for making the retrovinum or premiere piquette : ® a very light drink of inferior quality, generally used at the time by the vintagers themselves. Very often rather more women were employed than men. As they were paid about half the wage of a man and it was work which they could easily perform, it is not surprising that their services were welcome. The amount of hired work at ^ xxi. 508 : (1357) ' Habuerat ad vindemiandum vineas (in Lormont) et calcandum in torculari, 24 homines . . . et 57 mulieres.' * xxi. 418 : (1356) ' Solvi pro 45 mulieribus . . . et pro 23 hominibus . . . habitis ad vindemiandas omnes vineas de Laureomonte.' ' xxi. 509 : (1357) ' Habui in vindemiis Burd. ad calcandum in torculari et faciendum vina ... 34 homines.' * xxi. 253: (1355) 'Pro hominibus ad excolandum et adaquandum cubas.' 686: (1361) ' 12 homines tarn ad portandum quam ad calcandum '; ' 4 juniores homines ad evacuaudum panerios,' &c. * xxii. 326 (1382). • xxi. 660. 174 SAINT- ANDR£ OF BORDEAUX [ch. viir Lormont increased as time went on : doubtless the vineyards were spreading and more and more wine was made each year. In 1355 only 11 men and 39 women (i, e. day's work of each) were employed, which, together with the hire of a horse, cost in wages 12s. id. sterling, or about £3 os. $d. Bordeaux money .^ Two men were sent to superintend this work, but their expenses and those of the vintagers, ' ultra panem et vinum,' were only reckoned at i^ sterlings, about 9s. In 1356, 41 men were employed and 45 women, who with their food cost about ;^I2 55.^ In 1362, 55 men and 54 women cost altogether I3|- leopards of gold, roughly equivalent to rather over the same number of pounds.^ In 1386 the largest amount of labour was hired, namely, 100 men and 114 women, and their pay alone amounted to ^^19 1.2s. 6d.^ They were employed, however, for a little extra work this year, since, besides the actual vintage labour, they collected the tithe of wine, not only in Lormont but in Rofhac and Les Queyries. This work had hitherto been entered separately, and the addition of it in this instance may partly account for these large numbers ; certainly there were never quite so many employed in the ensuing years. In 1387, 58 men and 88 women did the work, and expenses were ;£"i2 155.^ In 1390 only 44 men and 63 women (;^8 10s. id.).^ In 1396 for the first time the propor- tions were reversed and 74 men were employed to only 50 women (;^i4 ys. 6i.).' The expenses of the vintage at Bordeaux represent more than the actual gathering and pressing of grapes from the archbishop's garden, for his private winepress was used for all the dues which he received in grapes not in wine. Thus a great deal of labour hired for his town estate was really work in the winepress. This in Bordeaux was wholly the work of men; the archbishop never had women to tread his grapes. The pay for vintage work was good, and very similar in all parts of the demesne (see chapter ix). The labourers, also, were well fed ; besides bread and wine, meat, fish, and cheese ^ xxi. 253. * xxi. 418. • xxi. 687. * xxii. 397. * xxii. 415. * xxii. 449. ^ xxii. 508. CH. viii] VINES AND THE VINTAGE 175 were provided. These latter commodities had often to be bought and so augmented the expenses ; but the real cost of the wine harvest consisted even more in the provision of casks and barrels and in the carriage of the same full and empty, than in the remuneration of the labourers. The total expendi- ture of the grape harvest is difficult to reckon because of these incidental expenses. In 1459, however, the procureur has himself made a calculation, and the cost of the vintage on all the archbishop's vines, in Lormont, Pessac, and the Graves, is entered as £90 its. od. This actually exceeds the money spent upon them throughout all the rest of the year, which amounted altogether to ^^83 lys. 2d. The cost of the vine- yards was, probably, more than made good by the value of the wines, and the trade which was carried on both at home and abroad.^ * Since this chapter was written and whilst the book was going through the press, a very interesting series of articles on the same subject, by Jean Barennes, has been appearing in the Revue de Bordeaux, begun in the March-April number of 191 1 and hot yet finished. It was impossible to make any reference to these articles in this chapter, since the type was already set up when I first saw them, but I am glad to find that the author and myself appear to be in complete agreement as to our general conclusions and interpretation of the documents. CHAPTER IX SALARIES AND WAGES The wage-paid labourer appeared very early on the arch- bishop's estate, and the archiepiscopal account-books are full of expenses incurred for the hiring of all sorts of workers for the cultivation of his demesne, and for the carriage of the dues in kind, which went to keep up his great establishment. His large estate needed a considerable staff of officials for its management and supervision, and these he had to pay and • maintain, as well as his own personal attendants and household servants ; whilst the workmen and artisans of the neighbour- hood were principally occupied in working for their ecclesias- tical superior or the chapter of St. -Andre. The archbishop's chief official was the procureur, who took over the whole responsibility of the temporal estate. He was a great man himself, with his own house and servants, and was completely trusted with all financial and agricultural management. Below him came other officials to supervise the various branches of the work. A collector of tolls and customs ; a clavigerus who managed the actual house expenses of the archbishop, but who applied to the procureur for the money he needed ; a corn-dealer who looked after the sale and purchase of this commodity. Generally the procureur placed some one at the head of the different parts of the demesne, who could live on the spot and personally supervise the work, on which they had to report to their superior. Thus, there was a bordilerius to look after the vines of Pessac, a serviens at Lormont ; a gardener in the archbishop's casau, and several others. These might vary from year to year, according to whether the procureur had chosen to farm out some special piece of land, or to manage it by an agent who simply worked under him. Then there were quantities of servants, messengers, and officers sent to collect corn and wine CH. ix] SALARIES AND WAGES 177 payments, reeves, harvest guards, and others. The archbishop had many in his own house : such as a porter, a cook, a baker, and various ordinary servants both male and female, all of whom were clothed and fed, while some received wages in addition. All the expenses involved in the maintenance of this large staff were under the control of the procureur. Wages might be paid either by the year, by the day, or by the job. Some work was paid for in varying sums, either according to its nature, or to the length of time it took, or in proportion to the expense which it involved. Permanent officials, employed the whole year round, were generally paid a salary, rendered once or twice during the year, consisting for the most part of corn and wine, clothing and a little money. It is very evident that in those days a man worked to live, not to heap up riches, and as these permanent officials were almost always maintained at the archbishop's expense, the extra emolument they received was generally slight, and took almost more the form of gifts than of actual wages. The procureur himself was paid in 1357, 3|- tons of wine, 10 escartes of wheat, and every week one crown pro companagio, which generally means something extra to eat with bread, whatever it may be. This does not seem a very princely salary, but then he might, apparently, buy what he needed for himself and his servants and put it down to the archbishop's account. As these purchases took, as a rule, the form of clothes — cloth for gown and cap, shoes, and so forth — he was probably given house and food as a matter of course. When he had to undertake any journey and so incur unusual expenses, they were always carefully noted. The bordilerius of Pessac was paid solely in corn and wine ; rye, millet, and a pipe of red wine was given to him in 1355 ; any purchase which he had made in the course of his work was noted, but otherwise no money payment is mentioned. The Serjeant of Lormont did occasionally have money as well as corn. For himself and his servant, 1367-8, he received 12 bushels of wheat and 10 leopards of gold. The miller of Lormont was sometimes a regularly paid official. This mill was part of the archbishop's private property, and when he (part V) ST. A. N 1-78 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. ix did not wish to farm it out he put in a servant of his own. This man received as salary in 1356, 8 florins (this was probably about 1005. Bordeaux money) and a tunic.^ In 1401 he had a most complete wardrobe provided. His gown with its lining, and several pairs of boots and shoes, came to as much as ;^24 55. 4^.2 Of the regular household servants, the cook seems to have been the most important. There was a man at the head of the kitchen, assisted by an under cook and several women who were also under him.^ In 1382 his wages for half the year amounted to £6 lis. 8d., and he had quantities of things bought for him, sheets and a thick blanket for his bed, stuff for his clothing, sundry pairs of shoes, and in 1387 lining for his gown which cost £1 105.* He also had to have the doctor one year and some ointment to put on his hand, all of which appears duly noted in the procureur's accounts. Another household servant was paid for a full year's salary in 1361-2, 8 leopards of gold,^ which might amount to anything between ^5 lO-^- and £6 in ordinary Bordeaux money, since a leopard of gold varied from 32 to 36 sterlings. In 1356 an old woman-servant was to have been paid 4 leopards and 2 pairs of shoes for her year's work, but went off apparently before the end of the time, and only received one pair of shoes ; ® a maid-servant in 1361-2 was paid for the year four crowns of gold, which were of about the same value as the leopards.' In other instances there seems to have been no regular salary, but occasional presents and clothes whenever required. The archbishop was evidently not in the least stingy towards his retinue, and they were well provided with the necessaries of life and looked after when they were ill. Shoes are one of the most frequent items in the accounts, and must have constantly needed renewing. Perhaps they were like the * Arch. Hist, de la Gironde, xxi. 449. * G. 240, f. 147. * Arch. Hist., xxii. 347. * xxii. 414. * xxi. 683. Gold money had only just been introduced into Gascony. * xxi. 410. ' xxi. 677. A crown of gold in France at this date was worth a little over £1 tournois (Avenel, i. 482). CH. IX] SALARIES AND WAGES 179 string-soled sandals so much worn in the south of France in the present day, which are more comfortable than durable. In 1385 nineteen pairs of shoes were bought for the arch- bishop's servants, and their cost was 6s. 3^. a pair.^ The smallness of the payments made to the upper officials as contrasted with the actual servants, is probably accounted for by the fact that they did not live at their own expense, but had houses and food allowed them. Also, as a rule, they spent what was necessary and then applied to the procureur, who provided for himself and them out of the public fund. In later days this system may have been a little breaking down. In the fifteenth-century accounts, money payments appear rather more frequently, and in 1412 the receveur was given £50 for his year's salary, and ;^8 was spent in renting a house for him.2 There were many other servants of whom we have occasional mention, such as grooms, stable-boys, a shepherd at Lormont, and a great many famuli, without other special designation. All of them were kept and most of them paid or given some- thing more or less regularly. A few of those who worked for the archbishop, though not exactly servants, probably gave him most of their time. These were often paid in lump sums, not for their work as it was done. We find something of this sort in the case of the baker, the blacksmith, and the washen;\'oman, who were provided with all sorts of things necessary for their business and paid large sums at intervals.^ These were probably, however, for past work and in proportion to it, the procureur merely entering the total and not the details. The blacksmith was not always paid in this way, but often given so much for shoeing a horse or doing other things, instead of a large sum for his work in general.* Work which could not be done by the permanent staff, and for which the rare corvees did not suffice, was frequently paid ' xxii. 389, » G. 240, f. 272^. » xxi. 500, 660, &c. * xxi. 317: (1354) ' Solvi marescallo pro ferrando roncinos dictorum fratrum, a prima die januarii ad dictam diem, 80 sterl.' 328 : ' Solvi marescallo ... a 21 die mail citra, et pro quibusdam medicinis, 4 flor.' xxii. 381 : (1385) ' Pro 40 ferris positis ia equis . . . dando pro quolibet ferro 15^., 50s.' N 2 i8o SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. ix for by the job, or in any case entered so in the accounts. The most constant of all hired work was that af transport, which was needed continuously, for the archbishop's own produce, for his receipts of corn and wine, for his purchases, for his servants in the fulfilment of their offices, and for all the ordinary requirements of the estate ; the sale of commodities rendered this carriage from place to place more than usually frequent. Surprisingly little work of this kind was done unpaid. From time to time the wagon-drivers were only given money for their food and incidental expenses, but in far the greater number of cases the work was hired work, whether carts and oxen were employed on the roads, or vessels on the Garonne. The cost of carriage was a serious item in the total expenditure. In the instances given of unpaid cartage, it is not quite clear whether this was done voluntarily, or enforced as a kind of purveyance, or as a labour service owed by a tenant in return for his land. Never is it expressly called a territorial duty, and the wording of the accounts implies that it was done freely. In 1362 loads of wood were carried to the port of Lormont, and the procureur notes ' habui salmerios de gracia V ' but I bought food for the drivers ' ; and in 1385 he had buhulci for taking cartloads of faggots from the wood of Pessac * amoris absque pretio '.^ There is, however, sufficient resemblance between this expression and the English term of * love-days *, to render it probable that this service was one of the few remaining forms of boon-work, which some tenants still continued to render. This unpaid work, whatever might be its reason, was very exceptional, and transport of goods was generally paid for according to the nature of the article, the length of the journey and the method of conveyance. Whenever possible goods were conveyed by water, which was cheaper and more convenient than by road, and the procureur was continually hiring vessels to bring to Bordeaux the quarteria and rents in kind from districts near the Garonne or Dordogne ; or to convey himself and his subordinates to and ^ xxi. 664. * xxii. 385, CH. ix] SALARIES AND WAGES i8i fro on their business. Sometimes the accounts merely state that a vessel had been hired at a certain price ; at other times the gaharrerius was paid for his trouble according to his cargo. In 1355 the hire of a vessel to Blaye was 105. oh. ; ^ whilst one to Lormont (a much shorter distance, only just across the river) cost 5 leopards of gold (roughly a little over £-^) ; and to Libourne 6 of the same coins.^ It is impossible to compare these prices in any way, when the size of the vessels is unknown. In 1382, vessels for conveying the quarteria, probably of a similar kind, were hired at the rate of ^5 for Bourg and £6 for Blaye.^ Two boats from Port Trompette (Tropeyte) at Bordeaux to the seaport, presum- ably the place beyond which foreign trading-ships did not penetrate, only cost £1.^ In 1395, a vessel carrying 12 tonneaux of corn (about 170 or 180 bushels) to Blaye was paid only 455.^ Sometimes there was a gabarrarius to whom the money was paid. In 1386 he charged 4s. 2d. for every tonnelliis (cask) of wine conveyed from Lormont to Bordeaux ; ^ and the same price was paid in 1395 for shipping the produce of the vintage from Ambares.'' The carriage of a solitary pipe of wine, from Lormont to a sea-vessel, was 2S. id. at the same date.® Even when the river rendered it possible to do most of the journey by water, the goods had to be carried down to the port, wherever it might be ; and then again at Bordeaux there were additional expenses for conveying them to the arch- bishop's palace, or to the barn or cellar in which they were to be kept. Various men earned their living as carriers : bubidci with ox wagons, who were employed for any sort of commodity ; salmaterii or mule-drivers, who carried goods that were possible to strap on to the back of an ass or mule ; faysilherii or porters, who carried loads on their own backs, or helped in the lading of carts and boats. The sacquerii chiefly worked at the carrying of corn ; whilst the braymantes rolled the barrels of wine to and from the vessels, or helped to unload the carts and fill the cellars. This is particularly explained on one occasion in the accounts, when the procureur ' xxi. 251. « xxi. 671. ' xxii. 318. * xxii. 336. • xxii. 481. • xxii. 398. ' xxii. 485. ' xxii. 487. i82 SAINT-ANDR£ of bordeaux [ch. ix enters what he has paid ' braymantibus pro onerando, exone- rando et insotando 20 ton. vini '.^ Occasionally the work of the carters was paid by the day instead of by the load ; and when this is the case, they seem to have received the ordinary wage for a day's labour at the period. In 1357 hubulci were paid from 8 to 10 gros. apiece ; ^ in 1387 a mule-driver received 2S. 6d., and a bubulcus 2s. gd. ; * in 1412 carrying corn was paid at the very usual rate of 2s. 6d. the day.* The cost of carriage, at different times and in different manners, is very difficult to compare, on account of the uncertainty as to the exact distances over which the goods had to be carried. In the case of wine, hubulci and braymantes are both employed over the same load, and are paid so much for the cask, so much for the pipe. This nearly always works out at just a little less for the braymantes ; but if the buhulci have only a very short way to go they may possibly be paid at the same rate as the others who load and unload. There are a good many entries of the cost of carriage from Lormont to Bordeaux. In 1361 both hubulci and braymantes were paid 4 sterlings for every cask which was taken from the vineyard to the river. From the port of Bordeaux to the archbishop's palace or cellar the buhulci received 6 sterlings a ton, the braymantes a little less.^ Eighteen casks for the whole transit cost as much as 10 leopards of gold.^ A faysilherius for con- veying two barrels from the vineyard of Lormont to the port was paid 2^ sterlings.' In 1367 either money was depreciated or prices had gone up very much. All labour was paid for at a higher rate and carriage was no exception. For each cask conveyed from the river to the archbishop's palace at Bordeaux, the buhulci were paid 8 albi (roughly 16 sterlings), and the braymantes 5 ; for each pipe in proportion ; 5 albi for the biibidci, 2^ albi or 5 sterlings for the braymantes.^ '■ xxii. 188. * xxi. 488. Apparently of slightly lower value than sterling money. Ibid., 486. 20 halfpennies gros. = 18 halfpennies sterling. ' xxii. 408. * G. 240, f. 131. ^ xxi. 681. A sterling seems to have equalled about sd. of Bordeaux. * xxi. 691. ' xxi. 68I; * xxii. i86 sq. CH. ix] SALARIES AND WAGES 183 In 1386 the cost of conveying the vintage of Lormont to what was called the new port was 3s. 4^. for both workers ; ^ but certain tithes of wine which were paid by the seigneur of Montferrand to the archbishop cost for carriage 3s. ^d. a ton to the bubulci, 35. to the braymantes.^ For other journeys the proportion was 35. 4d. to 2s. 6d. ; ^ or 35. 10^. to 2s. aid (1395).* The carriage of corn was generally paid by the escarte or by the bushel. The sacquerii were given 2 sterlings the escarte in 1355, from the port to the granary ; ^ 4 sterlings in 1361 ; ^ and in 1367, 6 sterlings from the granary to the house of the Seneschal of Bordeaux.' In 1382 the payment was made by the bushel ; 5^. each from the port to the arch- bishop's oven,^ in 1395, 2>hd. from Villeneuve to the granary, and 6d. from Ouinsac. A faysilherius for carrying a bushel from the port to the granary only 2\d.^ A bubulcus in the same year was paid 35. for conveying one tonneau of corn for the same distance.^'' There are also many notices concerning the cost of conveying other goods. Straw and wood were generally done by the saumaterii. In 1395 the carriage of two bundles of straw from the port to the palace cost lod. ; a sacquerius who carried a load of salt received i^. ; a faysilherius with 51 lb. of oil from one quarter of Bordeaux to another, also 10^. ; and for a barrel of salted fish 15. Sd?^ A consideration of these expenses shows very little except how much money went every year in the cost of carriage. The methods of conveyance seem to have been much what they are at the present day ; ox wagons, mules and donkeys, or men with great loads on their own backs, took things from place to place, whenever water transport was impossible. The archbishop's officials had no free passage on the river, but paid wherever they went for themselves and their beasts, and there was continuous coming and going. A carrier could make, apparently, much the same as any day labourer in the country, or perhaps a little more. The biibidci were naturally paid at a slightly higher rate than the others. ' xxii. 398. * xxii. 399. ' xxii. 450. ' xxii. 483. ' xxi. 251. • xxi. 671. ' xxii. 191. * xxii. 337. • xxii. 479. '• xxii. 481. " xxii. 477. i84 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. ix These huhulci were also required for ploughing. The arch- bishop had little need of this, since he had no corn land ; but the vines at Pessac, as we have seen, were worked with an ox plough, instead of being dug by hand, and the plough and ploughmen were paid either by the'^ day or by the work they had to do. In 1354 there were two ploughings costing respec- tively 4 florins and 3 florins (roughly £2 los. and £1 lys. 6d. in Bordeaux money). ^ In 1355 the four fagons — the vine being ploughed in January, March, June, and October — each cost 2>2 florins. As this coin was valued rather differently the ploughing expense varied this year from £1 155. to £2.^ In 1361 the May ploughing was said to require nine days' work with the oxen, which works out to about 6s. 3d. a day.^ This evidently means a pair of oxen per day ; for in 1367 the accounts are more explicit and say that six pairs of oxen with the plough cost ;^3 105. each day ; * but this is the year when all prices were high, and the proportion compared with other wages is quite ordinary. In June, 125. 6d. was paid per day for the work of a two-ox plough ; but the day's work may have been longer than in March and April, when 105. was paid. In 1382, 10 jornales bourn at £4 works out at 8s. a pair ; taking for granted that the two-ox plough was still the one in use.^ Every now and then a piece of work in the vineyards was paid for in a lump sum, instead of labourers being hired by the day, according to the usual plan. This, however, is often merely a simplifying of the accounts. The procureur paid the lump sum to the hordilerius, but whether the latter actually hired the labourers by the day or by the job, remains unspecified. Thus in 1355, 2^ florins were paid for digging the cavalhons ; ® in 1440, 21 men digging the vines at Begles (without any statement as to the number of days' work), each had 18 sterlings ; 3 men digging the garden the same ; and one woman stripping off the old leaves, 4s. 8^.' In all these cases, more than one day's work was evidently given. Similarly with haymaking, a sum was often paid down for the whole work * xxi. 341. * xxi. 247. ' xxi. 696. * xxii. 184. * xxii. 321. ' xxi. 247. ' G. 489. CH. IX] SALARIES AND WAGES 185 of cutting and making. In 1354, haymaking on the small meadow near the archbishop's house, cost 2 florins the first time, 15. 8d. sterling the second, and is, id. sterHng the third.i (About 255., 8s. ^d., 5'ing corn, 2/6 1412 7-10 sterl. 18 sterl. 6/6 Cutting wood, 7 sterl. 1430 10 sterl. 18 sterl. 18 sterl. 1432 8 sterl. 1459 2/-2/6 There are too many changes in the value of money, as well as in the actual coinage used for calculations, to render the com- parison of wages year by year very instructive. It is evident, however, that at the same date the different rural occupations were all paid very much the same wage. There was little to choose in the way of occupation for the sake of money-making. Women were employed a good deal, but almost entirely for work in the vineyards, or in the archbishop's garden. Only once are they mentioned as haymaking, and they never shared in the heavy work of moving corn or cutting wood. There was so much light work they could do in the vines, both for ordinary cultivation as well as for the vintage, that they had no need to seek other employment. They worked less often in Bordeaux than at Lormont and Pcssac, the reason being that much of the work there was 190 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. ix treading grapes in the archbishop's pressoir (his garden vineyard was small), and this, curiously enough, was never done by women, on this estate at any rate. They were paid at a very much lower rate than the men, sometimes only half, and similarly when they worked in the garden. This propor- tion is very similar to the scale of payment for women's work in Bordelais vineyards at the present day. As there was practically no difference in the value of different forms of rural labour, so there was very little difference from place to place. Occasionally the rate for vintage at Bordeaux appears a little higher than at Lormont and Pessac, probably because there was more treading the grapes there, and that was some- times paid rather better than the actual picking — as a rule, however, the same men were probably doing both, so that it was seldom reckoned separately. All through the latter years of the fourteenth century, wages remain very steady in amount, and 25. 6d. is about the average for a man's day from 1382 onwards. At the beginning of the fifteenth century they seem to rise slightly, unless it is merely an alteration in the value of money ; but by 1459 the 2S. 6d. average is again established. The artisans were paid at a far higher rate than the labourers. Carpenters on the whole seem to have received the best pay. There are generally two grades of workmen. Either a master and servant, in which case the latter is paid about half the wage of his superior ; or the established workman and a travelling carpenter or mason, &c., who generally receives a rather lower rate of pay. As there is no mention of food being provided for the artisan, the value of his remuneration as compared with that of the labourer is not quite so much greater as it appears at first sight. Stillthissortofworkwas naturally paid at a rather higher rate, being more skilled, and needing a longer apprenticeship. The archbishop was a great employer of labour, and he seems to have paid for it at a very good rate, although the extraordinarily high figures must be due rather to the low value of the standard money, than to absolutely exceptional con- ditions in this region (see p. 62), The various sorts of money need, however, to be reduced to their equivalent value at the present day, before any satisfactory conclusion can be reached upon this subject. CHAPTER X CONCLUSION The general impression gained from a study of the docu- ments concerning the estate of St.-Andre is that it was un- usually wealthy and prosperous. By means of the dues and produce received from the land, vast expenses were defrayed and a high standard of living maintained. The archbishop's procureur did things on a large scale ; servants and labourers were paid well and kept in considerable comfort, money for food and clothing was not stinted, and enough was left to give handsome presents and to entertain generously. At the same time the capacity of the estate was sometimes severely taxed to meet all the calls laid upon it ; and although current expenses were met, and that apparently without stint, the balance left over was never a large one and in some years non-existent ; money was not being laid by for a rainy day. It must, however, be remembered that money by no means represented the full value of the estate or the real profits from the land. If the procureur had no actual coins to hand over to the archbishop, he generally reported a large stock of corn and wine as still in hand, after all expenditure had been defrayed ; and even a money deficit did not necessarily imply a year of failure and loss. In 1342-3 we have a very neat calculation of all the money transactions during the year.^ The sum total of all the receipts in money amounted to ;^4,622 45. ^d. Bordeaux coinage. The expenditure was as follows : — • The procureur' s own expenses ..... Vintage expenses ....... For sundry expenses (' que extraordinarie nuncupantur ') To archbishop and his vicars .... Works and repairs ...... Cultivation of vineyards ..... xxi. 128. i s. d. no 4 4 200 17 9 ') • 715 6 • 3,40s II 3 • 151 8 6 . 48 2 2 Total £4,631 4 6 192 saint-andr£ of bordeaux [CH. X The procureur was therefore £g os. 2d. out of pocket at the end of the year. This seems to have been really a bad season, for there was, apparently, neither corn nor wine left in hand. There had been as many as fifty-eight casks of wine beyond expenses, but these, for some reason, were all handed over to Helie de Caudrot according to the accounts.^ In 1354, receipts and expenditure were declared to be equal, but large sums of money had been handed over to the arch- bishop who was at Avignon with the Pope at the time, and com and wine were left over.^ In 1356 also, although nothing was left over in money, both cellars and granaries were full,^ In 1357 and 1362 on the contrary, the procureur gives a long list of various sorts of money still in hand when all had been paid.* As the totals of what the archbishop himself had received are not given, it may be simply that all surplus was handed over to him, and the profits were therefore larger in former years than would appear from the end of the accounts. In 1401 there was a balance of a little over ;^I5,^ and in 1459 of ;^i6.^ A few interesting details are given in the accounts of these years. In 1410 some of the expenses are calculated as follows : For collecting vintage in Pessac Vintage in gardens Vintage in the Graves Vintage in Lormont . Vintage in Les Quejrries Carriage of wine Expenses for collecting quarteria Cultivation of various vineyards Clothes for the procureur . In 1459 there are additional details, and also an entry of arrears, which every year helped to diminish the receipts actually due from the estate. Money given to Monseigneur For garrisons Garden expenses Expenses for vines at Lormont Expenses for vines at Pessac Vintage at Lormont, Pessac, and the Graves i s. d. 4 8 4 IS 8 4 2 6 14 7 I 23 13 3 14 4 2 43 2 9 144 16 25 xxi. 346. XXI. 392. i . 1844 s. 15 d. 59 16 9 II 6 . 42 18 8 24 7 90 II xxi. 517 , 706. CH. X] CONCLUSION 193 £ s. i. 43 I 10 6 16 34 6 6 I 14 6 3 5 9 50 13 8 66 IS 7 100 9 loi 5 9 3| 46 10 27 10 Vintage at Quinsac Expense for collecting dues from St.-Capra: Expense for collecting quarti&res Expense for stone .... Expense for repairs Extra expenses and journeys Expenses for Perigord and St.-Cyprien Arrears of Bordeaux Arrears of Lormont .... Arrears of rents .... Arrears from churches At the end of this year, although the procureur had ;^i6 in hand, it is only fair to notice that he started in 1458 with £2^ in hand from the previous year. He had not, therefore, made money by his management. It is evident that the ideal was not to store up wealth, but to cover expenses, and to enable the whole establishment of St. -Andre to be carried on without difficulty. This, to judge from the manner of life of the archbishops, and their staff of officials, servants, and labourers, was amply fulfilled. It must be remembered that it was particularly creditable for an estate to be prosperous throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, since it was a period when both war and plague were making considerable havoc throughout the whole district, and when French and English alike were committing depredations and rendering it impossible to collect all the revenue which should have been forthcoming. The effects of the war are especially visible in the fifteenth century, when the country round Bordeaux was actually the scene of active warfare. In 1423 we find that the archbishop had been prevented from making any proper visitation of the diocese for some years, owing to the war and disturbances which had been raging.i In 1443 he was too poor to endow properly a new College of Studies at Bordeaux.^ Many of the churches and hospitals of Bordeaux were in ruins ; ^ the Monastery of ' Denifle, i. 127. See Gall. Chris, ii. 841. Work of Pey Berland : ' ecclesias, occasione bellorum dirutas, restauravit, spoliatas ornabat, pauperes recreabat. Ecclesiam cathedralem, cujus pars fornicis navis terrae motu conquassata an. 1427 corruit, fortasse jam restauratam invenit.' * Ibid. i. 131 : ' Propter tenuitatem mensae archiepiscopalis.' ' Ibid. 133, 134 : ' Ecclesia sancti Severini depauperata . . . causantibua ^PART V) ST.-A. Q 194 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. x St.-Sauveur of Blaye ; the Abbey of La Grande Sauve/ the churches of Soulac, St.-Emihon, Begles, Villeneuve, and many others were desperately impoverished.^ In 1447 plague added its horrors to those of war and depopulated much of the country in the archbishop's diocese.^ There are plenty of illustrations which show that this prevailing distress did affect the actual property of archbishop and chapter, and render it less productive than it would other- wise have been ; and that some of the tenants were brought to misery and destitution. It was the small holders who must have suffered the most, and their condition can only be gathered from incidental remarks rather than direct state- ments. In 1356 the procureur made an expedition to La Souys to inspect certain vines which had been wasted, and to endeavour to bring them again under cultivation.* In 1360 several fiefs had lapsed to the archbishop, and paid no rent.^ In 1383 a large debt for quartieres had to be remitted at Cazau, because the whole district was ' penitus destructa per guerram ; non fuit fructus '.® The accounts this year are full of notes stating ' deserta est, et non computatur '.' In the fifteenth century there were a number of deguer- pissements on account of poverty. Estates were abandoned by the tenants, who were no longer able to make them pay sufficiently to render the rents or to continue cultivation.^ Plague and bad seasons helped to account for the distress of this period, as well as the war itself.^ The accounts of 1459 show that the close of the long Hundred Years' War had not yet brought a cessation of troubles. No rents were paid from Coutures and Loutrange, where the Seigneur d'Albret was in guerrarum turbinibiis et aliis sinistris eventibus.' Hospital of Carmelites in ruins. Hospital of St. -Julian destroyed, &c. ^ Ibid. 139. ' Ibid. 142. ^ Ibid. 132 : (Nov. 2, 1447) ' De Pessaco, de Caldiaco, de Calamiaco . . . ob guerrarum turbines, mortalitatem pestis, terrarum sterilitates aliaque, habitatoribus et incolis carent.' * xxi. 407-8. ' xxi. 538. ' xxii. 297. ' xxii. 300-2. * Terrier of St.-Andre, passim. * G. 285, f. 162. In 1433 there was plague at Bordeaux, and a general procession to pray for relief. Terrier,!. 6&' : (1440) ' Et fora estat en aissi que par las grans freitz qui foren aras dos ans en lo pais de Bordales, lodeit trens de vinha fossa estat mort cum totas las autras vinhas de tot lodeit pays de Bordales.' CH. x] CONCLUSION 195 possession, and many parishes were wasted and unable to pay their qtuzrtieres ; ^ but even this bad year did not involve real loss to the archbishop. As to the methods of cultivation employed, they appear to be distinctly advanced for the period, at least on the private demesne of the archbishop. The introduction of the plough for some of the vine-work, the enclosing of certain vineyards, the use of manure, all point to progressive ideas ; and the whole management is orderly, regular, and careful. The interesting feature of the estate is, however, the fact that it was commercial rather than natural. All was sacrificed to the vine and the wine-trade, and there was but little trace, in consequence, of the old, self-sufficient manorial system. Buying, selling, exchanging must have been active amongst the tenants, as well as with their seigneur. The condition of the inhabitants was also advanced for the period. There was doubtless some serfdom, there were some labour services, some dependent conditions ; but this is not the aspect of life most prominent in the documents. All points to a state of things extraordinarily modern : a great number of small free rent-paying or profit-sharing tenants, bound to their ecclesiastical superiors by ties of money rather than by bonds of allegiance ; sometimes bound to the soil and unable to alienate freely, but this by reason of contract rather than by custom or the arbitrary will of the lord; services and dues early commuted into money payments, and the wage-paid labourer the rule rather than the exception. That is what the accounts and the terriers seem to show us, although their record may be partial, and the conditions on more distant parts of the estate rather less advanced, and not so wholly estabhshed on an economic basis. The Hst of the archbishop's tenants in 1400, and the terrier of the chapter in the fifteenth century, give some idea of the chief occupations which were carried on amongst the tenants, and the social conditions prevailing on the Bordelais part of the estate. Amongst the rent-paying tenants who held directly from ' G. 241. 02 196 SAINT-ANDR£ of BORDEAUX [ch. x the archbishop in 1400, there were a few nobles who had houses in Bordeaux for which they paid in money. The Captal de Buch himself was amongst the number, and there were three domicelli : but the ecclesiastical nobility was better represented than the lay. The Bishop of Dax, the Priors of Bardenac, Cayac, le Barp, and St.-George-de-lTsle, and the Abbots of Sauve Majeure and St.-Sauveur-de-Blaye, all held rent-paying property from the archbishop. There were a large number of priests, thirty-nine in all, and seven clerks, besides four of the canons of St.-Andre itself. In the majority of cases the tenants are entered in the list as parishioners of such and such a place, but without mention of any special occupa- tion. In the majority of these instances, however, it is evident that they were rural cultivators, for their lands are entered with their houses, and it is presumably on the profits of these lands that they lived. Vineyards formed the chief part of the property of these tenants, and the cultivation of the vine must therefore have been the principal occupation. (The list being of rent-paying tenants only, it naturally does not include the large mass of rural cultivators, mostly of vineyards, who held by the payment of agrieres. They must be remembered, however, as swelling the number of those who made their living from the land.) Most of the necessary trades of the time were also represented. There were a large number of carpenters, a few blacksmiths, masons, chemists, merchants, chandlers, and butchers ; besides a grocer, a baker, a cutler, a pastry-cook, a barber, and an inn-keeper. Of course these different employments may have found recruits amongst the sub-tenants, of whom there is no record. In Bordeaux itself there were a surprising number of notaries, and we find also a Bachelor of Arts, a Doctor of Laws, and a Doctor of Medicine to represent the professions. The terrier of St.-Andre mentions the names of a few new tradesmen ; a tanner, a glove-maker, some weavers, copper- smiths, and quite a quantity of shoemakers ; besides which it adds to the number of merchants, butchers, barbers, and inn-keepers. But by far the greater number of entries are concerned with vine-labourers (laboradors de vinhas), and CH. x] CONCLUSION 197 makers of big wine casks or tonnelli. Of the former over forty occur as connected with the land-transactions recorded. They may have been the labourers who hired themselves out for wages, but they certainly had vineyards of their own also, often quite extensive holdings. There is no reason to think that the wage-paid labourer was always landless, though there may have been some who made their entire living by payments for work. Amongst all these tenants only seven carters are mentioned and they appear in the terrier ; no bubulci, bray- mantes, or fay silher it are named at all. Possibly these workers really had no land of their own, but lived wholly on what they could earn ; or they may have been sub-tenants, since they do not even appear as holders of houses or parts of houses in 1400. The general conclusion derived from these lists of tenants is, that amongst the simple freemen there were a small number of artisans and tradesmen, but a far larger number of rural cultivators, living on the proceeds of their own land, or working for a money wage on the property of others. We also infer that the servants of the archbishop were not rewarded by land but only by money, and were lodged in his house or, in any case, at his expense, since none of them are named amongst his tenants. From the terrier it appears that the tendency as time goes on is for the class of merchants to increase and for a few new trades to be introduced ; but that rural labourers are still in the majority, and that vineyards give the chief occupation to dwellers in Bordeaux and its neighbourhood. The uniform character of the land and its inhabitants renders a description of the estates of St.-Andre less interesting than that of some district would be where conditions were more varied. It is very different from Pyrencan Gascony, where almost every valley had its special characteristics, its own customs, its peculiar rights. But this Bordelais property is all the more useful as a type on account of this very sameness. With some allowance for the importance and wealth accruing to it as a great ecclesiastical seignory, it may be taken as a very fair example of the large wine-growing estates of Southern France. INDEX Accapte, 59. See Esporle. Agen (rules of succession in), Dept. of Lot et Garonne, 36. Agresseria, vessels for wine or verjuice, 171. Agreyra {terra), land held at part pro- duce, 135-45- Agri&res, part produce, 60, 65, 68, 106, 109, 135, 158, 170, 196. Agulkas, strainers in the wine-press, 172. Albret (Amanieu d'), 59. — (Bernard d'), 97. — (Seigneur d'), 195. Alexander III (Pope), 20. Alod, 15, 49, 58. Ambares, c. of Carbon-Blanc,* 6, 16, 18, 33> 35. 38, 41, 42, 65, 67, 104, 109, 181. Ambleville (Arnaud d'), 15. — (Seignory of), in Saintonge, Dept. of Charente, 18, 57, 131, 132. Aquitaine, 3. — (Duke of), 113, 120. Arbanats, c. of Podensac, 19, 60. Archbishops of Bordeaux, estates of, 12, 13. 147 ; garden of, 155, 168, 169, 176; jurisdiction of, 11, 120, 121; labour hired for, 47 ; palace of, 166 ; private demesne of, 16, 32 ; privileges of, 10, 56 ; revenue of, 108 ; trade of, 12, 149, 158 ; wealth of, 12. Archives de I'Archevcche, 6. — dcpartementales, 6, and notes passim. — du chapitre, 8. — historiques de la Gironde, 6, and notes passim. Arreguas, see litge. Arliga, garden, clearing, 134. Artigues, c. of Carbon-Blanc, 22, 23, 35, 41, 57- Artisans, wages of, 189, 190. Aubari'de, willow plantation, 135 and passim. Aubiac (Chdlellenie of), Dept. of Lot et Garonne, 15, 57, 132. Audat, place at Bassens, 68. — (Arnaud d'), 68. — (Comptor d'), 68. Audejole, old quarter of Bordeaux, 105. Austencius (Arnold), tenant at Ambares, 3,3, 31- Autelhan-en-Medoc (Arnold of), 44. See Le Taillan. Avensan, c. of Castelnau, 22, 23. Avignon, Dept. of Vaucluse, 192. Ayral, yard, 134. Bail h fazendure, 73, 74, 78, 79. See Leasehold. Bail a gaudence, 73, 79. See Leasehold. Barbeaulx, thick vine branches cut off at joint, 164, 168. Bardenac (Prior of), 196. Barra, planks for casks, 172. Barrel (of wine), 157. Barsac, c. of Podensac, 125, 126, 128. Bassens, c. of Carbon-Blanc, 6, 16, 18, 35, 38, 41, 42, 56. Bastards, hoops for barrels, 171. Bastides, fortified towns of a special kind, 31. 32, 3S- Baurech, c. of Creon, 23. Bayonne, Dept. of Basses Pyrenees, 30. Bazadais, 11, 18. Bazas (customs of), 36. Beam, 49. Beasts (on the estate), 47, 48, 120. Beautiran, c. of La Brede, 23, 25. Begles, c. of Bordeaux, 23, 40, 42, 64, i39» 143. 184, 194. Belves {Chdtelknie of), Dept. of Dor- dogne, 7, 15, 17, 19, 47, 58, 66, 124, 128, 129, 132, 139. Benauges (ArchipretrJ oi), 7,2, 39, no, 150. Berneye, place at Cadaujac, 20, 47, 124. Bersanas, bessons, shot or division of open field, 141. Bertrand de Got, Archbishop of Bor- deaux and Pope Clement V, 11. See Clement V. Bigarroque {Ch/itellenie of), Dept. of Dordogne, 17, 19, 48, 65, 123, 128, 129. Biters, wine-vessels, 172. Bitz, spindle of the wine-press, 172. Black Prince, 62, 113, Blacksmith, 179. * When it is not otherwise mentioned, the places in this Index are in the Department of the Gironde. 200 saint-andr£ of bordeaux Blanquefort, arr. of Bordeaux, 22, 23, 38, 42, 44, 45, 60, 74, 100, 103. Blayais, 7, 18. Blaye, town on the Gironde, 31, 123, 150, 181. — (Archdeaconry of), 24. — {Archipretreoi), 32, 38, 39. Bogesius (Maria), tenant at Lormont, 37. Bonda, bung of a cask, 172. Boquau, place at Cadaujac, 34. Bordeaux, 3, 4, 12, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 30, 31, 35, 42, 46, 48, 49, SI, 60, 63, 64, 69, 100, 109, 114, 115, 120, 136, 143, 145, 170, 190, 192, 193 ; Customs of, 53, 70,93, "4, 115, "7- — (Pierre de), 18, 59. Bordelais, 3, 4, 6, 7, 32, 38, 41, 48, 49, 197. Bordeu, hordile, a small holding or farm- stead, 133 and passim. Bordilerius, official of the Archbishop, 159, 184 ; of Lormont, 167, 168 ; of Pessac, 148, 164, 165, 166, 176, 177. Born (Pays de), 31. — {Archiprelre, with Buch), 32, 39, in, 150. Bouliac, c. of Carbon-Blanc, 22, 23, 41, 100, loi, 109. Bourg, town on Dordogne, 22, 23, 31, 42, 123, 150, 181. — {Archiprelre oi), 32, 39. Bourges, 7, 22, 59. Bouteville {Chatellenie of), Dept. of Charente, 15, 57, 131, 132. Brasse, measure of land, 139. Braymantes, men to roll casks, 181, 182, 183, 197. Breillan, arr. of Bordeaux, 22, 23, 44, 124. Brenars, place at Pessac, 136, 143. Bretenor (forest of), 46. Broc (Roncius de), holder of tithe in St.-Medard d'Eryans, 56. Brocs, vine-carts, 172. Brun (William), domicelliis of Cosnac, 60. Brunon, place in the Graves, 42. Bubulcus, carrier and driver of ox-wagon, 154, 168, 180, 181, 182, 183, 187. Buch {Archiprelre with Born), 32, 39, III, 150. — {Capiat de), no, 196. — (Pays de), 10, 31. Bussac, fief in Saintonge, Dept. of Charente-Inferieure, 19. Buyla {lerra), waste land, 135. Cabanac, c. of La Brede, 22, 23, 57, 129. Cabolz, wedge of vine-land, 140. Cadaujac, town on Garonne, 20, 22, 23, 28, 33, 34, 35, 38, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 64, 74, 100, loi, 103, 120, 123, 124, 138. Cadillac, arr. of Bordeaux, 31. Caillau, c. of Carbon-Blanc, 23. Caillon (Bertrand de), knight, 98. Calati, grape-baskets, 172. Cambes, c. of Creon, 23, 68. Camblanes, c. of Creon, 23, 42. Camilhas, old parish in Bourg, 23. Campania, payment of colum at, 128. Campaure, old quarter of Bordeaux, 31, 41. Campestan, place at Ambares, 34, 68. Campeyraut, place in the Graves, 42. Cantagric, place in the parish of Saint- Seurin of Bordeaux, 41. Cantaloup (Arnaud de). Archbishop of Bordeaux, 11. Caplennium, a due or poll-tax, 125, 126, 127. Carbon-Blanc, town in Entre-deux-Mers, 42. Carignan, c. of Creon, 23, 42, 100. Caritativum subsidiutn, church due, in. Carrale, wine-measure, 157. Carriage, ni, 154, 180 ; by water, 181 ; ex gracia, 168. Carlonnade, measure of land, 139. Cartulary, of Saint-Andre, 7, 25, 85, 100. — of Sainte-Croix, 51. — of Sauve Majeure (La Grande Sauve), 51- Casau, casale, garden or space round house, 133, 134. Castarac, fief in Caudrot, 23. Castelnau, arr. of Bordeaux, 31. Castillon, place at Cadaujac, 31. Caucenes, hamlet near Bordeaux, loc. Cauderan, hamlet near Bordeaux, 94. Caudrot, c. of Saint-Macaire, 7, 15, 17, 19, 46, 63, 124, 147. Cavalhon, vine-furrow, 184. Cavalhonare, to uncover vine-roots, 161. Cayac (Prior of), 196. Cayssac, place at Blanquefort, 23, 56. Cazau, c. of La Teste-de-Buch, 194. C6nac, c. of Creon, 22, 23. Cenon, c. of Carbon-Blanc, 23, 141. Cenon-la-Bastide, arr. of Bordeaux, 31. Cens, rent of land, 53, 65, 84, 100, 102, 106, 109. — rent of tithes, 109, no, 115. Censilaires, rent-paying tenants. 84, 117, and passim. Censhies, rent-paying holdings, 5, 13, 15, 28, 49, 57, 60, 66, 70, 72, 73, 112, 113, 115, 117, 132, 141 J form of convey- ance of, 71. Cernes (Archdeacon of), 56. — {Archiprelre of), 32, 39, 127, 150. INDEX 201 Cernes (Pays de), 24, 31. Cerons, c. of Podensac, 40, 41. Chalais (Helie de), noble tenant of arch- bishop, 59. — (Seignory of), Dept. of Charente, 18, 131, 132. Chapter of Saint-Andre, 7, 15, 20, 21, 23, 25. 47» 56, 65, 86, 100, 101, 108, 113, 176 ; homage to, 25 ; jurisdiction of, 20, 21, 24, 26, 120, 121, 122 ; demesne of, 25 ; tithes of, 25 ; trade of, 123. Charcresa, vine-carts, 172. Chassaignes, fief in Perigord, Dept. of Dordogne, 19. CMtellenie, meaning of, 132. Clavigerns, official of archbishop, 176. Clement V, Pope (Bertrand de Got), 11, i5» 42. — (vineyard of), 16, 19, 22, 24, 42, 157. 159- Clerac, fief in Perigord, Dept. of Cha- rente, 19. Coast, guarding of, 27. Cogolhas, snails, 168. Coladuy, coladors, sieve of wine-press, 172. Coldra, coldres, hoops for barrels, 172. Comminges, 49. Commun de la paix, due in certain places, 128-30. Comporta, grape-basket or vessel, 172. Comprian (Terrier of), 52. Condom (Abbot of), 15. Confolens, fief in Perigord, Dept. of Charente, 19. ■ — (forest of), 46. Conque, corn measure, 150. Constantin (Arnaud), serf of Lormont, 104, 105, 121. Convers, wooden rollers for casks, 172. Co-parcenage, 37, 68. Coraria, due at Lege, 124. Corn, kinds of, 152 and passim ; mea- sures of, 150, 151 ; value of, 150-2. Cornellage, due on beasts, 120. Corn-land, 38, 39, 46, 148. Corn-rents, 38, 39, 65, 67, 115, 151. Corretarins, middleman, 158. Correya, corregia, strips of vine-land, 140. Corteyrac (G. de), 68. Corvie, see Labour services. Cosnac, fief in Perigord, Dept. of Correze, 19, 60. Colum, due in Bigarroque, 128. Cour de Gascogne, 20, 98. Cour sup^rieure, 98. Coutures {CMtellenie of), Dept. of Lot et Garonne, 11, 17, 19, ^2' 47» 122, 124, 195. — (rural community of), 33. Couze {CMtellenie of), Dept. of Dor- dogne, 7, 17, 19, 47, 128. Creon, basiide in Entre-deux-Mers, 42. Cultivation, methods of, 145-7, ^95 5 of vines, 161-70. Curia of Archbishop, 121. Cussac, c. of Castelnau-de-Mcdoc, 33, 40. Dax (Bishop of), 196. Decimarius, name for serf, 82. Deguerpissement, surrender of property, 194. Desquets, grape-baskets, 172. Destrales, small hatchets for vines, 169. Dime, see Tithe. Dime taillade, 69, n. 2. Dordogne (river), 4, 30. Dues, 125, 126, 130 ; beasts, 47 ; fishing, 28, 122 ; hunting, 122 ; oven, 124 ; for sales, 48 ; salt, 124 ; trading, 123, 124; wine, 157, 158. Dunes, 29, 32. Edward I, King of England, 85. Edward III, King of England, 21. Employments of Archbishop s tenants, 196. Enfeoffment, form of, 74. Enjonilh, funnel of wine-press, 172. Enfranchisement, charters of, 88, 94. Entre-deux-Mers, 4, 10, 18, 41, 51, 68, — {Archipretre of), 32, 39. Entre-Dordogne, 18, 150. — (Archipretre of), 32, 39. Entreplantz, vines planted newly be- tween rows, 161. Epamprer, to clear twigs and leaves from vines, 167, 169. Escarte, corn -measure, 150. Esclau, place at Cadaujac, 34. Esporle, payment in recognition of feudal superiority, generally made by every new tenant, 27, 53, 55, 57, 58, 60, 70, 72, 88, 96, 99, 112-17, 119, 131. Expenditure on estates of Archbishop, 191, 192. Eymine, corn-measure, 150. Eysines, c. of Blanquefort, 22, 42, 56, 143- Eyssermentare, Jaire les sarmenls, to col- lect bundles of vine -twigs, 163, 169, 170. Faber (Martin), holder of alod, 57. Faxons, work at regular periods for vines, 160, 161, 162, 166, 169, 170, 184. Faussetz, spigots, 172. Faysilherius, feysilherius, porter, i8i, 183, 197. 202 SAINT-ANDRfi OF BORDEAUX Festalemps, fief in Perigord, Dept. of Dordogne, 19. Fiefs, 49, 52, 60, 72, 112, 131, 132, 136, and passim. Figuer-Belh, vineyard at Lormont, 159, 166, 168. Flanders, trade with, 12. Floirac, c. of Carbon-Blanc, 22, 23, 34, 35, 41, 100, loi, 116. Focagium, due or tax in Coutures, 124. See Foliage. Fodiendiim, digging of vines, 167. Foire, due in Cadaujac and Berneye, 120, 124. Food, nature of, 47 and passim. Forest of Bordeaux, 30, 46. — of Bretenor, 46. — of Confolens, 46. — of Lege, 46, — in Medoc, 30. Forestage, due for cutting wood, 1 20. Fornage, due on ovens, 1 24. Fors, written customs, 36. Fosse Lobeyre, place in the Graves, 42. Fouage, hearth-tax, 33. Fourc, place in the Graves, 23, 41, 42, 64, 143- Frisia, trade with, 12. Fronsac (Archipreire oi), 32, 39, 150. Fudir, to dig, 162. Gabarrarius, river-carrier, 154, 181. Garden of Archbishop, 155, 168, 169, 176. Gardener of Archbishop, 176. Garonne (river), 4, 29, 30, 123, 164, 180. Gascony, 3, 49, 53, 131. Gaunt (John of), Duke of Lancaster, 98, 99. Gironde (department of), 3. — (river), 29. Glandage, due for pasture of pigs, 47. Gradignan, c. of Pessac, 22, 23, 41, 42, 138. Gratacap, place to south of Bordeaux, 31- Graves of Bordeaux, 8, 16, 18, 22, 41, 45, 140, 175, 192. Grayan, c. of Saint-Vivien, 30. Gresillac, c. of Branne, 22, 23. Guitres, arr. of Libourne, 20. Gurpisson (droit de), due on surrender of property, 119. Guyenne, 61, 98. — (Duke of), 1 1 . — (Seneschal of), 1 1 . Guyennois, a coin, 62. Ha, a quarter of Bordeaux. Harvest guard, 69, 70, 73. Haymaking, 153, 154, 185, 189. Herbage, due for pasture, 47. Hired labour, 164, 165, 167, 169, 173, 174, 176, 180-90, 197. Homage, 7, 13, 18, 55, 58, 59, 131. Homme lige, term used in some parts for serfs, 82, 83, 84, 100. Homme questal, serf. See Questanx. Hosiau, house, 134, 135, and passim. Iliac, c. of Pessac, 116. Ireland, trade with, 12. Izon, c. of Libourne, 9, 95, 106. Jaugar, rough moorland, 44, 134. Joailles, special method of planting vines, 141, 159. John, King of England, 10. Jornal, measure of land, 137. Jornaux, boon days, 66, 184. Justice, rights of, 20, 21, 26, 31, 93, 97, 98, 120, 121, 122. La Barba, place in Cadaujac, 34. Labarde, c. of Castelnau, 19. Labor ador de vinhas, vine-labourer, 156, 196. Labour services, 46, 66, 67, 91, 92, lor, 103, 106, 159, 166, 169. La Brede, arr. of Bordeaux, 22. La Canau, c. of Castelnau, 24. La Caussade, place at Ambares, 34, 44. La Codane, place in the Graves, 42. La Costa, place at Cadaujac, ^4. La Grande Sauve (Abbey of), c. of Creon, 51,53, 194.' — (Abbot of), 196. La Libarde, old parish near Bourg, 23. La Motte-d'Arbanats, fief in Perigord, 19. La Motte-d'Ayre, place in the Graves, 41, 42. La Motte-de-Faugueyres, place at La Brede, 25. Landes, 3, 29, 30, 46, 135. Langoiran, c. of Cadillac, 23. Langon, town on the Garonne, 11, 21 ; wine of, 29. Lansac, c. of Bourg, 22, 23, 4r. La Recluse, place in the Graves, 3r, 41. La Rochelle, Dept. of Charente-In- ferieure, 12, 19. La Roquette, fief in Montravel, Dept. of Dordogne, 19, 113. Larsac, place in Belves, Dept. of Dor- dogne, 15. La Sauve, c. of Creon, 39. La Saye, place in the Graves, 42. Las Coalhas (meadow of), 45. Las Gotas, place at Cadaujac, 34. INDEX 203 La Souys, place at Floirac, 34, 68, 138, 194. Lassats, old parish in Commune of Lan- diras, 125, 127. La Taugue, old quarter of Bordeaux, 314 42, 115, 138. La Tresne, c. of Creon, 22, 24. Leasehold property, 5, 73 ; form of grant of, 73, 78, 79. Le Barp (Prior of), 196. Le Fresne (meadow of), 45, 154. Lege (Seignory of), 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 35> 38, 43> 47. 100, 103, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124 ; Customs of, 26-8. — (forest of), 25, 27. L^ogeats, c. of Langon, 41. L^ognan, c. of La Brede, 22, 23, 40, 41, ^33- Le Pian, c. of Blanquefort, 22, 40. Les Chretiens (vineyard of), near Bor- deaux, 17, 159, 167. Les Lepreux (vineyard of), near Bor- deaux, perhaps the same as above, 17- Lesparre {Archipretre oT), 32, 39, 152. — (Seigneur of), 30. Les Pesettes (meadow of), at Ludon or Bruges, 14, 45. i53- i54- Les Puyons (meadows at), 34. Les Queyries, place on Garonne, opposite Bordeaux, 17, 42, 157, 174, 192. Le Taillan, c. of Blanquefort, 22, 24, 44. Lever, to clear vine-stems, 163, 169. Leyde, due on sales of beasts, 124. Libourne, town on junction of the lie and Dordogne, 31, 181. Lidonne, 23. Lignan, c. of Creon, 23. Listrac, c. of Castelnau-en-Medoc, 22, 23. 44- Livrade, corn-measure, 150. Lods el ventes, due on the sale of land, 72, 117. Lormont, c. of Carbon-Blanc, 6, 16, 18, 32, 37. 38. 42, 48, 68, 74, 75, 76, loi, 104, 109, 121, 122, 133, 157, 177, 190, 193 ; customs of, 7, 121 ; garden of, 8, 16; meadow of, 45, 153, 154; palace of, 8, 16 ; sheep-farm of, 48 ; vineyard of, 19, 159, 166, 169, 174, 190. Louis VI, King of France, 10. Loutrange {Chdtellenie of), Dept. of Lot et Garonne, ii, 14, 17, 19, 47, 122, 195- Lucanac, men of, 21. Lucius in, Pope, 20. Ludon, c. of Blanquefort, 109. — (meadow oO, 14, 45. iS3. i54- Lussac, arr. of Libourne, 128, 129. Magescandum, May work, second fa^on in vineyards, 167, 169. Maison noble, 131, 132. Marhotin, a gold coin said, in 1343, to be worth sixty Bordeaux shilUngs, 60. Marcamps, c. of Bourg, 22, 42. Marre, tool for vines, 141, 166, 169. Marret, plot of vine-land, 141. Mastacio (Fulk de), noble tenant of Archbishop, 59. Mayne, maynile, house or estate, 133. Meadows, 45, 64, 144, 145, 153, 154. — of Cayssac, 56. — of Las Coalhas, 45. — of Le Fresne, 45, 154. — of Les Pesettes, 14, 45, 153, 154. — of Lormont, 45, 153, 154. — of Ludon, 14, 16, 153, 154. Measures, for com, 150, 151 ; for land, 64, 137-9 ; for vines, 61, 64, 139-41. Mddoc, 22, 24, 29, 31, 44, 45, 164. Meilhan (Customs of), Dept. of Lot et Garonne, 95. Melac, old parish in Commune of Tresses, lOI. Merignac, c. of Pessac, 22, 41, 42. Meyt-deu-Forc, place in the Graves, 143. Milan (Jean), serf in Medoc, 93. Millac {Chatellenie of), Dept. of Dor- dogne, 17, 19, 128. Milon, place near Pessac, 136. Mimizan (Church of), arr. de Mont-de- Marsan, Dept. of Landes, 21. Mintage, rights of, 20. Modiireria, com measure, 150. Momors (mill of), 20. Money, various kinds of, 61, 62, 161, 189-90, and passim. Monpouillon, fief in Bazadais, Dept. of Lot et Garonne, 19. Monsac, parish in Belves, Dept. of Dor- dogne, 132. Monsegur (register of), 85. Monslrt'e, description of property given to the lord, 50, 70, 113, 116. Montferrand (Seigneur of), 183. Montmoreau (Alain de), 19. — (Seigneur of), 59. — (Seignory of), Dept. of Charente, 18. Montravel (Seignory of), in P^rigord, Dept. of Dordogne, 7, 13, 14, 17, 19, 46, 60, 120, 122, 123, 134, 147. Montussan, c. of Carbon-Blanc, 22, 24, 42. Morcellement, splitting up of property, 141, 142. Mortagne, town on the Gironde, Dept of Charente-Inf6rieure, 21. Mota de Buch (Pierre de), 21. Moulis, c. of Castelnau, 22, 24, 44, 152. 204 saint-andr£ of bordeaux iionlis {Archipretre oi), 39, 152. Mureil (Seignory of), in Perigord, 19. Mussidan (Seigneur of), no. Miiyans, small cask, 171. Muyatus, wine-measure, 157. Nanteuil (Abbey of), Dept. of Charente, 19. Naudon, serf at Ambares, 104. Naujac, place now in Bordeaux, 42. Nerigean, c. of Branne, 24, 42. Neuvic, lief in Perigord, Dept. of Dor- dogne, 19. Nobles, 131, 196, and passim. Notre-Dame of Puy Paulin, parish in Bordeaux, 116. Oris, yard, empty place, 134. Paduentz, pasture, 135 and passim. Paisius, term used for serf in some parts, 82. Palais-Gallien, a quarter of Bordeaux, 42. Paleyrat, fief in Belves, Dept. of Dor- dogne, 129. Pallium, a church due, 1 11 . Palus of Bordeaux, 16, 18, 24, 45. Papa-Grua, place at Ambares, 34. Parlement of Paris, 98. Pasture dues, 119, 120. Pension, church due, in. Perey, place near Pessac, 136. Perigord, 7, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19, 29, 38, 41, 193- Pessac, arr. of Bordeaux, 15, 64, 100, 136, 143, 190, 192 ; vineyard of Clement V at, 16, 19, 22, 24, 42, 157, 159, 160-70, 175, 190, 192. Petra, stone measure for corn, 150. Peugue (au), a quarter of Bordeaux, 31. Picacalhau, place at Cadaujac, 34. Pierrefite, a Priory at Saint-Sulpice-de- Faleyrens, where the archbishop had rights of toll, 123. Pipe, wine-measure, 157. Pippas, place in the Graves, 42. Pissaboup, place in the Graves, 42. Pilalphus, wine-measure, 147. Plaustra, wine-carts, 172. Pleguer, to bend vine-branches and tie to stakes, 163. Ploughing, 46, 160, 161, 184. Pompignac, c. of Creon, 22, 24. Pont-long, place in the Graves, 42. Porge (au), place in Ambares, 34. Portets, c. of Podensac, 19, 40. Port-Peyron, place on Garonne facing Bordeaux, 42. Port Trompette, a quarter of Bordeaux, 181. Pouy Carrejelart (Customs of), 97. Poyaus, place near Pessac, 136. Preignac, c. of Podensac, 125, 128. Prime subventionis, a church due, in. Procuration, a church due, in. Procureur of Archbishop, 13, 14, 19, 102, III, 121, 147, 176, 191, and passim. Promiaiges, vine-shoots, 168. Pudir, podar, to prune, 163. Pugnac, c. of Bourg, 24, 125. Pujols, c. of Podensac, 125, 128. Puy-Crabey, place in Bordeaux, 42. Puyguidon (Seignory of), in Perigord, 19. Puy Paulin, parish of Bordeaux, 105. Puysseguin, fief in Perigord, 19. Quartail, quarterium, corn-measure, 150. Quartieres, ecclesiastical due to Arch- bishop from all parishes of his diocese, 7. 38, 39> 40, 1 10, 147. 151J 152, 192-5- Quar tones, wine-measure, 157. Questalitat, questalite, serfdom, 82-107. Questaux {homes questaus, serfs), 46, 82, 90-9, 106, 107 ; advantages of, 96-9, 106 ; judicial disabilities of, 92-3 ; typical condition of, 90-5. Questaves, servile holdings, 37, 49, 74, 82-107, 112, 142; form of grant of, 90. Quite, questa, arbitrary due from serfs, 26, 84, 85, 86, 88, 92, 100-3 ; occa- sionally used for estate where due exacted, 37. Queyrac, c. of Lesparre, 40. Quinsac, c. of Creon, 22, 24, 116, 193 ; vineyards at, 17, 19, 159. Receveur, ofBcial of Archbishop, 179. Reconnaissance, form of, for free land, 69 ; for servile land, 97, 98, loi. Reconsiliatio ecclesiarum, due for puri- fication of Church, in. Reeve of Lege, 26, 27. — of Lormont, 148. Rege, reguas, arreguas, furrow or measure of vine-land, 138, 139. Rents : in kind, 38, 39, 65-8, 151; in labour, 67 {see Labour services) ; in money, 63, 64, 68, 143 ; in part pro- duce, 69, 73. Repaire, repaure, fief or holding, gener- ally noble, 132. Retrovinum, premiere piquette, inferior wine, 173. Reynaut (Pierre), Bordilerius of Lor- mont, 168. Richard II, King of England, 21. Rions, c. of Cadillac, 22, 31. INDEX 205 Roffiac, place probably near Lormont, 174. Rondela, vessels for verjuice, 171. Roquetaillade (Seigneur of), 87. Rue du Faur, in Bordeaux, 67. Rue du Ha, in Bordeaux, 67. Sacquerius, corn-carrier, 181, 183. Sadon, sazio, a plot or measure of land, 64, 137, 138. Saint-Andr6 of Bordeaux, 4-6, 29, 48, 49, loi, 102, no, 119, 130, 131, 142, 191, 193. See Archbishops of B. and Chapter of St.-A. Saint-Andre-de-Cubzac, arr. of Bor- deaux, 65. Saint-Caprais (vineyards of), in the Graves, 19, 41, 193. Saint-Christoly, a quarter of Bordeaux, 41- Saint-Christophe, c. of Lussac, 40. Sainte-Croix of Bordeaux (Abbey of), 14, 98- — (parish of), 85, 86. Saint-Cyprien, fief in Perigord, Dept. of Dordogne, 19, 48, 124. Saint-Emilion, c. of Libourne, 3r, 194. Sainte-Eulalie-d'Ambares, c. of Carbon- Blanc, 23. Sainte-Eulalie of Bordeaux (parish of), 23, 41, 68. Saint-Genes of Bordeaux (parish of), 42. Saint-George-de-l'Isle (Prior of), 196. Saint-Gervais, c. of Saint-Andre-de- Cubzac. 22, 23. Sainte-Helene-de-la-Lande, c. de Castel- nau-en-M^doc, 23, 44, 46. Sainte-H61ene-des-MouIis (? same as preceding), 23. Saint-Jaques of Bordeaux (Hospital of), Saint- Julien of Bordeaux (parish of), 31. Saint- Julien-en-Born, arr. of Dax, 24. Saint-Laurent, c. of Saint-Andre-de- Culzac, 22. Saint-Laurent-d'Escures, place in the Graves, 41. Saint-Laurent-en-Medoc, arr. of Les- parre, 102. Saint-Loubcs, c. of Carbon-Blanc, 22, 24. Saint-Macaire, arr. of La Reole, 31. Sainte-Marie-de-Guitres, arr. of Li- bourne, 20. Sainte-Marie-de-Sauve-Majeure, 20. See La Grande Sauve. .Saint-Martin of Cabanac (parish of), 20. Saint-Martin-de-Mont-Judce, a place in parish of Saint-Seurin at Bordeaux, 4 1 . Saint-M6dard-d'Eyranes, c. of La Brede, 24. 56- Saint-Medard-en-Jalles, c. of Blanque- fort, 24, 42, 44, 45, 143. Saint-Michel of Bordeaux (parish of), 74- Saint-Morillon, c. of La Brede, 24, 125, 126. Saint-Nicholas of Bordeaux (parish of), 42. Saint-Paul of Bordeaux (parish of), 41, 114. Saint-Paxens, fief of Archbishop in Montravel, Dept. of Dordogne, 15, 120, 122. Saint-Pierre d'Ambares, c. of Carbon- Blanc. See Ambares. Saint-Privat, parish in P6rigord, Dept. of Dordogne, 19. Saint-Romain of Blaye (parish of), 20. Saint-Sauveur of Blaye (Abbot of), 196. — (Monastery of), 194. Saint-Seurin of Bordeaux (Cartulary of), 83-6. — (Chapter of), 86, 94, 98. — (parish of), 24, 41, 42, 65, 83, 84, 142. Saint-Seurin-de-la-Marque, parish in Medoc, 93. Saintonge, 7, 12, 38, 41, 46. Saint- Vincent of Bourg (Abbey of), 20. Salaries, 158, 177-90. Sales of land, 80. SallebcEuf, c. of Creon, 24. Salmaterius, mule-driver, 181. Sanarega, place at Ambares, 34, 68. Sarar, to enclose, 164. Sarporas, place in Cadaujac, 24. Sautemes, wines of, 29, 125, 128. Sauvete oi Saint- Andre, 11, 21, 120. Sauveterre (Bastide of), arr. of La Reole, 31- Seneschal of Bordeaux, 183. — of Gascony, 11, 99. — of Guyenne, ir. — of P6rigord, 11. Sequar, to cut, prune, 163. Sequin (John), tenant at Ambares. .Serf, see Queslaux. Servants, 148, 177, 178, 179, 197. Serviens, Serjeant, at Lormont, 176, 177 Setter, corn-measure, 150. Settlements, nature of, 31, 34, and Chap- ter III passim. Sexterada, measure of land, 139. Shejiherd of Lormont, 179. Sigillalor, official of Archbishop, 147. Sirminagium, due in Coutures, 124. Soil, divisions of, 131, 135, 136, 142, 144 ; measures of, 137, 138, Chapter VII passim ; nature of, 30, 44, 45, 46, 48. 2o6 saint-andr£ of bordeaux Solum, plot of land, 134. Soulac, c. of Saint-Vivien, 14, 19, 21, 24, 30, 123, 194. — (Prior of), 113, 114, 118. Soule, 49. Slagia, property or small estate, gener- ally with house, 133 and passim ; in Bordeaux, 67. Streets in Lormont, 31, note i, 41. Succession (rules of), 36, 37, 70, 96. Synode, a Church due, iii. Taille, 85. See Quele. Talais, c. of Saint-Vivien, 30, 127. Talence, c. of Bordeaux, 24, 41. Talucia, hoops for barrels, 172. Teich, c. of La Teste, 22, 24. Temporel de 1' Archeveche, 7 and notes passim. Terrier of Saint-Andre, 8, 22, 23, 43, 67, 114, and notes passim. Terssan, place at Lormont, 34, 105. Terssandum, third fafon in vineyards, 176. Tithes, 7, 24, 25, 56, 108, 109, 147. Toll, exemption from, 21 ; rights of, 123, 124. Tonneaii, corn-measure, 150. Tonnelliis, cask, wine-measure, 157, 197. Tourne, c. of Creon, 24. Trade, 12, 35, 44, 106, 123, 149, 158, 159. Treilha, trilea, trelhce of vines, 140, 141. Trens, irop, a plot or small piece of land, 137, 139, and passim. Tresses, c. of Carbon-Blanc, 22, 24, 41. Trop, 139. See Trens. Trulh, wine-press, 172. Uch, old parish in Commune of Lesparre, 40. Vayres (Seigneur of), 91. Vegetables, 155. Vendemihador, day's work in vineyard, 159- Venles el reventes, 118. See Lods et ventes . Verjuice, 170. Vermiculi, insects which destroy vines, 168. Vert (Simon), serf trying to prove free- dom, 89. Vertheuil, c. of Pauillac, 4, 103. Veyrines (Vivien de), holder of alod in Bordeaux, 53. Viguier (John), procureur of Montravel, 17- Villanus, 82, 83. See Questaux. Villenave-d' Omon, c. of Pessac, 22, 24. Villeneuve (bastide of), c. of Bourg, 31, 183, 194. Viminaria, osier-beds, 135. Vine-labourers, 196. Vines, culture of, 161-76. Vineyards, 4, 14, 16, 29, 38, 40-3, 106, 156-75, 196, and passim ; measures of, 139-41. Vintage, 170-5, 186, 189. Vites, new vine-plants, 165. Wages, 177-90 ; tables of, 187-9. Wine, making of, 156-75 ; measures of, 157-9 ; varieties of, 157. Wine dues, 158, 159. Wine-press, 172 ; at Bordeaux, 158, 190 ; at Lormont, 158. Wolfenbiittel, manuscript of, 52. Women, emplojonent and wages of, 1 73, 174, 189, 190. Wreck, rights of, 27. Yvrac, c. of Carbon-Blanc, 83. VI ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF POOR LAW ADMINISTRATION IN A WARWICKSHIRE VILLAGE BY A. W. ASHBY FORMERLY OF RUSKIN COLLEGE, OXFORD DIFLOME IN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, OXFORD (PART VI) W. V. CHAPTER I ECONOMIC STRUCTURE AND HISTORY OF PARISH I. Prior to Enclosure. The parish of Tysoe, which is the subject of the following study, lies at the extreme south-east of the county of Warwick. The part of the valley of the Warwickshire Avon known as the Feldon was in early Saxon times a thickly-populated and prosperous district, and one of the most noted corn- producing centres of the Midland Counties. The Saxon remains in the church of Tysoe show that this parish shared the good fortune of the district, which continued to prosper for many centuries. The Victoria History of Warwickshire,^ quoting Leland, says, ' corn is the chiefest commodity grown in the county, whereof the Vale of the Red Horse yieldeth most abundantly.' From the period of Saxon settlement till the year 1870 the village continued to grow in size and impor- tance ; and not the least striking period of its development was that between 1727 and 1827, with which we shall be concerned. The Domesday Survey gives the following particulars of the place : ^ * There are twenty-three hides in Tysoe (Tihe- soche) ; there is land for thirty-two ploughs. In the demesne are eleven ploughs, nine serfs, and fifty-three villeins, and twenty-eight bordars have twenty-one ploughs. There are sixteen acres of meadow, and in Warwic three houses paying eighteen pence rent. It was worth twenty pounds, now thirty pounds. Waga held it freely.' The manor of Tysoe, described in the Survey as belonging to Robert de Stadford, was subsequently subdivided, and at various periods the boundaries of the present parish con- tained one chief and three subordinate manors. Besides * Vol. ii, p. 69. * Domesday, i. 242 b. B 2 4 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. i these manors several ecclesiastical bodies held lands in the parish. This is a point of great importance in the study of social life in the centuries preceding the general enclosure of the common fields, the abolition of the Settlement Laws, and the parochial organization of Poor Relief, Villiers, one of the Assistant Commissioners on the Poor Laws in 1834, in his Report on Warwickshire, distinguishes between ' close and ' open ' villages : the former being those whose boundaries were contiguous to the limits of a single manor, and which were frequently the property of a single lord : the latter those which included several manors and were under many owners. Villiers's use of the terms at that particular time would lead to the conclusion that there was some real connexion between the single proprietorship of a manor or parish and the state of its lands in so far as they had been subject to the process of enclosure or were still in that state described as ' mingle- mangle '. Mr. H. L. Gray's table of village groups,^ with its details of Land Tax paid by occupying and non-occupying owners in 1785, shows the striking fact that in Group A, consisting of 48 villages in which 20 per cent, of the land was occupied by owners, none of the villages were enclosed. On the other hand, in Group E, consisting of 90 villages with no occupying owners, 71 were enclosed. In our case the comparative lateness of the enclosure is probably due to the fact that the lands of the parish of Tysoe were under many proprietors and that there was a considerable number of occupying owners. Enclosure of the lands of individual proprietors went on in the district from the end of the sixteenth century onwards, but the enclosure of parishes, as such, did not begin till the early part of the eighteenth century ; an exception being the parish of Compton Wyniates, which was enclosed under special licence given by Henry VIII. From the opening of the eighteenth century to the opening of the nineteenth the process was continuous. ^ Yeoman Farming in Oxfordshire, by H. L. Gray : Quarterly Journal of Economics, 19 10, CH. I] HISTORY OF PARISH 5 Beginning on the boundaries of Tysoe, in the parish of Kineton, in 1732, the spread of enclosures is noticeable in the whole neighbourhood before the Enclosure Act for Tysoe was passed in 1796. Within a radius of about 12 miles from Tysoe, 24 Warwickshire and 12 Oxfordshire parishes were enclosed between 1731 and 1796. The only parish in the immediate neighbourhood of Tysoe which remained unenclosed in 1796 was Oxhill, where a con- siderable amount of the land had been enclosed at a very early period. It is worthy of note that in the list of freeholders published in connexion with a Parliamentary Election Petition at Coventry in 1775, among the 47 townships within the Hundred of Kineton, to which Tysoe belonged, only two, Warwick and Tanworth, had a higher number of freeholder electors than Tysoe. Most of these enclosed parishes in Warwickshire belonged to the Kineton Hundred, and Kineton itself, once a king's manor, which had not been subdivided, and which in 1775 had only 2 freehold voters, as against Tysoe's 36, was enclosed in 1732. As a factor in determining the date of enclosure, the subdivision of land-ownership would affect the general development of agriculture, therefore the con- ditions of life and labour, and, not improbably, those of settle- ment as well. In his Antiquities of Warwickshire Dugdale gives the dis- tribution of property and manorial organization of Tysoe as follows : ' I find that in 7 Edward I Nicholas de Stadford held it as part of his Barony by the service of one Knight's fee, having at that time two carucates in demesne, and thirteen tenants occupying certain portions of land under several rents, and divers particular services ; viz. ploughing, harrowing, mowing, thrashing, and the like. At that time Robert dc Stadford, son of the same Nicholas, also held a good quantity of land here of this said father, upon which he had nineteen tenants, who, occupying the greatest part thereof, performed the like servyle duties as his father's tenants. ' It also appears that the monks of Bordesley held three yard-lands and a half within the precincts of this lordship ; 6 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. i and the nuns of Brewood two yard-lands and a half ; the Bishop of Worcester four yard-lands ; the Canons of Stone three yard-lands, with the advowson of the church ; the Canons of Kenilworth five yard-lands ; the Canons of Erdley two carucates ; and the Templars of Ballshall one carucate ; all of the fee and gift of the barons of Stafford ; all whose tenants, except those of the Canons of Kenilworth and the Templars, did their suit twice a year at the Court Leet held at Kineton for that Hundred.' ^ After mentioning that in 13 Edward I Lord Stafford had ' free warren ' on all the demesne lands granted to him, and that in 15 Edward III his grandson was granted a ' weekly mercate and a yearly fair ', Dugdale states that * the land which was held by the Templars, coming afterwards into the hands of the Crown, with all other lands belonging to the religious houses, was in 7 Edward VI, past out by the name of a manor ... by letters patent . . . being now called Temple Tysoe by way of distinction from the other lordship '.^ Two other subordinate manors were those of Westcote and Hard- wick. According to Dugdale the latter was given by Robert, Baron Stafford, to one William Giffard, who passed away part of it to the Canons of Kenilworth in the reign of Henry II. ' In 7 Edward I one Richard de Blys was certified to be lord of part thereof,' which he held of Baron Stafford by two parts of a knight's fee ; and another, John de Cantilupe, ' was owner of another part ' of the manor, holding it by the service of a third part of a knight's fee and one pound of cumin. Of Westcote, Dugdale says that ' about 38 Henry III passed away all this village of Westcote to the Canons of Kenilworth. So that in 7 Edward I the Prior of Kenilworth was certified to be lord thereof '. ' The Hospital of St. John, situate without the east gate of Oxford ' (afterwards Magdalen College), held a carucate of land in Westcote, which it pur- chased in the reign of Edward I. The monks of Stoneleigh held one yard-land in the same village. Westcote at that time was probably an important hamlet. ^ Dugdale, Antiquities of Warwickshire, London and Coventry, 1730, p. 544. ^ Ibid. CH. I] HISTORY OF PARISH 7 Miller writes : ^ ' It was at one time a separate village with its own clergyman ; ' and in connexion with the depopulation and enclosure movement of the sixteenth century, the Victoria County History of Warwickshire says : ^ * The depopulated villages mentioned by Rous fall into local groups. . . . The Tysoe country contains Keytes-Hardwicke, and Westcote.' The Enclosure records of 1517 and 1549 show that enclosure was taking place both within and without the parish of Tysoe. Right along the southern and western boundary ran the fences of Compton Wyniates. On the north-east one John Warren, knight, depopulated a messuage and enclosed some lands in the Manor of Upton.^ On the north-west, in the parish of Oxhill,* one messuage was depopulated, and some land had already been enclosed. Within Tysoe itself one messuage had been destroyed, and some land enclosed and converted into pasture in Westcote.® After this period, and before the Act for enclosing the parish, other enclosures took place in Tysoe. The whole of the manors of Westcote and Hardwicke, including Brixfield Farm, were * ancient enclo- sures ' in the eighteenth century, as will be seen on the map.^ Yet these enclosures, after the beginning of the sixteenth century, did not substantially affect the number of landowners in the parish, for the lords of Hardwicke and Westcote and the ecclesiastical bodies mentioned above seem to have been the only owners within those manors. By the eighteenth century these manors were regarded as a single lordship, and in that form had again passed into the ownership of the Lord of Tysoe. The ecclesiastical holdings, however, were not in his property. When the enclosure of the common fields of the village took place at the end of the eighteenth century the largest landed proprietors next to the lord of the manor were those persons to whom the eccle- siastical lands had descended, and Magdalen College still possesses its ancient holding in Upper Westcote. If an ' George Miller, Parishes of Diocese of Worcester, 1889, p. 34. ' Vol. ii, p. 159, * Dugdale's Notes on Inquisition of 1517, Royal Hist. Soc., 1897. * Domesday of Enclosure, I. S. Leadam, vol. ii, p. 684. * Ibid., vol. i, p. 445. • Map i, Appendix. 8 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. i inference may be drawn from the size of the fields enclosed on these lands, the effect of the enclosures was to convert much of the arable land into pasture, or at least to reserve it for use as pasture land. Between the date of the Inquisition of 1549 and the opening of the eighteenth century there were further enclosures within the parish of Tysoe, the largest being at Barnhill Farm, which comprised land belonging to the lord of the manor, the Earl of Northampton, The others were on a smaller scale, the most extensive containing about 50 acres. (These enclosures are shown by a grey tint in Maps i and 11.) It will thus be seen that prior to the Act of 1796, which provided for the enclosure of the common fields of Tysoe, such parish lands as still remained open were on every side adjacent to the fences of old enclosures with the exception of a strip on the north- west, where the open and common fields of Tysoe joined those of Oxhill. The land of Oxhill was also enclosed by Act of Parliament in 1797. It would be difficult at the present to reconstruct an exact scheme of the common and open fields, the common or lot meadows, and the commonable pastures of Tysoe, as they existed at the beginning of the eighteenth century. We can only indicate roughly the relative positions of the various kinds of lands, as we have attempted to do on Map i (see Appendix). This much may be said with certainty, that the greater part of the land was used for agricultural purposes, though the exact amounts in use cannot be determined; but if the holding of the vicar of the parish may be regarded as typical, we may obtain an approximate idea of the lands of the various owners and occupiers as they lay intermingled in the common and open fields. A terrier of the living was prepared by the vicar, churchwardens, and others in 1796 for the guidance of the Commissioners for the division of the parish lands under the Enclosure Act. It runs as follows : ' A true terrier of the lands commonly called and reputed to be a yard-land, tenements, meadows, gardens, and orchard belonging to the Vicarage of Tysoe, with porceions of tythe thereunto belonging so far as we know. CH. I] HISTORY OF PARISH 9 ' A house containing seven bays of building and two small tenements towards the street. Two bays of , an orchard, garden, small close of two acres and a small meadow in Aston Meadow lying in the Church Hides. Four beast pastures, thirty-two sheep pastures, and three horse pastures. Items. Four leys lying in Black Earths by the town side. One Butt in Winnsfield cutting upon M. C.'s close. One Butt more in Winnsfield, David Malins on the north. One land in Long Lyther, William Tompkins on the north and Horsman on south. One Hadland at the upper end of Long Lyther, David Malins on the east. One Butt in Shortmore Shilch, Earl of Northampton on the west. One Sideland in the Pound Furlong, David Malins on the north. One land adjoining N. Hewen's close, Horsman on the north. One land in Broadridge, Thos. Middleton on the south and D. Malins on the north. One other land in the same furlong Simon Hewens on the south, Horsman on the north. One land in Upper Wooland, D. Malins on the south and Earl of Northampton on the south. One land in Assbrook, Earl of Northampton on the west, Horsman on the east. One land in Andridge Hill, David Malins on the north, Thomas Middleton on the south. One yard in the Hemp furlong, R. Wiggins on the west, W. Turner on the east. A small fither^ at W. Greenway's gate, John West on the east, J. Nicholls on the west. A fither shooting into Overbrook, Daniel Grimes on the west, W. Tompkins on the east. A Butt in the same furlong, Thos. Middleton on the east, Daniel Grimes on the west. One Hadland at Millers Ditch, Earl of Northampton on the north. One Butt shooting into Ball End, Earl of Northamp- ton on the north and W. Townsend on the south. One land under Three Beeches, W. Tompkins on the east and Thomas Middleton on the west. One fither in Longlands, Horsman on the south, W. Turner on the north. One other land in the same furlong, Thos. Middleton on the north. Earl of North- ampton on the south. One land in Washing Stock furlong, W. Tompkins on the east, Widow Wells on the west. One land under Redway, R. Wiggins west. Earl of Northampton east. Another land in the same furlong, R. Wiggins on the * A fither was a small land or ley from two to three yards wide covered with grass, running between two larger lands or leys which were ploughed. This method of laying out the arable lands on heavy clay soil was adopted so that the large leys might be thrown up with high ridges, and the wide intervening space or fither would carry off the water. Many of the Tysoe fields bear traces of this system to the present day. 10 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. i west and R. Townsend on the east. One land in the Further Shilch, D. Mahns on the south, W. Tompkins on the north. One land along Redway, Thos. Middleton on both sides. One land in Short Down, W. Tompkins on the west. Widow Wells on the east. One through-land in the same furlong, W. Tompkins on the east, Thos. Middleton on the west. One other land in the same furlong, D. Malins on the west and Widow Callow on the east. One side land in Rowe Pits, Thomas Middleton on the south. One land in Long Down, Ward on the west and Thos. Middleton on the east. ' The privy tythes are these, tythe lambs, pigs, pigeons, geese, eggs, a garden penny, roots, cabbages, apples, nuts, bees, and the tythes of the Town Closes, hemp, flax and offerings, weddings, churchings and burials. The grass and feeding of one sideling adjoining unto the town on the south- east side being a passage or highway, and the tythe of the Windmill. Item, mortuaries. (A footnote mentions pears and turnips.) The whole commonly valued at Thirty Pounds per annum. Signed : Vicar. 2:|others. ^;} Churchwardens.' 3-) Thus this holding of one yard-land, excluding the grazing rights, was spread over 21 pieces or furlongs, and comprised 36 lots or strips. The number of names given as neighbours is 14, and in many of the furlongs exactly the same neighbours are found on the north or south or east or west, as the case might be. There is every reason to believe that other holdings of land from a half yard-land upwards were spread over several pieces, and lay in different directions, in the same manner as the holding of glebe land the details of which we have just reviewed. Prior to the enclosure of the common fields, there were, within fences clustering round the home- steads ^ of the village, many home-closes and orchards which provided pasture for calves and other immature stock. They also served as a means for feeding and keeping under control such other stock belonging to individual farmers as could not be loosely grazed upon the common pastures, which were open to the cattle of the whole village. * Appendix, Map 2. CH. I] HISTORY OF PARISH ii The earliest obtainable figures giving the number of land- holders in Tysoe during the eighteenth century are those provided by the Freeholders' lists ^ for the county of Warwick in 1774. The list for Tysoe mentions 36 freeholders as having recorded their votes, though this number does not necessarily include all who possessed the right to vote. Of the 36, 9 were residents of other parishes in the neighbourhood. There are no records of the assessments for the Land Tax prior to 1775. In the County Record Office, Warwick, a few assessments for the years 1746 and 1749 are preserved, but none of them deal with villages at the southern end of the county. The earliest assessment for Tysoe is that of 1775. It enumerates 105 items, amounting to £245 195. lo^d., and 65 persons who paid the tax. A comparison with the freeholders' lists shows that many of the owners held property below the annual value of forty shillings, which was the freehold qualification for franchise. By 1779 the number of persons paying Land Tax had fallen to 56 ; but the amount of tax paid had con- siderably risen. In 1785 the number of tax-payers and the amount paid were the same as in 1779. By 1800 the number of owners of land and property had risen from 56 to 69, and from 1795 to 1800 the number of persons occupying their own land increased by the same figure. In 1795 there were 27 occupying owners, in 1800 there were 40, while the number of proprietors increased from 57 in 1795 to 69 in 1800. A com- parison of these striking figures with Mr. H. L. Gray's records of the increase of occupying owners in Oxfordshire ^ will show that although the rate of increase was very marked in some of the Oxfordshire groups, it was distinctly less than the rate in Tysoe. However, the figures given for Tysoe in 1795 may not be so reliable as those given for later dates ; for the later assessment records were compiled with much greater care than the earlier. In 1798 the Enclosure Award was made. The lands enclosed included I23|^ yard-lands as specified, together with several * Published in Coventry, 1775. ' Yeoman Farming in Oxfordshire, p. 314. ' Dr. Gilbert Slater gives the acreage as 3,000 and the number of yard- 12 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. i other pieces of which the amounts are not stated. The total acreage enclosed amounted to 2,638 acres, i rood, i perch. Making due allowance for the roads coming under the award, the full area of the open lands would be nearly 3,000 acres. The acreage of the parish was computed at 4,600 acres till 1883, and at the present time is said to be 4,800 acres. Thus the Enclosure Award dealt with rather less than two-thirds of the parochial lands, the remaining third having been pre- viously enclosed. It is the opinion of I. S. Leadam ^ that the average size of a virgate or yard-land in Warwickshire was 20 acres. In Tysoe the yard-land works out at just over 21 acres. Whatever other effect the process of enclosure may have had upon the economic conditions of the parish, and especially of land-owning and occupying, it was in simplifying the latter that its immediate effect was most pronounced. Sufficient proof of this fact is afforded by the claims for tithes, &c., for which allotments of land were awarded. 2. Analysis of Enclosure Award of the Parish of Tysoe. The Act of Parliament authorizing the enclosure of the common fields, commonable lands, and waste, was passed in the session of 1796, and the three Commissioners of Enclosure appointed thereunder took the oath in April of the same year. The Commissioners ' qualified, valued, and appraised the fields and lands ' ; appointed two surveyors who ' surveyed and admeasured the fields and lands ' ; ' duly informed them- selves of the claims of all parties interested ' ; ' settled all the disputes and differences between all the parties interested ' ; and as the result of these investigations gave their award in 1798. The Commissioners proceeded to set out : Sixteen public Carriage and Drift Ways. Fifteen of them to be each 40 feet wide, and the other — the Turnpike — to be 60 feet wide, except where it passed through ancient enclosures. lands as 1 3 1 (Appendix to English Peasantry and the Enclosure of Common Fields). Reckoning the supposed acreage from a calculation based on the reputed number of yard-lands to be enclosed, Mr. Slater arrived approxi- mately at the truth. ^ Domesday of Enclosure, vol. i, p. 660. CH. I] HISTORY OF PARISH 13 The herbage growing or renewed upon these public roads to be the property of the owners and occupiers of the adjoining allotments from the respective boundary ditches to the middle of the road. Six public Bridle Ways of the breadth of 12 feet. One public Bridle Way and private Carriage Way of the breadth of 20 feet. Thirteen private Carriage and Drift Ways varying from 12 to 27 feet wide. Twenty-seven public Footways varying from 4 to 6 feet wide. All these public carriage ways to be ' scoured and set out ' within the next six months after the award. A surveyor was appointed at a salary of £26 per annum during such time as he should continue to survey the roads. The rates for defraying the necessary expenditure ' over and above the statute duty ', for forming and putting the roads into ' good and sufficient repair ', to be assessed and appended in the Schedule No. 3. This schedule gave the names of 37 persons who were to pay rates varying from sevenpence (due from the churchwardens), to £255 (from the lord of the manor), making a total of £564 14^. 2^d. Then followed three allotments for parochial stone pits. One in the common and open fields of Upper Tysoe (No, 22), 2 acres. Another in the open fields of Church Tysoe (No. 29), 2 acres, 3 roods, 20 perches. One in the open fields of Lower Tysoe (No. 108), 2 acres. These pits to provide material for making and repairing the roads of ' the parish of Tysoe and no other '. The various rights of tithes and moduses in lieu of tithes, in compensation for which certain allotments of land were given, were as follows : The Earl of Northampton (lord of the manor) had the right to annual rents ' called Warren Rents ' arising from the common fields and from certain ancient enclosures. One R. C. had a right of tithe of corn and hay in the upper field of Church Tysoe. T. E. F. had the right of tithe of corn and grain in Lower Tysoe town field. M. P. had tithes of corn, grain, and hay in the lower field, Upper Tysoe, and the 14 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. i meadows of Church Tysoe. J. C. J. had a right to a ' modus ' of one penny per acre in lieu of tithe of hay in the lower field of Upper Tysoe and Church Tysoe meadows ; to a modus of fourpence per yard-land in lieu of tithe of hay from Lower Tysoe ; tithes of corn, grain, hay, and wool from Hardwicke Farm ; in lieu of tithes of milk and calves, several moduses of three halfpence for every new milch cow and one penny for every ' old milch cow or strapper ' depastured on the open fields of Tysoe or on the old enclosed farms ; also he was entitled to a modus of one penny for every colt foaled within the parish of Tysoe. J. W. had the right to a tithe of wool for all sheep depastured for the year, or from old May Day till shearing-time, on the open fields of Tysoe or on Barnhill Farm. He was also entitled to a modus of one penny for every sheep depastured in the open fields between shearing-time and Candlemas, and to three-halfpence for every sheep depastured between Lady Day and May Day (old style), if such sheep were not shorn within the parish. The Vicar of Tysoe was entitled to certain tithe-free glebe lands lying in the common fields, and to some ' small or vicarial ' tithes, or payments in lieu thereof (except tithes of milk, calves, colts, wool, and hay) arising from the common and open fields. It was enacted that the property allotted in lieu of any of these rights should not exceed one-fifth of the land from which they were derived if it were arable, or one-ninth if it were meadow or pasture. All these tithes and moduses were said to be ' arising, renewing, growing, and increasing yearly '. In regard to some tithes and moduses due from ancient enclosures, homesteads, '&c., it was enacted that if the owners of the property liable to these tithes had other estate in the open fields, the tithe proprietors were to be awarded full com- pensation in lieu of their tithes from such land. If the owners of the land and homesteads liable to tithes had no property in the common fields, or not enough to substitute for the tax, the Enclosure Commissioners might award as compensation CH. I] HISTORY OF PARISH 15 to the tithe proprietors a portion of the property actually liable to the tithe in question. But this was only possible with the consent of the owners themselves ; and if the arrangements were not made, the Commissioners might order that the owners of such orchards or homesteads as were liable to tithes in kind should pay to the owners of the right what- ever sums of money the Commissioners might think fit. Schedule i enumerates 51 ancient enclosures, containing 289 acres, owned by 14 proprietors who were to pay annually to the Vicar £l gs. gd. ; to J. C. J. £1 igs. id. Schedule 2 enumerates 35 enclosures and tenements, containing altogether 38 acres, owned by 27 proprietors who were still liable to tithes in kind. ALLOTMENTS To Lord of Manor in lieu of waste To Lord of Manor in lieu of Warren Rents A claim of a right to cut furze and goss on waste having been delivered on behalf of the poor of Tysoe the Commissioners allot to such as do not occupy any part of the lands to be enclosed ..... To R. C. in lieu of tithes in Church Tysoe . To T. E. F. in lieu of tithes in Lower Tysoe To M. P. for tithes in lower field, Upper Tysoe To Vicar for glebe and right of common To Vicar for tithes of open fields To Vicar for tithes in kind from certain ' mes- suages, cottages, tenements, farm houses, windmill, home closes, ancient enclosures, woods, spinneys,' &c., as full and sufficient equivalent for such tithes as might fall to Vicar ...... To J. C. J. for moduses in lieu of tithes To J. W. in lieu of tithe wool . To J. W. in lieu of tithe wool from old enclo sures on the south-east To J. C. J. for tithes of old enclosures To ditto To M. P. for tithes of old enclosures . To J. W. in lieu of tithe wool . Initial of township and No. on plan. T. T. 106 C. T. 24 C. T. 45 12 T. T. 102 6 C. T. 48 87 6 T. T. 96 67 I U. T. 4 124 16 C. T. 40 16 3 30 42 36 3 20 C. T. 41 T. T. 90 C.T. 30 C. T. T. T. T. T. U. T. C.T. 27 89 88 8 28 a. r. p. 200 5 3 6 29 14 14 2 13 o 14 o 13 29 I 39 13 o o 18 3 2 120 7 o 28 It was provided by the Enclosure Act that after the above awards had been made ' the Commissioners should set out and allot all the residue of the common fields, and common or commonable meadow and pasture lands, therefore, ' having had due regard to the quality as well as the i6 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. i quantity of land to be allotted, and of the situation and convenience thereof to the homesteads and messuages of the several proprietors,' the Commissioners made the following awards. To Earl Northampton for 35^ yard-lands and rights of common in lower field, Upper Tysoe. To ditto, 3^ yard-lands without right of common. To ditto, 8J yard-lands ' called arbary lands ' (probably woodlands), also without right of common. To ditto, 26^ yard-lands in upper field of Church Tysoe. To ditto, 2 yard-lands with odd lands and leys and common right in Temple Tysoe, To Earl Northampton for all ' lot ground and meadowing ' in Church Tysoe and other meadows and pieces .... To M. P. for 1 yard-land with right of common To ditto ....... To W. D. B. for several pieces of land and in lieu of his interest in two other pieces of land To T. T. for i yard-land with right of common To J. C. for I yard-land and all common right and meadowing thereto belonging To R. H. for J yard-land and all common rights To J. P. in lieu of right of first crop of a plot in the meadows of Upper Tysoe . To M. S. for 1 yard-land in Upper Tysoe . To C. P. for il yard-lands with right of common To Church-wardens in lieu of the first crop of two leys in Redway Leys To E. B. for ^ yardland with right of common To E. B. for il yard-lands To R. A. for ^ yard-land with right of common Initial of township and No. on plan. U. T. I 12 U. T. 7 217 C.T. 16 24 U. T. 19 50 U. T. 20 210 C.T. 23 236 C.T. 17 5 C.T. 43 31 T. T. 84 T. T. 81 49 T. T. lOI 46 T. T. 107 10 T.T. 109 81 T. T. 76 I T.T. 104 I C.T. 37 I U. T. 9 7 U. T. 2 8 U. T. 3 19 U. T. 5 U. T. 6 U. T. 10 8 U. T. II 14 U. &C. T. 12 25 U. T. 21 C.T. 25 9 C.T. 26 29 C.T. 31 C.T. 32 8 C.T. 33 28 C.T. 18 2 C.T. 35 3 CH. I] HISTORY OF PARISH 17 To R. A. for y yard-land with right of common To Feoffees of the Poor for 2^ yard-lands and a certain piece in Upper Tysoe and also right of common ...... To J. H. in lieu of right of first crop on certain piece of land ...... To R. D. for 2 yard-lands with right of common To W. H. for ^ yeird-land with right of common purchased ...... To J. H. for several odd lands, leys, and lots of meadow grounds ..... To T. H. for ^ yard-land and right of common To J. H. for ^ yard-land and right of common To J. C. J. for 7! yard-lands and rights of common in Temple Tysoe and for several odd lands in Upper and Church Tysoe fields . To J. C. J. for 2 yard -lands and right of com- mon purchased by him .... To J. J. for 5 yard lands with right of common To ditto, for 2^ yard-lands and right of common lately purchased ..... To ditto, for | yard-land and common rights purchased ..... To ditto, for | yard-land and common rights purchased ...... To T. E. F. for i yard-land with right of common To J. B. for I yard-land with right of common There is a marginal note ' Batchelors' en- croachment on the common for this allot- ment '....... To ditto, for i yard-land and rights of common purchased ...... To W. M. for 2 yard-lands and common rights To E. W. for I yard-land .... To M. W. for \ yard-land and common rights (part VI) w. V. Q Initial of townsht p and No. on plan. a. r. p. C. T. 34 3 2 C. T. 39 34 37 C. T. 38 39 C. T. 15 18 2 12 C. T. 47 7 2 19 C. T. 52 6 I 4 C. T. 14 6 3 12 C. T. SI 4 T. T. 97 31 T. T. 50 6 IS C. T. 13 10 39 T. T. 62 3 I 35 T. T. 66 2 16 T. T. 78 89 39 T. T. 91 83 2 17 C. T. 44 8 I 15 T. T. 71 19 3 33 T. T. 105 28 1 S T. T. S3 122 I 4 T. T. 57 I I T. T. 58 I 2 22 T. T. 69 26 C. T. 36 7 2 7 T. T. 100 24 2 29 T. T. 99 7 2 7 T. T. 98 8 20 T. T. 59 2 38 T. T. 95 20 I 29 T. T. 60 I 2 37 T. T. 92A 22 IS T. T. 92B 26 3 22 T. T. S6 4 3 I T. T. 93 S 26 T. T. 70 45 2 22 T. T. C>3 I 25 T. T. 82 36 3 34 T. T. 70 7 17 T. T. 77 I 2 21 i8 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. i To H. M. L. for ' two customary acres of meadow ground '..... To E. W. for ^ yard-land and right of common To W. C. for 2 yard-lands with rights of com- mon ....... To T. A. for 2 yard-lands with rights of common To W. W. for I yard-land with rights of com- mon ....... To G. C. S. for I yard-land and right of common To T. C. for ^ yard-land and right of common To ditto, for ^ yard-land and right of common To A. L. for i^ yard-lands and right of common in C. T To ditto, for 3 yard-lands and right of common T. T Initial of township and No. on plan, T. T. 103 T. T. 64 T. T. 83 T.T. 55 T.T. 75 T. T. 61 T. T. 85 T.T. T.T. T.T. T.T. T.T. T.T. 54 68 80 87 74 73 C. T. 49 T.T. 6s Total in yard-lands : 123|- and other odd lands or leys. Total in acres : 2,638 acres i rood i perch. a. r, p. I 3 35 I 4 14 3 26 9 o 17 41 I 36 I 3 18 56 3 39 17 16 1 1 5 19 24 2 31 27 21 142 3 12 21 After the allotments had been duly made, the Commis- sioners had power to negotiate exchanges ' for the more convenient situation of land ', without any deed, and in spite of any entail. The only proof of the exchange demanded was the signature of the exchanging parties on the back of the award or in the Minute Book kept by the Enclosure Commissioners. Exchange No. i. For the right of a first vesture ^ or fore- math on certain pieces of meadow land containing 25 acres, in Brixfield Farm, the Earl of Northampton accepted two allotments, comprising altogether 10 acres, i rood, 13 perches. No. 2. J. J. accepted an allotment of 13 acres, 8 perches, in lieu of tithes of hay, grain, and corn which arose from Brixfield Farm. No. 3. The Earl of Northampton gave to M. L. No. 104 on the plan of Temple Tysoe, and relinquished the right of * The right of first vesture seems to have been that of grazing off the first growth of spring grass before the meadows were closed for mowing purposes. CH. I] HISTORY OF PARISH 19 a first vesture or foremath in Radway Meadow, in exchange for a hedgerow boundary of Westcote Wood. No. 4. The Vicar of Tysoe accepted No. 44 on the plan of Church Tysoe, containing 8 acres, 15 perches, in exchange for No. Ill on the plan of Brixfield, consisting of 5 acres, 3 roods, 38 perches. No. 5. The Earl of Northampton gave to J. C. J. No. 76 in Temple Tysoe containing i acre, 7 perches, in exchange for a close known as ' Tithe Free Close ' on Hardwicke Farm. No. 6. One M. W. exchanged No. 76 in Temple Tysoe, containing i acre, 2 roods, 22 perches, with J. C. J. for a * Town Close ' in Temple Tysoe amounting to i acre, i rood. No. 7. The Earl of Northampton gave to the Vicar No. 31 in Church Tysoe, containing 31 acres, 6 perches, in exchange for i| yard-lands, rights of common, and premises, situate in Whatcote, and belonging to the Vicar of Tysoe. During the process of enclosure under the Act of Parlia- ment, there was some engrossing by purchase, but none on behalf of the lord of the manor, who was the largest landowner. These transactions transferred the ownership of nine yard- lands. There were seven purchasers and ten vendors. In every case the purchaser was already a landed proprietor, and the vendors seem to have sold the whole of their holdings in the common and open fields, but not necessarily, or even probably, their cottages or home-closes. This circumstance should be borne in mind in considering the number of owners or occupying owners as given in the Land Tax Assessments. The readiness of over one-fifth of the owners of lands on the common fields to sell their rights during the process of enclosure may have been due to the pressure of the hard seasons of 1794 and, more particularly, 1795. In Tysoe the amount of rates collected for the relief of the poor rose from £565 in 1790 to ;^92o in 1795, remaining at £600 in the inter- vening years. In 1795 the price of wheat rose from 555. 7^. in January to 108s. ^d. in August. The King's Speech of October in that year alluded to the very high price of grain as ' causing the greatest anxiety '. In Tysoe special provisions had to be made for the feeding of the poor, and in addition C2 20 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. i to the famine — perhaps partly in consequence of it — there was an outbreak of small-pox in May 1795. The necessity of pro- viding for the frequent parochial demands for money, added to the burden of maintaining their own families, may well have broken the independence of the weaker landowners. ' In these years of scarcity,' says Levy, ' the small farmers who had corn to sell were the exception ; most of them had not enough for themselves.' ^ The duty of fencing the allotments fell with varying incidence on the different proprietors. In every case the allotments substituted for tithes were given without any obligation of fencing, which devolved upon those proprietors who were unlucky enough to be neighbours of the tithe-owners. The same arrangement applied to the allotments given to the poor in lieu of their fuel rights. It was provided that a contractor who was a surveyor should carry out the fencing of the glebe. In exchanged lands, the person in whom the ownership ultimately rested was responsible for the fencing which was obligatory on the owner of the allotment ex- changed. Among the other owners the compulsory burden of fencing was not equally distributed ; the land of smaller owners had to be immediately protected on every side, while the larger owners could divide their allotments as they wished, and were only required to provide a boundary fence on those sides of their allotments which did not abut on the fences of other allotments. A careful reading of the award shows beyond doubt that the burden of fencing fell more heavily on the smaller than on the larger owners. The lands of the common fields were given to 37 persons in lieu of their various rights, a clear indication that the number of those described as proprietors in the Land Tax Assessment of 1795 included several persons whose only hold- ing consisted of cottages or old enclosed lands. If we add to the number of persons who received allotments those who sold their common-field rights while the award was still pending, we obtain a total of ten persons, described in the Land Tax Assessment of 1795 as proprietors, having no * Large and Small Holdings, p. 17. CH. I] HISTORY OF PARISH 21 holding in the common fields. Allowance must be made here for the old enclosures of Brixfield, Hardwick, and Westcote, but with one exception, namely, Magdalen College, the owners of those lands had rights of tithes from the common fields of Tysoe, and therefore received allotments. As to the effect of enclosure on the value of the land, there is no accurate guide except the rateable value of the parish. There are no records of rents, and the value of the living was derived from so many sources that it affords no basis of calculation. Again, the Land Tax Assessments were gauged by sums which had been fixed by custom. The rateable value of the parish rose from £3,000 in 1790 to ;£4,i6o in 1800. The increase is not to be attributed to the rise in the price of corn, which was counterbalanced by the augmented poor- rate, but rather to the effect of enclosure in enhancing the value of the land. On the cost of enclosure, Wedge,^ writing in 1794, said that * with frugality ' the process might be carried through at a cost of £2 55. per acre. The cost of the Tysoe enclosure on this basis would amount to ;^5,990. Wedge states that the improvement of lands generally amounted to about one-third of the rent.^ 3. After Enclosure. Despite the fact that during the enclosure period many owners sold their rights on the land, the number of landed proprietors continued to grow till 1804, and in some ways the subdivision of the property of the village was more extensive after enclosure than before it. In 1800 the number of items described on the Land Tax Assessment was 113, while in 1785 the number was 105. Forty owners occupied their own lands, and the lord of the manor, Earl Northampton, had 31 tenants on his estate. No other landowner had more than four tenants, though several had less. The most striking fact in the Assessment of 1800 is that, despite the expenses of enclosures and the increasing cost of poor relief, the lord of the manor ' General View of Agriculture of Warwickshire, 1794, p. 20. ' Ibid., p. 21. 22 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. i and thirteen others of the largest owners had redeemed their portions of the Land Tax. The total Land Tax due from the parish was £327 195. 10^., and the amount ' exonerated ' £200 11^. 8d. Therefore fourteen of the largest landowners — representing about one-fifth of the whole number, and liable to nearly two-thirds of the whole Land Tax — had found it possible to redeem their dues by paying a capitaHzation sum equal to about thirty years' purchased The arrangement was made at the expense of the smaller peasantry and the labourers. The larger landlords could redeem their Land Tax at considerable expense, the larger farmers were increasing their farms and amassing capital, the smaller cultivators became labourers, and the labourers were impoverished and demoralized. There is striking evidence of the extent to which the workers lost their hold on the land and on employment in the fact that the Poor Rates of Tysoe rose from £565 in 1790 to £2,912 in 1800. Not only did enclo- sures tend to divorce the poor man from the soil, but they also, in conjunction with the Corn Laws, enabled the more opulent rapidly to increase their wealth : for otherwise the larger holders would not have been in a position to meet the enormous expenses of enclosure and redeem their portion of the Land Tax. None of the other smaller owners redeemed their taxes between 1800 and 1832. In 1810 the items described by the Land Tax Assessment remained practically the same as in 1800 ; but by 1815 the number of owner- occupiers had fallen to 37. This was no landslide ; a far more significant change was that the Earl of Northampton's tenants diminished from 31 in 1800 to 21 in 1815 : while on the other hand the rents of his estates increased from £1,700 * Pitt's Act for the redemption of the Land Tax provided that ' the consideration . . . agreed to be given for such redemption . . . shall be so much Capital Stock of Public Annuities transferable at the Bank of England bearing an interest after the rate of three pounds per centum per annum, commonly called " the Three Pounds Per Centum Consolidated Annuities " and the " Three Pounds Per Centum Reduced Annuities ", as will yield an Annuity or Dividend exceeding the Amount of the Land Tax so to be redeemed by One Tenth Part thereof '. * Thus the cost of redeeming the tax depended upon the price of Consolidated Stock on the market and the number of years' purchase was not fixed by law. * 58 Geo. in. c. 60, s. 8. CH. 1] HISTORY OF PARISH 23 in 1803 to £2,480 in 1811. Thus we see a steady rise in rents keeping pace with the consoHdation of farms. Similarly in Compton Wyniates there were 14 occupiers in 1800 and only 10 in 1815, The number of owners occupying their properties steadily fell, till it reached 29 in 1832. The total of North- ampton tenants sank to 20 in 1830, and at that point it remained. The whole number of occupiers and proprietors steadily rose between 1820 and 1832, but the increase may be largely attributed to the greater accuracy with which the record was compiled. In 1830 the items assessed were carefully distinguished as ' land ' and * house and land ', the two classes comprising 40 and 75 items respectively. And in 1832 the Assessor was at pains to put down the rents of the various items in sums varying from five shillings to £210, with a total of £3,234- The improvement of method shown in these records cer- tainly vitiates to some extent the comparison of the number of owner-occupiers at this time with those of earlier periods. On the other hand, it increases the value of the records concerning consolidation : for it would be the smaller items which would be most likely to be overlooked in earlier times, and therefore the recorded number of Northampton tenants would probably be nearer the truth in the later than in the earlier assessments. The tendency to consolidate farms was widespread, Adam Murray says in his View of the Agriculture of Warwickshire, ' there appears to be a disposition among the landlords when small farms fall in, to increase them in size, by laying two or three of them together.' ^. Doubtless this was due to the fact that the larger holders, being able to produce corn more cheaply than their smaller neighbours, could afford to pay a higher rent. The difference in the cost of the production of corn was not altogether due to Arthur Young's law that ploughing cost the small holder more than the large proprie- tor ; nor yet to the wealthy owner's advantages in possessing greater capital. While labour was being subsidized, and ' Adam Murray, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Warwick, 1815, p. 24. 24 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. i even in some cases, as in Tysoe, practically paid for, by the ratepayers, the small holder who tilled his own land was placed at a great disadvantage. He had to pay his quota of the labour-rate without obtaining any compensating advantage ; for he often had not sufficient land to provide material for his due share of pauper labour. Of the system of agriculture in Tysoe before and after enclo- sure it is difficult to say very much. Prior to enclosure there seems to have been six common arable fields, three for each township as set out for the Enclosure Award. It is significant that there is no tithe of clover mentioned in the awards, although the terrier mentions ' roots ' and ' turnips '. The last-mentioned were probably known and cultivated, because some of the arable land of the parish was eminently suited for such crops. It was, indeed, favourable to almost any crop, owing to the variety of its texture, which ranged from a light soil over about one-third of the open fields, to a very heavy soil in the remaining two-thirds. John Wedge ^ gives the rotation on the three-field system as the following : (i) fallow (manured), (2) wheat, (3) beans, peas, barley, or oats. On the open fields, says the same authority^ wheat yielded 20 bushels per acre, and barley, oats, and beans about 24 bushels. The average produce on good clay land (enclosed) was said to be : beans 35 bushels, wheat 28 bushels, barley 30 bushels, oats 40 bushels, clover 2 tons. The average rents were 105. per acre on unenclosed lands, 18s. per acre on enclosed lands.^ From this general statement one may form an idea of the change which enclosure would effect in Tysoe. And this much is certain, that the parish was ill-developed agriculturally in proportion as it was behind-hand in enclosing. There were no improvers of cattle or drill-husbandry men in Tysoe in 1794, though there is reason to believe that they were introduced soon after that date. The process of enclosure, by simplifying the system of holdings and facilitating the employment of men and horses, increased the utility of labour and decreased the demand for the labourers. ' Upon all enclosures of open * John Wedge, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Warwick, 1794, p. 15. ' Ibid. CH. I] HISTORY OF PARISH 25 fields,' says Wedge,^ ' the farms were generally made larger ; from that cause the hardy yeomanry of country villages have been driven for employment into Birmingham, Coventry, and other manufacturing towns, whose flourishing trade has sometimes found them profitable employment.' But where no manufacturing towns existed to provide even occasional employment, the labourers, as in Tysoe, had to be kept alive by parochial doles. Truly ' the pathos of the new hedges and the deserted villages did not lie in the wickedness of the strong, but in the passive and unrecorded misery of the many, evicted or maimed by the community, in its remorseless march to a new life and a new order through the wreckage of the old '} ' John Wedge, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Warwick, 1794, p. 21. ' Grant Robertson, England under the Hanoverians, p. 332. CHAPTER II THE VILLAGE AND ITS POPULATION The influence of the feudal system on English village life has not entirely disappeared at the present day. During the eighteenth century the feudal relics possessed still greater vitality, and were an important factor in shaping the social structure. And the 'openness' of Tysoe, previously described, had a bearing on the life of the village apart from its direct influence on the immediate conditions of land ownership and occupation. The village lies at the foot of the Edge Hills, and is composed of three distinct hamlets, as is shown in the sketch.^ Each of these hamlets lies on a road which runs through the village, and each is quite a distinct cluster of houses. But though there is a mile between the hamlets from extreme north to south, Tysoe is not a straggling community in the style of a woodland village ; indeed, there are very few isolated houses, apart from the homesteads on the old enclosed farms, which were the remains of depopulated hamlets. About three settlements seem to have been made on the wastes and borders of the parish ; but their dates are unknown. The cause of the formation of the village in hamlets instead of in one compact township may be discovered by a glance at the sources of water-supply. In each case the hamlet extends along a brook which arises in the hills above, and in all three cases the distances between the hills and the hamlet is about the same. The Enclosure Commissioners were careful to adjudge all these brooks as public watercourses, and to make provisions for the freest possible access to them, so that their importance was great even in comparatively modern * Map 2, Appendix. CH. II] THE VILLAGE AND ITS POPULATION 27 times. The distance between the hills and the hamlets may- be accounted for by a glance at the situation of the common arable fields. Without exception these came right up to the greens and wastes bordering on the brooks upon which the hamlets were built, and those lying nearest the hamlets, immediately at the foot of the hills, contained the richest loamy soil in the parish and neighbourhood. Thus the water-supply and the quality of the soil determined the situation of the village ; a fact which seems to show that the earliest settlement was made in a time of peace, probably in the early Saxon period. The particular formation of Tysoe added to its manorial subdivision would tend to make the land and houses of the village more accessible, and would therefore give to the inhabitants greater economic and social liberty. In 1826 there were 30 ratepayers following occupations other than agriculture, besides 3 persons who may be described as following professions, while 91 of the ratepayers were agricul- turists. The census return of 1801 gives the number of persons chiefly employed in agriculture as 584, and those chiefly employed in ' manufacture and handicraft ' as 261, though these figures must apply to members of the dependent families of those employed, and not to individuals.^ Both in the social life, and the actual formation, of a village, the concentration of land ownership produces results very different from those brought about by a widely distributed proprietorship. We may best see the contrast by comparing the growth of population in Tysoe and in Compton Wyniates. According to the Domesday Survey of the Conqueror, Compton Wyniates contained 22 families and 5 bondsmen — at a ratio of 4-5 persons per family in the case of the main ' It may be noted that in 1735 a licence was given at the July Quarter Sessions of the county for a house in Middle Tysoe ' to be used as a place of religious worship for Quakers ', and at the end of the century the ' .ethodists held land and other property in the village. The rapid growth of this latter body in the early nineteenth century is shown by the fact that the Report of the Education Inquiry* in 1835 states that there were two Sunday Schools in the village : one under the auspices of the Established Church, having 45 male and 41 female scholars, the other under the Methodists, having 63 male and Ti female scholars. • Report on Education, 1835. Record Office, Shire Hall, Warwick. 28 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. ii holdings — a population of 105. In 1720 ^ the population had fallen to 20, in 1801 it was only 41, and in 1841, 46 — the highest number reached since Domesday. In Tysoe the population was as follows : a.d. 1086 — 81 families, 9 bondsmen, i priest ; at 4'5 persons per family, a population of 374; a.d. 1665 it had risen to 608, a.d. 1801 to 891 : the highest number, 1,112, being reached in 1871. The difference of results is again seen in the fact that the levies for the relief of the poor in Tysoe and Compton were in 1785 respectively £469 and £8 lys} Compton was entirely owned by the Earl of Northampton, lord of the manor of Tysoe, and it seems as though its population was at some period deliberately removed or checked. In spite of the fact that Compton was over one-fifth the size of Tysoe and con- tained excellent agricultural land under full cultivation, it had practically no labouring population and no heavy poor rates. Thus there can be little doubt that the labour used in the cultivation of Compton came from Tysoe, and that in times of unemployment or sickness its poor levies were derived from the same source. It may be estimated that at the beginning of the eighteenth century the population of Tysoe would be well under 700. From 1665 to 1801 there was an increase of 283, the figures being 608 and 891. The number of baptisms in the Parish Register shows that the increase was more rapid in the first than in the second half of the period. The return of hearths made under 13-14 Charles II. c. 10,^ for the purposes of taxation, gives the number of houses in Tysoe as 132. Eighty- one of these had 172 hearths and were liable to be taxed. The remaining 51 comprised 52 hearths and were not liable. These figures are important as showing that houses of the better class were decidedly predominant in the village, and also that there was plentiful house-room, the average number of persons to a house being 4'6. According to the figures for population in 1665 given by Miller,* the average number of persons in the ^ G. Miller, Parishes of the Diocese of Worcester, 1889, vol. i, p. 57. ^ Ibid. ^ Duplicate. Muniment Room, Shire Hall, Warwick. * Parishes of the Diocese of Worcester, vol. i, p. 34. CH. II] THE VILLAGE AND ITS POPULATION 29 houses of ratepayers would be 4'66 and in those of labourers 4*51. Ratepayers are estimated at 378, labourers at 240 ; but these figures probably include not only ' ratepayers ' and ' labourers ' proper, but all members of families the heads of which would come within those categories. Thus there would be 81 heads of families paying rates, and 53 heads of families which depended for a living on their labour. When it is remembered that the number of persons paying Land Tax in 1775 was only 61, there seems to be good ground for Mr. A. H. Johnson's contention that the closing years of the seventeenth century, and the first fifty years of the eighteenth, were fatal to the small cultivator.^ That some great economic change in the status of the majority of the population took place in the eighteenth century is shown by the Census Returns of 1801. There were 220 families but only 195 houses : so that in several instances two or more families must have been jointly occupying tenements designed for a single household : the number of persons per house being 4*51, per family 4-05. The number of houses advanced between 1663 and 1801 by 63, and although the rate of increase was not as large as that of the population, the difference is not sufficient to account for the overcrowding. The real cause of the congestion seems to have been that the poorest classes were obliged to seek the cheapest possible shelter ; for at the very time when several families were being herded together in a single cottage, other houses stood tenantless. From 1801 the population rapidly advanced till 1821, after which date it fell slightly, and did not regain its former vitality till 1861. In I8II It was 944. I82I M „ 1,070. I83I >) „ 1,007. I86I ) > „ 1,035. I87I ) ) „ 1,112. The decrease between 1821 and 1831 seems to correspond to the decline which, in the opinion of the Poor Law Commis- * A. H. Johnson, Disappearance of Small Landowner, 1909, p. 136. 30 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. ii sioners of 1834, resulted from the more stringent regulation of relief from the Poor Rates ; ^ for the overseers of Tysoe made some effort to improve their system of administration during this period. It is noteworthy that the increase of population was not by any means proportionate to the plentiful supply and low price of corn. In fact the ratio almost seems to have been inverse. The figures speak plainly for themselves. In the period 1742-51 the average price of wheat per quarter was 295. 2^d. and the number of births in Tysoe was 204. 1770-79 Average price 455. od. No. of births 291 1780-89 „ „ 455. 9^.2 „ „ „ 229 31790-99 „ „ 57^- 7d. „ „ „ 257 1800-09 M „ 845- Hd. „ „ „ 337 1820-29 „ „ 59-^- 92^- ., M M 308 It is not suggested that there is any connexion between these advances, but rather that the scarcity of corn and the rise in prices were not sufficient to check an increase of popu- lation due to other causes. Truly, if such conditions were at all general in English agricultural villages at the end of the eighteenth century, there was some justification for the rather extravagant writings of Mai thus on the subject of population and food supply. The real cause of the increase of population is to be looked for in the degradation of the labouring classes through economic causes, and in the injudicious conduct of the farmers helped by the maladministration of poor relief. In the first place, many of the women had lost their employment in the open fields. Prior to enclosures one of their chief occu- pations was weeding the broadcast sown corn ; but with the coming of enclosure and drill-husbandry, the demand for female weeders diminished. Moreover, the modern demand for domestic servants and women factory-workers had not yet arisen, and even when it did exist it was frequently discouraged by the tax on domestic ^ Report of Poor Law Commissioners, 1834, p. 240. * Bohn's Cyclopedia of Political and Statistical Knowledge, 1848. Article, Corn Laws. ' Curtler's History of English Agriculture, Appendix 3. CH. II] THE VILLAGE AND ITS POPULATION 31 servants and the fear that they might gain settlements. For instance, the overseers of Leamington issued a circular advising householders to keep down the number of servants, and to engage them for fifty-one weeks only. Under the Bastardy Acts the punishment of women was rarely enforced : for the overseers probably felt some sympathy for the woman, and were reluctant to add either to the public expense or to the personal degradation by sending her to the local Bridewell. Where paternity could be fixed on a man of means the woman reaped an advantage, and in every case, even with the parish allowance, the woman would be better off with a child than without. Doubtless it was for these reasons that Villiers was able to report to the 1834 Poor Law Commissioners ^ that in some Warwickshire villages seventeen out of every twenty, and in others nineteen out of every twenty, of the women were pregnant when married. Every woman could claim her pittance from the parish when unemployed, but if she married she shared her husband's allowance; and if she remained unmarried and bore an illegitimate child, her portion was increased. There can be no doubt that the greatest cause of looseness among the women was the hope of finding a husband. Marriage or maternity was the only occupation freely open to women. On the male side it must be remem- bered that the married man was preferred to the single man for employment, and his unemployed allowance was greater. Also the allowance in aid of wages made it easy for the work- men to live awayfrom their employers' houses, and unprofitable for farmers to employ male servants and lodge them in their own homes. If they did, they still had to pay their share of the Poor Rates, and thus contribute a double share towards the maintenance of the labourers of the parish. For these reasons the employment of male servants declined, and as a consequence the overcrowding of cottages became worse and worse. This birth-rate result will not surprise those who are acquainted with rural housing conditions even at the present day. The growth of population seems to have been rather favoured than feared by those in authority. For one * Appendix A, Part II, evidence, Report of Poor Law Commission, 1834. 32 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. ii thing, it provided a plentiful supply of labour during the summer months to meet the demand occasioned by the increased cultivation of corn. And Villiers, writing of the Allowance System, says : ' I was informed that the conse- quences of the system were not altogether unforeseen at the time (of adoption, in 1797) as affording a probable inducement to early marriages and large families, but at this period there was little apprehension on that ground. A prevalent opinion, supported by high authority, that population was in itself a source of wealth, precluded all alarm. The demands for the public service were thought to ensure sufficient draught for any surplus people.' ^ The enormous growth of population, occurring during a period in which the real wages of the labourers, through no direct fault of their own, were lower than they ever were before, is an interesting comment on the charges of thriftlessness and immorality which are often levelled at the poor.^ The fact is that when the labourers were comparatively well-to-do during the early eighteenth century, they were both thrifty and moral : a statement amply substantiated by the bastardy figures for Tysoe. From 1727 to 1759 there were three ' illegitimates ' baptized, and one of these is described as ' the son of a traveller '. From 1795 to 1801, during the corn famine, there were twelve illegitimates baptized, and it is impossible to say how many women during the same period obtained husbands by deliberate guile. As there was no definite manufacturing industry in the neighbourhood, the population of Tysoe was mostly engaged in agriculture. Still, trades and handicrafts were well repre- ' Report of Poor Law Commission, 1834. (Reprint 1905, Cd. 2728) p. 126. ' As early as 1774 one of the reasons assigned for the repeal of the Elizabethan Act which provided that every cottage built should have four acres of land attached to it was that it created a check on population. Had the governing classes of England had any wish to restrict population they had the means to do so. The Poor Law Commissioners of 1834 reported that the tendency to reckless improvidence in marriage seems rather to be checked by placing before the labourers something to look forward to beyond the resource of daily labour for a master (p. 183). And the Labourers' Friend Magazine for May 1834 contains conclusive evidence that granting the labourer a direct interest in the soil, even though only through small allotments, made him thrifty, provident, and hopeful. The CH. II] THE VILLAGE AND ITS POPULATION 33 sented. The Census Return for 1801 gives 260 persons as employed in trades and handicrafts. If we divide this number by four — a fair ratio per family — we have a total of 65 persons actually so engaged. Unfortunately nothing more definite can be found throwing light on the question of domestic industry, but if this source can be trusted, it seems that a great change occurred between 1801 and 1826. The Poor following is a comparison between the growth of population in some Wiltshire villages with and without allotments, and Tysoe, which lacked these conveniences for the poor. ALLOTMENTS AND POPULATION Village. ^2 . to S > ■=> 11 > « s . ■»» to « Si s « s .0 S 00 to 4 1. Little J Somerford | 2. Dauntsey | 3. StantonSt. 1 Quinton ) 4. Seagny | 5. Rod- I bourne ) 6. Christian ( Mai ford \ 1821 1831 1821 1831 1821 1831 1821 1831 1821 1831 1821 1831 52 60 64 70 52 57 19 20 63 66 93 99 57 60 33 29 156 188 237 272 138 152 76 79 431 483 174 188 230 289 147 165 63 76 447 497 330 376 467 =;6i 285 317 215 234 139 155 878 980 j 46 j 94 I- j ,6 \ 102 330 467 285 215 139 878 46 94 32 19 16 102 14 20-5 II-2 8-8 n-2 II-6 7. Newtown ] 8. Broad ( Somerford' | 1821 1831 1821 1831 59 58 86 97 59 61 95 102 153 147 233 249 153 160 248 251 306 307 481 500 I 19 306 481 I 19 0-32 3-95 3,101 319 10-28 Nos. I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, villages without allotments. Nos. 7 and 8, with allotments. Tysoe ' 1801 I80I 195 220 42s 466 891 1 " 891 1811 53 5-94 I8II 944 1 126 Dec. 944 1821 126 Deer. 13-4 Deer. I82I 218 231 540 530 1,070 ij 63 1,070 63 5-88 183 1 218 239 501 506 1,007 Inc. 1831 Incr. Incr. I84I 1,033 26 1,007 26 2-58 * Eight Wiltshire villages. Labourers' Friend Magazine, May 1834. An inquiry into the effect of letting land to labourers as regards population. ' Census returns. (part vi) w. V. D 34 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. ii Rate Assessment for the latter year classifies the ratepayers as follows : 72 ' farmers ' 19 ' Smallholders ' 14 labourers i fiaxdresser I spinner 2 weavers 3 cordwainers 4 grocers 1 whitlaw (white leather 3 taylors maker) 2 masons 2 carpenters 2 millers 2 wheelwrights 3 bakers i butcher I blacksmith i schoolmaster I vicar i doctor I gentleman. Thus from 1801 to 1826 there was a decrease of more than 30 persons employed in trade and handicraft with probably 120 dependents. The decay of domestic industry indicated by these figures was another cause of economic hardship, social chaos, and human suffering ; for it accentuated the evils already existing, which the Poor Laws and administra- tion had helped to create and had subsequently been obliged to alleviate. It was the misfortune of Tysoe that the village was never affected, except adversely, by the industrial development of the country. The Oxford Canal was only nine miles distant, but the journey over the intervening hills to Banbury was so difficult that the farmers and haulers preferred to go twelve miles to Stratford or sixteen miles to Warwick. This fact is by no means negligible when it is remembered that coals at the canal side cost 10^. per cwt., and were sold to the poor of Tysoe by the overseers at i^. 6d. per cwt., the prices paid to the haulers for carriage being 6d. per cwt. However, the distant touch with the canals was good for the district, for with this means of access to distant markets the farmers were not at the mercy of local dealers. Writing on the price of provisions in the county, Wedge ^ said distinctly that the price of corn was much more regular after the opening of the canals than before. Besides the canals, the only means ^ View of Agriculture. Warwickshire, 1754, p. 22. CH. II] THE VILLAGE AND ITS POPULATION 35 of commercial communication was the turnpike road from Oxford to Birmingham through Stratford-on-Avon. There were daily coaches along this road, as well as pack-horse men plying between Droitwich and London. Thus Tysoe remained and still remains a large, prosperous, old-world, agricultural parish. To the economic and social structure which we have described the Poor Laws were applied in such manner as was considered best for the poor, or most convenient for the administrators. We have now to consider the effect of those laws in their actual operation. D3 CHAPTER III ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION The provisions for administration in the Tudor and Stuart Poor Laws were founded upon the ancient divisions of county, hundred, and parish. The manors and manorial organization were left severely alone. The result is that local self-govern- ment in rural districts is free from the manorial taint. What traces of the manorial organization still remain are to be found in the economic system rather than in the organization of government. In only one instance is there any relic of the influence of the manorial organization in the English Poor Laws. Section 21 of the Settlement Act, 14 Chas. II, c. 12, provided that parishes consisting of several townships or villages might constitute these separate townships units for poor relief purposes, each unit maintaining its own poor. This suited the lords whose demesne was a distinct part of the parish in which it lay ; for they were enabled by the demolition or restriction of cottages to limit population and thereby diminish the poor rates. Tysoe would have provided an admirable field for exercising the power of dividing parishes, had it not been that the proximity of Compton Wyniates, under the same lord — with- out population — made its exercise unnecessary and undesirable. The use of the parochial organizations and of the magistracy in Tudor times tends to show that the aim of the Government was to give the people some power to protect themselves. The manorial organization must have been still intact in most villages, but, as far as the Poor Law was concerned, it was neglected if not actually discouraged. In Tysoe the manor courts must have remained in operation at least till the enclosure of the common fields, and probably even later ; for there is still extant in the parish safe a renewal of copyhold executed in 1765, and extending for three lives. The parish authorities administered the Poor Laws, under CH. Ill] ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 37 the supervision of the Justices of the Peace for the county. The latter possessed an extensive and important jurisdiction in economic and social matters, apart from the jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases given to local justices by the social policy of the Tudors and Stuarts. The importance of their functions may be shown by a few quotations from the actual orders of Quarter Sessions made for Warwickshire.-^ An instance has already been quoted of the licensing of Nonconformist meeting- houses in 1753. There are numerous other records of the same kind. In the sixth year of George I, Anthony Bishop, Francis Wood, John Hewens, and John White, sen., of Brailes, were ' indighted ' ' for not coming to church for three months last past being Popish Recusants '. On October 7, 1713, occurs this entry ; one ' Thos. Arthur Esq. by a deputa- tion under his hand and seal dated ye ist of October 1713 did appoint John Welshman of Banbury in ye county of Oxon gamekeeper for ye manor of Ratley in ye county of Warwick '. These records of gamekeepers' appointments are very numer- ous and seem to have been most carefully kept. There are many records of corn-dealers' licences. Here is an example from the year 1763 : ' We ... a quorum, do license and admit being a married man and an householder having been an inhabitant in the said county for three years last past to be a common Badger, Carrier and Seller of Corn and Grain in any fair or market whatsoever. The same to convert it to meal and to carry and vend the same in any fair or market from time to time during the space of one whole year ; date hereof ; according to the true intent and meaning of the Statutes in that case made and provided against Regrators, Forestallers, and Ingrossers, and not otherwise given under our hands and seals the nth of January 1763.' The power of the travelling judge of Assize even in the nineteenth century is shown by a quotation from the Warwick Advertiser, January 4, 1806 : ' Price of Bread. His Lordship and the Court, on Tuesday morning, ordered the price of bread to be reduced ' Orders in Sessions : Muniment Room, Shire Hall, Warwick, from Restoration onwards. 38 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. hi one assize or 2d. in the peck loaf, which makes the price of the quartern loaf ii^d.' Besides the powers illustrated above the justices regulated the rates of wages for labourers. There are instances of such regulation in 1657, 1672, 1730, and 1773. They also had power to adjudicate in appeals against rates, and to require rates in relief of parishes from the Hundreds. Many instances of these orders might be given. They were also empowered to grant various permits and licences to beggars and vagrants ; indeed the Justices in Quarter Sessions seem to have organized vagrancy provisions for the whole county. They had two permanent officials to deal with this problem, as is shown by an entry on April 15, 1735 : ' That Richd. Spiers be appointed to convey vagrants for one year at £60 to be paid quarterly. That Mr, T. Hanbury be appointed to convey vagrants for one year more as usual,' And a beggar's licence appears later : ' For as much as it did this day appear that upon the twenty-first day of March last there happened a dreadful fire to break out in the dwelling house of W, P, a labourer, of Ashorne in the county of Warwick, which in a few hours con- sumed the same as also the greatest part of his household goods and implements of husbandry is the great injury of the said W, P, unless relieved by the Charity of the well-disposed Christians, His Majesty's justices now in the Court, taking into consideration the misfortune of the said W. P, have thought fit and do hereby recommend him to all Charitable and well- disposed Christians in the county of Warwick, aforesaid, and that this order do continue in force for one year and no longer,' The Justices of the Peace also had duties concerning the local militia, and discharged soldiers and sailors. In 1746^ the Vestry Meeting of Tysoe passed a resolution ' that no officer for the future give relief to soldiers nor sailors, nor pay for quartering of disbanded soldiers without order from a magistrate ', In 1751 and 1816 an instance occurs of pay- ments to soldiers and sailors : ' To disbanding soldier to pay quartering, 6d. To a sailor in distress, is.' * Overseers' Account Books, Tysoe, vol, i. CH. Ill] ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 39 Similar payments are recorded as ' ordered by the jus- tices '. Thus the Tudor Government had based the organization of poor rehef on the parish unit, vesting the control in the parish meeting which annually met under the auspices of the church in the vestry, and of the ecclesiastical organization of church- wardens. In addition they appointed overseers of the poor, doubtless because these officers were likely to prove a sympathetic administrative body. Having now appointed the officials, the Tudor Government next made ample provision for the superintendence of their work. The Justices for separate Hundreds and divisions of Hundreds formed links between the parish units and the Quarter Sessions, and the Judges of Assize provided administrative and advisory links between the counties and the Privy Council. The strictness of the control of local administration by the latter body is shown by the Book of Orders ^ issued by them to local Justices in 1630. The supervision at this period consisted mainly in enforcing the laws in favour of the poor, and not in checking the extrava- gance or folly of the Justices or overseers. By 1834 the complaint of the Poor Law Commission was that no central control existed which would check abuse of powers of relief, because after 1795 the interference of Justices was practically always on the side of leniency to the poor.^ As a matter of fact the control of the Privy Council and the Judges over local administration began to fall off about 1630, and whatever traces remained seem to have been swept away by the Civil War. Then came the Settlement Act (13 & 14 Chas. II), the whole tendency of which was to diminish the size of the administra- tive unit. It provided in one section that divisions of parishes where there were distinct ' chapelries ' might form nuclei for vestries. It is worthy of note in this connexion that while settlement was fixed in the Hundred by some of the early Tudor laws, it was not dealt with by the Act of 1601, and was restricted severely to the parish by the Act of 1662. In ' Cf. Miss E. M. Leonard, Early English Poor Relief, Cambridge, 1900, p. 158. * Poor Law Report, 1834, p. 294 and following pages. 40 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. hi this way the parochial units of organization became more distinct and isolated. The duties or powers taken from the Hundreds and imposed on the parishes would increase the importance of parochial officials at the expense of the impor- tance of the Justices, who were the chief officials of the Hun- dreds. This policy was extended in 9 George II, c. 7, which enacted that Justices could not grant relief on their own authority, but that appeal must first be made to the overseers. The need for this provision seems to show that the Justices were still acting on the traditions of an earlier period and enforcing the law purely for the benefit of the poor. From this date till the passing of the Act of 1782 their power was more restricted than hitherto. During this period only a very slight control over parochial officials was exercised by superior authorities. The Justices interfered only on the appeal of some aggrieved person and in the capacity of auditors of accounts and supervisors of assessments. In the parish under consideration the latter powers were only formally exercised, for there is no record of advice or censure. Still, the books were regularly signed, if not actually examined or audited, and in 1825 the Justices drew attention to the fact that the books had not been signed by parishioners at the Vestry Meeting. During the eighteenth century the chief duties of the Justices in Poor Law matters in Tysoe was adjudication in appeals and prosecutions. Particulars of these processes are not recorded, but the expenses are always entered. An example occurs in 1727 : ' Horse shoes and expenses at Warwick Sessions, £5 OS. od.' And another in June 1760 : ' Expenses and Warrant taking W. Kite to Campden 35. 6d. Paid when I went to have the warrant back to William Tracy 55. 6d. Expenses at Mr. Falkner's when W. Kite was kept prisoner, and going to the justices 135. 10^. Paid the expenses and warrant and watching 6s. 3^.' This was an illegitimacy case ; but many entries mention only ' Expenses going to the Justices ' with no reference to warrants. These were evidently appeals. The result of the CH. Ill] ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 41 prosecutions was generally a committal to the local Bridewell ; which was described in 1850 as follows : ' House of Correction or Bridewell, Warwick, nearly opposite the entrance to the gaol, and enclosed within a high stone wall ; having been enlarged at different times, the arrange- ment is rather inconvenient, the entrance from some of the wards to the chapel and other parts of the prison requiring an ascent of many steps ; the same regard to classification, order, and cleanliness, prevails here as in the county gaol. The boys and the women were formerly employed in heading pins for the manufacturers of Birmingham, and the men in drawing and preparing the wire for that purpose, but it was found to be attended with loss, owing to the waste of material ; conse- quently was declined a few years ago. A flour mill worked by crank, with hand labour, employing one hundred men, who relieve each other at intervals, grinds sufficient quantity of corn to supply the county gaol and Bridewell and for hire.' There was a resident Governor, and a surgeon and chaplain. The good order of the gaol referred to consisted of classification of prisoners and superintendence of workrooms, airing yards, day-rooms, and tread-mill, so that ' the greatest order, and, as far as circumstances will allow of it, the greatest comfort and cleanliness prevail throughout the establishment ; a warm bath is appropriated to the use of the prisoners on their entrance, and every precaution is taken to avoid contagion '.^ If this was true of the nineteenth century, it is improbable that it was true of the eighteenth. In any case, the corn-mill employing one hundred men shows that there was a large demand for accommodation. In the index of the Report drawn up by the Commissioners on the Poor Laws in 1834 there is no mention of these Bride- wells ; but the number of committals from Tysoe and the evidence given above, show that they played an important part in the administration of the Poor Laws. A good instance of committal to Bridewell occurs in 1751 : ' Expenses having Godard to Bridewell lys. 6d. Paid Godard's Bridewell fees 35. 8^;^.' ^ * Warwickshire, Sheffield, 1850, p. 465. ' Overseers' Account Book, Tysoe, vols, ii and iii. 42 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. hi And another in 1736 : ' Paid to Mr. Cattol, Bradley's charges at Bridewell 5s.* Meanwhile the parish kept Bradley's wife in house-rent, fuel, and food. The Church played a considerable part in the organization of poor relief in the eighteenth century. In Tysoe the Vicar presided at all the Vestry meetings, and the churchwardens took an active part. The Sturges Bourne Act, passed in 1818, assumed that the Vicar had a right to preside at Vestry meetings. The words are : ' in case the Rector or Vicar shall not be present, the persons present shall forthwith nominate a Chairman.' ^ On this point Toulmin Smith quotes Lord Hardwicke to the effect that ' I do not find any resolution, or even opinion, to give the Vicar the right of presiding. There is indeed a notion that he has a right to preside, but that has taken its rise from special vestries.' ^ But it is probable that such a custom was directly produced by the enactments of the Tudors in the early part of the sixteenth century, which made use of the Church organization in preference to any other for the purpose of poor relief. When the Vestry was purely ecclesiastical the Vicar would almost certainly preside. During the sixteenth century the predominance of the Church in Poor Law affairs would not be felt ; but during the Civil War period, and the latter part of the eighteenth century, after the revival of Nonconformity and the birth of Methodism, it may well have been a source of trouble, or more likely of negligence. The ecclesiastical business of the parish was done, as it is now, at a Vestry meeting held on Easter Monday, and the village Quakers and Methodists, some of whom were ratepayers, may have pre- ferred to let others manage parochial business rather than intervene in affairs which interested them only in so far as they excited hostility. A general rule as to the constitution of parish vestries cannot be laid down, and at the present time it is hard to discover ^ 58 Geo. Ill, c. 69, s. 2. Cf. Toulmin Smith, The Parish, London, 1858, p. 244 et seq., for lengthy discussion of the question. ^ Toulmin Smith, People and Parish, p. 27. CH. Ill] ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 43 the principles upon which the composition of particular bodies was based. In the case of the Tysoe vestry it is at least certain that it was never an open or democratic meeting. The key to the problem may lie in the words regularly used in the records of the parish under consideration, ' being met according to the custom of the parish.' The usual attendance, as we learn by the signatures to the accounts, was somewhere between nine and fifteen ratepayers ; never more than twenty, although the number of ratepayers exceeded one hundred. Those who attended were the largest farmers. The chief business of the Vestry was the passing of the accounts of the previous year and the appointment of overseers for the ensuing year. In some respects the meeting was arbitrary in its decisions, and often had good reason to be so. The following minute of the meeting in 1796 explains itself : ' It is agreed by the Vestry that shop-keepers be excluded from serving the office of overseer, and that they be not hired to serve as substitutes.' The minutes of the meeting in 1746 illustrate very well the influence of the Vestry in guiding actual administration : ' The overseers to provide a Book, the present assessments of the Land Tax to be recorded in it, and all subsequent assessments. The officers to continue the respective rates agreeable to the assessments, the overseers to record one levy in the year.' ' No Parish Officer for the future to make any alteration in either assessment or levy without order from the Justices or Commissioners, or if any such order be that order to be recorded in the Book.' ' No officer for the future to give Public Money to losses by fire or water, nor relief to strolling beggar, soldier or seaman. Nor to pay the quartering of any band of soldiers without order from the magistrate.' ' Overseers to enter all individual payments the next pay- day after such payment.' ' The poor having a weekly collection for the future to wear the Town Letter.' ' The overseers in all cases of difficulty to call a vestry and take their advice.' The last clause is important because special meetings were 44 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. hi often called to decide urgent questions, and sometimes, as in 1816, the meeting was advised by a solicitor who was paid by the parish. A minute of a meeting in 1740 shows that the control of expenditure was not by any means lax at that period : ' To be deducted, seven shillings charged as paid by the . . . (overseer) to William Willcox, it not being allowed by the parish, he being no parishioner.' Still, this supervision was not continued during the whole of the eighteenth century. The expenses for refreshments at the Easter Vestry, which amounted to about two shillings in 1740, rose to two guineas toward the end of the century. The attempt to regain supervision over expenditure will account for the changes made in the vestry. The first of these was due to the immense amount of distress in 1799. Quarterly meetings were made the rule, and the accounts were drawn up quarterly instead of annually. By 1814 the meetings were held regularly every month, and the accounts were made up accordingly. Thus the ' custom of the parish ' of holding meetings annually, gave way before the stress of circumstances. In 1819 the Select Vestries Act was passed, and Tysoe adopted its provisions. It is the opinion of Mr. Sidney Webb that ' the small rural vestries seem practically to have ignored both the Act of 1818 and that of 1819, the obligatory equally with the permissive sections '.^ But this view is not supported by the evidence afforded by Tysoe ; and probably a close examination of the records of Warwickshire would show it to be even less tenable in other places. The Sturges Bourne Act did not limit or extend the powers of the Vestry, but merely enabled the parish to limit its con- stitution. The effect of this provision is well shown by an entry in the overseers' books of Tysoe. In March, 1825, occurs the entry : ' Pd. for signing second levy and Select Vestry, 45. 6d., and Journey to Warwick, 75.' Then in May, 1826, the following is recorded : ' Paid for 5 dinners at the * Parish and County, p, 157, footnote. CH. Ill] ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 45 yearly meeting at 2S. each, lo^.' The number hkely to attend the meeting was definitely known and could be exactly catered for. The Select Vestries had no power except over poor relief, and their chief object was to reduce expenditure on that account. The Act directed that a book of accounts should be provided and properly kept by the overseers : but this was no innovation, for it had already been prescribed by 17 George II, c. 38. In respect of accounts Tysoe would compare very favourably with other parishes. The overseers of Foleshill in the same county burnt their books rather than show them to a Commit- tee of Inquiry in 1832. But the most important provision of the Sturges Bourne Act was the establishment of the cumu- lative vote in parish meetings. Previously to the Act of 1818 no person attending the Vestry had more than one vote ; after the measure was passed, occupation of property of the value of £50 or less entitled to one vote, and over ;^5o one vote was added for every additional ;^25, until a maximum of six was reached. This system remained in force till the Local Govern- ment Act of 1894 came into operation. After the appointment of the Select Vestry very little interest seems to have been shown in Poor Law administration by the inhabitants of Tysoe. In 1825 the following entry was made by the Justices before whom the book was produced for their signatures : ' This book was produced at the Easter Vestry, but omitted to be signed by the principal inhabitants, but no objections were made.' The signatures of the Justices were appended. The best explanation of the oversight seems to be that the officials were the only persons present at the meeting, and they could not pass their own accounts. This was the first omission of the kind, and as it occurred while a paid clerk or deputy overseer was being employed, it can hardly have been caused by ignorance or neglect of the rule. Besides appointing the churchwardens and overseers and supervising the administration of poor relief, the Vestry organized and superintended the general civil government of the parish. Still, the distinction between civil business and 46 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. hi Poor Law business would not be great, as the overseers paid all the expenses of each department, and the churchwardens had duties in both, though the more important were probably in the civil sphere. For the most part, churchwardens acted in Poor Law affairs as an advisory body to the overseers, especially during times of extraordinary distress. A few extracts will show the range of the civil business of the parish. October 8th, 1780. ' Notices, renewing licences. Constable's Presentments for Sessions, Freeholders lists, swearing Militia men, appointing new Surveyor of Highways, 65.' 1796, March 27th. ' The Constable's expenses and the new assessment, 135. 6d.* ' To the expenses of the Constable and Churchwardens and Overseers going to Warwick about the papers concerning the produce of corn, 13s. 8i.' ' To expenses at My Landlord Watts', 4 persons eating and drinking when we took account of the people in the parish, March 15th 1801, 10s.' The result of this expenditure was that the officials forgot to enter the particulars of the census in the parish books. The details for Compton Wyniates were entered by the curate, and those for Tysoe were duly entered when the census was again taken in 18 11. Easter, 1810. ' To Mr. Middleton and Robert Wells for being sworn in Constable and Thirdborough, 25.' The persons named were also deputy-overseers, so that that year at least there would be no sharp distinction between civil and Poor Law affairs, in the minds of simple villagers. 1821. ' To the Constable for drawing the new Stocks from Lower Tysoe to Church Tysoe 2s. 6d.' ' Received for old Stocks 15.' ' Paid to Thomas Callcott, new stocks, iron work and lock £2 95. 2^.' Other entries show that the overseers were entering into another sphere of organization. The following item occurs in 1746 : ' Paid for rules about the cattle is' And there is one in 1752 recording repairs to the local pound : CH. Ill] ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 47 I 5. d. ' Thomas Hancox Bill ye 266 Guy Chamberlain Lower Town 16 6 Smith's bill carriage 7 Ids. of mortar Pound 9 6 Mat Savage 10 Ids. stone the Lower Town Pound 5 0* And in the next year a new pound was built in another part of the parish. An entry in the Minutes of Quarter Sessions for Warwickshire in 1713 throws an interesting side-light on the relation of parish officials to the common land customs. It is as follows : ' Thomas Rawlings of Grandborough indighted by the constable of Grandborough for an incroachment on the Common.' During the eighteenth century the appointments of con- stables and surveyor of highways do not seem to have been regularly made, but in the following century they became more methodical. The Vicar of the parish took his place as chairman of the Vestry, but there his activity seems to have ended. Thus all the real power was left in the hands of the churchwardens and overseers. In Tysoe the number of churchwardens was usually two ; only on one occasion were there three. They seem to have been freely elected by those who attended the Vestry. The overseers, on the other hand, varied in numbers at different periods, and they were never freely elected. Although the word used in the records was ' chosen ' the overseers served in rotation, most probably following a given order of houses or holdings of land. The following entry occurs in 1802 : ' We, the inhabitants of the parish of Tysoe, having met this day for the purpose of choosing overseers of the poor for the year ensuing, but not agreeing in the choice of proper persons to serve the office according to the usual custom of the parish by rotation, we have nominated (here follow the names of ten persons) . . . any two of these to be appointed and approved by two of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the said County as overseers for the parish of Tysoe for the year ensuing.' In one instance a woman held the office, probably because 48 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. hi she was farming on her own account, and was obliged to serve when her turn came in the rotation. The uncertainty and chaos shown in 1802 was followed in 1809 by the appointment of two ' Deputy Overseers ' in addi- tion to the two ordinary officials. In 182 1 and 1824 similar appointments of deputies were made, even after the adoption of the Select Vestry ; whence it would appear that the appoint- ments had been regularly made since 1809. The record of the first appointment of Deputies runs thus : ' Easter Monday, being met according to the custom of the parish we do chuse and appoint Mr. W, B. and Mr. W. H, to be Overseers of the Poor for the present year 1809. It is further agreed that Mr. C. Middleton and Mr. R. Wells, the late overseers, do serve as Deputy Overseers for the above.' From the first the schoolmaster acted as Vestry clerk, originally at a salary of 15. 2d. per week, with additional allowances for paper ; later at £10 10.?. o^, per annum. In the early years of the nineteenth century the parish expenditure had risen to well over ;£i,ooo annually, and the parish was carrying on enterprises such as the sale of coal and bread. During this period the person employed must have given practically the whole of his time to the conduct of parish business, for the books show that the clerk's salary had risen to £40 per annum. All this organization was founded upon the conception of the parish or village as a corporation. The Act i Edward VI, c. 3 (1547), provided that every community should maintain its own paupers or beggars, and so prevent them from preying upon other districts. If it failed to provide for its own poor, the community was to forfeit a sum proportionate to its standing. A city, £5 ; a borough, 405. ; a village, 205. ; the penalty to be equally divided between the informer and the King's Exchequer. In the eighteenth century, a somewhat similar measure, 5 George I, c. 28, enacted that all damage done to woods or fences by lawless persons was to be levied on the parish. The Tysoe records show that this Act was by no means CH. Ill] ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION 49 a dead letter, and that the principle of corporate responsibility was very vital. The year 1774 furnishes an example : ' George Fessey the money that was ordered by Mr. Aylesworth (Justice of the Peace) for a Trespass done at Mr. Dyers, 25.' Another in 1781 : ' To Mr. Shelton of Shipston his fee when he came and seized on James Geden, Senior and Junior's goods for rent for Mrs. Greenway, Ss. 6d' And during the famine period, 1795 to 1801, there were frequent payments by the parish on account of trees lopped and fences broken by children and men. An item of expenditure recorded in 1786 bears a close resemblance in principle to the fines paid as compensation for injury by the tribal communities in the early stages of English society. ' To Brailes officers the money that we gave them for the maintenance of the child that David Winter had sworn to him by the servant that lived with him at his Uncle Tarver's at Chumpscott, £9 95. oi.' In fact the spirit of the laws and customs of the ancient village communities was still active in the law and practice of the eighteenth-century parish. (part VI) U. V. CHAPTER IV ASSESSMENT AND RATING The only thing that can be said with certainty about the Poor Rates in the eighteenth century is that they were purely parochial. Of any definite principle or procedure there is very little evidence at all. Dr. Edwin Cannan puts the position pointedly when he says that * every conceivable thing in rating was done '} And the Poor Law Commissioners of 1834 reported that ' the mode of rating is now, like many other parts of the administration of the Poor Laws, in the highest degree uncertain and capricious '.^ The most general principle that can be laid down is that land bore the heaviest portion of the burden of the rates, in spite of the provisions of the Acts of Parliament that personalty was also to be taxed. In consequence of the provisions of settlement, from 1381 onwards, this was almost inevitable. If the labourers must remain in the district where they were born, it was the land of that district which must maintain them. Obviously it would often be to the advantage of traders to afford faciUties for the migration of labour, and if the landed interests checked migration for their own advan- tage, they had also to provide for the labourers on their estates in such times and conditions as did not give the labourers opportunity to provide for themselves. Or, as has been said, ' from the feudal conception of labour, as bound in duty and loyalty to work for its lord, employers and landowners had gradually come to regard themselves as charitable benefactors of the poor.' ^ The legal basis of rural rating during the eighteenth century was the Act of 43 Eliz., c. 2. The overseers and churchwardens were to raise the necessary money ' weekly or otherwise, in * Edwin Cannan, History of Local Rating, 1896, p. 35. ^ Report of Poor Law Commission, 1834, p. 359. * H. O. Meredith, Economic History of England, 19 10, p. 270. CH. IV] ASSESSMENT AND RATING 51 every parish, by taxation of every inhabitant^ person, vicar, and other, and of every occupier of lands, houses, tithes, impropriate or propriations of tithes, coal-mines, and saleable underwoods, in the said parish, in such competent sum and sums of money as they shall think fit '. The principle seems to be identical with that laid down in earlier Tudor Acts of Parliament which attempt to enforce charity, viz. that every person should pay according to * ability '. There is no direct mention of the rateability of income or capital, but the words ' every inhabitant ' show that such rateability was implied ; and at the time the 1601 Act was passed it is probable that, even in the case of persons concerned only with trade and manufacture, the annual value of the premises inhabited would be a fair measure of the ' abiHty ' of the occupier to contribute. The class of persons enjoying large incomes and following no visible occupation was scarcely recognizable, and this being the case it is not difficult to see how the practice of rating after a course of years came to be fixed on the visible property, although the principle was that the ' person ' and not the ' property ' was liable. The rating of ' personalty ' was rare, though it was declared legal in several judicial appeals during the eighteenth century, and again by the Poor Law Board in 1839. It was, however, forbidden by an Act of 1840.^ In a purely rural district the distinction between the rating of persons and the rating of property was of little importance, because the conditions of landholding and trade at the beginning of the eighteenth were practically identical with those existing at the beginning of the seventeenth century. As to handicraftsmen, they generally held land, and this, with a little extra value added to the buildings occupied, would probably make them liable to the same assessment as farmers with an equal income. From 1834 onwards the Poor Law Board was against the rating of personalty and stock-in-trade, and before that date the custom had been most prevalent in the old manufacturing districts of the south and west of England, where the distinc- tion between farming and manufacture would be greater than * 3 & 4 Victoria, c. 89. £ 2 52 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. iv in any other rural district. Still it is worthy of note in view of recent agitation for broadening the basis of the poor rate, that the principle of assessment on abihty to help was part of English Law from 1601 to 1840, and that now it is only excluded by the annual passage of the Expiring Laws Continuance Act.^ The main purpose for which personalty was rated was the maintenance of highways. The General Highway Act or ordinance of 1654 ^ created a pound rate on all the usual sources of Poor Rates, and on dead goods, com- modities, and stock-in-trade. These were to be rated on the principle that every £20 worth of goods was of equal value to land of twenty shillings annual rental. A clear case of such rating for highway purposes is given by an Order of the Warwickshire Quarter Sessions in 1763 : * Whereas it does appear that the highways within the parish of Southam cannot be sufficiently repaired and amended without assessment being made upon all inhabitants, owners, and occupiers of lands or personal estate, we have this day caused assessment to be made upon all inhabitants, owners, and occupiers of lands or personal estates, not exceeding 4 pence in the pound.' The sum yielded was £39 igs. lod.^ In Tysoe there was no special rate for highway purposes, probably on account of the proximity of a turnpike. The only payments for roads from the rates are similar to the following, taken from the Overseers' Accounts : 1789. ' Pd. for five beesoms to sweep the road with.' 1764 ' To Richard Blackwell mending the highways having no work.' It would appear, then, that the Statute labour provided by the General Highway Act of 1654 a-^id the subsequent Acts was sufficient to keep the roads in a state satisfactory to the parishioners. Directly after the Enclosure Commissioners made their award, and provided a Schedule of payments for * R. M. Garnier, Annals of British Peasantry, 1892, p. 228. * This ordinance was re-enacted with little alteration early in the reign of Charles II (14 Charles II, c. 6) : E. Cannan, History of Local Rates, 1896, p. 120. ^ Orders in Sessions, 1763, July 12. CH. IV] ASSESSMENT AND RATING 53 the construction of new roads in 1797, some of the money was collected, as appears by a receipt in the Church Safe : ' Reed, of Rev. J. Seagrave, Apr. 24, 1798, Three pounds eleven shillings and three pence ^d. being his share of the third instalment of the first rate for making the roads of Tysoe.' Owing to the growth of population and trade and the decline of village parochialism, the traffic on the roads was probably more frequent and varied than prior to 1760. Of special rates the only examples in Tysoe occur in 1757 and 1795. The former was a special rate ' for the building of the County Hall, by Act of Parliament '. Two levies at two- pence and one at one penny in the pound were collected for this purpose. The second example was recorded in January, 1795 : ' A levy entered at 4^. in the pound to lower the price of bread.' In reality this money was raised for general poor relief purposes, but seems to have been specifically devoted to one particular department. Until 1739 there are no records of payments of County Rates. But in that year, an Act of Parliament provided that rates should be raised in a lump sum for the various purposes of the county — Highways, Bridges, Gaols, Conveyance of Vagabonds, Houses of Correction, and Poor Relief. After this enactment there is a regular recurrence of payments ' to the Chief Constable ' of ' the proportion ' of a certain sum. The estimates for the county seem to have been made by the Chief Constable and assessed upon the Hundreds. The Petty Constables for the Hundreds or their separate divisions were responsible for estimating the proportion due from the different parishes. In Tysoe the amount and frequency of the county calls varied ; but their tendency was to become heavier as the century advanced. In 1739 the amount paid on this account was 18s. yd., and in 1816 the account was as follows : £ s. d. £ s. d. The proportion of 5,000 . . . 17 4 9 of 3,671 14 6 . . . 16 5 8^ of 5,813 II 3i • • -19 18 5^ Total £53 8 II 54 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. iv So the County Rates had advanced at an even greater rate than those collected purely for the relief of the poor of the parish. It is therefore not surprising that the County Com- missioner should have reported to the Poor Law Commission of 1832 that complaints were made that the Statute Duty for repair of highways, added to the County Rates, pressed heavily upon the landed interest. It was a manifest hardship that the rents of the landlords should be taxed for the upkeep of roads, bridges, and gaols, while the trader should escape all charges for these purposes. Besides, the rural parts of Warwickshire suffered from the proximity of industrial Birmingham. That town, with its population of 200,000, supplied half the cases tried at the judicial courts of the shire ; but the attendant costs were distributed over the whole of the county. In ten years the expenses for bridge-building, attendance on and maintenance of criminals increased 50 per cent., and on an average of five years the county rates amounted to one shilling in the pound on the rateable value of 1815. Under such circumstances a parish like Tysoe, with its numerous poor, fared very badly indeed. So far as can be ascertained, the justices during the eighteenth century do not seem to have made much use of their power under the famous Act 43 Elizabeth, c. 2, of levying ' Rates in Aid ' upon the Hundreds, for the assistance of parishes which were excessively burdened. And the Select Committee on the Poor Laws of 1817 refused to recommend any facility for the employment of this particular provision. ^ But in the seventeenth century the Justices seem to have asserted their powers on some occasions, for there is a record of an order for a rate in aid given by the Warwickshire Quarter Sessions.^ Easter, 1660. ' Whereas the court was this day informed on behalf of the inhabitants of [a) that they have many poor to maintain and that the inhabitants of (b) being the next hamlet and both in the parish of {c) have but few. Whereupon ^ Gamier, Annals of British Peasantry, p. 228. ' 1660, Orders of Sessions, vol. v (names omitted by copyist), County Hall, Warwickshire. CH. IV] ASSESSMENT AND RATING 55 it was proved that the said inhabitants of {b) might contribute to the maintenance of the poor of [a). It is therefore ordered that the said inhabitants of {b) shall from henceforth contribute to the maintenance of the poor of {a) until they shall show cause to the contrary at the next general Sessions of the Peace to be holden for this county.' But even this instance of the rate in aid in the seventeenth century applies to two hamlets within one parish, and is strictly limited as to the period of the application ; and in the eigh- teenth century, as we have seen, no example is recorded. Villiers, however, reported that in each of the four counties (including Warwickshire) which he visited, forty years before 1832, there were certain parishes which had no rates for poor relief ; and some of the old people were persuaded, with great difficulty, to accept relief, so that the parish might not be called on to assist other less fortunate communities in the Hundred. But such a device could not have effectively with- stood the power of the Justices if they had been really eager to equalize the burden of the Poor Rates. Evidently the pre- vailing opinion of the governing classes was in favour of a purely parochial basis for Poor Law rating. It might be expected that there would be some connexion between the valuation for the Poor Rates and the Land Taxes during the eighteenth century. Certainly those who were responsible for the collection and payment of rates and taxes believed a connexion to exist. There is proof of this in the minutes of a Vestry meeting in Tysoe in 1746. A resolution was passed : ' The Overseers of the Poor to provide a book, the present Assessments of the Land Tax to be recorded in it and all subsequent assessments. The officers to continue the respec- tive rates agreeable to the Assessment, the overseers to record one levy in the year.' ' No parish officer for the future to make any alteration in assessment or levy without order from the Commissioners or Justices, or if any such order, that order to be recorded in the book.' As late as the year 1804, instructions were given to the Assessors of a Land and Property Tax under an Act of 1801 that no assessment was to be below that alloted for the 56 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. iv Poor Rates. Where the Poor Rate was based on the ' Rack Rent ', the Property Tax was to follow the Poor Rate, and where the Poor Rate followed a ' proportion ', the Property Tax was to follow from the proportion to the full value.^ And in 1799 a Tysoe Vestry ordered ' that the Collectors of the Taxes on Sunday immediately following the day of paying the Taxes into the hands of the Receiver General do call a Vestry and submit the Receipt of the Receiver General and the state of arrears, to the inspection of the principal inhabi- tants of the parish, who shall put the Receipt into the Parish Chest '. Even more curious than this is the fact that the overseers paid on behalf of the parish, not only the Land Taxes on pro- perty owned by the parish, but also the levies which had been made on persons who had become paupers. In 1799 the accounts give this item : ' Paid John Judge's arrears of Taxes ;^9 75. lid. and £g 12s. 6d.' And ' To the collectors of House, Window, and Land Tax, late John Dyer being in arrears, £2 10s. oi.' This was probably done to obviate the necessity for redistribution of the Land Taxes, as the parish was obliged to make up its quota. The overseers also regularly received a sum of money described as a surplus from the Land Taxes. It was consis- tently devoted to the destruction of sparrows, snakes, and adders. The first entry of receipt is as follows : ' 1768 received of Thos. Gardner the overplus money of the Land Tax £4 95. 0^.' And the payments are recorded similar to this : ' To Martin Cole out of the overplus money of the Land Tax the money paid out of his pocket for sparrows, snakes and adders £2 2s. od.' It may have been that ' |- and ^ quarter pound of 2 shots ii^d.^ were also purchased for the same purpose. However, there was never an assessment for the Land Tax which was exactly similar to that for the Poor Rates. There may have been a principle connecting them which was eminently intelligible and useful in the eighteenth century, but which cannot be discovered at the present time. In 1775 * Assessor's Warrant, Parish Safe, Tysoe Church. CH. IV] ASSESSMENT AND RATING 57 the valuation for the Land Tax would be £1,224 ^9^- 4id., as the amount paid was £245 195. lo^d. ; while, calculating on the amount collected by the levies, the Poor Rate valuation would be approximately £3,000. By 1779 the amount of Land Tax paid by the parish was £327 195. lod., and at that figure it remained till 1832, thus throughout this period the valuation would be £1,639 ^9-^- 2^. The Poor Rate valuation during the same years rose from £3,000 in 1790 to £5,600 in 1820, and fell again to £3,580 in 1826. There is no traceable connexion between the rental value of the land and the rateable value as given in the assessments. Records are preserved of rents drawn from land amounting to 1,340 acres, or nearly one-third of the parish. Approximate Rateable Value. 1727 ;^2,020 1735 £i,7S6 1740 £3,700 1750 £2,670 1760 £2,700 1770 ;{3,000 1780 £3,000 1790 ;^3,000 i8cx) ;^4,l6o 1810 /4,l6o 1816 /5,50o 1820 ;^5,6oo 1826 £3,580 1830 ;^3,8oo Calculating these as one-third: Rents of rents of the 1,340 acres. whole parish. 1803 £h700 ;^S,IOO 1811 £2aZo £7,AAO 1817 i2,220 ;^6,66o 1822 ;£l,868 ;^S,6o4 1828 £2,200 £6,6CM 1845 £h970 ;^5,9io Thus the Poor Rate Assessment was based upon some customary or fictitious value which is not ascertainable at present. Assessments in Warwickshire were usually based on a proportion of two-thirds, three-fourths, or five-ninths of the rental value,^ and Tysoe seems to have followed the county custom. Even when the assessments profess to give the rents of the various items, they are manifestly false. For instance, the assessments in 1832 for both the Poor Rate and the Land Tax specify the rents of the various items. These are the par- ticulars : Poor Rate Assessment. 1832. No. of items loi. Rents £3,809 175. 6d. Real rent of parish according to calculation £6,000. ' Villiers, Report on Watwckshire : Report of Poor Law Commission, 1834, Evidence ; Appendix A, Part II. 58 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. iv Land Tax Assessment, 1832. No. of items 112. Rents £3,233 195, od. Real rent £6,000. Thus the only agreement is to reduce the rental value to the lowest possible limit. Certainly the Poor Rate Assessment of 1828 gives the rents as £4,034, but in reality they must have amounted to well over £6,000. These figures suggest that the estimate was made on the basis of two-thirds of the real value ; but that proportion will not be found to hold good in all instances. New assessments were made several times during the eighteenth century, but the records are very meagre. The first seems to have been made in 1744, when an entry occurs : ' spent with the Churchwardens when we went to consult about the rate.' A similar item occurs in 1797 : ' spent when we went to meet the Commissioners at Edge Hill about the Poor Levies ' ; but there follows a definite entry of an assess- ment : ' An assessment for the necessary relief of the Poor and for other purposes in the several Acts of Parliament mentioned relating to the Poor for the Parish of Tysoe in the County of Warwick made and assessed the 23rd day of April 1797. Being the first rate at eightpencef in the pound.' This was made entirely by local people, among whom the constable was prominent. With the exception of tithes, neither this nor any other assessment mentions a levy upon anything except land, buildings, and woods. Indeed, not all the cottages were rated. Those occupied by independent owners were made liable, as we learn from the mention of 14 ' labourers ' in an assessment of 1826 ; but the cottages let to the poor by the parish, and by other owners, could not have been rated, for the total number of items in the levies is never more than 112. There is, however, an entry of 1766, which records that the parish took a cottage for pauper occupation from one Thos. Savage ' provided that he pays all dues and levies '. But this was most probably a special case : a glance at any typical rate list will show that it could not have been normal. In 1828 there were 102 rate- CH. IV] ASSESSMENT AND RATING 59 payers and 112 items, 58 of which were described as ' house, buildings, and land ', 10 as ' land ', and 44 as ' house and garden ', and, judging by the amounts paid, we may safely say that just over half of the last number were labourers' cottages. The ' levies ', as they were called, varied in different years, but they grew both in amount and frequency. In 1727 there were three levies each of 2d. in the £, and in 1739 there is a record of ' a monthly rate for the maintenance of the poor of ^d. in the £ '. By 1767 there were nine levies at 2d. in the £ : in 1788 twelve at 4^., and in 1800 fourteen at lod. and one at 25. 6d. The decisions of the overseers regarding the levying of rates were not always accepted without demur by the ratepayers, for in 1739, after the overseers had passed a levy, a special Vestry meeting was called which decided that the order should be cancelled. Generally the orders for levies were only authorized by the overseers ; but sometimes the book was signed by the churchwardens and a number of the ratepayers. Some entries, similar to those in the overseers' expenses for 1761 and 1815, show that it was not uncommon for levy-dues to have been imposed on persons who had become paupers. Thus : ' Paid five levies of Ed. Ward y^d.' ; and 'To William Caldicott for money's lost by John Ainge in Poor Levies £3 12s. 6d. and £2 2s. od.' Ainge was a farmer who failed in business. He was handsomely treated by his overseer friends, for they attended the sale of his furniture and bought, at the expense of the parish, a goodly supply for a new home ; and in addition to that paid him about £10 which was due to him for hauling the parish coals. Appeals and prosecutions were very rare indeed. The most costly appeal occurred in 1811, when it is recorded that £25 was ' paid to Mr. Godson and Mr. Kinman (both residents of Tysoe), for estimating Mr. Miles Tennant's property and going to Warwick to attend sessions '. The other appeals did not cost much, and were concerned only with small sums. In 1798 two entries of expenses occur : ' Expenses of myself and others going to Justices with Thos. Turner, Wm. Walker 6o POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. iv and Jno. Dixon and others about paying their levies 145. 5cf. ' ; and, ' Deducted Richard Tarver's and Ann Watt's Poor Levies allowed by the Justices, 14,?. 4^.' Thus in the year after the Enclosure Award, and after the first definite assessment,, there was more trouble over appeals than in all the other years in the whole of the century. The machinery for rating purposes must have worked very smoothly, despite the complexity which strikes the modern observer ; and there can be no doubt that the overseers, and ratepayers who understood the system, were perfectly satisfied with it so long as it succeeded in conceahng the real value of the lands and property. Villiers said that no sound reason was ever assigned for the complexity of the assessments ; ^ but it seems probable that the fear of taxation during the Napoleonic wars was quite sufficient reason for falsifying the value of any property as readily taxable as land and houses. ^ Appendix A, Part II, Evidence, Poor Law Commission, 1834. ViUiers's Report on Warwickshire. See Rents and Rates. CHAPTER V SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL From the date of the pubhcation of Adam Smith's Inquiry into the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations to the present day, much controversy has raged round the supposed effect of the settlement provisions in English Poor Laws. Adam Smith was of opinion that it was often ' more difficult for a poor man to pass the artificial boundary of a parish than an arm of the sea or a ridge of high mountains '} On the opposite side Howlett and Eden, English contem- poraries of Adam Smith, adduce the rapid growth of the English manufacturing towns, and statistical tables on the birth-places of immigrants.^ Dr. W. Hasbach writes that ' little can be said for these measures, but they were far from doing as much harm as was done by the corn laws and poor laws proper '.^ Fowle writes of the Settlement Act : ' By this Act it may with truth be said that the iron of slavery entered into the soul of the English labourer, and made him cling to his parish like a shipwrecked sailor to his raft.' * And in his Annals of the British Peasantry, Garnier entitles his chapter on settlement ' When parishes were prisons '. If the problem be considered, as it is by Hasbach, mainly from the point of view of the able-bodied male labourer who could command employment, the settlement regulations may not seem to deserve the strictures of Adam Smith and others ; but from the point of view of general social conditions, they deserve the most severe criticism. Complaints as to the evil conditions of rural housing have been incessant during the nineteenth century, and it has always been stated that the conditions are worse in the open * Bohn's edition, 1887, vol. i, p. 147. ' Eden, State of the Poor, vol. i, pp. 181 and 296. ' History of the English Agricultural Labourer, London, 1908, p. 174. * T. W. Fowle, The Poor Law, 1894, p. 63. 62 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. v than in the close villages.^ ' The close villages are show places, where dwell the squire's retainers, shepherds, gardeners, and keepers. A few miles away lies the open village with miserable huts, neglected cabbage gardens, and inhabitants who seek work for miles round.' ^ Besides this the Settlement Act was also responsible for the conditions which made necessary and possible the system of organizing gangs of agricultural labourers,^ a system which is among the darkest stains on the history of the rural counties in the nineteenth century.* It is interesting to study the growth of the principle that each parish should maintain its own poor. Its real origin is probably to be found in the earliest type of village community. In the form of law the provisions for settlement were formulated directly under the sway of feudalism ; but it was the funda- mental rule of primitive society which gave rise to the prin- ciple that the people had a right to provide themselves with sustenance from the communal lands, and, in case of inability to make such provision for themselves, to be provided for from the fruit of the lands. The lack of some such rule would have made social order impossible ; and all provisions for relief of paupers, especially of the able-bodied, are to some extent influenced by the fear that the rights of property may be affected by individual depredations or armed revolt. The unnecessary or anti-social person in a savage community may be killed or left to starve, but in civilized societies every * The Second Report on the Earnings of Agricultural Labourers, 1905, says : ' The condition of the open villages at the present time does not appear to be equal to that of the close villages. Cottages in the open villages are often inferior in construction and condition, and are often rented higher. They not infrequently belong to small owners who have invested savings in them. It will be readily understood that such owners have generally a very small margin, if any, available to spend in repairs or additions.' But it must be remembered that there are social as well as economic considerations which affect the life of the villages. There is a fascination for certain minds in the idea of a close village under a benefi- cent landlord (Kebbel, The Agricultural Labourer, 1893, p. 85) which does not appeal to would-be independent minded people who have to live in the model cottages. ^ W. Hasbach, History of the English Agricultural Labourer, App. V, 400. ' Ibid., 195. " See Report on Employment of Children, Young Persons, and Women in Agriculture, 186S. CH. v] SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL 63 criminal cannot be killed, and, if punished, must be maintained ; therefore the f oodless must be allowed a minimum of subsistence to prevent their becoming criminals. ' Thus it is an admitted maxim of social polity that the first charge on land must always be the maintenance of the people reared upon it.' ^ As the manorial system developed and free men became serfs, the villager's right to subsistence developed into the right of the lord to the labour of the serf. This in its turn entailed the duty of maintenance ; or, if no such duty were recognized, at least an inducement to maintain the chattel for actual economic advantage. It is probable that such relief as was necessary under the manorial system was pro- vided from three sources : the stock of the lord of the manor, the charity of neighbours, and the third part of the tithes of the Church.^ The first legal provisions for settlement occur in 1388 (12 Richard II, c. 7), and apply to labourers, who were not to remove from the place in which they were dwelling. Considering the social conditions of the period there can be little doubt that this Act was intended to safeguard the rights of the feudal lords. But as feudalism, with its customary and legal institutions, fell into decay, the ecclesiastical parish and its system of government became the medium of civil adminis- tration and of poor relief. During the fifteenth century social conditions improved, and the industrious labourers seem to have been satisfied with their lot ; for the Acts dealing with settlement, after that of 1388, were concerned exclusively with beggars and vagrants. It is a significant feature of these vagrancy laws that legal settlement was not confined to the parish or manor, but that the hundred might be made the area within which the vagrants could live, move, and be maintained. Both II Henry VII, c. 2, and 19 Henry VII, c. 12, distinctly mention the hundred as the unit for settlement purposes. This was quite natural ; for the monasteries were largely responsible for the relief of these strolling persons, and the sphere of their ministrations was by no means confined to ' History of Poor Law, Sir George Nicholls, vol. i, p. 2. • R. M. Garnier, Annals of the British Peasantry, 1892, pp. 84 and 85. 64 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. v a village, or even a town. Particularly in rural parts, the district served by the ecclesiastical houses would correspond much more nearly to the area of the hundred than the parish. Concurrent with the reformation of the Church, the destruction of the monasteries, and the growth of economic freedom among the lower classes, there was a revival of the spirit and form of the ancient village community as opposed to the economic system of feudalism and the monastic organization of the Church. The first explicit statement of parochialism is found in 27 Henry VIII, c. 25, which enacted that every parish neglecting to put its poor and idle people to work should * forfeit 20 shillings monthly '. This Act was soon followed by I Edward VI, c. 3, which expressly directed all vicars to exhort their parishioners to relieve all those ' horyi in the same parish ' who needed help. The Act of 1572 (14 Eliz., c. 5) deviated from the narrow restrictions of the two preceding measures, used the Justices as the direct administrators of its provisions, and transferred the burden of maintenance from the parish to the inhabitants of the divisions within the jurisdiction of the various justices. The directors of social policy in the Elizabethan period were too enlightened to place undue restraint on the movement of labour for fear of inflicting hardship on individual parishes ; and yet the Settlement Act of 1662 was the inevitable result of the measure of 1601.^ The system of relief was still parochial and the amount was adjusted to different scales in the various villages ; and therefore, since the poor naturally sought the place where they would be treated most generously, some parishes found it profitable to be negligent and so induce the poor to leave them. ^ The President of the Poor Law Board, Mr. Villiers, M.P., introducing the Union Chargeability Act of 1865, said that during the great inquiry of 1832-4 in wiiich he took part he received an impression that ' the abuses, mismanagement, and malpractices which the inquiry disclosed were, more or less, directly or indirectly to be attributed to the laws of settlement and removal. — Fifteen thousand arbitrary divisions, each saddled with the burden of maintaining the poor within its own limits, and each trying to cast its burdens upon others, without the slightest regard to the interests, the morals or the wellbeing of the poor in any respect ; that is the history — or at least the character — of the Poor Law for two centuries ' (Hansard, vol. 177, p. 469). CH. v] SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL 65 The principle of the Settlement Act regarding relief was aptly stated by Villiers in his report on Warwickshire in 1834 • * The law assumes some definite relations between the poor and the property out of which they are to be maintained, or of some resource of visible and local property that can be expanded with the exigencies of the charge.' The Commis- sioners of 1834 reported that the view of the pauper was that ' the land, to use his own expression, is to maintain him, and it is not his business to inquire whether he is wanted elsewhere, or whether he is an encumbrance where he is '} The largest landed proprietors were the legislators themselves, and they would not, for the sake of making labour conditions more elastic, give up the right to command labour which they had acquired under the feudal system and the Act of 1388. Their prerogative was ' an interest vested in the hands of the seigniorial class, and had become the common property of a district. A communal system of land tenure had ceased to exist ; a communal system of agriculture was also ceasing ; but a communal system of labour had obtained too firm a hold of our rural economy to be suddenly upset '.^ This was not the worst. The Act of 1662 followed directly the tradition and the spirit of the old vagrancy laws. It made no real distinction between the honest worker who might desire, for sufficient personal and social reasons, to remove from his native place, and the lazy vagabond who was a social parasite living by craft or crime. Indeed, one of the minor provisions of the Settlement Act was adopted almost bodily from the cruel vagrancy laws of the sixteenth century. An Act of 1547 provided that an able-bodied poor person who did not apply himself to honest labour, or offer to serve even for meat and drink, should be taken for a vagabond, and be branded on the shoulder with a letter V. Any person could demand the unemployed, and if they refused to work for bread and water could whip them or chain them. If they ran away they were to be branded with a letter S and adjudged as slaves for life. In 1662 it was enacted that every person ' Report of Poor Law Commission, 1834, p. 155. ' R. M. Garnier, Annals of the British Peasantry, p. 248. (part VI) w. V. F 66 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. v receiving parish pay should wear upon his sleeve a badge made of red or blue cloth bearing ' a roman P ' (signifying ' pauper ') and the initial of his parish. Criminals and unfortunates were thus treated with equal ignominy. The parish of Tysoe used this provision with rigour during the early part of the eighteenth century and to some extent during the latter part. The records of overseers' payments in 1746 and 1749 give expendi- ture as follows : ' Cloth, thread and making badges, 25. 8^d. Paid for making 6 town letters, cloth, &c., 15. 8^i,' Other entries give similar details. The general conditions upon which settlement could be established were laid down in 13-14 Chas. II, c. 12, and certain amendments were made in later Acts, which, however, are not of great importance. The rights of settlement accorded to persons coming into a parish had not much bearing on poor relief, for the conditions governing them almost precluded the possibihty of such settlers becoming paupers. Untold injustice, expense, and misery were inflicted both on parishes and paupers by the power of the authorities to remove such persons as could not qualify for legal settlement. The pro- visions for settlement and removal did not effectually check the fluidity of labour ; but, besides being vexatious, they enabled one parish landlord or farmer to benefit himself at the expense of others.^ For example, instances can be traced in the records of Tysoe which show that men migrated to places like London, Leicester, and Birmingham, and there spent the best part of their working lives. When they had given their best to the communities to which they had removed, and were unable to maintain themselves any longer, the parish of Tysoe, to which they may have stood in the position of debtors, had to maintain them. Wedge, writing in 1794, said of Warwickshire : * The rapid growth of manufactories in this county, the greatly decreased value of money, and a continual increase of poor's rates are incontestible facts ; but I am inclined to * Chap, ii, p. 28. CH. v] SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL 67 believe that the latter does not arise in country villages from any want of industry or effort in the labouring poor. . . . A vast number of those who are employed in manufacturing towns are parishioners of different villages (particularly those in their vicinity), and whenever infirmity, old age, or check in trade happens, these men are not supported by those who have had the benefit of their labour, but are sent for subsistence to their respective parishes.' ^ However, several of the settlement provisions were opera- tive, notably those dealing with marriage, birth, apprentice- ship, labourers' certificates, and settlement by hiring. As regards settlement by service, Tysoe, owing to its large area and extreme openness, would be in a bad position. Villiers proves by two Warwickshire instances that no settlements were gained by male servants in close villages, because regulations were made against hiring them for the full year. In two other cases of open villages, settlements were gained by both servants and apprentices. There are no records of settlements obtained by servants in Tysoe ; indeed, there is only one clear record of settlement at all (that of an apprentice), although there must have been many actual cases, particu- larly those gained by marriage. An item of expenditure in 1775 shows that the parish tried to rid itself of persons by assisting them to obtain places as servants : ' To Mary Wigson going to Kington Mop to set Eliz White 6i.' And further items : ' To John Wilks' wife to take her to Birming- ham to a place of service 45.' (1817) ; and ' To Richard Cole as allowed by the Vestry to take his family to London, £5 55. od.' In 1817 a meeting of the parishioners was called ' about hiring servants ' which cost £1 4s. 8^d. in * expenses '. Unfortunately no minute of proceedings was made ; but there can be no doubt that the meeting was convened to draw up rules against hiring farm-servants from the surrounding parishes. In the church safe there is preserved the indenture of an apprentice who gained a settlement ; and probably there were other similar cases. The indenture runs as follows : ' We (the overseers of Market Raisin) by these presents do put and place William Berry a poor child of the said parish * General View of the Agriculture of the County of Warwick, 1794, p. 24. F2 68 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. v apprentice to Wm. Bootheby, Husbandman and Weaver, with him to dwell and serve from the day of the date of these presents until the said apprentice shall accomplish his full age of four-and-twenty years, according to the statute in that case made and provided : During all which term the said apprentice his said master faithfully shall serve in all lawful business according to his power, wit, and ability : And honestly, orderly, and obediently in all things behave and demean himself towards his said master and all his during the said term. . . . That the said Wm, Bootheby, the said apprentice in the art of a weaver shall and will teach and instruct or cause to be taught or instructed, and shall and will during all the said term aforesaid, find, provide, and allow unto the said apprentice, meet, competent and sufficient meat, drink, apparel and lodging, washing and all other things necessary and fit for an apprentice. And also shall provide for the said appren- tice that he be not in any way a charge to the said parish or parishioners of the same ; but of and from all charge shall and will save the said parish or parishioners harmless and indemnified during the said term, and at the end of the term, shall and will make, provide, and allow and deliver unto the said apprentice double apparel of all sorts, good and new, (that is to say) a good new suit for the Holydays and another for the working days.' To this the parish under consideration responded by placing in neighbouring parishes all its apprentices who were inden- tured. From 1727 to 1827 there would not be more than twenty of these, although there were within the same parish many apprenticeships to husbandry, without indenture. A good example of this placing out occurs in 1772, Septem- ber 2 1st : * Esau Hartwell at Richard Turners at the Toll Gate on Edge Hill, to Robert Hunt of Horley, Oxfordshire, Worsted Weaver, at eighteenpence a week to old May Day next. Tysoe parish to find him in all manner of wearing apparel, both linnon and woolon, likewise shoes.' Two years later this boy was again let to the same master, so that he evidently was not removed at the end of his first term. In some cases boys were let to masters previous to actual apprenticeship. In 1728 one R. Pratt was let, and in 1734 occurs the item : ' Spent when R, Pratt's indentures CH. v] SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL 69 were sealed.' The placing out of indentured apprentices is not confined to any particular period, but reappears at various intervals. Why, it may be asked, were some of the children indentured as apprentices to handicraft, and others let to farmers } The best explanation seems to be that one of the various charities in the village occasionally found money for particular boys (probably educated at the charity school) who had become orphans, and therefore paupers. Before we proceed to consider how the powers of removal operated, we must first glance at the vagrancy provisions, for they were the real foundation of the rules for removing the honest but pauperized labourer. 13 Anne, c. 26, and other Acts, made provision for dealing with rogues and vagabonds, but the actual administrative regulations are shown by an order of the Warwickshire Quarter Sessions, Michaelmas, 1709, ' Whereas by a late Act of Parliament made in the nth and I2th years of his late Majesty, entitled an Act for the more effective punishment of vagrants and sending them whither by law they ought to be sent, it was recited that whereas many parts of this kingdom are extraordinarily oppressed by the casual method of conveying vagabonds or beggars from parish to parish in a dilatory manner whereby such vagabonds or beggars in hope of relief from every parish through which they are conducted are encouraged to spend their lives in wandering from one part of this kingdom to another and to delude divers charitable persons very frequently forge or counterfeit passes, testimonials, and characters, whereby the charitable intentions of such persons are often abused. It was therefore enacted that from and after the 17th of June 1700, every vagabond, beggar, or any other person whatever, who shall be brought to any constable, headborough, tithing-man, or any other officer, with any pass, testimonial, letter of request or any other writing whatever, pretending thereby to be relieved or conveyed, that all such persons shall by such constable or officer or other sufficient person whom he shall order or depute be taken before some Justice of the Peace of every such county wherein they shall arrive who inhabits or resides nearest the town or place where such vagabonds shall first appear or be brought before the constable or other officer. Which J. P. shall carefully and diligently examine them, and if he finds them such persons as ought to be punished he is then required to send them to the House of Correction and take such further 70 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. v course of the law with them as the law in such case directs. Or if they are not such persons, then to order them immediately out of the said county to such towns of the next county into or through which such persons are to pass or be conveyed, as such Justices may think most proper. And every officer is hereby required accordingly to convey them either to the House of Correction or such town of the said county as afore- said without delay. And the J. P. is hereby further required to give the said constable a certificate without fees of the number of such vagabonds whom he shall so order to be punished or conveyed, as also the manner how, when, and from whom such persons are to be conveyed and whether by cart, horse, or foot : And what number of persons any constable or officer has occasion to employ to bring such per- sons or vagabonds to the House of Correction or next county as aforesaid. And to the intent that every such person or officer may be fully paid and satisfied for his loss of time and his expenses in the execution of this Act, it is hereby enacted that the J. P. shall tax on the back-side of such certificate a reasonable and sufficient allowance for his trouble and expenses, which certificate the said constable shall deliver to the Chief Constable of that Division who is ordered forthwith, out of the sums of the Gaol and Marshalsea money he shall receive, to pay such sums as are taxed upon each certificate and take receipt of each constable for the sums. Which receipt the Chief Constable shall deliver to the Treasurer of the County at the next Quarter Sessions. The treasurer shall account the same with those, the Chief Constable taking the said receipts and certificates which shall always be allowed here upon the General Account of the Treasurer. And in case the Gaol and Marshalsea Money be not sufficient after having discharged the purposes for which it is raised, to reim- burse the expense and satisfy the allowances as is hereby required, it is further ordered that the Justices in Quarter Sessions shall have power to raise moneys upon their respective counties and divisions in which they are impowered to act by their respective commissions, in such manner as they raise it for the County Gaols and Bridges. To satisfy the expenses and allowances the money as raised shall quarterly be paid to the Chief Constable of each division, so that the said Chief Constable shall have a quarter's payment in their hands before hand. And as often as the petty constable or deputy shall produce the said certificates of his expenditure and allowances to the Chief Constable of the Division under the hands and seals of the J. P., the said Chief Constable is required CH. v] SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL 71 to pay the said charges according to the certificates which he must take and account for at the next Quarter Sessions as aforesaid. And it is further enacted that the petty constable shall not charge the inhabitants of his constabulary with any sums of money or any provision toward the conveyance of such rogues and vagabonds. And that any constable neglecting to apprehend such vagrants or wandering beggars or be remiss or negligent in doing his duty as by the Act required, shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of 20s. One fourth part thereof shall go to the informer and the other three parts to the poor of the parish wherein the offence is committed. The sum to be levied by distress and sale of the goods of such offender by warrant under the hands and seal of any J. P. of the county who is impowered and requested to hear and determine the said offence by the oath of one witness as is declared by the Act of Parliament recited. In pursuance of the said Act of Parliament it is this day ordered by the court that the several Chief Constables within this county make out the precepts to the several petty con- stables and headboroughs, or of the constabularies within their divisions, thereby charging them to their respective parts and proportions of the sum of £150, which said Chief Constables and petty constables and headboroughs are forth- with to levy and collect the same and pay the same to the Chief Constables, who are forthwith to pay over the same to the Treasurer who is to pay and dispose the same according to the said Act and give account thereof to this court.' This, with two smaller orders following, put the conveyance of vagrants outside the duties of the Poor Law officers proper. To them was left the sole duty of relieving those who were not prosecuted or conveyed on their journeyings. An order of Quarter Sessions, Easter, 1709, declared : ' It is ordered by this court that it be recommended to His Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the county that they will be pleased to see that the orders made by this court relating to their certificates for conveying vagrants be strictly obeyed. And they are desired especially in the future time, (that is to say) from the first day of May to the first day of October yearly, provided that the ways are good and passable, to order that vagabonds be conveyed in carts when that way of con- veyance will make it cheaper for the county, and not to allow any constable, for conveying any vagrants from Willoughby for any more than eight and twenty in lots.' 72 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. v And the final order of Michaelmas, 1709, states : ' That whereas W. Bright, constable, . . . hath this day in open court declared that he is willing to undertake the con- veyance of vagrants through this county for £150 per year, it is therefore thought fit and so ordered that the said W. Bright shall have the said £150 paid him for the year ensuing for the conveyance of vagrants. Which said sum shall be paid to him for the cause aforesaid by the treasurer of the stock of this county.' ^ Very soon after these orders were made, the burden of conveying vagrants about the county was definitely trans- ferred from the parish to two officials regularly appointed. The principle upon which vagrants were relieved was, that irrespective of residence or settlement, actual destitution entitles any person to relief ; and it was the duty of poor law oflEicials to see that all necessary and reasonable arrangements were made for affording every such person the requisite relief whether in food, clothing, medical attendance, or lodging.^ The prevailing practice of relief during the century under consideration can be well illustrated by a series of items of expenditure from the account books of the Tysoe overseers. i s. d. 1728. Gave to a travelling woman ..... 2 1729. Gave to vagabonds six in company . . . . 16 1741. Paid for a thrave ' of straw for Lightfoot's bed . . 9 Bed and beer for Lightfoot's children . . . 2 9I 1742. To men with a pass being 22 in company . . . 10 Gave to a travelling woman being great ... 6 1744. Gave to three seamen ...... 6 Paid the baker a soldier's expenses and lodgings . 6 1751. To disbanding soldiers to pay quartering ... 6 1769. To a traveller at my door ..... •6 1 780. To a tramping man by consent of the constable and others 2 o To a man with a pass ......10 1782. To a traveller with a letter of request ... 6 1783. To a man with a foot pass . . . . . 10 1790. To Anthony Walker's children 2 boltens * of wheat straw for a bed ........ 6 1795. To My Landlord Watts for ale that was had when we went to take the trampers in Sugarswell Lane . . 13 4 To a trespass warrant to take vagabonds ... 6 ' Orders in Sessions, Warwickshire, 1 709. ' Poor Law Board Report, vol. xii, p. loi. * See Note 4. * A ' thrave ' would contain the straw of twenty sheaves of wheat and would weigh on an average f of a cwt. A ' bolten ' was a bundle of an average weight of 22^ lb., or five per cwt. ' CH. v] SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL 73 I 5- d. 181 1. Relief of soldier's wife with a pass by order of Mr. Moody (Justice of Peace) ...... i o 1812. To George King the travelling porpor and his family .330 1814. Gave to 5 men in distress on the road . . .50 1821. To a man with a pass ......10 1823. Paid Mr. Malsbury for 9 sailors . . . . .40 1825. Paid to soldiers' wives on passes . . . .213 This representative series of payments shows that relief of vagrancy continued in the latter part of the century in the same form as in the earlier part, and the amount of expendi- ture did not vary to any considerable extent. In most years a few pounds would be spent on this account. Although there are no records to show that vagrancy was very severely repressed, entries like the following make it plain that the trampers' lot was far from happy : ' To Isaac Cole, horse and self going to Stratford and Warwick and given to the Coroner for the man that was found dead in the meadow, 105.' ^ Again, ' Paid the expenses of having a child and being found dead in a ditch. Jury, &c., £2 os. id.' ^ These are not extraordinary occurrences ; on the contrary, they are painfully frequent. Otherwise the evidence points to the fact that the eighteenth-century vagrants, like those of the present day, were personally known to local people, and they seem to have had regular rounds like their modern disciples in the cult of the simple life.^ From 1662 till after the passing of 35 George III, c. loi (1795), the parish of Tysoe carried on the process of removal in much the same way as other parishes. But it would be unsafe to assert positively whether it did or did not remove labourers and settlers before they became paupers. I am inclined to think that it did not till after 1760. And after 1795 labour could circulate freely — if it would * — because settlers could not be removed till they had actually become chargeable on the parish. There were very few forcible removals from ' Overseers' Accounts, 1782. * Overseers' Accounts, 1763. ' The Poor Law Commission reported in 1834 : ' Vagrancy has actually been converted into a trade, and not an unprofitable one ; and it also appears that the severity and increasing burden arises from vagrants by trade and not from those on account of destitution ' (p. 338). * See 1834 Report, p. 156. 74 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. v Tysoe between 1727 and 1760. The most active period was between 1756 and 1795, when there was heavy expenditure for both horse-hire and legal advice : and though the expenses fall off after 1795, there is no diminution in the number of removals. The parish often made provision for persons who were returned to it for settlement by arranging that they should stay in the parish in which they lately resided and receive a regular allowance from Tysoe. The frequency of cases and the expenditure upon them will be shown by a series of accounts for typical years during the three periods 1727- 1756, 1756-1795, 1795-1827. C s. d. 1727-1733. 7 years. 1 727-1 728. Expenses at Warwick Sessions . . . .500 Spent discharging people of settlement . . 10 Another case tried by Justices finally settled a man upon Tysoe cost . . . . . . i 10 o 1 728-1 729. Sent by the hand of W. Newman of Camden to Honor Freeman. (These payments occur fortnightly.) 6 o Jan. 26. Spent when Ilmington officers brought Geo. Archer with an order ...... 18 Spent when we went before Mr. Watkins (J.P.) about H. Wilkin's settlement .... 3 o Paid to Mr. Lampett Mander (solicitor) the money he laid out for W. Davis' order and his own charges ....... 69 1729-1730. Sent to Geo. Archer at Ilmington ... 26 Paid expenses of a warrant .... 26 Sent to Baskott (fortnightly) .... 40 1730-1 73 1. Two women, Ann Appleby and Mary Clark, were taken before justices to prove settlement but remained in the parish and continued to be relieved. House rent was paid for Clark at the rate of is. per fortnight and a spinning wheel was purchased for her at a cost of . . 6 6 1 731-1732. Spent going to Justices' meeting ... 17 1732-1733. No case, no expenditure. 1733-1734. Taking Thomas Tysoe before justices ... 34 1 777-1 783. 6 years. 1 777-1778. To Mr. Bignoll the attorney examining J. Anderton about settlement ..... 66 Smith's case, lawyer, &c. . . . . . 14 6 Going for J. Long to have him to Warwick Sessions about settlement . . . . • i 13 5 Four paupers living in neighbouring village per week 7 6 1 778-1 779. Expenses going to have J. Anderton to Sessions concerning settlement . . . . . i 12 6 Expense at Warwick . . . . . .1116 Paid for a letter from W. White at Reading . . 7 CH, V] SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL 75 \TjZ-\TJ(j. To White and family to go back to Reading To Mr. Greenway — his bill for counsel and self for a cause that was tryed at Easter Sessions with the inhabitants of Brandon, they bringing J. Anderton and family to our parish with an order, he not having gained a legal settlement among us. And counsel's opinion on Jno. Pilkington's examination that his settlement is here ....... To myself charges removing Jno. Spicer and wife to settlement ...... 1779-1780- Myself, going to Whatcote to fetch Thos. Smith's goods . . . . . . . Four letters from White, Reading To White's family at times .... ^ Spent going to Banbury for advice from attorney about militia man's family .... Spent going to Warwick Sessions to the treasurer to have the money that Wldte has had he being in the Berkshire Militia * . . . One out resident pauper cost 1 780-1 78 1. Spent when Stephen Wilks' family came to the Red Lion ....... Horse hire and expenses when we sweared J. Bister to his settlement .... Eating and drinking when J. Bister was kept a prisoner ...... Paid for a license to marry J, Bister with . Paid for justice's order .... Mitimus, &c., on J. B.'s acct. Warrant to take J. B. . For backing at the Justices' meeting . Minister and clerk marrying J. B. Witnesses from Harbury day's work and dinner Ale and liquor ...... Guarding J. B. . Carrying J. B. and his wife to Harbury Horses, guards, &c., J. B.'s acct. To expenses at Coventry, Harbury, and elsewhere fetching witness on J. B.'s account Witnesses at Warwick Sessions . Expenses of 2 persons and 2 horses going to St Albans concerning Morris 2 horses 4 days at 2s. 6rf., self 4 days at is. same account. And I horse 5 days on J. Bister's acct. Horses when we went to prove J. B.'s settlement Brown Well's horse'going to Coventry and Harbury To the attorney for counsel and self for a cause that was tryed with the inhabitants of Harbury we having taken J. Bister and his wife with an order of settlement to Harbury they having appealed but withdrew ..... £ s. d. I 2 10 17 19 o 2 6 10 o 2 3 380 5 8 3 o 290 3 o I I 4 I 15 9 6 9 6 2 I 6 12 6 3 3 S 16 I I 6 17 3 18 7 I II 6 10 5 10 8 ' No entry is made of receipt, but the parish was reimbursed from White's militia pay for the relief it had afforded to his family. II o 4 o 2 o 2 6 3 o 6 14 lO 2 6 6 o 4 o 76 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. v I 5. d. 1780-178 1. Horses on J. Bister's acct. . . . . 16 o To Anne Coles, bill for eating and drinking on James Bister's acct. . . . . . .216 For seven weeks Stephen Wilks and family were there . . . . . . . .140 Payments to out resident paupers continue as in previous year. 1781-1782. Taking J. Hodgkin to settlement, examining and swearing J. Clad on expenses ...40 Warrant for Peel and Jeffs, keeping them prisoners, going to Bridewell, &c. .... Justices' clerk examining Mary Peel . My horse carrying double, taking M. Peel to Idlicote Two horses going to Shotswell, ale, &c. Warrant and expenses Stephen Wilks fetched Letter from White at Reading .... Taking Blackford to justices, pillion, &c. 1 782-1 783. Going to justices with R. Plestoe and paid for order and summons ...... To 2 orders and examining and swearing R. Wilkins to his settlement at Halford Nine nights lodging Godard and his wife To Master Gilks, Sibford, daughter that belongs to our parish being lame . . . . . 10 6 To White's family when they lived in Townsend's barn ........ 76 To White and family to go back where they came from ........ White's family at Reading .... Letter and money to Reading .... Warrants to take Wilks, Howe, Griffin, and Edwards with ........ For two orders that we had, Griffin's examination and Wilks' mitimus ..... Ale, eating, guarding, &c. ..... Eating and drinking and guards for Wilks, Howe, and Grifhn ....... Two men guarding Griffin and taking him to Stretton on Fosse ....... Going to justices and carriage to Stretton . Going to Warwick to put in appearance against the inhabitants of Stretton on Fosse about Griffin and family's settlement . . . .186 Attorney attending the officers and giving advice how to proceed about Griffin's settlement at Stretton and they giving notice against .106 Myself going to attorney ..... 66 1 800-1 802. 2 years. 1 800- 1 80 1. Taking to Oxford to Settlement . . .295 To eleven men's and boys' expenses at Halford Bridge to have them examined about their settlements . . . . . . .196 To eleven men's day's work . . . . no To Mr, Brain 11 examinations . . . . no 17 10 6 16 4 4 10 7 5 3 4 I 6 CH, V] SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL n 1800-1801. Bill for removing several persons to settlement . To Widow Foster at Edmonton (55) . . . weeks' allowance at 4s. . 43 weeks at 45. to February 28 . . . To Widow Townsend at London . . . weeks' allowance To my expenses, self and horse, going to London and Edmonton in coach twice and expenses on the road ....... 1801-1802. My expenses and R. Ainge's going up to London with Ward in the coach ..... To Mr. Mosely of London for the Wid. Townsend and Ann Edward's allowance up to Easter . Mr. Prickett's Bill . . . and order of removal for R. Geden and drawing notice of appeal and 2 fair copies and instructions to get them signed by parish officers ..... 1826-1828. 2 years. 1826-1827. Widow Townsend, London, 11 months . . Journey to Warwick to have Brewer's daughter sworn to settlement ..... Cart and horse and mother and daughter's expenses To W. Phillpot's son-in-law's orders and expenses Horse and cart to parish .... Cart and horse, Garrett to Kineton Carriage, orders, and gin .... To Shenington and Duns Tew with Shelton and Coldicott's son ..... Examination and five orders Eating and drinking 6 men and 3 women and horse and cart 3 times .... Removing W. Holton to Stoneley Orders and examinations .... To Sarah Greenway for expenses to her parish Journey with Sarah Greenway . Paid Mr. Shipton for examining paupers I s. d. 3 12 4 II 5 8 12 7 7 17 8 6 II 4 10 13 4 6 12 7 I 6 7 10 5 16 12 1 II 19 10 II 3 10 2 o Few, if any, of the cases that were tried at the Quarter Sessions cost the parish more than £10, and the average expense would be £5 or £6. Still, this was a comparatively large sum, for at the prevailing scales of relief £10 would have provided maintenance for a year, and when appeals failed the relief rarely extended beyond a few months, except in the case of women settled upon the parish, who were invariably relieved for a longer period than men. Thus there seems to have been some foundation for the report that ' at one of the Sessions of the Peace held at Warwick, forty settlement appeals were tried, and a calculation was made by which it appeared that the interest on the whole sum expended in 78 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. v litigating these claims would have supported each family in question for the remainder of their lives '.^ The overseers seem to have favoured the more subtle methods of removal. As early as 1741 there is a record of a payment ' to go off '. The first case of a marriage at the expense of the parish occurs in 1760, and from that date to the end of the period there were few years which did not provide instances of weddings followed by removals. By this process the parish got rid of some of its surplus female population. In one case the bridegroom failed to keep the tryst, and the ceremony had to be postponed till he was found. The guests were ready and waiting, and the parish officers entertained them liberally at the local inn. During the day the bridegroom was discovered, brought to the inn, and was there kept under two guards for the night. In the morning the marriage was ' duly solemnized ', the couple were removed to find their domestic sphere elsewhere, and the overseers of Tysoe paid bills amounting to £9 45. 0^. And there was one clear bribe to a father and husband to secure the marriage of a woman in 1787. The record runs as follows : ' To James Smith and Wilham Hunt the money that Wm. Hunt was to have with James Smith's daughter when he married her, £5 155. 6d.' The provision made by the Act of 1662 for granting travel- ling certificates to labourers was freely used by the Poor Law officers of Tysoe, and proved to be a great boon to the parish. In practically every instance the labourer went away in the summer, the overseers maintained his family during his absence, and he repaid either the whole or a part of the main- tenance on his return. The records of certificates granted usually mention expenses of refreshment for the officers. Thus in 1731 : * Spent when we went to Justices concerning Humphrey Wilkin's certificate, 6d.' An item of expenditure indicates the purpose for which the certificates were used : ' To Thomas Jeffs' family when he went up the upper country * Villiers, on Settlement, App. A, Part II, Report of Poor Law Commis- sion, 1834. CH. V] SETTLEMENT AND REMOVAL 79 haymaking.' In 1782 Jeffs repaid 105., and a similar amount was paid by another inhabitant of the parish ' towards his family's maintenance in haytime last '. There is sufficient evidence to show that the workers had not altogether lost their honesty and initiative ; and there is good reason to believe that if they had not been oppressed by the mischievous provisions for settlement, some villages might have escaped the moral degradation into which they sank in the early part of the nineteenth century. The particulars of baptisms and burials recorded in the church registers, together with the census statistics for population, show that certain settlements were made in the parish of Tysoe in the nineteenth century. The figures for three decades are as follows : Excess of births Increase or decrease Number of Settlements over deaths. of population. or Migrations, 1801-1810. 138 (Incr.) 153 (Migr.) 75 1811-1820. 115 (Incr.) 126 (Sett.) 11 1821-1830.^ 137 (Deer.) 63 (Migr.) 200 From 1665 to 1801 there was an increase of 283 in the population of the parish, while the excess of births over deaths between 1725 and 1801 was 470. If the whole of the increase in population is to be placed between 1725 and 1801, these figures point to the total migration of 187 persons ; or 2-46 per annum. If the increase of population continued steadily during the whole period, the migration in the last seventy-five years of the eighteenth century was even greater than that indicated above. In view of these statistics, and the fact that relief was granted to many families living in industrial centres, it cannot be said that there was no fluidity of labour. The removal regulations did not oppress the employers as much as the employed. And the latter suffered more particularly in individual liberty and domestic advantages. J. T. Burgess * It may be noted that about this period the rents of the Marquis of Northampton's Tysoe estate also fell by ;^352. In 182 1-2 and 1826-7 there was acute agricultural distress. War prices had raised the rents of the farms, and at this time prices of both corn and meat fell very seriously. Cf. Curtler, History of English Agriculture, chap. xix. Depression. 8o POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. v cites the case of Jack Lenten the thatcher, the cleverest labourer in the village.^ ' Jack went off towards Lunnon whenever the haymaking season came on and made a mort o' money. When he came home, the farmers told him he might go in the winter where he had been in the summer. ... He had to get another place but they would never let Jack gain a settlement, so in bad times Jack was sent to his own parish to find that his cottage was pulled down. He had to live miles away and tear his heart's blood out walking to and from his work night and morn. . . . When the railways came Jack got work as a ganger and made some improvement in tipping stuff for embank- ments. . . . He is a big man now, for he got into the right groove.' This case is typical. The sluggard might be content to live on a parochial dole and be buried at the expense of the poor rates ; but nothing more galling to the spirit of the enterprising labourer could have been placed upon the Statute book than the Settlement Act of 1662. ' J. T. Burgess, Life and Experiences of a Warwickshire Labourer, pub. Routledge, 1872. CHAPTER VI BASTARDY There is no better example of the evil effects produced in the moral condition of the people by economic disruption and un- suitable laws than the spread of bastardy which was revealed by the inquiries of the Poor Law Commissioners of 1832. After 1775 the prices of commodities rose at an enormous rate ; but wages of agricultural labour, as is usual in such cases even at the present day, did not show a corresponding increase.-*- From 1790 till 1820, and more or less till 1830, the agricultural proletariat was in dire straits, and the peasant cultivator was not much better off. Despite the small increase of thirteen occupier-owners between 1785 and 1800, shown in the Land Tax Returns for Tysoe, the position of the peasant capitalist was a difficult one. During the making of the Enclosure award several peasants sold their holdings ; and, what is more important from the Poor Law standpoint, many cottagers became so impoverished that they had to barter their cottages to the parish to obtain relief. Only a few of these transactions occurred between 1725 and 1760, and at the latter date the parish did not own more than two or three cottages. By the end of the century many were falling, or had already fallen, into the hands of its officials. Then came the great consolida- tion of farms in the early years of the nineteenth century, and with this the concentration of power in local government and Poor Law matters. The decay of domestic industry also helped on the economic chaos. ' Wages did advance with the rise in corn prices ; but such advance was insignificant in face of the fact that the price of provisions generally had gone up in a much greater proportion. The nominal wages did increase, but real wages fell lower and lower. The wages of the agricultural labourer rose 60 per cent, between 1760 and 181 3, and the price of wheat rose 130 per cent. Dr. H. Levy, Large and Small Holdings, Cambridge University Press, 191 1, p. 9. (PAKT Vl) W. V. Q 82 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vi A study of the baptismal register and the overseers' accounts for bastardy in the parish of Tysoe makes it clear that from 1725 to 1760 marriage conditions and the moral standing of women were normal, even if they were not extraordinarily good. It might be urged that this fact was due to the strict use of the power to punish bastardy misdemeanants ; but though the exercise of authority may have been partly respon- sible, it is not a complete explanation. If repression was sufficient of itself to stop sexual irregularity in the early part of the eighteenth century, it should have been sufficient in the latter half also. But in Tysoe the most vigorous efforts for discipline and punishment were made, not when the pro- portion of illegitimate to legitimate children was small, but when it was rapidly increasing. And it could scarcely be urged that the failure of the officials to use their power of punishment in the early decades of the nineteenth century was entirely due to clemency or negligence. Besides, the fact that 50 Geo. Ill, c. 51, was passed in 1810 to mitigate the sentences on delinquents shows to some extent that repression had failed, and that the legislature recognized that the prevalence of bastardy was due to other causes besides the moral weakness of the poor. The primary economic causes of degradation were beyond the control of the poor or their overseers. Parliament alone could remove the settlement restrictions which galled the poor, especially the female section, and the marvel is that the landlord class did not bestir itself for that purpose, to lighten the burden upon its rents. After 1760 the number of baptisms of illegitimates in Tysoe grew rapidly, the proportion of bastards to legitimate children being i to 18 in the decade, 1792-1801. This was the highest proportion reached in the eighteenth century, but between 1831-1840 the rate was i to 14. The latter figure does imply some real lowering of the moral standard of women, the reasons for which are not far to seek ; for public opinion had become lax, and there is no question on which it is more difficult to elevate public opinion than that of private morality. CH. VI] BASTARDY 83 The real cause of the depravity were the economic changes of the last thirty years of the eighteenth century. There was no regular labour for men ; in the winter many of them, especially the unmarried, were ' on the round ', partly because their labour was naturally displaced by improvements, and partly because the larger farmers had found a way of shuffling the cost of their labour on to the rates, and therefore, as some of the entries state, ' would not take ' them. There was no hope for them ; if they were industrious or skilful, their wages would not rise, and accordingly competition for labour that was paid a living wage was keener than it had ever been ; consequently the men did not care whether they laboured or loitered, since their subsistence had to be doled out to them in either case. They could not save, they could not marry, and in some cases the modest patrimony in the shape of a small holding or cottage which had been handed down through the family for centuries was rapidly vanishing before the rising prices. A rise in prices or a fall in the purchasing power of money was something profitable for the landlord, but nothing could be worse for the small peasant cultivator who practically lives on the produce of his toil. Producing little for the market, and depending to some extent on wages for summer labour to augment his income, the peasant was entirely a loser by the increased cost ; for he had nothing to sell which might bring him a benefit, and the purchasing power of what he had to spend was seriously diminished. Despite the bad harvests between 1760 and 1793, EngUsh statesmen clung to the delusion that they could stimulate arable farming by high import duties and export bounties, and meanwhile the small-holders and labourers lost property, liberty, and hope.^ The growing cost of living and the heavy burden of the rates, which sometimes rose to 145. in the £, were sufficient to crush all but the largest farmers, and they saw too plainly that the rising rates militated against the raising of rents. The young women were in a worse position than the men. For men to be ' on the round ' was bad enough, but to think of a young woman in the same position ' Dr. H. Levy, Large and Small Holdings, p. 9. G2 84 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vi is appalling. It is no uncommon occurrence to find as many as twenty women regularly receiving relief, amounting to an average of about 45. per week, during the whole of the winter months. And payments to girls ' on the round ' and ' for lost time ' are very common. Harsh as it may sound, the best fortune that could befall a young woman was to have a sick relative dependent upon her, for then the parish would pay fairly liberally for her services. The only other alternative was to become pregnant, for then the overseers would compel some one to marry her, or she would be sure of a regular allowance for her child in addition to her own meagre pittance. If the men married they would be sure of larger regular incomes, even if not of regular, honour- able employment. If the women married they were sure of a home, which they could force the overseers to provide if they would only degrade themselves. Thus an illicit preg- nancy was the sure way to a secure, if not honourable, married life. Under such circumstances the wonder is that the poor withstood the temptation so well. To use the language of 7 Jac. I, c. 4, and call every mother bearing a bastard child between 1775 and 1830 ' a lewd woman ', would be utterly unjustifiable. And to brand every father of an illegitimate child as a seducer would be equally rash. Seduction of working women is apt to be practised by the class immediately above them rather than by their fellow- workers. The records of Tysoe show that bastardy in its worst period originated in the obstacles which were offered to legitimate love and marriage by economic disruption and the deliberate pauperization of the proletariat. The begetting or conceiving a so-called illegitimate child were acts not punishable under English law. They only became punishable when the bastard became, or was likely to become, a pauper. And in spite of the argument that parents should be responsible for the maintenance of their children, it cannot be denied that the Bastardy Laws made a great distinction between the rich and the poor. Two poor parents of a child born out of wedlock might be quite willing and able to discharge their duty to their joint child as it de- CH. VI] BASTARDY 85 volved upon them ; but they might not be able to give the parish what would be considered sufficient security against the possibihty of their child becoming a pauper. Hence they would be hable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year at the instance of any person who bore them malice, on the ground that he was acting for the common good of the parish. Such a calamity could never happen to the rich ; they could give security and thus escape, although morally they were not a whit better, and were possibly much worse than their less fortunate brethren. When the rich were grinding the poor, as they undoubtedly did in the early years of the nineteenth century, such a legal distinction would be pecu- liarly galling. Although the writer of the Report of 1834 might describe bastardy as ' an offence against God's law and man's law ', at least Enghsh law did not regard it as an offence, unless it were pauper bastardy. Evidently those who were responsible for legal and social policy recognized that the begetting or con- ceiving of children out of wedlock is not always an unsocial act. This was peculiarly true of England between 1790 and 1820, and it is evident that during that period it was held in Warwickshire that certain conditions extenuated the offence.* In the administration of the Bastardy Acts under the Poor Laws there was no idea of compensating the woman for injury inflicted on her, nor of compassion for the weaker sex leading to the punishment of seduction. The only object of affiliation was to indemnify the parish for the charges of maintenance of a bastard. The penalties were inflicted, not out of a zeal for morality, nor to chastise the sin of having a bastard child ; but for having a bastard child which might become chargeable to the parish.^ The bastardy branch of the Poor Laws comprehended pro- vision for the support of illegitimate children, the relief afforded to their mothers, the attempts to obtain the repay- ment of the expenses from the supposed fathers : and the ' Chapter ii, p. 33. * Report of Poor Law Commissioners, 1840, Addenda by Sir Edmund Head, App. B, p. 83. 86 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vi punishment of both parents if they failed to give proof that their child should never become chargeable to the parish. Prior to 1575 the custody of an illegitimate child may possibly have fallen, as the 1834 Report suggests,^ and the burden of maintenance devolved, upon the parish. If so, it seems probable that the family tie of the village community had left this evidence of its vitality. However, 18 Eliz., c. 3, enacted that any two Justices of the Peace, ' upon examination of cause and circumstance,^ could at their discretion order both parents of any illegitimate child being left to the charge of the parish to contribute weekly or otherwise, in money or other sustentation, to the maintenance of their child. And it seems that the Act intended that all parents leaving illegitimate children to the charge of the parish were to be punished forthwith. These were the essentials kept up in all the Bas- tardy Acts until 1834. 7 Jac. I, c. 4, simply provided for a heavier punishment of the women, especially for the second offence. ' Because great charge ariseth upon many places by reason of bastardy, besides the great dishonour of Almighty God, it is enacted that every lewd woman which shall have any bastard which may be chargeable to the parish shall be com- mitted to the House of Correction, there to be punished and set to work, during the term of one whole year ; and if she shall eftsoons offend again shall be committed to the said House of Correction and there remain until she can put in good sureties for her good behaviour, not to offend so again,' Had this enactment been enforced from 1795 to 1830 England would have had to enlarge considerably her Bridewells and prisons.^ The provisions seem to have had a drastic effect : for fourteen years later a special Act was passed entitled ' an act to prevent murthering of bastard children ', In some respects there is a similarity between the decades 1620-30 and 1790-1800, In both, great efforts were made to establish an administration of the Poor Laws sympathetic to the working classes, — the Books of Orders ^ Report of Poor Law Commission, 1834, p. 165, ^ See 1834 Report, p. 170 et seq. CH. VI] BASTARDY 87 issued by the seventeenth-century Privy Council, and the Speenhamland Act and similar scales set up by the eighteenth- century Justices may serve as an instance. 13-14 Chas. II, c. II, was an important Act because, without laying down any new principle as to punishment or main- tenance, it extended the provision for maintenance to allow the parish officials to distrain on the goods of parents who shirked their responsibility. This Act, especially as it mentions ' goods and chattels ' and ' rents or profits of lands ', suggests that seduction by the well-to-do, and not by the labourer, was the principal cause of bastardy. If the working-man failed to do his duty he could be punished ; but if a member of a richer class entered into recognizances to maintain his child or, as the Tysoe records put it, negotiated ' a harmless bond ', and subsequently absconded, he was not punished and the parish was not indemnified. Evidently 13-14 Chas. II, c. 11, was prepared to meet such a contingency. This was the state of the law from 1674 to 1733, and at least one case came under these Acts in the parish of Tysoe may serve as an instance. In 1733, 6 Geo. II, c. 31, was enacted ; by which, if any single woman declared herself to be pregnant, and charged any person with being the father, any one Justice of the division could, on the application of the overseers or any other sub- stantial householder, issue a warrant for the apprehension of the man indicated ; and unless he gave security to indem- nify the parish, or entered into a recognizance to appear at the Quarter Sessions and submit to any order there made, he was to be immediately committed to prison. It is only fair to say that as far as Warwickshire was concerned bastardy offenders were sent, not to the criminal gaol, but to Bridewell, which was the recognized prison for the detention of mis- demeanants under any branch of the Poor Laws. This Act remained in force till 1809, when it was repealed and supplanted by 49 Geo, III, c. 68, which, however, effected only slight alterations. Thus the law remained practically the same from 1733 till 1834. Jurisdiction therefore lay with a single Justice if he desired to act, and not with the bench of Justices for the division, 88 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vi or even with two Justices, as in the earlier Acts. Moreover, the provision in the Act of 1575 that the Justices should inquire into the ' cause and circumstances ' of cases is omitted from that of 1733. Accordingly, if the woman took her oath, the Justice had no power to ask for corroborative evidence, to inquire into the woman's character, or to hear evidence in rebuttal on behalf of the man. He simply had to carry out the law on behalf of the parish. Much criticism has been levelled at the law which allowed the conviction of a man on the mere oath of a woman ; but it seems probable that the very institution of such a provision was due to the difficulty of obtaining corroborative evidence to support the woman. After all, the unsupported oath of a woman is generally the only real evidence in bastardy cases. There may be evidence of circumstances which would lead to the offence, but only rarely is there any evidence that the offence itself was com- mitted by any particular person. Hence it follows that either the woman must be believed, or the accused must be dis- charged. Probably the latter course had been taken by Justices prior to 1733, and the parishes had suffered in conse- quence. Thus there was good reason for the provisions made in that year that the unsupported evidence of the woman should be admitted. Still, the Act gave women almost un- limited opportunities of working injustice, furthering their matrimonial designs, or persecuting those who attempted to thwart them. For if a man was charged with being father to a bastard, he must either go to jail, marry the woman, or pay a weekly sum towards its maintenance, not according to the child's needs, but according to his ability to contribute. It seems that proceedings under the Bastardy Laws might be altogether ex-parte. It was not necessary that the accused should be served with a summons to appear before the Justice, nor that he should be present at the examination of the accuser. In Tysoe he was generally absent. Once a warrant was issued the Justice had no option but to see that the parish was in- demnified or the person punished.^ It has been said that ' in form the proceedings were against the putative father for the ^ Nolan's Poor Laws, vol. ii, pp. 288 and 289. CH. VI BASTARDY 89 indemnification of the parish ; but in substance it was a pro- ceeding of the mother against the putative father for a contri- bution towards the expenses of their common child, in which by a fiction of law the parish was plaintiff '> This opinion is biased by an idea which its originators wished to establish as law. In a very real sense the parish was the plaintiff, especially if it is true that the first Bastardy Act was an attempt to shift the responsibihty of maintenance from the parish, where it had lain, to the parents who, according to the doctrine of individualism appearing in Elizabeth's reign, were under an obhgation to bear the burden they had created. The real importance of the parish lay in the fact that if a father refused to do his duty, the mother had no other means of bringing pressure to bear upon him than the proceedings we have described. Consequently it is more than likely that the Poor Law Officers were called on to deal with a great many cases which, under other legal conditions, might have been settled by different methods. We have seen, then, that punitive measures in repression of bastardy decayed at a time when cases were too numerous to be dealt with effectively, or public opinion was favourable to a growth of population however obtained. Apart from this development, the most important change in the bastardy laws between 1575 and 1834 was the failure of the authorities to ensure that the mother took an equal share with the father in the maintenance of the child. The prevalent theory was that she contributed her portion by general superintendence and care. But that contribution was frequently not given. Often in Tysoe, as soon as the child was weaned it was placed with a foster-mother who undertook to rear it on the allowance from the father or the parish. Thus the mother was free from the burden, unless she married, in which case the husband, whoever he might be, had to take joint responsibility with the mother for the bastard child. These considerations may have minimized the woman's fear of the consequences of her action ; but neither this nor any other change in the law or ' Poor Law Commissioners, Paper on Bastardy, Parliamentary Papers, No. 31, Session 1844. go POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vr practice was sufficient warrant for the irregularities which actually took place in the village. Mothers of bastards in Tysoe did escape heavy burdens, but they did not actually profit by their actions, whatever may have happened else- where.^ A series of bastardy accounts for representative years, taken from the Overseers' Accounts for Tysoe, will serve to show the true state of things. For the years ending Easter, 1731 and 1732, there are no records of payments or receipts on bastardy accounts. This is also true of the years 1740-1 and 1741-2, although in these years there are records of payments for warrants ; but no committals to Bridewell. Again, for 1750-1 and 1751-2 there are neither receipts nor expenditure. Between 1725 and 1760 the church register only gives the names of three infants who were baptized without recognition of paternity. None of these came under the ken of the Poor Law officials. But evidently the register of baptisms is not altogether reliable. In 1728 a case of bastardy came before the officials which does not appear in the register. These ar,e the entries : s. d. Paid for the examination of Judith Capp for a warrant for Henry Eglington . . . . . . . . . .20 Going to Shipston for a harmlos ^ bond from Henry Eglington to the parish of Tysoe . . . . . . . .16 Spent at Stratford when the aforesaid bond was executed . . 4 In 1760, simultaneous with the baptism of an illegitimate child, occur these records in the overseers' expenditure : s. d. 5 6 5 6 6 3 14 4 For Mary Rose ........ Pd. for nursing and christening child .... Pd. the expenses warrant and watching .... Pd. for marriage and other expenses .... There was no reimbursement of the parish on this account. In 1762 three illegitimate children were baptized, but there was no expenditure upon bastardy cases coming under the Poor Laws. In 1763 there was neither expenditure nor * Cf. 1834 Report, p. 169 and following pages. * A ' harmlos ' or ' harmless ' bond was an agreement between the parish and the father of an illegitimate child, made to secure the parish against such a child becoming chargeable to the Poor Rate. CH. VI] BASTARDY 9^ receipts, but a widow and a single woman were sent to the Bridewell. There may be some connexion between this fact and the baptism of four bastards in the two preceding years — a most unprecedented occurrence. Still, whatever else hap- pened during this period, the overseers did not treat women very harshly, for in 1764 they gave a single woman 2s. 8|-i. for ' drink for herself and baptizeing child '. In 1770, when there was one baptism of an illegitimate child, the following entry appears in the overseers' accounts : To Betty Blackford delivering Mary Penn To W. Walton for ale when Mary Penn was delivered Horse to take Penn to justice .... To the Justice giving her oath .... Nine weeks house-rent, Mary Penn, at 6d. To Thos. Savage 4 weeks lying in, waiting, fireing, &c. Mary s. d. 2 6 I 6 I o I o 4 6 Penn 160 The mother was given two shillings per week till Septem- ber 12, 1773, for a period of three and a half years, and then she received one shilling and sixpence per week for about six months. After this she received ninepence per week till 1780, when the same payments are made ' to young Penn '. The weekly allowances continue until the Vestry meeting of 1781, when they stop abruptly. As the lad was not apprenticed, he evidently began to earn his living by some means or other. Besides the initial expenses, the case cost the parish, according to the records of expenditure, £50 75. od., the payments cover- ing eleven years. In 1770 several warrants were executed, but they do not provide any clue to this case. There is no record of reimbursement ; but it is unlikely that the parish really bore the expense. The probability is that the money was regularly paid by some non-parishioner through the parish officials. Strenuous efforts were made to find offending males, for the records for 1774 contain an entry of a journey to Oxford ' to find a man about Mary Pcrriss being breeding '. And although there is no evidence of distraint for the recovery of bastardy costs, there is in 1774 a record of a procedure to prevent a man from selling his goods and leaving his wife without support. The wife was relieved and the goods were eventually sold by the parish for its own benefit. Again, in 92 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vi 1778 the cost of maintaining a victim of the small-pox was nearly all recovered from the man's sons. In that year the names of two illegitimate children appear in the register, and one, if not both, of these cases were dealt with by the overseers. Three men were under guard at the same time, and all of them were committed to prison. During an average fortnight there were fifteen w'idow's and four single women receiving regular relief. On October 12 there were twenty-eight items of relief, amounting to £6 145. 11^. Only seven of these items were for relief of males. Thirteen were for widows, three for orphans, and five for single women. Payments to the last-named ranged from is. 6d. to 45. 6^. each, the whole amounting to 145. All these payments may have been for children born out of wedlock. If so, the amount spent on this account would be £36 per annum. However, I think it unlikely that all the items come under the head of bastardy. The first definite receipt of money by the parish officials on a bastardy account occurred in 1778, when £2 45. 6d. was received for a woman ' lying in '. As there is no record of payments to the woman, it w^ould seem that up to this time at least the prevailing practice was to keep the relief of the poor and the support of illegitimate children as distinct as possible. Another small item of receipt for ' a child's main- tenance ' occurs in 1779 ; but as the amount was only six shillings it is obvious that it was a payment during temporary arrangements, and does not represent continued support of a child made through the overseers either at the instance of the mother or the parish. However, there were many receipts during the later period indicated by the following extracts : 1788-9. ' Rec'd of Thos. Gardner of Chipping Norton the money that neighbours agreed with him for the security of the child that was begotten on the body of Kate Clark, £11 15. orf.' 1790-1. ' Part of Richard Allcock's money that I received on Jane Walker's acct., ;£3 os. od.' ' Rec'd of Pullios down at the side of Broadway, ^^5.' ' Rec'd of Rich'd Allcock money on Jane W^alker's acct., {j OS. od.' CH. vi] BASTARDY 93 1791-2. ' Rec'd of Richd Holton of Oxhill the money on Note of Hand that he gave towards the maintenance of Eliz Lamb's child, £5 0^. od.' 1792-3. ' Rec'd of PuUios down at Broadway the remainder of the money that he gave on Note of Hand for child, £$.' 1794. ' Rec'd of John London of Wellesbourne on Eliz Ashfield's acct., £10.' 1796. ' Simon Nicholls received of Thos Olliver cash that he received of Ann Claydon's man for a child begotten on the body of the said Ann Claydon (Claydon's second offence), /lO 105. 0^.' 1802. ' Rec'd of Mr. Hunt for Ann Jones child, £13.' ' Rec'd of Wm Barron towards Note, £1.' ' Rec'd of Wm Barron more towards Note, £3 8s. gd.* ' Rec'd of Thos Wilks, Jun. for child, up to Easter, £3 105.' 1814. ' Rec'd of Chas. King for the child, £10.' It is rather remarkable that during the greater part of the eighteenth century there should have been a prejudice against dealing with bastardy through the parish officials, for after 1770 many of the wives of the labourers regularly looked for relief at the time of their confinements. And after 1780 payments to husbands or wives on account of ' lying in ' are quite frequent ; other payments are to widows ' for delivering wife '. During the years 1780 and 1781 no illegitimates were baptized, and there were no bastardy cases before the over- seers. In 1785, when three illegitimate children were bap- tized, the only record either of receipt or payment is this : ' To Jno Ainge money that he was out of pocket on Hannah Blackford's acct., that was the money that they had in hand, 6^.' Here evidently the money for the support of a child was paid by the father to the overseers and through an intermediary to the mother. By 1790 a remarkable change had taken place in the publicity of procedure and the expenses incurred. Here are the details of a single case : £ s. d. To the examination of Ann Claydon at Halford ... 20 2 men, eating, drinking, and horse corn Morse carrying .\nn Claydon to Justice to swear child and a man going with her ....... Two men going to Heyford to have warrant back Carried forward 2 4 4 6 16 4 94 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vi £ So there was an adverse balance to the parish of Brought forward Horse hire, tolegates, &c. ....... Three men and horses going to take Edward Cross Three men going to meet Mr. Cross at Banbury to settle with him Three men going to Halford to settle with Mr. Cross at his desire Two men, journey to Banbury to Cross .... Journey to Warwick to Mr. Greenway to have his advice about Mr. Cross's bond and paid for cognizances to bind Cross over to Sessions ........ Expenses. Ann Claydon being at publick 7 days and 7 nights and for herself ....... Ann Claydon, money, bread and ale before she was brought to bed Ann Cole. Coals when she lay in and before Her month lying in ...... . Katherine Walton delivering her ..... Expenses at Sessions, men and horses Horse hire to Kineton on A. Claydon's acct. To Court at Warwick. Cross's case .... Journey to Warwick to advise Mr. Greenway to prepare for trial Tollgates going to Warwick ..... Ann Claydon at times in cash ..... Two men going to serve bastardy order on Ed Cross . Ann Claydon going to Justices and for her father's day's work Myself and neighbours going to Justices same day as above Court Dues for 2 Bastardy Orders for Ed Cross . To 2 men's expenses going to serve order of Bastardy on Ed Cross To journey to S. Aylworth, Esq., to have warrant to serve on Cross, Mr. Aylworth said I had better stop till the Sessions . 2 o £\2 10 II The money received of Cross ' for the expense that I had been at with Ann Claydon and others ' was . . . .8191 13 6 15 6 6 II 10 o 5 17 4 2 5 II 3 5 7 3 5 3 II 10 There were three other cases for which receipts were entered, one for ;^io, and two for ^^5 each. One entry mentions three men : ' Reed of Jos Cole, Weld, and Holtom on Eliz. Lamb's acct. £5 05. oi.' : a curious case, which it is difficult to explain satisfactorily. However, there was apparently some form of division of responsibility for maintenance. The trouble taken over the man Cross, and his immunity from imprisonment, seem to show that he w-as in a good position or was the son of a man of substance. The other men were all taken prisoners, and for some period, short or long, were committed to Bridewell. Subsequently, one of the parties settled his case by some means, possibly marriage, and payments to the other two were made at the rate of CH. VI] BASTARDY 95 IS. 6d. per week. So that although Cross was of good position, he did not have to contribute any more to the maintenance than his fellow delinquents ; or at least, if he did, it was the parish and not the mother that profited by proving paternity against a man of higher economic position than a labourer. The woman therefore did not attempt to gain an advantage from the social position of the accused by perjury, such as was said to occur not infrequently in other villages.^ In 1793 another of the women passed out of the purview of the overseers as they distributed the parochial doles ; but Cross's son remained till 1800, and in 1795 his weekly allowance was increased to 25. As the woman's name disappears from the relief list, the receipt entries are also missing. Still, in that case at least the parish did not suffer : in fact it gained, for it received 2s. per week from the father and gave is. 6d. per week to the mother or the foster-mother of the child. Cross contributed £8 8s. in 1792 and £1 in 1793, after which year all payments stopped. On this case the parish was a loser, since the weekly payments, excluding the initial expenses, would amount to over £50, while the receipts did not rise to ;{^20. The probability is that Cross, who showed no mean ability in eluding his persecutors in the early days of their acquaintance, escaped them altogether at a later period. About this time two remarkable and important items of expenditure occur in the overseers' books. One George Fessey was advertised for in Oxford, Birmingham, Northampton, and London newspapers at a cost of £11 95. 6d. Apparently it was on a case of responsibility for maintenance. The second item relates to a foundling child, which was left in a basket at a farmer's door. Endless journeys were made in search of the mother, and later of the father. An appeal was brought, not, as ordinarily, to the Quarter Sessions, but to the Assizes. The travelling expenses and legal costs amounted to £34. The child was a bastard which its mother was attempting to abandon, and the father was a fairly well- to-do person belonging to another village. The parish * Cf. Report of Poor Law Commission, 1834, p. 167 et seq. 96 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vi succeeded in its appeal, and the father had to refund to Tysoe £30 towards the expenses incurred in the quest of the parents. By 1797 the woman Claydon, who bore a child to Cross in 1790, also had a daughter, and was regularly receiving seven to eight shillings per fortnight on that account. The highest amount paid to support a widow during this period was six shillings per fortnight, and many only got three or four shillings. The average was about five. Thus Claydon, the mother of two illegitimate children, was quite secure in the possession of a regular income, which was better than that of any steady woman in receipt of parish relief, and nearly equal to the earnings of any honest, independent working woman. It is not surprising to find that in January, 1801, there were eight women in the parish of Tysoe receiving allowances on account of ten illegitimate children. Against the total of £40 which these allowances cost the parish, there is only one small item of clear receipt, viz. £2 35. 6d. It is more than likely that a great change had occurred in the method of determining paternity. Prior to 1790 paternity was without exception imputed to a non-parishioner. In the years of famine at the end of the century the number of illegitimate children baptized was greater and more regular than it had ever been, and it is quite probable that paternity was imputed to labourers within the parish who were themselves paupers because they were the delinquents. In the year ending Easter, 1801, the cost of poor rehef amounted to £2,303. And in January, 1801, the expenditure includes two hundred items of relief, a figure which on the lowest computation indicates a total of four hundred receivers. It is possible that more than a quarter of the whole population were at that period supported by the Poor Rates. There were at least forty single women receiving relief, besides twenty-seven widows. There were about forty persons ' on the round ', and many others unemployed whom the overseers made no pretence of setting to work. Considering that economic conditions absolutely precluded any possibility of marriage for younger members of the working population, the increase of illegitimacy cannot be CH. vi] BASTARDY 97 regarded as primarily due to any vicious tendencies of the poor, either male or female. The largest single receipt in any one bastardy case is found in the accounts for 1810 : ' Reed of Mr. Varney's groom on Sarah Hyron's acct. ;^20 os. od.' This amount, however, would even be counterbalanced by expenditure, for the said Sarah Hyrons was given 2s. 6d. per week, and the receipts from the father of the child did not continue for long. In 1810 there were five bastards from three mothers in receipt of relief. Claydon, who first appeared on the books in the Cross case of 1790, was still receiving 2s. per week. The amounts paid for maintenance seem to have risen in the early years of the nineteenth century. In 1819 the rate paid for at least some of the children was 2s. 6d. per week. The receipts, however, had not increased in the same propor- tion. The one receipt which is recorded only amounts to £10 05, od. In the year ending Easter, 1820, there were four women receiving allowances for illegitimate children. Three of these were granted 2s. each, and the third was paid at the rate of 2s. 6d. per week, but her allowance was given in lump sums. The very next entry in the accounts is the allowance to a boy who seems to have been motherless : ' To William Tucker's child, ten weeks at 25., £1 os. od.' In this instance therefore the legitimate child was not so well provided for as his bastard contemporary. There are no records of reimbursement to the parish for the expenses incurred in the bastardy cases in 1819-20. The method of paying at monthly or quarterly intervals was general in 1827. Thus : £ s. d. To Hannah Wilks' son, March 24 to August 4, 20 weeks at 2s. 2 o o August 4 to Nov. 24, 16 weeks at 25. . . . . i 12 o Eliz. Wilks from April 1 1 to June 9, 8 weeks at 25. 6d. .100 In this year the expenses resemble those of 1790 ; for example : ' Gave to Jno Brain to go after Hannah Wilks' man £z Ss. od.' ; and ' Jno Brain going down to Ncwbold and taking W. Ham- bidgc for Chas. Greenway, Bastardy, and keeping him two days at Tysoc, £1 2s. 4^.' (part VI) w. V. H 98 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vi Then follows a curious entry. The expenses are ' for a journey to Kineton with James Wilkin's wife to swear her child '. The woman may possibly have been a widow, but if so it is surprising that she was not so described, as the designa- tion frequently occurs in the accounts. In the last year which we shall consider there was only one woman in receipt of a weekly allowance for bastardy ; so that including the periodical allowances just mentioned there were three cases of bastardy. There were no entries of receipts on any of these accounts, and therefore the parish itself must have borne the real burden of maintenance. One important feature is not directly touched upon in the records ; viz. the fact that since an illegitimate child gained a settlement where it was born, an unmarried pregnant woman was hunted from pillar to post so that she might reach her own place of settlement. Cases of sending such women away or of receiving them on return may have occurred in Tysoe, but there are no clear records, still this aspect of the law may have been responsible for several births which occurred in the lanes and ditches of the village during the eighteenth century. Thus there were various means of dealing with bastardy — by marriage, by contribution, and by punishment. But it can safely be said that the parish was never adequately recouped for its expenditure on behalf of illegitimate children. The attempt made in 1575 to make the parents of bastards support their children had practically failed. Nor were the attempts to make them discharge their duty successful as long as the parish had any part in the proceedings. But when the right to claim assistance was given to the mother, and the parish or union was entitled to take the results of her claim only when the bastard becomes chargeable to it, the poor rates were relieved of their bastardy burden. Probably mothers were more successful in their claims than parishes ; and even if not, they often bear rather than escape the burden which is the result of their actions. All this is vastly different from the conditions of the eighteenth century. For it is doubtful whether the parish of Tysoe recovered 50 per cent, of its expenses : though the estimate cannot be absolutely proved. CH. VI] BASTARDY 99 The most important point is that in Tysoe few women, if any, looked on bastardy as a definite means of livelihood, and very few children remained on the books for the full period of ten or twelve years. Ten years is the longest period during which relief was given : and most of the bastards disappear from the relief list between their second and sixth year. This was due to the marriage of their mothers. Two women appear each as the mother of illegitimates ; but such a record is not extraordinary, and might be easily surpassed even in the present age. The use of the power of punishment had fallen off "before the Act of 1810 which repealed 7 Jac. I, c. 4, was passed. The punishment of women was given up before that of men, doubtless because the effect of sending women to the local Bridewell was not reformative, and the expense of maintaining them at Bridewell was nearly as heavy as if they had been permitted to remain in the parish supported by the allowance for the child and a little extra given by the overseers. In one case stronger measures were taken than the mild treatment of Bridewell. One Jno. Edwards was an offender under the Bastardy Acts in 1776, and he appeared again in 1779. He was first taken to Bridewell ; and then appears the following entry : ' Expenses when we took Jno Edwards to Bridewell and spent when we met the Commissioners to send him for a soldier, £1 55. 2^.' This was evidently a case of compulsion ; for at the same time Tysoe appears to have been visited by a press-gang. The landlady of one of the inns was paid i$s, for ' Eating, beer and fireing when the chimney sweep and the razor grinder were pressed for soldiers '. The pity is that such an amount of punishment for bastardy offences should have been necessary after 1760. But the blame should not be laid upon the poor. There is no necessity to make excuses for them ; the principle of individual moral responsibility must be tempered by a consideration of economic and social conditions. If blame is to be apportioned for the bastardy conditions from 1775 to 1830, it must be assigned to those who enjoyed the advantage of the wider political outlook provided by education and social position, and who H2 100 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vi had the power of legislation and administration in their own hands. The fact is that so long as the nation triumphed over her continental foes, developed her industry, and enabled the higher classes to tighten their grip on the land, the aristocracy and plutocracy of England cared little what happened to the masses of the people during the period of the French wars. From the year 1738 when an entry was made that £2 had been spent on the jury ' on account of Mary . . . having a child and being found dead in a ditch ', to the time when it was a commonplace to be pregnant at marriage and profitable to be the mother of a bastard, there were changes in the condi- tions of the poor which make it difl&cult to prove an arbitrary judgement of their character, or to imagine the feelings of the women as they realized that they were being cruelly and unnaturally degraded. CHAPTER VII GENERAL RELIEF Whatever may be the present or the future principle upon which rehef is or will be granted to poor or destitute persons, the principle which inspired the administration of relief up till 1834 was that of Public Assistance. The Act of 1601 (43 Eliz., c. 2) simply established in the statute law a principle already long recognized in the common law as well as in Christian charity. There can be no doubt that the early guilds and the charity of religiously disposed persons assisted townships and parishes in taking care of destitute villagers even before the Conquest. Then ' it must always be remembered that in the view of the Church, tithes, other than first-fruits or tithes of increase, were destined not to provide a maintenance for the clergy but for the relief of the poor ; and the rector, whether of a religious house or parochial incumbent, was supposed to administer them for these purposes, he being only a ruler or administrator of them '.1 It was always taught that the tithes ought to be divided in some way between the Bishop, the minister, the repair of the church fabric (mostly the chancel), and the relief of the poor. And when a rector farmed out his tithes, he had to obtain four approved parishioners to become sureties for the faithful payment of the full proportion due to the poor.^ Such a system of providing for the necessitous poor continued until the rise of the individualistic philosophy which led to the reform of the English Church. Upon this system was founded the whole of the provisions for poor relief, especially ' O. J. Reichel, Rise of Parochial System in England. ' Gasquet, Parish Life in Mediaeval England, p. 19. 102 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vii as to the unit of organization from 1540 to 1834. First came the attempt to effect by exhortation of the clergy what had hitherto been ensured by common law and immemorial custom — namely, the provision of a sum of money which could be drawn upon at need for the assistance of poor neighbours. Next it was attempted to enforce a kind of compulsory charity by means of assessments. It is not at all surprising that these expedientsfailed: for the assessments were an additional burden upon the farmers and artificers of the period. The monastic and institutional lands had been given to the aristocracy, the clergy now claimed the tithes for their own maintenance, and till the rating provisions of 39 Eliz., c. 3, there was no adequate provision for the relief of the poor. However, the tradition of parochial assistance remained, and the Act of 1601 closely followed the tithe system of assessments of rates levied for the relief of the poor. All tithes were subject to rating, and all timber and mines, land and profits of industry were to be taxed. Under such conditions relief could never have been given solely on the principle that the pauper should be entitled to assistance only after he had made every effort to maintain himself — even if that effort took the suicidal form of buying bread at the price of home, furniture, or tools. An attempt to make absolute destitution the qualification for relief for some classes of paupers was made between 1722 and 1782, and again since 1834. In the eighteenth century the result was an almost total failure, but in the nineteenth century there was some measure of success. In order to be ' destitute ' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a person only had to lose his status : that is to say, to lose all civic standing of any kind : he might fall from a higher status to a lower, and still retain some kind of caste : but there was a point beyond which he could not fall without losing his rights to any kind of social status. The Poor Law Commissioners of 1832 defined poverty as the condition of one who, in order to obtain a mere subsistence, is forced to have recourse to labour.^ The labourer was at the lowest point in the scale, and directly he lost his employ- ■ Report, p. 227. CH. vii] GENERAL RELIEF 103 ment he was without status — destitute. True, the modern conditions under which a man might be temporarily unem- ployed and yet have a large savings' bank account, did not then exist. If there were any ' savings ' they would be in the form of stock for industry or agricultural capital ; and one who retained these resources in the seventeenth century was not without status. Thus if a labourer lost his employment he at once had right to public assistance. If a wife lost her husband, or a child a father, they were likewise entitled to help. The lame and blind did not need to assert their claim, for they were certain of a measure of relief. The workman or the widow need not sell their cottages to obtain assistance ; while they lived they held their property, and had some degree of economic security beside their right to parish maintenance. If they died in receipt of relief, the overseers would probably claim the cottage — naturally enough, since the first charge upon property must always be the maintenance of the immediate proprietors. The parish apprentice by accepting relief did not endanger his prospects of earning wages, nor did he forfeit his future claim to respect : for there was no stigma attached to pauperism. He was entitled to public assistance and he received it. And those who actually distributed relief may at many times have been within measurable distance of receiving it. The Commissioners of 1832-4 reported that ' in no other part of Europe than England had it been thought fit that pubhc provision, whether compulsory or voluntary, should be applied to more than the relief of indigence — i. e. the state of a person unable to labour, or unable to obtain, in return for labour, the means of subsistence '} But if France had had in operation a system of relief such as that set up in Eng- land in 1601, her history during the eighteenth century might have been very different ; and if England had not maintained such a system of adequate relief from 1785 to 1800 it is more than likely that her constitution would have suffered from violent changes. Under the Elizabethan Poor Laws there was provision for the development of national power, for the * Report, p. 227. 104 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE, [ch. vii safeguarding of personal property, and for the adequate maintenance of the poor. Thus, in the worst of times, the various classes lived together with the minimum of discord, and the national standard was maintained. The legislators of 1601 based their Act for providing relief of the poor upon two assumptions : {a) that there was some definite relation between the poor and the property out of which they were to be maintained : that the land and property of a parish were sufficient to maintain its popula- tion ; 1 [b) that every able-bodied man and woman, if given access to the necessary employment in agriculture or industry, could provide sufficient for his or her maintenance, and that every life was of sufficient value to the nation to be preserved. It is unnecessary to discuss the application of these proposi- tions to all times and places, but it is safe to say that they were generally true in England from 1601 to 1801. Upon these assumptions were founded the provisions for : (a) Setting to work all children whose parents were not able to maintain them. (b) Setting to work all persons, married or unmarried, having no means of support, and using no ordinary or daily trade to obtain their living. (c) Relieving the lame, impotent, old, blind, and such others as were poor and not able to work. {d) Putting out children to be apprentices according to the ability of each parish. The churchwardens and overseers were to judge what parents were able to maintain and train their children in a fitting manner, and they must also decide who was and who was not able to earn a living. Those who were able but unwilling to work, it was the duty of the churchwardens and overseers to punish under the many vagrancy laws : for those who were able and willing to work it was their duty to provide ^ The Commissioners of 1834 reported (page 62) that at Cholesbury, Bucks., the whole of the land of the parish had been handed over to the poor for their maintenance. As a last resort this action seems to be in full accord with the principles of the 43rd Eliz., c. 2, notwithstanding the fact that it led to the ' utter subversion of the happy order of society so long upheld in these kingdoms '. CH. vii] GENERAL RELIEF 105 employment. The parish as a corporation being responsible for furnishing the means of employment and relief, the over- seers and churchwardens were bound to see that adequate provisions were made, and they had the necessary power of collecting money, subject always to the approval of the Jus- tices of the Peace. If the overseers failed in their duty and any damage resulted, they were held responsible. For failure to supply relief they were indictable.^ And as late as 1835 it was enacted that any overseer failing to supply relief in urgent cases should forfeit any sum, not exceeding £5, which should be ordered by the Justices.^ This Act assumed that overseers were not so likely to refuse relief to residents within their own parish as to strangers : which was probably true for the most part. Besides this, it seems probable that if the legal guardian of any person who needed assistance failed to apply for relief on behalf of his ward, and death resulted, he might be prosecuted for manslaughter. Thus it was the duty of every person needing assistance to claim it, as well as the duty of the overseers to provide it. If a citizen failed to apply for relief he suffered hardship, sickness, or death, but the law meant at least to shield minors from the neglect of their ordinary and Poor Law guardians.^ In reahty the principles of the Act of 1601 resolve them- selves into the right of the individual to relief, and the right of the State to demand work in return ; or, to change the the expression, the right of the able-bodied to the means of livelihood, and the right of all other persons to actual existence. Behind all provisions for poor relief there is always a sentiment of humanity, and of common charity toward the sick and helpless. There was in the whole Elizabethan code of State regulations a definite policy of social construction, and in the relief of the able-bodied and vagrants there is a recognition that men must be fed if they are to respect the rights and privileges of others. These various ideas and feelings are to be found intermingled and sometimes almost indistinguishable in all legislation affecting poor relief ; and up to 1834 they ' Nolan's Poor Laws, vol. ii, p. 475. ' 4 & 5 William IV, c. 76, s. 54. * See Glen's Poor Law Orders, tenth edition, p. 76. io6 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vii formed in practice the principles of the right to subsistence and the duty to labour. Developed as it was from a scheme of customary charity, the Poor Law could hardly fail to co-ordinate the systems of private and public assistance, or the system of customary public aid with that set up by statute. This was done in 1536 by an Act^ which directed that all persons bound to distribute ready money, victuals, or other sustentation to the poor people ' were to dispose of the sum or the value thereof to the common box'. And 43 EHz., c. 4, entitled 'An Act to redress the misemployment of lands, goods and stocks heretofore given to certain charitable uses ', carried on the same principle. The trustees of Tysoe charities regularly paid over certain sums for distribution by the overseers. During the eighteenth century there were two so-called charities. One, known as Willington's Dole, given by a will made in 1555, directed that forty shilhngs per annum, from the proceeds of certain lands, was to be laid out in fuel for the poor of Tysoe. The other, known as the ' Town Lands ' or ' Utility Estate ', was of uncertain origin : no records of it exist save the deeds by which the property was conveyed from one set of trustees to another. It is surmised that despite the Acts of Henry VIII and Edward VI confiscating guild property,^ the property had belonged to some ancient village guild : a conclusion which is strengthened by the use to which the revenues of the property were put. Local tradition has it that the funds of the estate should be devoted to education, to carrying out schemes of public utility, and to the charitable assistance of the poor. At the present time yearly grants are made to education and the poor, and occasionally to purposes of public utility. The Commission appointed to inquire re Charities and the Education of the Poor, 1815-1839, reported that by deed of feoffment dated April 26, 33 Henry VIII, certain persons were seised in fee of one messuage in Over Tysoe and one yard-land to the same messuage adjoining, and of one half-yard-land in Westcott in the parish ^ 27 Henry VIII, c. 27. * n Henry VIII, c. 4, and l Edward VI, c. 14. CH. vii] GENERAL RELIEF 107 of Tysoe, and of two cottages and one messuage of the yearly value of 8s., which property was to be held by nine persons who were * to bestow and employ it to the common utility and profits of the said parish of Tysoe, in such necessaries as should be thought convenient by the inhabitants of the said parish '} This disposition of the proceeds does not seem to derive its origin from charitable directions ; and the earliest deed relating to the property is concerned only with transfer from one set of trustees to another. But at any rate a sum of money was regularly set aside for the assistance of poor persons, and in many, if not all the years of the eighteenth century, a certain amount was handed over to the overseers to relieve the rates. And, as the Commission reported, a school for boys had been maintained out of the fund from time immemorial. The rate paid to the schoolmaster was one guinea per boy, and the number of boys seems to have varied with the rental value of the property. Prior to 1817 there were ten boys, and the master's salary was £10 10s. In that year the number of boys and guineas was increased to twelve, in 1824 to sixteen, and about 1830 there were twenty boys, for whom a sum of £21 was paid. When the Commissioners visited Tysoe somewhere about 1830, the net value of the property was £114 per annum : and according to their report the residue of the proceeds after the payment of the grant for education was given to the poor who were not in receipt of parish relief, according to necessity and individual desert. Occasionally grants were made to deserving people who were in receipt of parish relief. When the common fields were enclosed in 1797, the poor were awarded eighteen acres of land in lieu of their rights to cut fuel on the wastes. According to the Charity Commissioners, £26 los. od. were derived from this source in 1830. Most, if not all, of the income from this property came into the hands of the overseers as the official distributors of relief. The records of the receipts and expendi- ture of Willington's Dole, and grants from the feoffees of the Town Lands, arc very meagre ; the only information they ' Report of Commissioners appointed to inquire concerning Charities and the Education of the Poor, 1 815-1839, vol. xxxv, p. 503. io8 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vii give is that a small sum was spent in refreshments ' when we distributed Wilhngton's Dole ' and that ' £5 ' was ' received from the Feoffees ', The first-mentioned dole was undoubtedly given away in fuel as originally directed, and the grants from the Trustees of the Town Lands seem to have gone to the relief of the poor and incidentally to the assistance of the rates. In times of extraordinary distress, such as the year 1799, gifts of faggots and firewood were received from various charitable donors. But the receipts from the Fuel Land were the most important. The parish, as a corporation acting through its officials, the churchwardens and overseers, was the chief retail dealer of coal within the village. Indeed there is no evidence that there was any other dealer at all, and it is probable that the parish had a monopoly. When the Act of 1601 was given permanent force in 1641, it was provided that the church- wardens and overseers of the poor might * with the consent of the justices ', set up, use, and occupy any trade, industry, or occupation only for the setting on work and the better relief of the poor of the parish. In Tysoe this provision against parochial manufacture or business was disregarded. During the whole of the eighteenth century the parish owned, kept in repair, and used its own malthouse. At the end of the century it traded in coals, and from 1795 onwards owned and conducted a bakery. This latter may have been conducted entirely for the better relief of the poor ; but the same could not be said of either of the other enterprises. The malthouse may possibly have existed prior to 1641 : for Gasquet says that ' although it was not till well into the sixteenth century that any successful attempt was made to impose by law upon the parishioners, as such, any purely secular duty, such as the repair of roads, and bridges, . . . the people's wardens had long before this assumed the superintendence ... of such works as brewing and baking undertaken for the common benefit or profit. This probably mostly sprung out of their necessary management of parochial (ecclesiastical) property '.^ It is quite likely that the malthouse of Tysoe had its origin in the * Parish Life in Mediaeval England, p. 233. CH. VII] GENERAL RELIEF 109 feasts of the Church, or of some guild which has now disap- peared. There remains in the parish safe a recipe for a cake, written in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth centuries, which states among other directions that one and a half gallons of flour and twenty eggs should be used. These liberal ingredients are clearly intended for something more than a family feast, and suggest rather a gathering of the village or guild.^ There was much trouble about fuel in the parish, in the late eighties of the eighteenth century, and after several prosecutions for stealing, such as the following, the parish began the regular sale of coal. To Mr. Middleton, warrant and prosecution against Godard and s. d. Bayliss stealing fuel ....... lo o To Jno. Hancox, prosecuting the law against 2 boys, lopping trees, &c. .......... 50 An attorney's bill in 1789 contains this item : ' Attending officers and neighbours respecting fetching coals and prosecuting people cutting trees and bushes.' Then there are such items as these : To my Landlord Watts the night we set about selling coals to the poor and settling the price of yt. To Martin Cole writing a paper to stick up at the Church door about fetching the coals. To Jno. Hancox for painting and writing boards, finding the £ s. d. same and putting up . . . . . . .340 To opening the road to the coal wharf .... So To a new shovel for parish use at the coal barn . . 40 The receipts for coals sold rose as follows : — £ s. d. 1800 80 o o 1815 107 15 o 1825 119 o o Long before the earliest of these dates the parish had kept a supply of coals for distribution to the poor, but now it entered on a regular traffic. Sometimes one man and some- ' Cf. Gasquet, Parish Life in Mediaeval England, p. 229 et seq. ' The overseers also sold wood. These are a few of the receipts : i s. d. Reed, for wood sold . . . . . . . .140 Reed, of Landlord Walker for bushes .... 80 Reed, of Robt. Ashby for bushes . . . . . 16 o Reed, for bushes . . . . . . . .140 i s. d. 1787 II 12 ID 1790 30 2 8 1795 64 II 3b no POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vii times two, were in charge of the supply. The buying price varied from lo^. to is. id. per cwt., and the sale price from IS. 6d. to IS. M. Hauling cost from ^d. to 'jd. per cwt. Much of the supply was given out as relief, but on the quantity sold, indicated by the above figures, the net profit would vary from one penny to twopence per cwt., probably approximating to the higher figure. The Fuel Land, given to Lord Northampton and his heirs in trust for the poor of the parish, did not come under the management of the overseers till 1815. Up till that year they regularly received sums of money, generally about £30 per annum, ' for coals given to the poor '. After 1815 the overseers received the rents of the eighteen acres of land, and gave the poor the value in coals from the parish stock. The fund was not treated as a charity or as relief. It was applied to the purchase of coals, which were * distributed during the winter season for three or four weeks to all the poor parishioners of the description of those who were accus- tomed to cut gorse, giving to each family i cwt., to widows and old men, -^ cwt. per week, till the supp4y was exhausted '. So said the Charity Commissioners of 1830 : but an appendix to one of the volumes of the overseers' accounts gives a damning piece of evidence against the pubhc honesty of those officials. In 1827 the receipts for coal money were : I s. d. Willington's Dole . . . . . . . .400 Reed, of Robt. Ashby one year's rent of allotment (12 acres) . 20 10 4 Reed, of Richard Baldwin (6 acres) . . . . .754 31 IS 8 Thirty-one pounds of this were said to be disbursed to the poor in coals, but in reality the coals given to the poor were valued at 45. per cwt., when the real value, even at the price set by the parish, would not exceed is. 8d. per cwt. The entries stand as follows : s. d. Cole money disburst to the poor, Richard Cannon, i cwt. o qrs. ,.,,.. 40 Francis Hancox, i cwt. ....... 40 Widow Malins, 2 qrs. ,,...... 20 Thos. Sutton, i cwt. ........ 40 John Jarrett, 3 qrs. . ....... 30 CH. VII] GENERAL RELIEF iii About i8o families or persons received allowances varying from Y cwt. to i cwt., the whole amount being 7 tons 11 cwts. 2 qrs. The price of this quantity at is. 8d. per cwt. should have been £12 11^. 6d. The overseers were paid £30 25. od., and thus stood to gain £17 105. 6d. It is only fair to say that in all probability this method was adopted in order to keep the paupers' allowances down to the regular minimum which at this time was fixed, and the overseers did not personally profit, except that the rates were reduced by the amount gained. As the parish malthouse was not established under the Poor Law, records of it in the overseers' books are naturally meagre. Still, the cost of repairing it was paid out of grants from the poor rates, and in the early part of the nineteenth century, when the parish held much property, the malthouse was scarcely distinguishable for purposes of classification from the cottages and other property maintained for Poor Law purposes. In 1825 the overseers made an entry of a receipt, ' for rent of cottages and malthouse, £30.' There are several entries for payments for repairs, for example : ' For 12 bushells of lime for repairs at the parish malthouse, 95.' ' Bill for repairs at the parish malthouse, £1 gs. od.' ' To Robt. Usher when he brought coals to the malthouse, 15.' The last entry suggests that the property was used for its original purpose. When the malthouse was let to a private person, the rates paid upon it amounted to IS. 8d. As the charge was ^d. in the £, the rateable value of the property would thus be £4. The establishment of a bakehouse was made necessary by the famine of 1795. At first a bakehouse was hired for 6d. per week, and a baker was paid gs. per week, for which sum he probably gave the whole of his time to the business. The minutes of the Vestry meetings provide good records of the proceedings : * At a vestry held at the church the 3rd day of August 1795, we whose names are hereunder written do agree to have a a Bakehouse carried on at the Bakehouse for the use of the poor till after harvest.' (Fifteen signatures.) ' At a vestry held this 22nd day of October 1795 at the 112 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vii chancel : we whose names are under- written do agree to have the Bakehouse carried on for the use of the poor as long as the majority of the inhabitants think proper,' (Eight signatures.) ' Two people are to be nominated to buy 20 sacks of flour to be bought at times price. Four people are to be nominated for the four weeks ensuing to see the bread delivered to the poor : those two people that are (serving) to nominate two more for the next four weeks ensuing; those four people that are nominated to deliver the bread out to the poor the four first weeks are to nominate four more people for the four weeks next ensuing.' The necessary people were nominated. There were twelve signatories. Between 1795 and 1799 the parish seems to have established a bakery of its own. Payments occur ' To 1,000 bricks and loading for the bakehouse, £1 8^. 6d.\ ' To Jno. Ainge carriage of lime for the bakehouse, 75. 6d.\ and ' To a carpenter's bill, work done at the bakehouse, £1 11s. 8d.' Also there are entries of receipts ' for old boards and bags from the bakehouse '. But again in 1799 the harvest failed. In 1795 and 1799 the overseers of Tysoe went to Warwick * with papers about the Produce of Corn ' — doubtless to answer some form of State inquiry. In 1800 the House of Lords' Committee on the Dearth of Provisions ^ reported of Warwickshire that ' the consumption of the new crops began as soon as possible after the harvest was in, and most of it was threshed out for immediate use, the stock of old corn being, comparatively speaking, none. In general there used to be enough to carry on the country for three months. The amount of land down to wheat 1799-1800 not as much, on account of the Badness of the Season.' ' Average crop as stated by the evidence, at quarters per acre : Qrs. Bushells. Qrs. Bushells. Wheat 2 4 to 2 5 Barley- 3 4 to 4 Oats 5 to 5 5 Rye 3 Pease 2 2 to 2 S Beans 2 4 Potatoes 150 * Report of Select Committee of the House of Lords On the Dearth of Provisions, 1800, Muniment Room, County Hall, Warwick, CH. VII] GENERAL RELIEF 113 Proportions of an average crop at the late harvest (as stated by the evidence) : Wheat I to 4, average %. Barley § to |, average ^|. Oats |, average 11. Pease §, to average. Beans |, nearly average.' With the previous crop consumed before the harvest, and the harvest itself amounting to only two-thirds of the average yield, it is not surprising that the Poor Law officials had to make extraordinary efforts to cope with the distress. The minute of the Vestry held on December 20, 1799, describes the provisions made. ' It was agreed at the parish to raise £30 to meet the Rt. Hon. Lord Northampton's £30 to lower the price of bread for four months for the relief of the poor. And the overseers of the poor are to pay the regular instalments out of the parish rates, and the committee shall alter the weight of the bread every fortnight according to the average Price of the Markets.' Several persons were appointed to serve as a Bakery Committee. The ordinary bakers were hard hit by this departure, and were obliged to make the following arrangement with the Vestry : ' And the Bakers here present have agreed to make six pounds of bread for a shilling, half wheat and half barley, for a fortnight, beginning on Tuesday next.' Two bakers signed the agreement. In 1800 the overseers paid over £600 to the Bakehouse Committee, and in 1801 £400. Relief was given ' by consent of neighbours ', ' by the churchwarden's orders ', ' by order of the justices ', and on various plaints made by paupers. Some of these entries show that not all the paupers had the confidence of the overseers. ' To Humphrey Wilkins one day he would not work for bad- ness, 3^.' Do. ' Five days he would not work for badness, 2s. 6d.' ' To Mary Wilkins more, being troublesome at times, 6d.' Other reasons given were ' the severity of weather ' and ' the extremity of weather '. There is also good evidence (part VI) W. V. J 114 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vii that the word ' poor ' as used by the legislators of 1601 was literally interpreted : May 28, 1727. To Wm. Davis being poor . Dec. 10. To Jas. Ball being poor To Jno. Wilkins in distress 3 times Gave to Ball in distress Gave to Brewer's wife in want s. d. 2 5 3 10 1 There is no such definite use of the words ' destitute ' or ' indigent '. Relief was given both in money and kind. There are many interesting entries of the relief in kind ; one especially shows the intimate knowledge of the wants of the poor gained by the overseers : * Two chamber pots, 15. 6d.' Food, clothing, and boots were given, as a few specimen items will show : £ s. d. 1727. Pd. for a loaf of bread ...... 10 Pd. for a hat for Thos. Elliot ..... 16 1729. Pd. for a pair of breeches for boy .... 3 o Pd. for a pair of shoes for boy .... 36 1732. Pd. for a pair of bodisses for Grace Hands . . 36 1736. Pd. for 2 bushels of barley for Willcox ... 54 1737- To Chas. Wesbury a grist by Churchwarden's orders. 6 6 1740. To. Mr. Bates for sugar and oatmeal ... 7 To Mr. Hyrons a pair of sheets for Plestoes . . 40 To Henry Middleton for malt ..... 38 1 741. To Eliz. Simpson for a pair of sheets that was in pawn i o 1743. To a pint of wine for drink ..... 13 1750. For sweeping Wigson's chimney .... 10 To a hat and strings for Mary Ball .... 14 175 1. To the baker for bread for the Widow Griffin before she received collection ...... 26 1764. Pd. for I lb. of butter ...... 6 1767. To George Watts, hooping a tub for Jno. Hyron . i o 1769. To John Hemming mending Mary Wilkin's wheel and hoop, and bung for Mary's son's barrel, and spindle and ears for Mary ...... 16 1772. To Anne Cole nursing Mary Cole, finding tea and sugar i 6 1778. To Richard Buckingham's grandson a smockfrock . 4 6 1784, To Eliz. Ashfield three shifts, three caps, two aprons, pettycoat, border for caps and bodying gown 1790. To Anthony Walker's children bolten of wheat straw for a bed ........ 181 1. For a pint of wine Eliz. Gillett .... 1817. For 1 pint of gin ....... 1785. To Hannah Granthorn, petticoat, shifts, and mending stays 1770. To Isaac Gardner in part of his Bill for clothing the poor To James Walker's bill for shoes for young children and mending as appears by a bill . . . . 14 3^ To Ed. Capp a stay and mending and making a frock and 2 coats Mary Wilkin's children .... 24 1774. To Rachell Wesbury to buy bread, coals, and candles 2 6 To Mr. Williams, Kineton, for cloth, buttons, and thread 5 6 6 8 6 2 6 loi 12 o o o CH. VIl] GENERAL RELIEF 115 And bills for clothing in bulk often amounted to ;^20. Assistance was also given to persons suffering accidental losses, as ' to a man with a loss by fire ' ; and in 1819 a fire occurred in the house in which this history is written and 14s. was ' paid to Wm. Watts the baker for bread and cheese had of him on the 17th and i8th of March last at Thos. Collcott's fire for the men '. ' To Richard Reading for a £1 note burnt, by order of the Vestry this day, £1 os. od.' Also two good evidences of loans appear, one in 1819 when £1 gs. was received ' by cash lent to Thos. Tarver ' ; the other in 1813 states that £1 was ' lent to Samuel Coldicutt to be stopped out of his pay'. The total disbursements for 1727 amounted to £58 185. 4^d., those for 1827 to ^^1,170 195. 5^d. This was not by any means the largest amount. Nearly £3,000 was distributed in 1800. 1727 and 1827 were normal years for their respective periods, yet the number of persons in receipt of relief grew during the century from 11 in January, 1727, to 134 in January, 1827. APPENDIX Specimens of the fortnightly disbursements by the overseers will indicate the method of giving reHef, and will also serve to illustrate the enormous growth of pauperism during the period from 1727 to 1827. July 9, 1727, Paul Mallet paid the poor ; To Widow Lively To Widow Wells To Widow Hitchcox To Jno. Fly To Thos. Elliot July 7, 1827, Mr. Rose paid the poor : Pd. to W. Randall Wid. Gregory James Ratley Abraham Pilking ton Robt. Hancox Carried forward S 5 10 II 2 Pd, £1 13 s. d. I 6 s. d. o 4 Brought forward to Ed. Beck Widow Styles Charlotte Black- man Wid. Matthew . Carried forward £i 4 10 I 2 ii6 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vii L s. d. i s. d. Brought forward 3 4 10 Brought forward 19 6 4 Pd. to Wid. King . S Pd. to Thos. Greenway . 2 Wid. Powell 6 Do. daughter ill . 5 Mary Powell 4 Sam. CoUdicott . 2 Wid. Thomas 5 Wm. Powell 2 Wid. Watkins 5 Sam. Hancox & Wid. Walton 5 son 2 8 Wid. Thompson 5 Wm. Parker 4 Wid. Hyrons S John Cockbill 2 Wid. Geden 5 Thos. Horton 2 Wid. King . 4 Arnold Hewins . S Wid. Clark . 6 Hannah Wilk's Wid. Gregory S child 4 Rose Durham 4 Benjamin Walker 4 Eliz. Geden 5 Francis Hancox . 2 Mary Townsend 5 Saml. Randall 13 Jane Clifford 5 Wm. Collins 3 4 Anthony Phelps 4 Thos. Power 3 4 George Davis 6 John Ainge 2 Widow Winter 4 Thos. Ludlow & Joseph Claydon 6 son 4 John Lane 6 Jno. Ainge's son . 4 Timothy French 6 Widow Walton's John Hemmings 6 daughter 2 Widow Wilkins 12 8 William Wilson's Richard Allcock 10 son 10 Richard Durham II Robt, Harriss's Saml. Carter 16 daughter ill 3 Robert How 16 6 Wm. Wilks 2 Widow Eden 10 8 N. Middleton for a John Smith's son 17 journey . 5 John Penn . 2 Serving a sum- Richard Townsen i 6 8 mons I Thos. Townsend 2 Wilson's child 7 Eliz. Townsend 5 For Washing Thos. Pargeter 2 Lane's & Pil- Do.'s daughter 4 kington's sheets Richard Winter . 5 6 3 pairs . I Thos. Castle's son 2 Jno. Kirby for pair Wid. Ainge's son 3 10 shoes. Chas. John Wilk's chUd 8 8 Greenway 9 6 Richard Tower . 6 Wm. Hancox 8 8 Unity Coldicott . 8 James Clifford ex- Wid. Edwards 5 tra, ill . I Widow Edden 5 Wm. Fessey for Robt. Woodfield . 9 6 going round to WUlm. Philpot . 7 6 let the children George Reason . 6 know to be Thos. Pargeter 2 cut for the cow- Richard Walton . 6 pock I 6 Simon Juffs 6 Thos. Watts \ Robert Harris 6 year's rent for Thos. Denny 2 Gregory . Carried forward / 17 6 Carried forward £19 6 4 26 I 10 CH. VIl] GENERAL RELIEF 117 i s. d. Brought forward 26 i 10 Pd. to Expenses at King- ston with E, Greenway and others . . 10 o Carried forward ;^26 11 10 £ s. d. Brought forward 26 11 10 Pd. to John Townsend journey . . 50 The presentments 10 6 Alice Hardeman . 3 o £27 10 4 January 12, 1728, Wm. Middleton paid the poor To Edward Plestoe Juda Brewer . Widow Wells , Widow Lively . Widow Capp . Widow Wilkins Francis Howell £ s. 2 5 I I I 8 I d. 6 6 6 £ ^^ To Eliz. Elliot . . i Joe Ball ... 2 Henry Wilkins . 2 Given to David Ples- toe ... I d. £\^ 6 January 5, 1828, Sir. Stubbs paid the poor : £ s. d. £ s. d. , to Widow Randal 4 Brought forward 8 12 Wid. Gregory 5 Pd. to Richard Pargeter James Ratley 9 6 days 5 6 Abraham Pilking- Widow Ainge's son 3 ton II Eliz. Geden 5 Robt. Hancox I Widow King 4 Wid. Stiles . 16 Rose Durham 4 Charlotte Black- George Davis 4 man 4 Wm. Fessey 8 Wid. Malins 4 Timothy French Wid. King V.T. . 5 ill, extra . 6 Wid. Watts 10 Anthony Phelps . I Wid. Powell 6 Widow Wilkins . II Mary Powell 4 Wid. Winter 4 Esther Powell & Jno. Claydon 5 daughter 6 Jno. Lane . 5 Wid. Gregory 5 Jno. Hemmings . 5 Jane Clifford extra 5 Richard Durham 10 Wid. Thomas 5 Richd. Allcock . 10 Wid. Walker 5 Saml. Carter 14 Wid. Geden 5 Robt. How 14 Wid. Thompson . 5 Jno. Smith . 14 Wid. Hyrons 5 Saml. Randall 12 Mary Townsend . 5 Richd. Tower 6 Richard Townsenc 10 Widow Edden Richard Winter . 5 Stratford 10 8 Do. 9 days lost . 12 Thos. Greenway Thos. Pargeter & extra 14 daughter 14 Thos. Winter ill . 10 Widow Clark 6 Thos. Townsend . Carried forward / 2 Carried forward £8 12 17 19 2 ii8 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. vii i s. d. i 5. d. Brought forward 17 19 2 Brought forward 28 9 2 Pd. to Eliz. Townsend . 4 Pd. to Wm. Greenway 9 Hannah Castle 4 days 7 6 Jno. Wilk's child . 8 8 R. Godard . 10 6 Wid. Edward's do. 5 Robt. Harris 9 Robt. Woodfield . 7 6 days 12 Wm. Philpot and Robt. Usher 3 daughter 6 days 2 6 George Reason 4 George Davis 10 8 Thos. Pargeter . 4 Francis Hancox . ID 8 Richard Walker Robt. Hancox 12 & daughter 6 Richd. Cannon 5 6 Robt. Harris and Thos. Wilks 4 2 daughter 6 Absalom Harris 2 Simon Juffs and days 2 4 daughter 5 Wm. Durham 2 Thos. Denny I days 2 4 "Wid. Powell & son 3 8 Wm. Freeman 4 Wm. Wilks I days 3 4 Wm. Parker and Wm. Powell 2 daughter 5 days 2 8 John Cockbill I Jno. Collins 3 8 Thos. Green way's Benjamin Harris . 3 8 daughter . 5 Dan'l Hancox 3 8 Do. daughter I Wm. Philpot 3 8 Hannah Wilkin's Sam. King 9 days 3 child 3 Wm. Pargeter 3 4 Jno. Tower 3 Wm. Cockbill 2 8 Alice Hardeman . 3 Jarvis Howe 3 Watson's children 6 Jno. Smith . 3 8 Wm. Hancox ill . 12 Thos. Horton's 2 Judge's wife 19 sons 4 Francis Hancox . I George Freeman 7 Collin's daughter . 2 days 2 6 Wm. Batchelor 9 George Freeman 7 days 4 6 days 2 4 Jno. King's daugh- Thos. Horton 2 ter . 2 Thos. Hancox 2 Saml. Hancox's Thos. Freeman 10 daughter 2 Thos. Randall . I Jno. Penn . I Sam Coldicott ex- Benjamin Walker I tra I05. . II 6 S. Collicott 4 days 4 W. Hancox, ill ex- Jno. Harris 1 1 tra . I days 9 2 Mary Coldicott for Jno. Ainge's son . I doing for Thos. Wm. Collins 9 2 Reason . 6 Thos. Power 9 2 To Wid. Winter Jno. Edden II for do. Jno. Wm. Watts 14 8 Wilks 20 days . 3 Jno. Wilks . 12 ID Thatching parish Jno. Hyrons 4 houses . . I 10 days I 8 ;^38 I Carried forward ;^28 9 2 CHAPTER VIII SPECIAL RELIEF Section I. Housing The legislators of 1601 assumed that the people to be dealt with by the administrators of the Poor Law which they passed were economic and not moral paupers. They therefore imposed no test ; such a principle as that of the Workhouse test of 1722 and 1834 was far from their minds. Economic paupers, or those who were physically or mentally unable to support themselves, or who were physically capable of self- support but lacked the opportunity for it — these needed no test of employment or discomfort to ensure the honesty of their application for relief. Moral paupers, or those who were physically able to maintain themselves, but preferred to wander and beg and steal, were to be dealt with under the stringent regulations of the Vagrancy Acts. When applica- tion was made for relief, it depended upon the personal know- ledge and integrity of the overseers to distinguish the one class of paupers from the other. There was no test whatever to be used, and those persons who were unemployed in the com- mercial sense through the dislocations of industry or agricul- ture, and employed by the parish, were not necessarily in a worse position than their brethren who were still employed in producing private profit. The parish employee who could produce more by the use of the parish stock than was necessary for the maintenance of himself or his dependants, was working for his own benefit and profit. It is conceivable that such a person would be in a better position than one privately employed for a fixed money wage. The general connexion between poor relief and charity during the early part of the seventeenth century cannot be better traced than in the provision of homes and workshops for those who were economically incapable of so providing for 120 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viii themselves. Hospitals and almshouses abounded. In these the aged and infirm were lodged and cared for. Many of the towns and cities possessed some form of training school for the young. The Bridewells themselves, till the beginning of the Civil War, were of the nature of industrial training homes rather than jails. As the towns grew, the task of the overseers in distinguishing between economic and moral paupers became difficult, because the populations were too large and too migratory to allow of any intimate personal knowledge of the character of applicants. It was because of this that the Workhouse test was established by the Act of 1722.^ More- over, the factory system of manufacture was developing, and utilizing labour of children and young persons. This in- fluenced the establishment of many workhouses in urban districts, but in the villages conditions were different. There the real conditions of life had not altered between 1601 and 1722, nor indeed did they alter much until the enclosure move- ment spread widely and rapidly after 1760. For this reason there was no great need of any test of real pauperism, and the very fact that manufactures were tending to production on a larger scale and to centralization in special areas would make the application of such a test as that provided in 1722 almost impossible in the villages. Thus it came about that very few workhouses were established in agricultural villages ; and that the workhouses of whose abuses the Poor Law Commissioners of 1834 loudly complained,^ without exception belonged to the towns. In the villages there were some tenements larger than cottages which were known as ' poor-houses ', but unfortunately there are no trustworthy records of their numbers. Villiers reported of Warwickshire in 1834 that poor-houses were not common in the county ; and if, as he said, ' the only advantage of these houses to the parishes is a saving of rent,' and they were ' calculated to extend and confirm every bad habit among the poor ', it was well that there were no more of them. He further says that a workhouse ' was known by having a master or a matron, a regular dietary, and inmates being subject to some control '. Of these * 9 Geo. I, c. 7. * Report, p. 5 1 et seq. CH. viii] SPECIAL RELIEF 121 institutions there were several in the county, most, if not all, of them in the industrial centres. Thus the general system of housing the recipients of parochial relief was to provide them, or allow them to provide themselves, with cottages. In villages where there was no hospital nor sufficient almshouses to shelter the poor and impotent, and where no workhouse with test had been provided under the Act of 1722, provisions for housing the poor must have been made under the Act of 1601. This statute enacted that : ' To the intent that necessary places of habitation may more conveniently be provided for such poor impotent people, ... it shall and may be lawful for the said churchwardens and overseers or the greater part of them, by the leave of the Lord or Lords of the Manor whereof any waste or common within their parish is or shall be parcel, and upon agreement before him or them made in writing, under the hands and seals of the said Lord or Lords, or otherwise, according to any order set down by the Justices of the Peace of the said County at their general Quarter Sessions, or the greater part of them ... to erect, build, and set up in fit and convenient places of habitation in such waste or common at the general charges of the parish or otherwise of the Hundred or County, to be taxed, rated, and gathered in manner before expressed, convenient houses of dwelling for the said impotent poor, and also to place inmates or more families than one in one cottage or house . . . which cottages or houses shall not at any time after be used or employed to or for any other habitation, but only for impotent and poor of the same parish, that shall be there placed from time to time by the churchwardens and overseers.' Under this section different methods of providing homes for the poor were used during the eighteenth century. Cottages were hired, sometimes paupers found themselves a house while the overseers paid or guaranteed the rents, allowances were made to assist payment of rents, and poor-houses and cottages were built at the expense of the parishes. The records of the Warwickshire Quarter Sessions teem with evi- dence of the fact that the particular form of housing favoured by the section of the Act quoted above — settlement and building on the waste — was the provision generally made in the seventeenth century. But there is no evidence that it was continued in the eighteenth century, probably because 122 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viii the wastes were rapidly improving and diminishing. Tysoe never had a workhouse or poor-house. Cottage accommoda- tion was the only provision made for housing the poor. On July 2, 1790, five years before the practical abolition of the Workhouse test, a resolution was passed at a special Vestry, ' That the churchwardens and overseers of the poor and other inhabitants of the parish of Tysoe do agree to have a work- house up at John Gardner's to be fitted up at the expense of the parish, William Middleton and Simon Hewens oversitors of the Feoffees, and Wm. Watts, deputy overseer for Mr. Willcox, and William Hawten, overseer, John Dyer, William Ballard, and Simon Nicholls, oversitors, to see that the said building be properly executed.' ^ There were twelve persons present, six of whom are named in the document. The resolution was never acted upon — probably because it lacked other support — and there can be little doubt that the history of the parish is brighter on that account. It would have been more difficult to employ agricultural labourers, male and female, inside an institution than outside ; and the parish was saved from the stigma which disgraced many of the village poor- houses, where old and young, male and female, virtuous and vicious, were herded together without discrimination or discipline.^ The cottage system which continued in use was healthier and more natural, even if it were not cheaper, than a small ill-organized workhouse would have been ; and the children at least had some chance of receiving a fair training in the families with which they were placed. Still, the system of grouping families together was not unknown in Tysoe, for in 1781 an entry appears in the accounts that a solicitor was paid 35. 6d. ' for advice about putting families together and taking away goods ', The practice disclosed in the latter clause may have been the crux of the matter, but the legal adviser left no record of opinion, and the parish continued its former practice. The form of housing adopted for mothers of bastards, for persons returning to settlement, and for * Note the connexion between the trustees of the Town Lands and Poor Law officials in this enterprise. ^ See Fowle, The Poor Law, p. 92 seq., and also Crabbe's poem, The Village, for description of ' poor-houses '. CH. viii] SPECIAL RELIEF 123 others with no homes of their own, was to lodge them with other paupers or with independent labourers. Special terms were made for ' the lying in month ' of unmarried mothers, £1 often being paid ; but the parish always hoped that the expenditure would be refunded. After the end of the month, or for other persons, the payments for lodging varied between sixpence and one shilling per week. The first provision of housing in our period was in a case of return to settlement. The records are as follows : 5. d. Spent on Tysoe's coming ....... 2 Spent for houseroom for Tysoe's goods . . . . i 10 Pd. Wm. Callow for Tysoe's rent ..... 7 2 After this the records of taking and letting houses, and of payments of rents, regularly continue. The accounts for housing gradually increased as the eighteenth century ad- vanced, and were heaviest in the early part of the nineteenth century. No houses were really bought by the parish till 1813. In that year £500 was borrowed at 4|- per cent, interest and invested in cottages, and a few years later another £50 was borrowed to buy two more cottages. But before the purchase of any cottages in 1813, £18 175. od. was received ' for poor's rents ' in that year. This amount may possibly have included the rents of six cottages which were taken of the Marquis of Northampton in 1812, but it is more likely that it was a clear receipt after the payment of rents due. It is plain that many of the cottages of the village must have been under the authority of the overseers if £18 were received from independent persons, while relief was being regularly given to about twenty widows, besides various aged persons, who would not pay rents, but who would at the same time need housing. The way in which houses came into the owTiership of the parish can be shown by a few examples from the actual records. Oct. 14th, 1770. ' To Jno. Cox part of his money he sold his house for, £1 is. od. Part of Mr. Snow's bill for making the writ, 105. 6^., £1 lis. 6d.'' Oct. 28th, 1770. ' To Jno. Cox part of the money he sold his house for, £1 is. od. Part of Mr. Snow's bill for making the writ, 105. 6d., £1 lis. 6i.' This cannot be regarded as a free sale. It was probably 124 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viii made compulsory by some obligation to the parish. Some of the other entries are much clearer. In 1743 one Phillip Wells died and was buried at the expense of the parish, after which expenses are recorded as follows : i s. d. Wm. Hewens, hooks and hinges the late Phillip Wells's house ......... 14 R. Hitchcox for work to build the chimney the late Phillip Wells's house . . . . . . . .200 1745. Feb. 14. Wells's house to Widow Tuckey at 135. a year. 1742. To Danl. Smith before he went oflE . . . . 20 To Danl. Smith when he went ofi . . . .200 Then follows : /■ . ^ To Richd. Capp for building at Smith's cottage . . 6 To Jno. CoUcott for building at Smith's cottage . i o To Peter Turner 9 thraves straw at Smith's cottage . 3 9 To Thos. Collcut for the use of his hurdles at Danl. Smith's cottage ......... 10 1764. Pd. to Jno. Howe carriage of 7 loads of stones to Humphrey Wilkin's house at 2s. 6d. . . . . • 17 6 175 1. Spent appraising Godard's goods .... 10 To bricks and work at Godard's oven . . . 13 9 By 1830 about twenty cottages had fallen into the hands of the overseers in this way. Some of the other transactions of the overseers in the provision of housing for the poor are recorded as follows : 1745, Oct. 13. ' A house taken of Master Lively from last St. Michaels at 125. per year for Jas. Ball.' Do. 1746. 1755- ' Wm. Freeman's house in Fox's Lane is let to the Town for the use of the Widow Pratt and no other at the yearly rent of 155. for so long as she may trouble them for a house and no longer.' 1756. ' Wm. Freeman's house for Thos. and Mary Wilks at forty shillings, the overseers having the liberty to put another family in, Godchild excepted. The windows to be left in good repair. Thos. Greenway to have the fruit of the orchard and garden and 20s. a year to wash and nurse the said Thos. and Mary Wilks.' 1766. ' Matthew Savage's house to Wm. Ratcliffe for one year at one pound five shillings. Wm. Ratchffe to have the garden if he'll dig it. Thos. Savage to pay all dues and levies.' 1770. ' Khz. Gillet's little house took by Simon Hewens, churchwarden, Wm. Turner and Thos. Walton, overseers, for Wm. Neville at 6d. per week, the Town to stand tenant if he does not pay it himself. Thos. Hancox's little house under CH. viii] SPECIAL RELIEF 125 the hill for Wid. Collins and anybody the overseers think proper, at one pound eight shillings per year. Entered at Michaelmas last.' 1775. ' By vestry held March 19th, that the Wid. Malet's house be taken for Geo. Fessey for one year by the consent of the neighbours at the (annual) vestry at -£1 os. od. to enter the 25th of this instant.' 1780. ' Mr. Harris' kitchen to Timothy French at 6d. per week. Timothy French to pay his rent himself.' An entry of expenditure in 1784 discloses an evil which was a direct result of this system of cottage accommodation : ' To Richard Ainge ^ rent of house not inhabited, 6s. 6d. ' : an entry which shows that there was some idea that landlords ought to be equally treated. Some such idea was almost bound to arise in small communities ; however, the abuse does not appear to have spread far in Tysoe, for no other similar entry has been found. An idea of the overseers' obligations in regard to cottages can be gained for the rent lists of representative years. £ s. d. 1759. Pd. to W. Freeman for Thos. Wilk's houserent due Dec. 2, 1758 Pd. do. for the Wid. Pratt's house .... Pd. do. two years' rent for R. Blackwell's house Pd. Wm. Greenway for Thos. Sutton's house due Oct. lOth, 1758 Pd. Wm. Greenway jun. a year's rent for James Geden Pd. Wm. Bates for Rachel Wesbury 54 weeks at gd. . 1780. To R. Townsend a year's rent of his house where Geo. Fessey lives . . . . . . • .150 To Wm. Watts one year's rent of his house where Wm. Gillet and IMargaret Archer live . . . . .100 To Wm. Watts one year's rent for half a house where Esther Ratley lives . . . . . . . . 130 To Mr. Willcox J year's rent where the Widow Kinman lives ......... 76 R. Townsend 13 weeks' houserent where Jno. Wilks lived at 10^. ......... 10 10 To James Walton one year's houserent where his brother William lives . . . . . . . .1126 To Widow Malet half year's rent of her house where Jno. Coldicott lives . . . . . . . 15 o To Mrs. Greenway one year's rent of her house where James Geden Sen. & Jun. live . . . .180 To Eliz. Gillet one year's rent of her house where Widow Robbins lives . . . . . . . 130 Mr. Newman one year's rent of his house where Widow Sutton and Martha Morris live . . . .100 2 15 2 I I 8 2 6 126 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viii From the above it will be seen that in a few cases several persons or families were permanently placed in one house, but the commonest way of ensuring that the houses were fully occupied was to place with a pauper widow in her cottage persons who needed temporary lodgings. By far the most striking facts which appear are that on account of the open- ness of this village, ownership of cottage property was ex- tremely widely distributed : and that paupers were not the occupants of the worst houses. About 1830 the Feoffees of the town lands held eight cottages, four of which were let for ten shillings each and one for twelve shilhngs per year. Many of the paupers' cottages, even before the rise in the value of money, were rented at higher rates than these, and it is quite safe to conclude that they provided better accommodation. The Feoffees' cottages were without gardens. In 1814 and 1820 £550 was borrowed for the purchase of property, but the number of cottages purchased is uncertain. The interest amounted to £27 10s. od. per year, while in 1832 the amount received for cottage rents was ^^32 175. 2^d. Thus it is unsafe to say much definitely about the real state of affairs. Probably the rents received were from independent labourers, while the real paupers who were kept entirely on parish allowances were housed in the property which had been purchased. It was unlikely that the overseers would give allowances to paupers to receive part of them back in rents, and thus run the risk of losing them. It is more likely that the rents booked as receipts were real receipts from cottages which had become the property of the parish by the death of pauper owners. Besides shelter, the poor were provided with furniture and fuel from the earliest times. When people returned to settle- ment the overseers sent a vehicle to fetch their furniture, this was evidently done to prevent it being sold and a claim being made on the parish for a fresh supply. Two examples of ex- penditure on these accounts show that heavy sums were paid. £ s. d. 1784. To Wm. Hawtin going to Hanover's ford to fetch Free- man's goods . . . . . . . .1116 18 1 5. Carriage of Thos. Stiles' goods from London . .120 CH. viii] SPECIAL RELIEF 127 The overseers might well make great efforts to enable labourers to retain their furniture : for in one case at least a man's goods were distrained upon and sold for rent. The parish had to pay the expenses of the proceeding, find the defaulter another home, and, presumably, another set of furniture. In 1815 two extraordinary cases of payments for furniture occur. Two small farmers failed in business, and within a few weeks there are entries recording large payments to one of them for hauling the parish coals ; then his arrears of rates and taxes on property of the rateable value of £90 were paid by the overseers ; soon afterwards there were purchases of necessary furniture at the expense of the parish from the sale of the farmer's own goods, and eventually the parish found him a house and a weekly allowance. The overseers were never so generous to the poor as they were to these unfortunate confrhes, for the usual payment for furniture did not amount to more than one pound ; while in one of these two cases the entries are as follows : £ 5. d. To goods bought at John Ainge's sale for his use . 3 19 o To Mr. Jakes for a pair of sheets for John Ainge .220 To R. Ainge for a tea kettle, cups and saucers and iron candlesticks . . . . . . . . 16 o In the other case, the allowances were not quite so generous ; still they were greater than those usually given to the labouring poor. £ s. d. To Mr. Jno. Watts for goods for Wm. King bought at his sale 386 To a wheel, rug and tools for Wm. King . . • i 3 3 Some of the more common entries are as follows : £ s. d. 1776. To Mr. Watts, bill for bedtick, bolster, blankets, pair of sheets and stuffing for Maxy Wilkins . . .19 3 Pd. to R. Collcott for 2 bedsteads and work . • i 12 10 Pd. for tin kettle, iron pot, and bed mat ... 58 Pd. for a pair of sheets ...... 40 On the whole the expenditure for furniture was not of great importance, for the poor seemed to have provided them- selves with the necessary articles. Payments for beds and 128 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viii bedding — the most destructible articles of furniture — are far the most frequent. There were always a few paupers who were provided with fuel. From 1730 to 1760 these were mostly widows who were supplied with faggots and furze. Such fuel was cut from the waste lands of the village, and the cost to the overseers rarely covered more than the haulage ; which seems to mean that the paupers cut for themselves. As time went on, the increase of population and the encroachments and clearances on the commons and wastes reduced the supply of fuel from this source so that it could no longer meet the demand. Still the poor did not give up their claims to fuel rights, and when the brushwood failed them they made an attack on the timber belonging to various landed proprietors. They asserted their claims in a practical way by taking fuel wherever it was available, and the prosecutions show that the poor did not surrender their rights without a struggle. A climax was reached in 1787-8-9, and the owners of timber and fuel had to set about giving the poor an adequate supply of coals. This they did by making the parish a general retailer of coals, as has been already described. Before 1760 the custom seems to have been to supply coals only during illness. They were generally bought from some farmer or dealer at is. 6d. or IS. gd. per cwt. After 1760 some purchases were made in bulk : still the coals continued to be given as a part of relief ; there was no definite trading, but only a supply for the valid purposes of relief. The gifts of wood and coals are well exemplified by the following : s. d. 1727. For fetching fuel for Cotterill ..... 20 For furze for Williams ...... 30 Pd. for 2 cwt. of coals ...... 40 1735. Pd. for 2 cwt. of coals ...... 30 1 741. R. Ainge, a load of furze to Plestoe's in their illness . 3 6 1742. C. Middleton for 20 faggots for Widow Loveday . 5 o 1736. To Jos. Ashfield 3 cwt. of cleft wood from Jno. Coldicott at lod. ......... 26 1767. 12 cwt. of coals at is. M. ..... 18 6 1797. To R. Ainge for 3 loads of faggots for the use of the poor 15 o The price of coal varied between is. 6d. and 2s. per cwt., only rising to the latter figure in 1727. The general level was CH. viii] SPECIAL RELIEF 129 IS. 6d. to IS. gd. In 1735 the price was is. 6d., in 1736 is. yd. and IS. gd. ; in 1767 and 1784 is. 8d. ; and in 1771 is. gd. per cwt. Thus, the poor and needy were supplied with shelter, furniture, and fuel. They were never better provided for than the independent labourers, nor were they ever in a much worse condition. Till the general pauperization under the ' Roundsman ' system, it was a small misfortune for the able- bodied workman and his family to have to call upon the parish for support. For the aged and unfit the provision was as generous and as free from discomforts as could be expected from any system of public assistance during the period. Section II. Reuef of Sick Persons The Poor Law Commissioners of 1832 had very little to say about medical relief in their report. All their energies were directed against the evil system which was pauperizing able- bodied labourers, and they could scarcely pause to consider any other subject. Two lines describe the system of parish contracts with surgeons, and a short paragraph commends the system of dispensaries for the medical relief of poor persons which was the distinguishing feature of Warwickshire poor relief. Unfortunately Mr. Smith's dispensaries^ extended from Southam into the central part of the county, and did not affect the south-eastern district in which Tysoe is situated. It was left for the Commissioners who were appointed after the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834, to com- plain of the evils which arose from the old system of medical relief. In their second report ^ they said that ' the parish authorities exercised no discretion concerning the persons who were entitled to be attended at the expense of the parish. In the matter of relief by medicine almost all rural labourers were paupers '. Now the word ' pauper ' soon after 1834 began to convey a distinct moral stigma, and its use to describe the agricultural labourer in receipt of medical relief gives a wrong impression which is little short of slander. The * Report of Poor Law Gsmmission, 1834, p. 43. * Second Report of the Poor Law Commissioners, 1836, App., p. 180. PART VI) W. V. J, 130 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viii labourers certainly did receive medical relief, but directly they were unable to work they were entitled to such. They need not be absolutely destitute or dying before they could acquire a legal right to relief under the Act of 1601, and the adminis- trators of the Act during the early part of the eighteenth century recognized the wisdom of setting a fair minimum for the physical stamina and economic stability of the labourer. After 1780, when prices were high, and the labourers became pauperized by the various ' Round ' systems devised by the cupidity of employers, there was no possibility of the mass of labourers making any provision for sickness or old age.^ It was therefore unjustifiable to use the word pauper in any except its legal or economic sense — i. e. a person in receipt of public assistance — as applicable to the labourer in receipt of medical relief. The Poor Law Commissioners of 1840 wished to confine the provision of medical aid to those persons who were ' really destitute ', and they argued that previously to the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834 there existed no definite legal authority to provide medical relief for the poor.2 While this may have been true, there was no legal test of absolute destitution to be apphed to any applicant for relief prior to 1834 : so that labourers who might possess a little property in furniture or a cottage were not acting dis- honestly, or to the detriment of the social welfare, when they applied for relief. They should therefore incur no obloquy because they received medical aid. Happily it has never been possible to submit to the destitution test applicants for medical relief even since 1840, when the Commissioners wished to put such a principle into action. In the statute of Elizabeth no allusion is made to medical or surgical assistance, and in the subsequent Acts of Parlia- ment relating to the poor the Legislature was entirely silent on the subject up till 1834. Nevertheless, even prior to that date, medical aid had been rendered to the poor, in spite of the absence of express provision for it. Under the Act of * Cf. Hammond, The Village Labourer, 1 760-1832, pp. 1 20-1 21, on the conditions of rural life at the end of the eighteenth century. * Report of Poor Law Commissioners, 1840, Continuance Report, p. 44. CH. viii] SPECIAL RELIEF 131 1601 the rates were to be raised ' for and towards the necessary rehef of the Lame, Impotent, Old, Blind and such other persons being Poor and not able to work '. On the warrant of this clause, relief in all sorts of sickness was given by the overseers of Tysoe during the whole of the eighteenth century; medical and surgical aid was provided as occasion arose, but there was no permanent appointment of physician or surgeon till about 1820. The poor were attended by the various doctors who practised in the neighbourhood. In 1820 the parochial practice was secured by one doctor, probably by tender and contract ; and from that year there are regular payments ' to the parish doctor '. In his Report on Warwickshire in 1834 Villiers said that it was the prevaihng practice in the county for the overseers at Easter in each year ' to invite a statement from all medical men within reach of the parish, of the lowest terms on which they will attend the poor for the ensuing year. They are requested to make an estimate of the value of their time, service, and drugs in the relief of every disorder to which the paupers of the parish may be exposed, sometimes including the vaccination of children and attendance on women in labour '.^ So Tysoe seems to have followed the county practice. The first expenditure under this head was £30, and subsequent payments were slightly more or less at various times. Previous to the permanent arrangement, doctors attended their patients and submitted their bills to the overseers. There seems to have been no distinction between private and parish practice. A few examples of the numerous bills will give some idea of the method and costs : 1731. Pd. half a Doctor's bill for curing Richard Pratt's knee Other overseer. Do. ...... 1732. Pd. Doct. Silch upon acct. of Susan King Pd. Doct. Chandler upon acct. of Simon Middleton . 1734. Pd. Dr. Chandler for J no. Wilkins .... Pd. Dr. Chandler's bill for Ben Powell and child . 1741. Pd. the apothecary for stuff for itch to dress a child with 1751. Mr. Bates for Thos. Nixon with the small pox . 1769. Pd. a Doctor's Bill ....... * Report of Poor Law Commission, 1834, App. A, Part II, p. 4. K2 I S. d. I 6 3 I 6 3 10 6 I 5 2 6 3 18 4 II.' 14 7 6 132 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viir i s. d. 1787. To Mr. Venour bill of journeys and medicine, Wm. Castle, wheelwright . . . . . . . . i 10 o To Mr. Venour bill of journeys Wid. having a sore leg 338 1795. Medicines and dressing for Mary Townsend's hand . 7 6 1 80 1, Mr. Mead's bill of journeys, medicines and attending the poor . . . . . . . . .989 1802. Mr. Mead's and Mr. Shelswell's bills, journeys, medicines and attending the poor . . . . .1156 Mr. Mead and Mr. Shelswell extra . . . .220 1820. To Mr. Shelswell the parish surgeon . . . . 32 10 o 1821, Pd. the Parish Doctor's bUl . . . . . 30 o o Very often the parish saved the expense of employing a skilled surgeon by employing the local leech, and the quack not infrequently supplanted the qualified doctor and his remedies, A few records of the expenses incurred will serve to show the system employed : d. To Henry Eglington bleeding Grace Middleton . . 6 To do. bleeding Eliz. Elliot ... 6 The latter was a costly case, for it entailed funeral expenses ; but whether they were the result of bleeding is not stated. The person who did the bleeding also made it his business to set bones — a branch of the medical craft which the ordinary doctors seem to have avoided during the eighteenth century. Accidents in Tysoe which came within the cognizance of the overseers were treated by the bone-setter. Ordinary pay- ments are : ' To the bonesetter, 75.' Another item, ' To Susan Powell for salve and dressing Mary Brewer's sores, 15.,' seems to show that the quack or herbalist was at work, while many payments ' to Anne Watts for two bottles of Daffy's Elixir ' show the popularity of that patent medicine. There were also allowances made ' to buy bark ', which seems to apply to quinine. While the poor as well as the rich benefited by the proximity of the spa at Leamington, as early as 1750 there was a payment ' to Isaac Clarke going to Leaming- ton to fetch water for Widow Claridge, 35.' Not many years ago some form of opiate locally known as ' Godfrey's ' used to be sold in the village. This was used by the women field-workers to keep their babies quiet, particularly in the harvest time. The same thing seems to have been used in the eighteenth century, for in 1769 a payment ' for a bottle CH. VIII] SPECIAL RELIEF 133 of Godfrey' appears. About 1760, payments for confinements began to be made. Sometimes the money was given to the man ' at his wife's groaning ' or ' when his wife was put to bed ' ; but more often the money was paid direct to the local midwife — as witness an entry of 1757 : * To Jane Grimmett delivering Stephen Ward's wife, 2s. 6d.' From 1760 onwards these payments became common. During the eighteenth century there was no institutional relief of sickness whatever, but in the nineteenth century patients were sent both to Oxford and London for treatment. Many of these individual cases were costly. The annual subscription to the Oxford Infirmary about 1815 was £3 35. o^. In 1820 there was a payment ' for Decimus Beck coming from St. Luke's Hospital, London, £3 os. od.' And in 1821, ' To W. Ainge and others to and from London, also money at St. Luke's, £18 12s. id.' During the whole of the period small-pox was the greatest scourge that had to be dealt with. In the eighteenth as in the twentieth century the infection was often carried by tramps. A case which occurred in Tysoe in 1741 illustrates this very well. The payments begin with one ' to Jno. Murray the roper for carrying the woman Eliz. Simpson, that was brought with a pass to Lower Town, is. od.' Then they continue for bread, for salves to dress her sores, for a blanket and for maintenance. After the woman was out of the infec- tious stage she was lodged in a cottage at a cost of 4s. 6d. per week, and after nearly a year's residence in the village she was 'sent off'. Cases of small-pox occurred in 1741, i743, 1752, 1769, 1773, and 1781. From 1790 onwards a regular ' pock-house ' was maintained at Westcote, a lonely farm about two miles from the village. In the famine years of 1795 and 1801 the conditions were fearful. The overseers seem to have done their best to cope with the distress and sickness. Bread apparently could be had for the asking, and in 1796 payments were made for ' pease, pepper, beef, garden stuff, and fireing, and trouble making soups ', milk, and other similar things. In 1801 the parish was heavily in debt through the extraordinary demands made on its resources. 134 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viii Whenever cases of small-pox occurred they were invariably isolated. Sometimes the school building was used as a pock- house, at other times a cottage was taken. When the victims succumbed, they were interred with all haste, and their clothing was also buried. At the end of the eighteenth century inoculation began to come into use, for there are records of payments to a man ' going round to tell the children about being cut for the small-pox '. Several entries after 1790 show that whenever the pest appeared, the people were in a state bordering on panic. On one occasion a doctor was paid ys. 6d. to come and ' satisfy the neighbours whether a person had the small-pox ' ; and in 1792, 14s. was ' paid for ale when the neighbours met when there was talk that Mary Smith on the Green had small-pox '. Beside medical and surgical aid special relief was administered to the sick in money and kind. The grants were as follows : £ s. d. 1729. Given to R. Loveday in sickness .... 50 Given to Chas. Wesbury, wife sick .... 10 Juda Brewer, her and the 2 children sick . . 50 1730. Goodwife Robbins washing and mending Eliz. Elliot . i 6 1 74 1. To Dorothy Pratt being ill and woman attending 3 weeks 9 o Pd. Eliz. Sutton nursing Thos. Horton with small-pox 220 1765. To Chas. King for a peck of malt .... 11 1787. To John Hyron being poorly ..... 40 18 10. To a pint of wine Eliz. Gillet ..... 26 18 12. To John Handy to buy him a truss ... 70 18 1 3. To Mr. NichoUs wine the poor had when ill . .236 1816. To 5 pints of wine Thos. Horton 's wife . . . 12 6 1814. For coal and soap, mending a bed and cleaning S. Hyrons 4 \\ To Geo. King thrown from a load of stubble . . 80 Wine and malt seem to have been popular curatives, for they were the most common gifts in sickness. Nurses were also provided. They were generally women of the village, but occasionally trained attendants were called in. In 1769 a person was given ' 55. more, allowed by Justices to find a nurse ' ; and in 1817 a trained nurse was fetched from Banbury to attend those who were stricken with small-pox. There is no record of particular dealings with lunacy — unless the two following items refer to that malady : s. d. 1789. To a pair of handcuffs ...... 90 1814. For a straight waistcoat ...... 76 CH. VIII] SPECIAL RELIEF 135 The special purpose for which the latter was intended seems clear enough, but the handcuffs might be used for general purposes. When illnesses proved fatal the parish was often called upon to pay the expenses of burial. The expenditure on this account was rather heavy because paupers were accorded very decent funerals. In fact it would be safe to say that up to 1780 pauper funerals were as costly and decent as those of independent labourers. The expenses in this connexion were rendered more burdensome by the laws which demanded that all bodies should be ' buried in woollens ', or that a sum of money should be paid for the benefit of the poor if this con- dition were not complied with. There is very good evidence that no gentry resided in Tysoe during the eighteenth century in the fact that the burial registers mention no receipts under the alternative provided by statute. The burial registers at Compton Wyniates contain eight entries between 1683 and 1812, of receipts of ' £2 105. o^. for the poor, according to Act of Parliament for being buried in other than sheep's wool '. In 1754 £5 was received in a lump sum for the same purpose. On this occasion the person buried had been a Marquis and a Privy Councillor. This provision of the law fostered the production of wool and burdened the rates at the same time : took money from the farmers' pockets with one hand and attempted to replace it with the other, with the risk of losing it in the transfer. The cost of shrouds made in order to comply with this extraordinary statutory regulation varied between two and nine shillings. The price of coffins advanced from 55. 3d. in 1727 to 175. in 1815, and £1 2s. 6d. in 1817. In 1727 a set of items of funeral expenditure is recorded thus : To making affidavit . Phillip Wells' fees (clerk) Minister's fees . Coffin 4 men carrying to church Paid for a shroud For candles and necessary ware. For many years the minister's fee for burial was sixpence : but toward the end of the century it advanced to 2s. 6d. and 136 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viii 35. 6d., payments being made in a lump sum like any other professional fees. This may account for the distinguishing mark ' P ' against certain names in the register of burials from 1782 to 1792. There are no other distinguishing com- ments in the register. When names were unknown, burials were entered as ' an anonymous stranger ', ' ^ beggar woman ', ' a chimney sweeper ', and ' a poor travelling man ' ; but in 1784 one is described as ' a poor apprentice ', and in all the years of this decade certain persons are distinguished by a ' P '. It is suggested that these were paupers, because the latest entry of the burial of a ' poor traveUing man ' prior to the general adoption of the mark in 1781 is also distinguished in the same way. If this view is correct, it is striking that of 23 burials in 1787, 13 are those of paupers. During the decade of 1783-92 there were 113 burials, 35 of which were of paupers ; thus 3i'8 per cent, of the funerals were paid for at the expense of the parish. If allowance is made for the difference in medical knowledge in the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries, the evidence of the overseers' expenditure in Tysoe during the earlier period leaves little doubt that sick persons who were obhged to claim public assistance were as well attended and as adequately provided for as their modern successors. The last rites accorded to their bodies were much more decent and sympathetic than many pauper funerals of the sixties and seventies of the last century. Section III. Relief of Infants and Impotent The Commissioners appointed to inquire into the working of the Poor Law in 1832 reported that they had received less information on the apprenticeship of poor children than on any other subject connected with the Poor Law.^ Yet there is a general opinion that the conditions in which children lived under the Poor Law were very bad indeed. Only two of the Assistant Commissioners, Chapman and Villiers, gave any evidence on this subject while the Commission was sitting, ' 1834, Report, p. 337. CH. viii] SPECIAL RELIEF 137 and Villiers reported of the Midlands that in the manufacturing districts and those adjoining the conditions of apprentice Hfe were shocking : further, that it was said that one-half of the criminal prosecutions in the county of Warwick were of persons under age, and one-half of these again were of children under the age of fifteen years.^ There can be no doubt that apprentices living in the new industrial areas had a very hard time of it. Mr. H. O. Meredith, referring to factory appren- tices, writes that ' there is no reason to suppose that the lot of the pauper apprentice had ever been easy ' } Hasbach states that in the south-west of England ' we find that parish children of seven and eight years old were apprenticed to the farmers, who treated them badly and set them to the lowest and most unpleasant tasks '? If these statements were generally true, Tysoe seems to have been peculiarly fortunate. From 1727 to 1770 the children whocame on the parish were placed in the homes of the largest farmers, and though there is no evidence that they were treated with any particular kindness, there is on the other hand no indication of harshness. In the opinion of a recent writer on the subject, ' it is a pleasant picture — the friendless children of a parish being taken into the families of the best-to-do ratepayers. In those primitive days they at least were maintained within some family circle, and it may be doubted whether they were called upon to work at an earlier age than the children of the families into which they were thrown by the bargains made on their behalf by the overseers.' * At any rate, Tysoe did not send its children in batches to the cotton-mills or to any other industrial occupation. The reason for this may have been that Tysoe had no inconsiderable industry within its own borders. As Villiers wrote in 1832, in the Midland counties the population engaged in manufactures was much scattered throughout those parts of the country which were called * Report of Poor Law Commission, 1834, Appendix A, Part II, Sec. Infants. * Economic History of England, p. 268. * History of Agricultural Labourer, p. 83. * Jos. Ashby, A Century of Parish History, Warwick Advertiser, Feb- ruary, 191 1. 138 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viii agricultural. This had been the case with Tysoe at the beginning of the nineteenth century when the system of sending children to the cotton-mills had been used by other parishes. The 43rd of Elizabeth made it lawful for ' the Churchwardens and overseers, with the consent of two Justices, to bind any children to be apprentices, where they shall see convenient, till such Man-child shall come to the age of four and twenty years, and such Woman-child to the age of one and twenty years, or the time of her marriage'. This provision applied to a real apprenticeship to some kind of craft or trade. It was enforced in Tysoe, but the parish only paid the necessary premium in a few cases, which mostly occurred in the early years of the nineteenth century. In 1827 ^ payment was made ' to Jno. Morris of Stratford for Thos. Watson apprentice £6 105. od.' In all other cases the only payments made by the overseers were the magistrates' fees for signing the inden- tures. It is impossible to say with certainty why a few children should have been singled out for real apprenticeship, for only about twenty indentures were paid for in a century. Influence may have been used on behalf of some children by relatives and friends, but the best explanation is that the premiums were paid by the Trustees of the Town Lands. This view is strengthened by the fact that the number of indentures increased as the value of the property in question advanced in the early years of the nineteenth century. The usual expenses of the overseers run to four shillings or little more. These are examples : s. d. 1724. Spent when Richd. Pratt's indentures were sealed . 4 o 181 1. Pd. Mr. Wade the Magistrate for signing a pair of inden- tures ......... 40 1 8 14. A journey to Banbury to apprentice Jno. Edward's son, 5s. Spent on Edwards is, 4d. , , . . 64 18 16, Expenses at the Peacock when Richard Barron was put apprentice ........ 10 o About twenty indentures were paid for in the course of the century 1727-1827. From 1727 to 1770 there was a good demand for agricultural labour, and during this period the farmers of Tysoe seem to CH. viii] SPECIAL RELIEF 139 have been quite willing to take the parish children into their own homes. Sometimes they paid for the privilege of having the older children, yet few of the boys or girls were retained as apprentices to husbandry after they became self-supporting. The parish generally paid the farmers to take the children, who were bound to remain with the specified family between the ages of eight and fifteen (approximately). The Act of 5 Elizabeth, c. 4, sec. 18, had provided that all farmers holding more than half a ploughland in tillage might take apprentices. Under this section the children who claimed relief from the overseers of Tysoe were ' let '. The officials did not always wait for the death of both parents before they apprenticed the children to farmers, or even placed them out to nurse. In 1728 a man died leaving a widow and seven children. The widow was given a regular allowance for some months. Two of the youngest children were placed with another, probably an older widow, who received 2s. per week each for their keep, and the others were let to farmers. Here are the entries : ' An account of the children placed and set out by the overseers in the year 1728. ' Susannah Pratt to Thos. Middleton for one year at £2 5^. od. ' Michael Wells one of Pratt's children the 27th of May for 7 years at £10 10s. od. Ten shillings of the said sum in hand paid, forty shillings a year for the three first years and twenty shillings a year for four last years (named Catherine). ' Saml. Knibb one of Pratt's children named Thomas the 28th of May for one year at £5 o^. od. ' Widow Wilkins two of Pratt's children, the one named Richard, the other named Peter at four shiUings a week, June 3. ' Robt. Turner one of Pratt's children named Elizabeth at £13, Twenty shillings of which in hand, fifty shillings a year the first two years, the remaining part to be equally divided the other six years. Entered June nth, for 8 years. ' Anne Richards Jun. one of Pratt's children named Dorothy at £14 for seven years, the 17th of June. Twenty shillings of which in hand and fifty shillings a year for the two first years, the remainder to be paid equally for the last 5 years. (Which is £1 125. a year the 5 last years.) ' The most important point about the transactions is that 140 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viii the allowance paid for keeping the youngest children was equal to two-thirds of the wages of a woman worker of the period. The Wages List prepared by the Warwickshire Quarter Sessions at Easter, 1730, stated that the pay of a woman raker in corn-harvest was to be sixpence per day ; while in 1778 there appears in the books of the Tysoe overseers an account for thatching, according to which a woman was paid one shilling for two days drawing straw. This liberality of payment for the upkeep of pauper children continued during the whole of the eighteenth century. After 1790, when the system of letting children to farmers had broken down because of the prevalent unemployment which caused farmers to take the men who were ' on the round ', the practice of placing orphans with widows was extended, and must have been very costly. The above entries may be taken as fair specimens of the bargains made between the overseers and farmers for the maintenance and training of children. Of such transactions there would be about two hundred during the eighteenth century. Much the heaviest account for children occurs in the decade 1750-60. In 1750 there were five apprentices, in 1751 seven, 1752 six, 1753 five, 1754 four, 1755 four, 1756 four, 1757 none, 1758 two, 1759 two. It is curious that one of the chief questions to be settled was always the responsibility of clothing the child. Provisions for this purpose were always stated with precision — thus in 1742 : ' Geo. Plestoe to James Nixon for one year till Michaelmas next. Mr. Nixon to find him in two shirts and to pay to the next overseers 155. at Michaelmas, 1743. The Town to find him the remaining part of his apparel.' And in 1774 : ' Eliz. Hartwell to Robt. Hart of Horley at fifteen pence a week to old St. Michaels next if the neighbours think fit. Tysoe parish to find all manner of wearing apparell both linen and woolen, likewise shoes.' After 1771 the farmers did not show the same readiness to take the parish children on agreements for long periods. The term covered by the transactions between 1770 and 1790 was CH. VIII] SPECIAL RELIEF 141 usually one or two years. Doubtless the change was due to the fact that labour was plentiful. After 1790 the boys and girls were brought up by independent labourers, or widows receiving parish pay. When the boys were old enough to work they seem to have taken their chance of obtaining em- ployment with other boys and men, and if they did not succeed they received the usual allowance for being out of employ or ' on the round '. In a word, they shared the general demoralization and discomfort which overtook their class between 1790 and 1830. What happened to the girls cannot possibly be ascertained ; but there is no reason to believe that they were any better off than the boys. In fact, their lot was probably worse. Neither boys nor girls seem to have gone to farm work at such an early age after 1790 as they had previously done. Farmers who had to employ their quota of the adult labour of the village were not keen to engage child labour and double their burdens by adding wages to rates. Still, infants under the age of twelve years seem to have been fairly well treated ; after that age they shared the fortunes of the whole class of able-bodied labourers within the parish. The only children who were subject to harsh treat- ment were the sons and daughters of parents who were returned to the village to settlement. Several entries — e. g. this in 1790, ' To myself, three boltins of straw for Anthony Walker's children, 6(i.' — show that such children were not welcomed to the village and were innocent sufferers for their father's misfortune. Two transactions are recorded in 1747 and 1764 which were in the nature of farming out the poor ; but they present certain peculiar features. There was never any wholesale farming out in Tysoe, and both these transactions dealing with adult individuals are similar to those regarding appren- tices to husbandry. On February 17, 1747, an entry was made as follows : * The Widow Plestoe to Thos. Mansell at 2s. dd. per week during life, Thos. Mansell is to find her in everything and burial, the parish to give him 6 hundred-weight of coals entrance.' The entry of 1764 simply states that Wm. Tysoe, Jun., was ' to have the Widow Tysoe at td, a week'. 142 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viii Apart from these cases the aged poor were practically treated as pensioners. It has been cynically said that the function of the Poor Laws is to prevent people from outraging the common sentiments of mankind by dying of hunger.^ If this were correct one would expect it to be peculiarly true of the aged poor ; but it certainly was not true in the administration of the Poor Laws during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In fact, even when the Poor Laws were adminis- tered with most severity, there has always been a tendency to deal leniently with the aged and infirm. Even the Poor Law Commissioners of 1836 stated that it had always been their wish that the principles of the law should be applied without harshness to aged persons.^ The Commissioners of 1832-4, after their inquiry, found nothing to complain of the system of relieving the aged, so long as they received their allowances in money, that there might be no possibility of overseers or their friends jobbing with them.^ The Commis- sioners reported that even in places distinguished in general by the most wanton parochial extravagance the grants to the aged and infirm were only moderate, and evidently they regarded the allowances as sufficient. Of blind, deaf, or dumb there are no records in Tysoe, and whatever lame or disabled persons lived in the village were not likely to be specially described. Once they had become recognized as regular reci- pients of relief there would be no need for succeeding overseers to justify their doles by stating the claims of the applicants : for there would be no question among ' the neighbours ' as to the right of such persons to relief. There are payments to persons ' being lame ', and to some who ' could not work ' ; but such descriptions are soon omitted, although the persons still continued to receive relief, probably for the same reason as when the description was first entered. Widows formed the most important class who received assistance under that part of the Act of 1601 which ordered that the overseers were ' to raise competent sums of money for and towards the necessary Relief of the Lame, Impotent, Old, Blind, and such ^ Mr. R. H. Tawney, Sociological Journal, vol. ii, No. IV, 1909. * Second Report, 1836, p. 8. ^ Report, p. 42. CH. VIII] SPECIAL RELIEF 143 others among them being Poor and not able to work '. The Commissioners of 1832-4 stated that in many places widows received what were known as pensions, from is. to 35. per week, without reference to their age, strength, or powers of obtaining an independent subsistence, but simply as widows.^ Independently of any right to public support on the ground of want of employment or insufficiency of wages, these women had established a claim to relief from the parish funds. Villiers, the Assistant Commissioner for the Midland Counties, reported that it was a general practice to make grants to the impotent of 2S. 6d., 35., and in some instances 6s. per week. If Thorold Rogers's word-picture of a manorial court can be depended upon, it is quite possible that these Poor Law pensions did not become customary in the eighteenth or even in the seventeenth century ; and that the Poor Laws simply carried on a custom of allowing a pension to widows which had existed several centuries before there were any legal provisions for the rehef of the poor. Describing the business of a feudal court Rogers says : * A son comes into court, and, on succeeding to his father's tenement, not only fines in a mark for quiet entry ; but acknowledges that he is bound to pay an annuity to his mother for her whole life — of a quarter of wheat, another of barley, another of peas, and forty pence : proffering as sureties for the due performance of his obligation two other residents.' ^ But whatever the origin of the Poor Law pensions to widows may have been, they undoubtedly constituted one of the heaviest taxes on the funds for relief. One is amazed at the number of widows living in a parish like Tysoe during the eighteenth century, and puzzled to find any sufficient and reasonable cause for the phenomenon. In July, 1730, there were three widows each receiving nine- pence per week. In January of the same year, four widows were receiving the same sum. During the whole of this year there was also a person in receipt of relief who might be described as a male pensioner. His allowance was larger than ' Report, p. 42. * Six centuries of Work and Wages, 190S ed., p. 98. 144 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. viii those made to the women, and amounted to is. per week. In January, 1760, there were eight widows in regular receipt of weekly sums varying between is. and 2S. 2d. ; some of them increased their income by taking parish children or pauper lodgers. In July, 1760, there were nine women described as widows, and one described as * Dame Ward ', in receipt of fortnightly sums varying from is. to 4s. In January the largest fortnightly payment, amounting to Ss., was made to a man, and during the whole year the allowances to men were greater than those to women. Still there were only four men whose names appear regularly in the fortnightly payment lists. It is rather striking that none of the payments to the ordinary female recipients of parish relief were so large as those to the militia men's wives. In 1760 three women were in receipt of allowances because their husbands were away on active service. The payments for April were as follows : Paid to those women whose husbands are on the body of the militia : s. d. April 20. To Mary Pargeter ...... 70 To Thos. Wilkin's wife ..... 5 o To Wm. Freeman's wife ..... 90 If a poor man had three children born in wedlock he could neither be compelled to serve in the militia nor to find a substi- tute. Hence it seems as though 25. 6d. per week was the allowance for the wife and is. per week for each child. Thus of the persons mentioned in the above entry one would be childless, one would have one child, and the third two. In July of the same year the payments were each reduced by sixpence per week to 3^., 2s., and 4s. respectively. In 1790, both in January and July, there were twenty-four widows in receipt of pensions ranging from is. 6d. to 3s. per week. It is most difficult to compare their allowances with those of men, because the latter may not have been single like the widows. Some of the men in receipt of relief in this year would be certain to have families dependent upon them. By 1820 the allowance to widows had doubled. In January of that year there were fourteen widows receiving pensions of 35. per week. It is in this year that we find the first mention CH. VIII] SPECIAL RELIEF 145 of widows with children. In one case a widow and family- were allowed gs. per week. In several others widows with one child were allowed 35. 6d., instead of the ordinary allowance to a childless widow of 35. per week. In 1827 there were twenty-one widows in receipt of relief during the month of January, fifteen of whom were given regular pensions of 2S. 6d. per week each. The others were granted allowances on a basis only known to the overseers of the time. In July there were eighteen widows on the relief list, fifteen of whom were pensioners. These grantees were in a much better position than single women, who were given allowances on the ground of unemployment. The latter never received more than 25. per week in 1827, and very often their allowance amounted only to is. per week. Many of them would have been better off had they become mothers of illegitimates, and it is much to their credit that they did not do so. There is no evidence that the number of aged men or widowers was ever equal to that of the widows. The reason for this difference of length of life between the two sexes is a mystery, and is likely to remain so. The only suggestion that can be made is that the widows were the relicts of men who went to the wars, for Tysoe gave many soldiers to the nation between 1760 and 1815. On several occasions the overseers of Tysoe collected sums of money and sent them abroad, presumably for the relief of our soldiers. But this explanation is not altogether satisfying. The fact remains that the widows were there, and that they received pensions which were kept in a much more exact ratio to the change in monetary values than were the wages and allowances of the able-bodied workers. Consequently the widows were as well-to-do as any persons of their own class during the first thirty years of the nineteenth century. (PART VI) W. V. CHAPTER IX THE ABLE-BODIED Employment and Relief The motives which lead to the public provision of sustenance for able-bodied persons are the desire to ensure the security of property, and to maintain the productive efficiency of the workers. Intense hunger knows no moral law. So long as society puts a ban upon suicide it must make provision for feeding all persons, of whatever physical or moral character. This was done in England by the Poor Law of 1601, and there is no longer a need to steal or to live by any immoral means, because there is a provision in the English constitution for physical subsistence for all her subjects. On the other hand, every average individual is of economic value to the State at large, and often to individuals in particular. Most able-bodied workers produce more than they consume, and the surplus is added to the national wealth. This is a sufficient social reason for maintaining the worker in such peculiar times and under such circumstances as he may be unable to provide for himself. If every producer of a surplus retained the whole of what he produced there would be no need for social provision against emergency, but this does not happen. Sometimes by the simple working of economic forces many surpluses turn into one channel and are retained by one who may or may not be himself a producer. More often than not, such persons, by reason of their peculiar position of economic advantage, or by great personal knowledge and skill, are able to manipulate intelligently economic forces so as to be able to gain possession of these surpluses. In most states these persons obtain, by direct or indirect means, the power of government. Then there exists what may rightly CH. IX] THE ABLE-BODIED 147 be called a personal motive for the maintenance of all pro- ducers- in time of scarcity. This personal motive has played a large part in the legal and administrative provisions for the relief of able-bodied persons in England. The maintenance of able-bodied workers is a function of the Poor Laws, and is important to property owners above all other classes in the community. Certainly, to the workers themselves parochial doles are an advantage, for they diminish competition in times of scarcity, and eventually they take off the bitter- ness of failure. Yet the maintenance of productive efficiency was essentially a landlord's question up till 1790, when the English population began to increase at such a rate that there w^as little possibility of property owners suffering from a dearth of labour. But there came into play all the great force of custom, and that which had been the landlord's advantage became the labourer's safeguard. It was exactly the same with the relief of the able-bodied as it was with Settlement. At first the landlords used Settlement for their own purposes ; later the paupers used that principle as their own peculiar right and safeguard.^ A recent writer on the Poor Laws states that the Acts passed before 1722 were called ' Acts for the Relief of the Poor ' ; the Act of 1722 speaks of ' Settlement, Employment, and Rehef '? But the actual provisions of the Acts are of much more importance than what Thorold Rogers called the ' hypocritical preambles ', The Act of 1601, although entitled * An Act for the Rehef of the Poor ', ordered that the parish officials should raise sufficient sums of money ' for setting to work all such persons, married and unmarried, as had no means of maintaining themselves, and who practised no ordinary and daily Trade of Life by which to obtain a living . . , and that they should provide a sufficient Stock of Flax, Hemp, Wool, Thread, Iron, and other Wares and Stuff to set the poor to work ', By this Act was established a system of employment and relief as definite as that set up by the Work- house Test Act of 1722, ^ Cf. Report of Poor Law Commissioners, 1834, p. 155, ' Hammond, The Village Labourer, p. 148. L2 148 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. ix From the passing of the EHzabethan Poor Law down to 1834, parish officers were legally required to find work or maintenance for every able-bodied person residing within their parish who was without the necessaries of life. On the other hand, all wayfaring or vagrant persons were dealt with under the criminal law by the Justices and their underlings, the parish constables, and the maintenance afforded to them was assumed to be accompanied by some measure of punishment — the stocks, the whipping-post, or commitment to the House of Correction.^ This distinction between the worthy and unworthy able-bodied paupers was never drawn as it ought to have been. The 43rd of Elizabeth ordered that those who would not apply themselves to work were to be imprisoned, and there was other ample provision for the punishment of such as were ' idle and would not work ' in the numerous Vagrancy Acts. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the system of punishing vagrants and idle persons utterly failed, and not a little of the abuse of the provisions for employing the poor or relieving the able-bodied arose from this cause. The overseers could do nothing, for public opinion was against the harsh treatment meted out to vagrants under the existing laws. Even when misdemeanour was so palpable as in Tysoe, where the actual accounts state that payments were made to people when they ' would not work ', when they ' would not work for badness ', and when they ' were troublesome ', the overseers were powerless. On the other hand, there were payments made to men when their masters ' would not take ' them. At the end of the eighteenth century population was increasing rapidly, the demand for agricultural labour was diminishing rather than increasing, because enclosures had made economies in manual labour possible and the vast improvements in machinery were rapidly supplanting hand labour ; the poor were losing their per- quisites derived from the commons and wastes, also after 1795, when there were no legal restrictions on migration, there were economic restrictions, such as those caused by lack of capital ^ Minority Report of Poor Law Commission, 1909, vol. ii, p. i. CH. IX] THE ABLE-BODIED 149 amongst the poor ; thus there was no alternative for them but the parish. The labourers were rather to be pitied than blamed. Not a little of the abuse of the legal provision for employing the poor or relieving unemployed workmen arose from the extension of the tenant-farming system at the end of the eighteenth century. When the cultivators were also the proprietors of land there was no advantage in shuffling the cost of labour on to the Poor Rates. The allowances to the labourer might have been less under that system, but the efficiency of the worker and the control of the master would have diminished correspondingly. When, however, the dis- tinction was sharply drawn betw^een the cultivator and the proprietor it became a decided advantage to the former to shift his wages bill on to the parochial rates. For whatever the amount of Poor Rates may be, the incidence in nearly all cases is borne by the landlord. The evidence given in the Report of 1834 is sufficient to prove that this was especially true of the period 1790-1830.^ And it is a well-known fact in the locality that many Tysoe farmers made small fortunes in the opening years of the nineteenth century. The price of corn was high, rents were not any higher than they are at the present day, wages were low. Poor Rates were high, but even if these were added to rents there remained a large margin for farmers' profits. Thus it might well be said that Poor Rates had not lessened the farmer's capital, but only the landlord's rents,^ and, it ought to be added, the labourer's wages. There was a large movement for the consolidation of farms in Tysoe and Compton Wyniates from 1800 to 1820, and a minute of a Vestry meeting held at Tysoe in 1823 shows clearly that the employers only paid their workmen three shillings per week. The necessary addition to make up the labourer's allowance came from the Poor Rates, and was eventually a reduction of the landlord's rent. Wedge wrote in 1794 that the continual increase in Poor Rates did not arise in country villages from any want of industry or effort on the ' Report of Poor Law Commission, 1834, pp. 61 et seq. ' 1834 Report, p. 61. 150 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. ix part of the labouring poor, but from the fact that they only- received from parish officers what they ought to have received in wages.^ The framers of the Statute of 1601 do not appear to have contemplated any other than industrial employment for the poor. They assumed that all able-bodied poor persons could work or be taught to work at some craft. Whether this was the case or not, it is certain that in seasons of unemployment in rural districts, very largely due to defective harvests, it would have been most difficult to turn the needy workmen to such crafts as the provision for stock indicates, especially as there would be no provision of buildings or implements in those places where the periods of unemployment were of infrequent occurrence and of short duration. In towns it might be different ; but in agricultural villages the only methods open to the overseers were to grant relief without labour, or work on public improvement, or to apportion the labourers out among the employers and subsidize their wages on a system which became known as ' the Round '. The first was in a sense illegal, although it was resorted to in Tysoe ; the second does not seem to have been eagerly desired, though also sometimes used ; the third came to be the general method ; in Tysoe it was much the most important of the three. Though the overseers did provide articles, mostly implements, under the Act of 1601, there was no attempt to maintain a parish stock, the system being to provide for individual needs as they appeared. Payments were made for yarn and wool, but the most common were for flax. It should also be remembered that hemp was grown on the common-fields before enclosure. The payments for flax are all similar to one which appears in 1735 '■ ' Pd. for flax for David Plestoe's wife, 35.' These supplies were nearly all given to women. More frequent and important was the provision of spinning-wheels, for there can be little doubt that many women receiving aid from the rates were eking out a livelihood by spinning for the local weavers. ^ General View of the Agriculture of Warwickshire, 1794, p. 24. s. d. 12 o 3 3 I 2 CK. IX] THE ABLE-BODIED 151 At least thirty wheels were purchased during the century ; also there are numerous records of payments for repairs ; and there is every reason to believe that, like other furniture, the spinning-wheels passed to another pauper on the decease of the person to whom they had originally been given. Most of the wheels were given to women, although one was given to a bankrupt farmer as late as 1815. The cost of the wheels was generally about 35, 6d., though it is difficult to find exact entries because they were paid for along with other things as in 1779 : ' To George Watts for the Stocks, Ironwork and Paint, and Jersey wheel for Ann Cox's daughter, £1 35. gd.' 1 767. To Jos. Ashfield at times in money and paid for a wheel 1 73 1. Pd. in part for a wheel for Mary Clark 1754. Dame Wadley, a wheel for the parish 1782, To Jno. Hemmings Bill for repairs, Ann Cox's wheel, and new wheel Ely's wife and James Geden's wife 10 6 Payments for repairs are similar to the following : s. d. 1 73 1. Pd. for mending a wheel for Mary Clark ... 8 1782. To Jno. Hemmings mending Ann Cox's wheel . . 23 1730. Pd. for mending a wheel for Henry Clark . . 8 1780. To a spindle and wheel spring and making . . 6 The overseers also provided men with other tools, mostly scythes. It is surmised that these were provided for the men before they ' went up the upper country haymaking '. Such payments are much more frequent after 1760 than before. 5. d. 1769. To John Price repairing Humphrey Wilkins' tools . 2 o 1786. To Thos. Dodd for a scythe and sned that Richard Peel had ......... 16 1887. To Thos. Watts for a scythe, sned and irons that Stephen Wilks had 6 6 Persons accustomed to following handicrafts never seem to have been sent on the round, or to have been treated in exactly the same way as agricultural labourers were. In 1811, when some form of the allowance system was used in the relief of the able-bodied, a shoemaker became unemployed. 152 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. ix On the same page there are records of payments made to him for shoes for paupers and the following : i s. d. Jan. 26, 181 1. Pd. Thos. Hancox for going to Banbury to get work ......... 20 Pd. Thos. Hancox, shoemaker, out of employ, which sum is to serve him to Easter . . . . . .100 Then the overseers made gifts of money ' to buy things to sell again ' and ' to buy things to put in basket *. There was a case in 178 1 : ' To James Smith to buy things to sell again, 105-.' Two curious entries appear in 1781 and 1815 : £ s. d. To George King the Traveller and family . . . • 3 3 o To George King the Travelling Pauper . . . . 2 10 o This man may also have been a hawker, or he may have been an itinerant entertainer, more probably the latter. The overseers were fairly liberal in their gifts to some persons at that time, for in 1810 they paid 155. ' to Ann King, a pauper by consent of neighbours '. On a few occasions men were employed in public improve- ments. In 1757 an entry occurs, ' To Wm. Freeman having no work, for 95 perch of trenchen at id. per perch, ys. iid.' This is interesting because it was work done for the common- weal on the open fields of the village. In other cases indivi- duals were employed on the roads. There is no evidence that gangs of men were employed on the roads as a system of poor relief, and it is curious that when new roads were constructed under the Enclosure Award, unemployment does not appear to have appreciably diminished. The making of hedges, ditches, and roads should have provided much employment, and probably did ; but during the years when this process was gone through, 1797-1800, the general employment con- ditions were so chaotic that it is possible that the demand for special labour only served to mitigate conditions which would otherwise have been worse. It has been suggested that the reason why the work entailed by enclosure did not relieve the unemployment situation was that it was carried out by imported labour.^ In a few cases this may have been * Jos. Ashby, A Century of Parish History, Warwick Advertiser, February 1911. CH. IX] THE ABLE-BODIED 153 true. Two contractors were set to fence the glebe, part of the poor's land, and part of the grants in lieu of tithes. It is not unlikely that these men imported their own gangs of labourers who were used to the work ; but it is unthinkable that proprietors fencing their own lands should import labour, while they were supporting many men on the Poor Rates. It is certain that the roads were made at the cost of the levies provided for in the award, for a receipt for an instalment of the Vicar's levy still exists. The only traces of parish employment on the roads occur in 1827 and 1828. In 1827 the income accounts of the overseers of the parish state that £19 6s. ^d. was ' received of the Surveyor ', and on March 25, 1828, the overseers ' received ■£6 155. od. from the Surveyor for breaking 180 loads of stone at ()d. per load '. The latter is the only evidence of organized work on the roads, and that is not a large item. There is a tradition in the village of the use of parish carts in which men were used to haul stones from the pits on to the roads,^ but even if the tradition is trustworthy, the carts were not used till after Easter 1828. The usual payments from the Poor Rates to persons employed on the roads were similar to the following : s. d. 1764. To Richard Blackwell mending the highways having no ■work ......... 50 1783. To James Geden, more, highway .... 10 1789. Bot. five besoms to sweep the road with ... 26 The last-named were for the use of boys who were unemployed, but were not old enough to be sent on the rounds. Even individual payments for work on the roads were not numerous. There was not more than one mile of road between the turn- pike road, which was the general means of transit, and the village. This largely accounts for the small expenditure on the roads. The turnpike road was maintained by the Turnpike Commissioners, the by-roads were left in their primitive state, except for occasional repairs by the annual Statute Labour. Between 1727 and 1757 there were occasional payments to ' Cf. Hammond, The Village Labourer, pp. 182, 242. 154 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. ix unemployed persons without the offer of employment. They were made mostly in the winter, and comprise the whole of the provision for the relief of able-bodied workers apart from the provision of wheels and spinning-stock. The following are specimens : April, II, 1743. To Jos. Ball having no work April 14 To Jos. Ball having no work To Wilkins having no work To Nevell having no work . To Bradley having no work 1748. To Godard at times having no work 1 757' To Godard, having no work s. d. 6 6 I o 1 o 4 o 6 o 2 6 Relief without employment was given in emergencies during the whole of the century ; but in the later years it was the exception and not the rule. For some reason or other 1757 was a hard year. The general accounts were heavy and there are many payments for barley, some to people out of employment, and others to children. The following entries occur on one page : 5. d. Jan. 23. To Thos. Mansell no work ..... 40 To D. Wigson 2 bushels barley .... 66 To Jno. Sutton's children ..... 30 To Wm. Peel's children ..... 40 The last entries indicate that the overseers were evading the law by a method which has been used even later than 1834, namely, giving relief to a whole family, though nominally only to the children. There is no doubt whatever that unem- ployment was due to causes which were quite outside the labourer's control. Unfortunately such conditions were soon to become chronic. On January 2, 1763, the first payment to a man ' going about by the yard-land ' was made. This is the actual entry : ' To Danl. Wigson one shilling p. w. more that he was to have, going about by the yard-land, 45.' Evi- dently some arrangement had been made for the employment and relief of able-bodied persons at a Vestry or other parish meeting, but no minutes remain. It is singular that with the exception of payments, the subject of the unemployed does not appear prominently in the Poor Law records. Separate books dealing with the Roundsman system were kept, for in CH. IX] THE ABLE-BODIED 155 1819 ' a Book for the Employment of the Poor ' was bought at a cost of two shillings, while the ordinary account books were paid for every Easter, the clerk to the vestry receiving an allowance for a ' court roll '. All the special books dealing with the able-bodied have disappeared. It is not improbable that they, like some others, were destroyed before the inquiry of 1832. It is difficult to say when the Roundsman system became general, or even when it began. Gamier writes that a ' rounds- man process ' began in the sixteenth century, as a result of the Vagrancy Act, i Edward VI, c. 3.^ Unfortunately he does not indicate the source of his information. In 1788 an attempt was made to legalize the system of employing labourers by sending them round to the parishioners,^ so it seems to have been well known at that time. The system appeared in Tysoe in 1763, but it is doubtful whether it had not appeared before, in the years of dearth at the beginning and end of the seven- teenth century, and about 1715. In 1623 the Justices sur- veyed the corn-stocks held by farmers, and each family was given a supply in proportion to the stock. Sometimes paupers were billeted on those who had a supply of corn, but the usual method was to sell to the poor at less than current prices. In any case, there was a regular allowance system in vogue at that time, and the Roundsman was nothing more or less than an allowance system with employment added. Every unemployed worker put him- or herself in the entire control of the parish officials, who arranged with the various cultivators of land to take such persons for a period of time proportionate to the acreage or the annual value of their land. The roundsman received from every farmer to whom he was sent some proportion of the average wages paid, either three-fourths or five-sixths. The parish added an allowance which made up the whole wage to the necessary minimum. The Roundsman system was invented to cope with unemployment in times of fairly steady prices. The Speenhamland allowance system was invented to cope with unemployment and general insuffi- ' Annals of British Peasantry, pp. 95, 96, * W. Heisbach, History of the Enghsh Agricultural Labourer, p. 181. 156 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. ix ciency of wages in a period of violently fluctuating prices. Had prices remained stable, or even steadily advanced, from 1790 the allowance system would never have become so scientific in character. It was inaugurated to deal with precision with the necessities of the labourer, at a time when there was no power, economic or legal, which could make money wages correspond with the rise and fall of prices. With a steady advance of prices wages would keep up a lagging relationship and the roundsman's allowance would follow wages. But neither wages nor round allowances could follow prices in their yiolent movements after 1795, hence the Speenhamland and similar relief schemes. There had been allowances before, only there had been no definite attempt to correlate allowances and prices. When these allowances were first made it is not possible to say, but from the ease with which the system was adopted in Tysoe in 1763 it is safe to infer that the parishioners had previously been acquainted with it. After 1763 the time of the Tysoe roundsmen was at first apportioned among the various ratepayers according to the acreage of their land, probably according to the acreage of their arable land, as has been seen by the expression ' going by the yard4and '. Afterwards the standard of ability to employ the poor and contribute to their relief was based on the annual value or ' the pound rent '. At a later period the standard was fixed on the Poor Rate assessment. In 1763, following the single payment on January 2, there were three regular payments to those who went round by the yard-land for several weeks, from January 30. Each man received one shilling per week from the parish. In July there was one roundsman at the same rate, in August these items had entirely disappeared. And although the general accounts continue to increase no roundsmen appear in 1768. On January 14, 1770, there were four roundsmen who were allowed 2d. per day from the parish ; while in the list appears a payment, ' To Jos. Ashfield to make his pay up to 14^. a day, 12 days at 4^., 45.' Hence it appears that the minimum wage was seven shillings per week and the farmers paid six-sevenths of the CH. ix] THE ABLE-BODIED 157 wages of the average roundsman. Also there is a payment in that Hst : ' To Humphrey Wilkins for 5 days of severely bad weather, 2s. 6i.' This appears like relief without employ- ment, the person relieved being a craftsman, probably a mason; for a few weeks later an entry appears, ' To Humphrey Wilkins two days he could not work at his trade for severity of weather, 2S. od.' In July of the same year the system changes its name. There were three men having the same allowances as in January ; ' more than was allowed by the pound rent 12 days at 2d., 25.' The payment to make up pay still continues, and beside these there was one man ' not able to work ', another ' having no work ', and two items of relief : s. d. To Jno. H5n-on's family ,,,.... 40 To Richd. Smith's family ....... 40 And the female overseer, ' Mrs. Turner, Wido ' of the deceased Wm. Turner ', had to pay a single woman sixpence for ' doing for her father '. Thus as early as 1770 all the systems and excuses for giving grants to the unemployed poor so much lamented by the Commissioners of 1834, were establishing themselves in Tysoe. By 1780 the yard-land and pound-rent system had changed its name to that of ' the round ', but its characteristics remained exactly the same. On January 9, 1780, there were five persons on the round ; also many payments were made as ' more for fuel ', and one to a man ' being poorly '. If this was not one of the excuses on which relief was granted without employment in 1780, it became one of them in the opening years of the next century. On July 16 there were three roundsmen, and a payment to a man for his daughter, also probably with- out ordinary employment ; but as the summer wore on the roundsmen all disappeared as usual. On July 30 there was only one, and on August 13 there were none. In January, 1790, there were three roundsmen on the first, and eight on the second payment lists. The parish allowance had now risen to sixpence per day. The proportion paid by the farmers direct to the labourers may have diminished, but 158 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. ix there is no evidence either for or against that view. It can only be said that if the man ' lost a day ' he only received from the overseer the same allowance as if he had gone on the round. In July the overseers prepared to pay one man a round allowance, entering his name in the list, but no pay- ment was made — probably the person had found independent employment. Still, there was an allowance of four shillings made to a man for bread, and all through the year there were payments of sixpence per week ' to John Hancox, Labourer '. On April i8 there were seven roundsmen, also several men and women received allowances as * more ', while there were other payments to men for bread, and to women ' for doing for father and mother '. There can be little doubt that the latter was in many cases simply an excuse which justified the dole ; as there was no employment for women, either independently or on the round, some ground had to be found to justify grants of relief. In 1799, among all the stress of famine and war, an attempt was made to tighten up the organization of the Round system. A Vestry was held on January 30 which passed a resolution that — * it is Agreeable at the Vestry this day above written, held by those neighbours whose names are hereunder written, that the Rounds are to go regularly according to the Poor's Rates and not to stay longer than their time on the Rounds according to the Poor Rate. No man is to have two Roundsmen together and each man on the Round is to come to Martin Cole for a Ticket and to deliver it to his Master when he goes on the Round, and his Master is to deliver him a ticket again ; every man that don't go where Martin Cole sends him is not to receive any money out of the Poor's Book ; every Roundsman is to go one day for Ten Pounds a year by the Poor's Rate. Martin Cole is to receive One Pound One Shilling a year for writing their Tickets and sending them regularly round.' Signed 2 Overseers. 2 Churchwardens. 9 Other ratepayers. Evidently some leakage of labour had occurred, either at the instance of some of the farmers or the men. The chief CH. ix] THE ABLE-BODIED 159 point of the new regulations was that the Poor Rate assess- ment was used as the basis on which to divide the labour. If a farm was assessed at £50 value, the farmer would have a succession of men, according to the number on the list, for five days each. Such a system was bound to diminish the quality of the work done, and some work, such as the tending of cattle, could never be done by roundsmen without entailing disaster, so it is probable that in the worst times some men were retained in regular employment. It may have been to such as these that the allowances designated ' more ' were made. Either their masters would have to give them a living wage or their wages would have to be subsidized by the parish, for by becoming paupers they could ensure a minimum sum sufficient for subsistence. In January, 1800, there were twenty-one roundsmen, eight persons receiving ' more ', and many persons receiving ' extra ' relief. At this time the parish dole to the roundsmen varied from 4d. to 8d. per day, but the overseers failed to leave any record of their reasons for such variations. In the first list for the month there were 141 items of relief, making a total of ;^29 3^. 2d. Besides this, bread was being given freely at the parish bakehouse. In July there were eleven roundsmen, also many allowances * to family ' and ' to daughter ' or ' daughters ', and to some ' being poorly '. There were also gifts to twenty men and some single women, for which no reason was assigned. One is led to the opinion that the men on the round, receiving wages from farmers and doles from the parish, were the married unemployed. Those who were not employed and received only parochial doles were the single men. It was the universal practice to give married men preference for employment. This led to many of the preva- lent early marriages, and again to poverty. Villiers, the Assistant Commissioner for Warwickshire in 1832-4, reported that the allowance system came into use in the county in the year 1797, and that copies of the scale were published before 1800.^ Diligent search has been made in the Records of Quarter Sessions, and inquiries have been " Report of Poor Law Commission, 1834, App. A, Part II, Sec. Able-bodied. i6o POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. ix made, but all the copies of the scale seem to have vanished. According to Villiers the scale adopted in the Southern Divi- sion of Warwickshire allowed a man, wife, and three children 8s. 6d. per week without work, that is to say that 8s. 6d. was the minimum weekly income for a family of five. There is no trace of the use of any exact scale in Tysoe, but the minimum would not be higher than that quoted above. While it is diffi- cult to discover any common principle running through the payments, it is possible that the scale referred to did not apply to such parishes as Tysoe, which had long had an allowance system, but rather to those parishes where officials had been backward in making adequate provision for the poor. In any case, if a scale was adopted in Tysoe it could not be more than a slight elaboration of the system which had long been used. Regulation of allowances according to families was no fresh principle in Tysoe, and as Villiers reported that the Roundsman system was peculiar to agricultural parishes, showing that it was especially useful in such, no doubt Tysoe clung to its accustomed method, rather than adopt new measures which would tend to be more costly and make the labourers more independent and less easily controlled. For while they were on the round the farmers had some control over the men, whereas while in receipt of relief without labour the labourers were their own masters. The Roundsman system was a mixed survival of primitive communism and mediaeval serfdom ; ^ the effect of the use of the allowance scale without a labour test was to give men the rights and advantages of communism without the corresponding duties. On January 20, 1810, there wxre six persons on the round, four of whom were boys, who each received an allowance of 2d. per day. In addition six men received allowances ' for daughter ' or ' for girl ', and there were 46 men and single women, besides the mothers of bastards, in receipt of relief. In July there were no persons on the round, and only one payment to a person ' out of employ ' ; this was a single woman. Nevertheless the names of 36 men and 7 single * T. W. Fowle, The Poor Laws, p. 82. CH. ix] THE ABLE-BODIED i6i women, besides mothers of bastards, appear in the list of recipients of relief. By January, 1820, the Round system had entirely disap- peared. There was one payment called ' relief ', and several ' extra ', but the most important payments to the able-bodied for which any reason was assigned were * for lost time '. There were 36 of these. The number of days is not stated, so the rate of relief cannot be accurately gauged. However, a boy received 35. 6d. ; that would probably be a full allowance for a fortnight. Young women invariably received 2s. per week, and the payments to men for lost time vary between 15. 8^. and 105. The latter seems to have been the maximum. Altogether there are loi names of men on the relief list ; the payments to these vary from is. 8d. to 185. per fortnight. In July, 1827, there were 57 men and 11 single women, besides mothers of illegitimate children, in receipt of relief. There is no evidence of the round, and the payments are not distinguished in any way. In January, 1828, within two months of the end of the period dealt with in the available records, 86 men were on the relief lists. There were many payments for lost time, ranging from $d. to is. 6d. per day. There is also an entry, ' To Jno. Walker for 20 days thatching parish houses, £1 10s. od.' For skilled work such as thatching IS. 6d. per day was a very low wage, and it is significant of much that it is only equal to the highest allowance for lost time. ' To Robt. Harris 9 days lost time 125.' and the above indicate that the maximum wage was about 95. per week. Again omitting mothers of bastards, there were 19 single women on the relief list ; some of these received 15. and others 2s. per week each, A minute of a Vestry held on February 5, 1823, records that ' it was unanimously agreed that we the undersigned do agree to take our full number of men at 6 shillings per week if every occupier will do the same, if not we do agree that they shall receive no more than three shillings per week for three weeks to come '. To this there were ten signatories, but as the other occupiers did not fall in with the arrangement (PART VI) W. V. M f i62 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. ix the resolution came to nothing. Three weeks later, at another meeting, it was ' unanimously agreed that all able-bodied men are to receive four shillings per week from their employers from the date hereof '. ' Boys above 12 years of age to have IS. per week, and under 12, gd.' There are only a few clear cases of payments to induce the people to migrate from Tysoe, as in 1821 when £5 was given to a man ' as allowed by the vestry to take his family to London '. Still there must have been a large migration be- tween 1821 and 1831 as there was a reduction of population, while in previous decades there had been increases. The Round and Allowance systems had served to maintain an increasing population, sufficiently large to meet the great demands of the French wars and the industrial development of the country ; but at the same time the records of the Vestries held in Tysoe in 1823 indicate the low economic standard to which they had reduced the labourer and the low moral standard to which they had reduced the employers. CHAPTER X REIMBURSEMENTS I One of the principles of the great Elizabethan Poor Law was that every person of sufficient means should contribute towards the maintenance of any of his relatives who were dependent on public rehef. Section 7 of the Act provided : * That the father and grandfather, and the mother and grandmother, and the children of every poor, old, blind, lame and impotent person, or other poor person not able to work, being of sufficient ability shall at their own charges relieve and maintain every such poor person in that manner, and according to that rate as by the Justices of the Peace of that county where such sufficient persons dwell, or the greater num- ber of them, at their general Quarter Sessions, shall be assessed, upon pain that every one of them shall forfeit 20 shillings for every month which they shall fail therein.' While grandparents were responsible for grandchildren, grandchildren were not responsible for grandparents, nor were brothers or sisters responsible for each other. But the most striking omission is that wives were not made chargeable to husbands nor husbands to wives. This defect was remedied by the Act 5 Geo. I, c. 8, and husbands in the parish of Tysoe were compelled to maintain their wives, or in default were punished by imprisonment, even from the earliest times. Again provision was made by 5 Geo. IV, c. 83, in a form similar to regulations controlling vagabonds and unruly per- sons, for the maintenance of wives and children by husbands and fathers. Modern Poor Law recognizes two rights of recovery : (i) against the person relieved, (2) against persons responsible for his maintenance. Only the second of these was recognized by the Act of 1601. The system of free relief at the expense of the Poor Rates was merely the survival of a M 2 i64 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. x system of free alms which had existed from time immemorial ; ^ and the question of recovering the cost of relief from the person assisted never seems to have occurred to the promoters of the Act of 1601. Poverty was the essential qualification for relief, and it is evident that if a person raised himself, or was raised, from that condition after the receipt of assistance, he was not to be retarded by anything which remained from the days of his adversity. The provision for maintenance applies only to the physically unfit ; the able-bodied being ' set upon work ' under the same statutes were presumed to provide for their own maintenance. But in time a practice grew up of granting a loan to the able- bodied destitute instead of setting them to work. This system was adopted to some extent in Tysoe during the eighteenth century. Then the Poor Law Commissioners recommended in their Report that this might become a regular part of the practice of the Poor Laws. Their recom- mendation was adopted in the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, and afterwards many Boards of Guardians gave special relief by way of loan for the purchase of implements and stock.^ Probably they were following out the policy of the old parochial ofBcials, Before long, however, the Central Authority intervened with the dictum that when relief could not be legally given it could not be legally lent. Thus the recommendation of the 1834 Commission was perverted to mean that all relief was given on loan and that it is all recoverable : a principle quite contrary to the spirit of the 43rd of Elizabeth and the eighteenth century loans. 59 Geo. Ill, c. 12, had provided that parish officers might advance money or other relief on loan to careless persons who, though able to provide for themselves or their families, had not taken the trouble to do so. From this provision the able- bodied unemployed were excluded, probably because they had a right to relief without a duty of repayment, while the above clause was intended to give some form of recovery in cases where able-bodied persons or their families were desti- ' Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, 1909, vol. i, p. 366. ' See Minority Report, 1909, vol. i, p. 380 et seq. CH. x] REIMBURSEMENTS 165 tute without any sufficient cause. This provision was never enforced in Tysoe ; consequently money given for the relief of able-bodied persons could not be recovered, unless given to deserted wives or granted by way of loan. Though there is evidence of many repayments of relief in the parish of Tysoe, there is no record of any appeal to the Justices. There may have been some appeals, but the avail- able evidence points rather to the conclusion that the reim- bursements were made either voluntarily or at the instance of the overseers. In any case the recovery of relief, unlike the recovery of maintenance under a bastardy order, was a civil, and not a criminal procedure. Even as late as 1898 it was legally decided in Re Gamble that ' Money due under an order of the Justices made upon a person for the maintenance of his father under 43 Eliz. c. 2, s. 6, is recoverable as a civil debt and not as a penalty ; and an order of Justices for the payment of money so due cannot be enforced by imprisonment in default of distress.' On the contrary, payment under a bastardy order was regarded as being of the nature of a fine or penalty, and defaulters could be imprisoned directly without reference to the question of means or the possibihty of dis- traint. In certain bastardy cases the overseers had power of distraint ; but they had also the option of imprisoning. If an accused person failed to pay or give security, the Justices had to commit him to Bridewell immediately. Distraints were not unknown in Tysoe, for on one occasion a pauper's goods were seized to pay his landlord's rents and the overseer paid the officers' fees ; but so far as the Poor Laws were con- cerned they were rarely used. The following extract contains many of the actual reim- bursements for relief made to the overseers of Tysoe. The only recovery from impotent persons who had received relief occurred after their decease, and for many years this was the only form of recovery in vogue. From 1727 to 1741 there is no entry of a repayment of any description. In the latter year £1 115. id. was received ' for Plestoe's goods ', and in 1746 an apprentice to husbandry returned something to the parish. He may not have been a source of profit, for the i66 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. x parish had to find him in clothing ; but at all events the overseers ' Reed, of Robt. Newman for David Plestoe's two years wages due at St. Michaels last, £i os. 6i.' And again in 1748 they received 105. upon the same account. The boy seems to have been left an orphan by the death of his father, whose goods were sold in 1741. From 1741 there is a series of regular entries of different forms of recovery ; the sale of goods of deceased persons is the most common : £ s. d. 1748. Reed, for the Widow Loveday's goods . . . ig 10 1749. Reed, for Saml. Plestoe's goods . . . . 2 16 4 1 76 1. Reed, of Jno. and James Wilkins the expenses of their father's funeral . . . . . . . 19 6 1762. James Eglington at Stratford on Avon to keep his mother at 15. per week from Feb. ist . . . .200 1764. Made of Edwd. Peel's, deceased, clothes . . . 16 6 Reed, of R. Townsend for bed and old rags Ralph Wilkins of Woodstock, deceased ..... 77 Reed, on Thos. Compton's acet. . . . .200 1765. Reed, for Widow Sabin's and Widow NichoU's goods 450 1767. Reed, of Mr. Beale the elder for maintenance of R. Capp's granddaughter . . , . . . .170 1770. Reed, of Ed. Watt's son for a gold ring of Widow Rouse's deceased . . . . . . . .116 177 1. Reed, for a brass cocktale ..... 6 [Probably a tap for barrel.] Reed, for a gold ring . . . . . . 116 1772. Reed, the cash that Mary Buckingham had when she died, and made of bacon, pigmeat, &e. . . . no Reed, of Ann Hall of Hook Norton the money her mother had off the parish when living . . .116 Reed, of Mr. Bayliss of Kineton 52 weeks maintenance of Blanche Capp . . . . . . . i 12 o 1773. Reed, of Mr. Bayliss of Kineton for 52 weeks maintenance of Blanch Capp . . . . . . . 2 12 o [This entry was continued in 1774 and 1775.] 1773. Reed, for two old tea kettles and linen handkerchiefs 5 6 1773. Reed, of Geo. Fessey money that was ordered by Mr. Aylworth for an offence done at Mr. Dyers at Ratley ' 2 o 1774. Similar entry ........ 20 1775. Reed, for W. Castle's goods . . . . .186 [On this ease there was a loss, for the expenses ' to stop the sale of Castle's goods ' amounted to £1 19s. 2d. Still the overseers were fighting for the principle of maintenance, probably under 5 Geo. I, c. 8, which provided for legal distraint upon the property of persons leaving a wife or children dependent upon the parish.] ^ 6 Geo. I, c. 16, enacted that damage done to woods or fences by lawless persons should be levied on the parish to which they belonged. This was a repayment under the statute. CH. X] REIMBURSEMENTS 167 1777, Reed, of Jno. Edwards', jun. son Sam Edwards towards Jno. Edwards' family's maintenance 1 78 1. Reed, of Robert Wilkins towards shirt Reed, for 45^ lbs. of bacon at sd. . 1784. Reed, of Peel towards his wife's maintenance in hay time last ........ Ditto Reed, of Edwards towards his wife's maintenance Ditto 1785. Reed, for Edward's family .... 1786. Reed, for Edward's family .... 1787. Reed, of Edwards for family .... 1788. Reed, of Edwards for maintenance . 1789. Reed, of Edwards. Old arrears of wife's maintenance 1790. Jno. Edwards towards his deceased wife's maintenance 1792. Reed, of Thos. Walton 3 weeks maintenance of his son William's wife when here . . . . . Reed, of parish where Dame Hemmings comes from, bill of journeys, medicines, &c., she being ill when here Reed, of Anthony Walker towards his children's maintenance ........ 1793. Reed, of Anthony Walker towards his family's main- tenance ........ Robt. Wells reed, of the late Thos. Winter's daughter towards relief that he had when living . Clark Middleton reed, of Mr. Cross the late Widow Pies- toe's kinsman ....... 1794. Reed, of Mr. Cross the late Widow Plestoe's kinsman Reed, of late Thos. Winter's daughter towards what extraordinary he had when living .... 1795. Reed, of Anthony Walker towards what we allowed family ......... Reed, of Thos. Juffs towards what we allowed family Reed, of Thos. ITownsend towards family's allowance . 1798. Reed, of R. CoUcott towards his house rent 18 1 5. Reed, for Jos. Drake's goods . . . . . 1 8 18. For a wallnut tree sold to Thos. CoUcott . £ s. d. I 8 9 5 o 18 Hi 10 10 I 4 I I I 10 I 18 I 10 I 16 7 6 2 13 6 2170 I I o ID O O O O O 2 2 ID I 17 2 4 2 I 18 Besides such payments as these, and others made under the bastardy orders, the parish officers received rents for cottages let to independent tenants, rent for land granted to the poor in lieu of fuel rights by the Enclosure Commissioners ; and, in the early part of the nineteenth century, rent of a parish malthouse ; and the surplus of the Land Tax. For many years there were no repayments for relief, and even when a process of recovery was begun by taking deceased paupers' goods, the receipts were not large. From 1760 receipts for goods sold frequently occur up till 1790, but after that date they are far less frequent. Probably the decrease was due to i68 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. x the pauperization of the labourers, who, under certain circum- stances, were provided with furniture by the overseers, who, instead of selling the furniture, passed it from one pauper to another. Another cause may lie in the fact that as the labourers became pauperized the value of their furniture diminished, although at the best of times it was not worth a great deal. In the early years of the nineteenth century repayments fall off altogether. This was partly the result of the amendment of the Settlement Laws, which pro- vided that labourers could not be removed till they became chargeable to the parish, and enabled them to move their families with far less fear of disturbance than before ; and in this way obviated the necessity for a series of repayments like those of 1785, Another cause was the impoverishment of the whole class of labourers. While the able-bodied were themselves paupers they could not contribute to the support of physically disabled persons in the same state of distress. Hence in the closing years of our period there was no recovery of relief in any form whatever. The best effect of this pro- vision for orders of maintenance would be to induce those persons liable to contribute to do their duty, so far as was possible, without the interference of the officials. Only in a very few cases was there any provision for continued main- tenance, and the sums saved to the parish were very small, so that the provision for maintenance had no very great importance as a direct safeguard of the Poor Rates. The percentage of the relief which was recovered by sale of goods and the contributions of relations was very minute indeed, especially as during those twenty years of the worst poverty and the highest expenditure there was no recovery whatever. The best period of recovery was during the period of the growth of pauperism through the medium stages, from 1760 to 1790, when certain persons were being hard pressed by economic conditions and the mass of labourers still retained their independence. From 1790 onwards the greatest pro- portion of relief was given to under-employed and under- paid able-bodied workers. Recovery of relief from these was legally and economically impossible. Under ordinary CH. x] REIMBURSEMENTS 169 circumstances the able-bodied employed class were the very people who would have contributed to the support of the aged and unfit, but under the circumstances in which they were placed they were glad to eke out their own existence by every means at their disposal. Even had the able-bodied labourers been able to support themselves and to obtain a slight surplus of income, it is doubtful whether the heavy fines provided for in the Act of 1601 were intended to apply to such a class. And the study of the Tysoe repayments suggests that, apart from the support of wives by husbands, few of the contribu- tions were made by the class of day labourers. CHAPTER XI WAGES AND PRICES The enormous increase in the rates raised for the relief of the poor during the eighteenth century was attributed to several causes, including the Settlement Act, Enclosures, and the rise and growth of Methodism ; ^ but the abnormal growth of Poor Rates consequent on the failure of wages to keep pace with the rise in prices was rarely, if ever, mentioned. Apart from the much-quoted Assessment of Wages by the Lancashire Justices in 1725, there is not much evidence on the state of wages during the eighteenth century till the advent of Eden and Davies and the writers of the Reports to the Board of Agriculture after 1790. It is remarkable that no later judicial assessment of wages than that named appears in our records of Quarter Sessions, or if they exist it is remarkable that they have not been pubhshed. In Warwickshire the practice of fixing wages under 5 & 6 Eliz. c. 4, did not lapse till after 1770, when the general decay of the old system of regulations, especially those restricting freedom of bargain, set in. It is interesting to trace these regulations during a period of one hundred and twenty years. The first assessment during this period was made in the late years of the Protectorate, and is important, as it shows that if the internal administration of the country was upset during the Civil War, it was very soon after reorganized. The assessment with its preamble was as follows: ' Easter^ a.d. 1657. Upon conference of the Justices of the Peace of this country among themselves, and upon consulta- tion with divers others discreet and grave persons, and upon perusal of the statute made in the fifth yeare of the late Queen Elizabeth concerning the rating and assessing of wages of servants, labourers, and artificers within the county, and in pursuit of the Act, it is ordered, limited, and appointed by the Justices of the Peace now present at this court that the wages of servants, labourers, and artificers by the year and day within the said county shall be such and no more than are ' Eden, State of the Poor, p. x, quoting Review of the Policy, Doctrines, and Morals of the Methodists. ch: xi] wages and prices 171 hereafter set down, assessed and appointed. And the said rates so assessed are to remain and continue until the same shall be altered by the said Justices or by some proclamation made by the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners, or by the Keeper of the Great Seal of England for the time being. And all and every person giving or receiving more or greater rates of wages than is hereby declared shall suffer such for- feiture or punishment as in the said Act is expressed. And it is further ordered that this order and the rates of wages here- unto annexed shall be forthwith proclaimed in every town corporate and market town within the said county upon the next market day after the receipt hereof. And the several High Constables of every division are to see that the Bayliffs of the Hundreds cause the same to be proclaimed accordingly. The best men-ser\^ants for husbandry who are able without direction to manage husbandry not to exceed £4 by the year. Other good husbandmen not to exceed £3 by the year. The best maid-servant not to exceed £1 10s. by the year. Except she make mault and then not to exceed £2. Labourers' wages from 25th of March to 29th of September not to exceed 8d. by the day. Except at mowing and reaping and then not to exceed is. by the day. From 29th of September to 6th of November not to exceed yd. From 6th of November to 2nd of February not to exceed 6d. From the second of February to the 25th of March not to exceed yd. Carpenters, Masons, and Tilers not to exceed in any time of year 2s. by the day. Maids and women working in harvest for reaping not to exceed Sd. by the day. For haymaking and other work at other times not to exceed 4^. by the day.' The foregoing assessment is not of a detailed character such as some which were to follow it, and one striking feature is that it was drawn up with the main idea of regulating the wages of servants in husbandry. The provisions dealing with men following trades were grouped in one clause, and no provisions were made for more than one grade of workmen in any trade. This defect was to be remedied by the following list published in 1672, which gives greater details for the regulation of rewards to both husbandmen and artificers, and it should also be noticed that the preamble does not recite the penalties which might follow a breach of the regulations, while it does state that the rates of wages had been arrived at 172 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. xi after a consideration of the high prices wherewith the poor were more grievously charged at that time than in times past. Also the list shows greater elaboration in the scales for pay- ment with and without meat and drink. It is possible that this was necessitated by a growth of the practice of feeding servants which was due to the periods of severity that were coming upon the people. ' Easter, 1672. The particular rates of wages of all manner of artificers, labourers, and servants, as well by the day with meat and drink as without, also by the whole year and in gross or by task, made and set at the general Quarter Sessions of the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the King holden at Warwick in and for the county of Warwick on the Tuesday next after the stop of Easter in the four and twentieth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King Charles II ... by his majesty's Justices here assembled according to the laws and statutes of this realm in such case made and provided, having a special regard and consideration to the prices at this time of all kinds of victuals and apparells, both linen and woollen and all other necessary charges wherewith artificers and labourers and ser- vants have been more grievously charged than in times passed.' By the day. With A Freemason . . , A master rough mason Hired servants and apprentices above the age of eighteen A master carpenter having men under his charge Hired journeymen and servants above the age of eighteen Hired servants and apprentices A cartwright or ploughwright . Master bricklayer .... A tyler, plaisterer, shingler A second bricklayer, tyler, or plaisterer Their servants and apprentices above the age of 1 2 years Master thatcher His servant Fallers of wood, threshers, and all other common la bourers, the time of harvest excepted The man haymaker The woman haymaker Weeders of corn Mowers of corn and grass A raker in corn harvest . A man reaper A woman reaper meat and drink, d. 6 6 4 6 6 4 6 6 6 4 3 6 4 4 4 2 2 6 3 6 4 Without. s. d. I 4 CH. xi] WAGES AND PRICES 173 From the middle of September to the middle of March id. the day to be abated of the wages before specified. By the whole year. i 5. d. The Bailiff of husbandry taking charge and able to discharge the same . . . . . . . . . . 4 lo o A chief hind, the best plowman and carter . , . .3150 The shepherd performing his charge . . . . .300 Inferior servant men . . . . . . . .2100 A woman servant that is able to manage a household . i 16 o A second woman servant . . . . . . .168 A dairymaid and washmaid . . . . . . i lo o (Signed by three Justices.) This assessment is repeated in exactly identical words at Easter 1673 and 1674. If, however, the recitation of the penalties for breach of the regulations were omitted from this declaration they were soon to be specifically stated. A special order was issued at the Easter Sessions, 1685, to the following effect : • It is to be observed that by the statute made in the 5th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (c. 4) the following rules were enacted, that is to say, that refusers to serve for the wages appointed are to be imprisoned. That all artificers or labourers being hired by the day or weeke shall, betwixt the middle of the months of March and November be and continue at their work at or before four of the clock in the morning and continue at work and not depart until betwixt seven and eight of the clock at night, except it be at the times of breakfast, dinner, or drinking ale, the most of all not exceeding 2 hours and half in the day. That is to say at every drinking one half hour, for his dinner one hour, at every breakfast one half hour, at the most. And all artificers and labourers between the midst of September and the midst of March shall be and continue at their work from the spring of the day in the morning till the night of the same day, except it be in the time afore appointed for breakfast or dinner, upon pains to be forfeit one penny for every hour's absence to be deducted and defaulted out of his wages. That every person giving above the wages appointed shall suffer seven days' imprison- ment and forfeit five pounds. That every person taking above the wages appointed shall suffer one and twenty days* imprisonment. That every promise, gift and payment of wages contrary to the said statute is utterly void and of non- effect." 174 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. xi Though no prosecutions on any of the possible counts under the Statute of Apprentices have been found, steps were taken to administer what may be called the economic provisions of the law. The first assessment which occurs during the actual period dealt with in the study of the administration of the Poor Law in Tysoe is that for 1730. The chief point of interest is that with the exception of changes in the wages of the higher class workmen in trade and husbandry the list remained as it was in 1685. Thus there can be little doubt that the conditions of the workers had improved, for the general level of prices was lower in 1730 than at the end of the seventeenth century. Wages List, Easter, 1730. A freemason, per day ..... A master man mason ..... Apprentice above 18 years .... A master carpenter having men under his charge A journeyman and servant above 18 years Their servants and apprentices A plowwright or cartwright .... A master bricklayer ..... A tyler, plaisterer, or shingler .... Their servants and apprentices above 12 years Second bricklayers and plasterers Faller of wood, thresher and all other common labourers the time of corn harvest excepted A man haymaker ...... A woman haymaker and weeder of com . Mower of grass, corn, and men reapers A raker in corn harvest ..... A woman reaper ...... From the middle of September to the middle of March one penny by the day to be abated of the wages before specified. i s. d. A bailifiE of husbandry taking charge and able to discharge the same, by the year ...... A chief hind, the best plowman and carter . A shepherd performing his charge .... Inferior servant men ....... A woman servant that is sufficient to manage a household A second woman servant ...... A dairymaid or washmaid ...... The last formal assessment which was made eight years later discarded the settling of the wages of labourers ' with meat and With meat and drink. WitJ hou d. s. d. 6 9 6 4 8 6 6 4 8 6 6 6 3 6 4 8 4 8 4 8 2 4 6 I 3 6 4 8 • 4 • 3 15 • 3 . 2 10 I 15 I 6 I 10 CH. Xl] WAGES AND PRICES 175 drink ' and provided only for the rates to be paid ' with drink ' and without. Thus it appears that the system of feeding day labourers had fallen off. This was probably due to the fact that such provision was no longer necessary on account of the plentiful supply of corn, resulting in reduced prices. The system of feeding day labourers seems to have been adopted to meet a set of circumstances similar in many respects to those met by the Allowance System about the year 1795. The assessment of 1738 shows a general increase of wages, although there had been no great rise in prices during the preceding eight years. This indicates that agriculture was in a prosperous condition and that the demand for labour was good. Another significant feature of this assessment is the meagre provision made for regulating the wages of artisans. The following is the list and preamble as published. The particular rates of wages of all manner of artificers, labourers, and servants as well by the day with meat and drink as without, as also by the whole year in gross or by task, made and provided having a special regard and consideration to the prices of provisions and all other circumstances necessary to be considered at this time. April, 1738. Every head servant in husbandry by the year Second servant ..... Servant boy from 14 to 18 years of age Servant boy from 11 to 14 Every head servant maid by the year Second maid servant .... Labourers from Martinmas to March 25 by the day From March 25 to harvest and after harvest to Martinmas Every mower of grass by the day with drink without drink Every labouring man in corn harvest with meat and drink without meat and drink Every woman in haymaking, with drink without drink Every woman in com harvest, with drink . without drink Every carpenter by the day, March 25 to St. Michael's, with drink without drink From Michaelmas to Lady-day, with drink . without drink Every mason by the day in summer, with drink without drink Every mason by the day in winter, with drink . without drink Thatcher by day, summer and winter . Weeders of corn by the day .... d. o o o o o o 8 9 o 2 o 6 5 6 6 7 o 2 ID O 10 o 10 o 176 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. xi This assessment held good on April 20, 1762, and again until Easter, 1773. But these maximum rates of wages were not strictly enforced, for in 1770 unemployed labourers in the month of January received allowances ' to make up pay ' to seven shillings per week, which was sixpence per day in excess of the legal maximum. In 1778 the overseers of the parish paid an account for thatching a cottage. The following were the items : 5. d. To Wm. Green way 2 days thaching ..... 34 To Joseph Ashfield 2 days serving for same ... 20 To Mary Wilkins 2 days drawing straw .... 10 And the same rates were paid for thatching in the year 1783. Still there is not much evidence as to the actual rates of wages paid in Tysoe after this date with the sole exception of the resolution passed by the meeting of farmers in 1823, that able-bodied men were to receive four shillings per week from their employers. This decree was made after the demoraliza- tion of the farmers and labourers due to the adoption of the Allowance system. What the wages of labourers were between 1780 and 1823 it is only possible to learn from writers of the period. But the poor were not without resourcefulness in augmenting their incomes, for one ' Eliz. Simpson ' obtained one shilling from the overseers of Tysoe ' for a pair of stockings and a sheet that were in pawn '. And in 1779 the overseers made an entry to the effect that they had ' redeemed Richard Peel's daughter's wheel ' at a cost of 25. The redemption of the goods being brought about by a gift from the overseers, the woman had gained to the extent of the original grant on the security of the goods. Sir Frederick Eden, writing in 1795, said that the wages of labourers at Banbury, a distance of nine miles from Tysoe, amounted to eight or nine shillings during the whole year, and the women and children in the factories earned three shillings per week.^ And he gives the budget of a labourer's family as follows : * Eden, State of the Poor, vol. ii, p. 584. CH.xi] WAGES AND PRICES 177 Labourer's Family in Banbury, July 1795. i s. d. Labourer, 50 years of age, 85. per week . . . . 20 16 o Wife nil. Girl, 15 years of age, I5. 6d. per week by spinning . 3 i8 o Boy, 13 years of age, s^. per week at plough . . 7 16 o 3 girls, II, 9, and 7, and boy of 4 years, nil. Earnings ;^32 10 o Parish allowance, girl of eleven lame . . . . . 2 12 o Total income £3$ 20 Expenditure. £ s. d. g^ peck loaves per week at is. 2d. per loaf . . . 27 6 o Rent . . • 2 12 o Fuel 2 12 o Clothes 2 12 o ; ^35 2 o On the opposite side of Tysoe, and at about the same distance from that parish, the wages of labourers at Southam, according to Eden,^ only amounted to 65. per week in winter and 75. in summer, except in harvest, when it was possible for them to earn is. 6d. per day.^ Thus it is clear that the wages of labour in Tysoe could not have been more than sufficient to provide a mere subsistence for the labourer, and were not large enough to keep him and his family in a state of efficiency and comfort. Reporting to the Board of Agriculture on the Agriculture of Warwickshire in 1794, John Wedge stated that the labourers received ' from 45. to 55. per week with victuals, and from 65. to 8s. a week without them, sometimes with and sometimes without an allowance of small beer'. The hours of labour were from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the summer, and from eight to dark during the winter. The ordinary wage for a woman was sixpence per day, rising to one shiUing per day in harvest, their ordinary hours of labour being from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.^ The next Report, presented to the Board of Agriculture in 1813 by Adam Murray, stated that the wages of male labourers ranged from 25. to 35. 6d. per day, while women could earn * Eden, State of the Poor, vol. ii, p. 586. * Ibid., p. 744. * Wedge, General View of the Agriculture of Warwick, 1794. P- 23. (PARTVI)W. V. j^ 178 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. xi from 15. to 15. 6d} But as he says that there was a plentiful supply of labour it is difficult to believe that Murray's higher rates bore any close relation to the actual earnings of the workmen. The Assistant Commissioner, Villiers, stated in his report to the Poor Law Commission of 1832 that the rates of wages per day were as follows : ^ s. d. s. d. 1789 I per day 1823 I 1795 I 2 1825 I 4 1804 I 4 1826 I 6 I8I0 I 6 1827 2 I8II 2 1828 I 8 I8I6 I 6 1829 I 6 I8I7 2 1830 I 8 I8I8 I 6 1832 I 8 Thus according to Villiers wages only rose to a maximum of two shillings per day in 1817 and 1827, while Murray gives two shilhngs as the minimum for 1813. But no support whatever can be found for Murray's statements. It is clear, even from the Wages Assessments quoted, that wages rose to some extent during the latter years of the seventeenth century and they did not fall with low prices in the middle of the following century. At the same time they did not rise in proportion to the rise in prices after 1770. Writing on the advantages of rising prices to the agricultural interests, Home Tooke stated that ' farmers, landlords, and owners of tithes alone benefited by an advance in prices rising from scarcity ', * The conditions of the labouring classes, even of those em- ployed in husbandry, is well known to be deteriorated in periods of dearth, as the wages of labour do not rise in full proportion to the advance in the price of provisions.' ^ And as there is no doubt that many of the periods of high prices at the latter end of the eighteenth century were the results of dearths, there can be no doubt that the labourer suffered most in those periods. ^ Adam Murray, General View of the Agriculture of Warwick, 1813, p. 167. ' Report of Poor Law Commission, 1834, App. A, Part II, p. 75. * Tooke, History of Prices, vol. i, p. 14. CH. Xl] WAGES AND PRICES 179 The period between 1692 and 1715 was remarkable for a high range of prices of corn, the average price of wheat according to the Eton tables being 455. 8d. per quarter,^ but between 1715 and 1765 the average price of wheat was only 345. iid. ; thus as the wages of labour in Tysoe had tended to rise since 1690, the condition of the labourer improved during the first sixty-five years of the eighteenth century. After 1770 other causes began to affect prices. The most important, because the most uncertain, was the number of harvests which did not yield an average crop. Also the steady influx of silver from the American mines would have a gradual influence on prices. Then after 1790 came the violent fluctuations in the value of money due to the French Wars and the methods used in currency matters for providing such money as was necessary to carry on the campaigns. A few excerpts from the accounts of the Tysoe overseers will serve to show the general and particular rises in the prices of the commodities necessary for life which occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 1727. Pair of man's shoes . 1730. Pair of woman's shoes 1 73 1. Pair of woman's shoes 1767. Pair of man's shoes . 1772. Pair of man's shoes . 1782. Pair of woman's shoes 1784. Pair of man's shoes . 1 79 1. Pair of man's shoes . 1800. Pair of man's shoes . 1 80 1. Pair of woman's shoes 181 1. Pair of man's shoes . 1 79 1. A smock frock . 1793- ditto 181 5. Smock frock for boy . i8i6. Smock frock for man. 10 7 12 4 5 3 10 5 4 6 10 7 o The following is an attempt to indicate the cost of the wardrobe of a man and woman of the working class during the period stated. The prices of the items are taken directly from the overseers' accounts. * Tooke, History of Prices, vol. i, p. 38. N 2 i8o POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. xi A Woman's Outfit, 1730-1760. s. d. A pair of shoes . ' A shift ' (underclothii A pair of stockings Petticoat . ig) 3 10 2 9 I 6 4 3 A gown An apron . ' A leathern bodice ' 5 1 9 2 10 A pair of pattens A pair of stays . A hat and strings 1 2 5 I 2 Check apron A pair of shoes . Hat and strings . A shift A pair of stays . A pair of stockings Petticoat . A gown A leathern bodice A pair of pattens 1760-1790. ;£i 9 3 5. d. I 11^ 6 41 I o 9 3 2 10 I 4 £l 16 6 1 790-1 830. s. d. A pair of shoes .........70 A pair of stays ......... 6 o A pair of stockings ........ i 10 A shift 50 Gown ..........90 Apron . . . . . . . . . • iiii Petticoat 4 3 Hat and head laces ........18 Bodice .......... 2 10 Pair of pattens ......... i 4. £2 O II A Man's Outfit, 1730-1760 A pair of breeches A pair of shoes . A hat . . A shirt A pair of stockings A pair of gloves A frock and waistcoat 5, d. 4 6 i^ CH. Xl] WAGES AND PRICES i8i 1790-18; 50. i s. d. A smock frock ......... 10 Pair of shoes .... 10 Coat, waistcoat, and pair of breeches I I Pair of stockings I 10 A shirt ..... 4 A hat I 2 Pair of gloves .... 3 6 £2 II 6 The prices at which wheat and barley were sold and bought under retail conditions in the parish of Tysoe were as follows : Wheat (per bushel Barley. Malt of 8 gallons . £ s. d. 5. d. s. d. 1728 4 1736 3 8 2 8 1737 4 6 2 8 1740 4 I74I 4 2 6 1752 (Aug. 30) 4 6 (Dec. 31)2 3 1753 4 8 2 6 1756 35. Sd., 35. 6d., & 45. 5 1758 3 3 1767 3 3 I77I 6 (Feb. 31)3 4 (June 9) 4 1772 6 3 6 1778 2 9 1782 4 I80I IS 9 (Sep. 20) I I 13 3 It is difficult to find any record of local prices after 1801, but there is no reason to believe that they varied much from the general prices of the period. Prior to the construction of the turnpikes and canals the variation was only slight if any, and afterwards the common use of the turnpikes to reach the wharves and the fact that practically all the corn sold was taken to the canal side indicate a general levelling of prices through the use of transport facilities. In some cases large gifts of corn, amounting to as much as six or eight bushels, were given in a single dole. It is the opinion of Mr, Jos. Ashby that these large gifts were made to cottagers for seed purposes^ when their own seed supply * Jos. Ashby, A Century of Parish History, Warwick Advertiser, March 191 1. i82 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE [ch. xi had been consumed on account of poverty, or on account of the shortage of the crop at the previous harvest. And as many gifts, especially of barley, were made in the spring, there seems to be good foundation for this view. It is also probable that on some occasions the overseers assisted cottagers with provisions for their cattle. For instance, an entry was made on November 13, 1742, that 15. 2d. was ' paid for a drench and fetching William Capp '. Capp's name never appears as a medical practitioner, nor even as a leech, so the inference is that he was the local farrier. The prices of some other commodities are also shown by casual entries in the records of the overseers' receipts and expenditure. 1747. ' A shoulder of veal ' 1764. One lb. of butter 1 78 1. Bacon at . 1 82 1. '7 lb. of meat ' {M. per lb.) 1784. A pair of sheets A pottage pot . Two chairs 181 1. A bedstead d. o 6 5 4 7 2 I 16 The price of bread, with one exception, seems to have been stationary at one shilling per loaf. In such case the weight must have varied, and it seems probable that it did, for on September 28, 1755, the overseers made an entry of a payment of five shillings ' paid for bread weighing for a year '. Thus the assize of bread seems to have been maintained at least prior to 1760. In 1730 the records state that ninepence was paid for a loaf. Otherwise the entries stand as in 1727 : ' Paid for a loaf, 15.' Even when there were a number of loaves paid for the sum was usually, though not quite always, stated in level shillings. There is a little evidence in the Tysoe overseers' accounts as to the income of the poor. As early as 1731 there was a payment to a man ' to make up his eightpence a day', so that was evidently the minimum standard of wages. By 1769 the minimum as indicated by the sum to which the wages were made up had risen to twelve pence a day in February, and further rose to is. 2d, in June of that year. In 1790 CH.xi] WAGES AND PRICES 183 and 1791 the sums paid to witnesses losing their wages in attendance on the justices on parish cases amounted to one shiUing per day. Other evidence points to this sum as the average wage for an agricultural labourer. That the general standard of wages was low is proved by the fact that the parish was able to obtain the services of a skilled baker for the wages of gs., and it is not too much to assume that the wages of an agricultural labourer would not amount to more than two-thirds of the sum paid to a trained baker. In 1818 and in 1825 the day rates of wages paid by the parish to labourers in its service cutting and carting fuel for the poor was IS. 6d. Thus the rate of wages paid in Tysoe was equal to the general rate for the county of War^nck as stated in Villiers's table for 1819, and slightly higher than the general rate as stated in that table in 1825. There can be no doubt, however, that with house-rents and the cost of clothing prac- tically doubled, and the price of food rising from 100 to 150 per cent, during the century 1730-1830, the incomes of the poor were not of the same real value after 1790 as they were prior to 1760. i84 APPENDIX I GENERAL EXPENDITURE, 1727-1827. i s. d. / s. d. 1727 .... 58 18 4i 1778 .... 2si s loi 1728 60 9^ 1779 134 12 6 1729 56 16 o^ 1780 279 16 oi 1730 50 9 6 1781 229 19 9 1731 46 1782 315 17 3i 1732 28 15 11^ 1783 467 10 10 1733 27 12 5 1784 418 15 3i 1734 48 I 1785 469 6 if 1735 43 I I 1786 439 14 6 1736 38 10 9 1787 464 4 10 T^717 40 4 1788 567 16 7i 1738 34 10 1789 483 16 5i 1739 49 6 9i 1790 565 3 6f 1740 46 IS i\ 1791 534 8 7 1741 118 9 2\^ 1792 508 3 lO^ 1742 92 3 6i 1793 602 18 7\ 1743 73 8 2 1794 659 1 li 1744 57 3 4 1795 920 I 2I 1745 • S3 3i 1796 849 2 7 1746 54 3 10 1797 726 9 9i 1747 • 59 16 5* 1798 737 15 5i 1748 67 3 iiJ 1799 1041 16 7 1749 . 58 IS oi 1800 2912 7 6^ 1750 87 3 8 1801 2303 10 8| 1751 • 70 12 6^ 1802 No records. 1752 . 104 7 8 1803 >» 1753 • 109 18 2^ 1804 >» I7S4 . 87 II 7 I^Oi, >» 1755 • 91 3i 1806 » 1756 . 107 14 5 1807 tt 1757 • 174 II II * 1808 822 9 6 1758 . 157 2 8i 1809 1 149 10 6| 1759 . 140 12 5 1810 942 2 6| 1760 . 108 4 7 1811 1072 5 el 1761 . 112 3i 1812 1242 loj 1762 . 117 10 9 1813 1377 12 4 1763 . 117 2 s 1814 1134 si 1764 . 1X2 90 1815 1040 18 of 1765 • 146 19 2^ 1816 1247 14 4i 1766 . 175 4 6 1817 2026 5 6^ 1767 . 209 2^ 1818 1838 12 10 1768 . IIS 17 7 1819 1553 17 lo^ 1769 . 243 2 9i' 1820 1417 3 8 1770 . 197 3 li 1821 io6s 14 7 1771 . 221 10 o|- 1822 1223 18 3 1772 . 259 18 7 1823 1 186 I 9 1773 • 278 3 i| 1824 1175 6 8i 1774 • 274 18 Si 1825 1106 6 6 1775 • 269 7 5 1826 1181 14 7 1776 . 267 2 i| 1827 1 170 19 si 1777 . 272 14 of ^ Small Pox years. * Rates for building County Hall. * 'Pound Rent ' Relief year. i85 APPENDIX II BAPTISMS, MARRIAGES, AND BURIALS, 1725-1830. Baptisms. Illegitimates. Marriages. Buria 1725 19 I — 18 1726 16 — 4 12 1727 27 — 4 14 1728 12 — 4 20 1729 15 I ' son of a traveller ' I 20 1730 22 — 3 16 I73I 23 — 5 II 1732 19 — 3 13 1733 19 — I 8 1734 24 — I 19 1735 17 — 2 18 1736 16 — 2 9 1737 25 — 14 1738 18 — 2 II 1739 20 — 2 17 1740 22 — 4 8 I74I 17 — 2 II 1742 21 — I 18 1743 19 — 5 14 1744 26 — 6 16 1745 21 — 3 8 1746 23 — 2 15 1747 22 I 3 28 1748 20 — 2 14 1749 22 — 4 8 1750 16 — 4 16 1751 19 — 4 7 1752 22 — 5 19 1753 29 — 2 13 1754 21 — 3 16 1755 24 — Register mutilated. 14 1756 27 — >> 18 1757 24 — ,, 10 1758 17 — ,j 16 1759 30 — »> 17 1760 27 >» 20 1761 32 14 1762 28 tf 16 1763 23 ri 21 1764 24 rr IS 1765 25 18 1766 30 jj 4 1767 29 yy 15 1768 25 3 21 1769 22 8 18 1770 35 I 17 1771 27 — 2 13 i86 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE Baptisms. Illegitimates. Marriages. Burials 1772 24 — 4 18 ^171 35 I 5 17 1774 19 — 3 10 1775 31 2 7 15 1776 21 I 6 13 1777 34 1 3 17 1778 26 2 6 23 1779 29 — 4 23 1780 28 — 3 25 1781 25 — 4 22 1782 30 I 8 14 1783 19 I 3 II 1784 17 — S 13 1785 22 3 6 XI 1786 27 5 14 1787 20 — 9 23 1788 ■ 25 — 3 14 1789 16 — 4 8 1790 29 I 9 14 1791 25 I 4 15 1792 25 I II 14 1793 29 — 2 21 1794 18 2 4 27 1795 33 I 4 19 1796 29 2 4 II 1797 28 I 9 19 1798 30 I 4 18 1799 31 4 6 20 1800 29 2 7 18 1801 24 I 4 13 1802 28 — 2 29 1803 30 — 9 18 1804 32 — 6 17 1805 25 — 7 IS 1806 24 I 8 10 1807 33 2 4 17 1808 31 2 2 16 1809 40 2 I 14 1810 31 — I II 1811 23 — : 10 20 1812 40 — 5 16 1813 28 2 10 20 1814 31 1 6 19 1815 34 3 9 14 1816 26 4 20 1817 38 — I 14 1818 40 2 12 28 1819 29 I I 16 1820 29 I 10 36 1821 37 — 7 20 1822 36 — 6 21 1823 24 2 3 17 1824 29 2 13 12 1825 34 — 6 19 1826 32 J 10 18 1827 31 3 II 12 1828 31 I 6 30 1829 25 2 6 14 1830 28 2 5 7 i87 APPENDIX III Abstract of the Returns made by the Overseers of the Poor. i6 Geo. III. a. d. 1776. Tysoe. Warwick. Money raised in year ending Easter, 1776, ;^269 75. $d. Expended in paying County Rates and for other purposes not relating to the Poor, ;^24 4s. 4S. Expended on account of ye Poor, ;^245 35. id. Whereof was applied in paying Rent of Workhouses and Habitations of the Poor, ;^i2 12s. od. In litigations concerning Settlements and Removals of Paupers, ;{i2 155. 6d. (Column 4, number of workhouses and number of persons which each will accommodate not filled in.) Parliamentary Return on the Poor Rates, a.d. 1785. Tysoe. Warwick. 1783-4-5. Money raised by Assessment, medium of three years, ;^4o8 35. iid. Expenses for militia, vagrancy, county buildings, &c., average £3$ 8s. Expenses to minister's salary, roads, &c., £2 14s. average. Medium of net moneys paid to the Poor, ;^370 is. i id. 1776, ;^245 3s. id. Average expenses of overseers, journeys, visits to Justices, &c., ;^io is. 6d. Average expenses of entertainments and meetings relative to the poor, £2 gs. 2d. Legal expenses, £2 15 s. Average of money expended in setting the poor on work, is. id. Parliamentary Poor Rate Returns, a.d. 1803. Tysoe. Warwick. Total money raised by Poor and other Rates, ;^i,i49 8s. S^d. Average raised for similar rates, 1783-4-5, ;^4o8 3s. iid. Raised by similar Rates, 1776, ;^269 js. $d. Rate in the £, 1803, 9s. 6d. Total money expended for the relief of the Poor, 1803, ;^868 js. iiJJ. Expended on Workhouse, nothing. Expended for litigation, £g. Abstract of Overseers' Accounts, Tysoe, 1823. Not Found in any Parliamentary Return; given in a Pencil Notb ON the Overseer's Payment Book, s. d. Paid for notice from House of Commons . . . . .16 Paid for notice to House of Commons ...... 6 Return sent to House of Commons. Total money surveyed ...... Total expended ....... Expended for other purposes ..... Paid to the Poor ....... 939 14 3 £ s. d. 1,254 1,186 246 IS I 7 6 9 6 i88 POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE Abstract of Poor Rate Returns Ordered by the House of Commons. 1861. Tysoe. Warwick, a. d. 1856. Gross estimated rental ........ /5>273 Rateable value. ......... £s,oi6 Expended for the relief of the Poor ..... ^400 Rate in the £ for the relief of Poor on gross estimated rental, is. 6^d. — on rateable value, 15. y^d. Where the figures given in the text do not agree with the Returns made by the Overseers, it need only be said that it has been found preferable to work from the actual accounts of the overseers' collections and pay- ments. In 1785, when it was stated that only is. id. was expended on setting the poor to work, and in 1803, when there was no return made of housing expenditure, it is obvious that the overseers either took advantage of some loophole in technical definition or deliberately falsified the returns. INDEX Act of 1601, 142, 147, 169. — to prevent murthering of Bastard Children, 86. Appeals and prosecutions, 59. Apprentice life, 137. Apprenticeships, 68. Assessment (in Warwickshire), 170, 172. — of wages by Lancashire justices, 170. Bakehouse Committee, 113. Bastardy Acts, 31, 85, 88, 89. Beggars, licences to, 38. Board of Agriculture, 177. , reports to, 170. — Guardians, 164. Bridewell, 87, 99. Bridewells, 86. Bridle ways, 13. Burgess, J. T., 80. Carriage and drift ways, 12. Chapman, 136. Charity Commissioners, 107, no. Claims to fuel rights, 128. Commission appointed to inquire con- cerning Charities and the Education of the Poor, 106. Commissioners of 1834, 65. Common-fields enclosed, 107. Communal system of land tenure, 65. of agriculture, 65. Compulsory charity, 102. Connexion between poor relief and charity, 119. Consolidation of farms, movement for, 149. Corn dealers' licences, 37. Corn, prices of, 30. Correction, House of, 41, 69, 70, 71, 148. Cost of wardrobe, 179. Davies, 170. Decay of domestic industry, 81. Domesday Survey, 1,27. Dugdale, 5. Economic paupers, 119, 120. Eden, 61, 170, 176, 177. Education, 27. Elizabethan Poor Laws, 103, 148, 163. Enclosure Act, exchanges under, 19. for Tysoe, 5. — allotments, 15, 16, 17. — award, 11, 12, 60, 152. — Commissioners, 12, 14, 18, 26, 52. — , cost of, 20. Farming out, 14T. Feudal system, influence of, 26. Firstfruits, loi. Footways, 13. Freeholders' list, n. Fuelland, no. Gamier, 61, 155. Gasquet, 108. Gray, Mr. H. L., 4, 11. Hasbach, 61, 137. House of Lords' Committee on the Dearth of Provisions, 112. Housing, 119. Howlett, 61. Illegitimates, 33. Improvements in machinery, 148. Income of the poor, 182. Indentures, 67, 69. Individualistic philosophy, loi. Inquisition of 1549, 8. Johnson, Mr. A. H., 29. Justices, power of, 37, 38, 40. Kineton Hundred, 5. Land tax, 4, 11, 22, 43, 55, 56. — assessments, 20. Laws and customs, 49. L6vy, 20. Local prices, 181. Lord Northampton and his heirs, no. Magdalen College, 7. Malthus, 30. Manufactures, population engaged in, 13- Maximum rates of wages, 172. igo POOR LAW IN A WARWICK VILLAGE Medical assistance, 130. Methodism, 170. Miller, 7. Moral condition of the people, 81. — paupers, 119, 120. Murray, Adam, 23, 177. Old enclosures, 21. Order of Quarter Sessions, 71, 109. Ownership of cottage property, 126. Parish contracts with surgeons, 129. — doctor, 130. — malthouse, 11 r. Parochial manufacture or business, 108. ■ — stonepits, 13. Pauper badges, 66. — funerals, 135. Payments for furniture, 127. Poor Law Amendment Act, 129, 164. Commissioners, 29, 36, 50, 65, 120, 129, 136,164. Guardians, 105. , modern, 63. Poor Law, Tudor and Stuart, 36. — Laws, Select Committee on, 54. — Rate assessment, 59. — Rates, 22, 50, 57, 149. ISO- Population, increase and decrease of,92. Principle of public assistance, loi. Property Tax, 56. Provisions for settlement, 79. Quarter Sessions, 37, 77. Records of, 160, 170. Rateable value, 55. Rate assessments, 57, 58. Rates in aid, 54, 55. — , county, 35, 54. — special, 53. Rating, 50. — of personality, 51. — , see Poor Law. Ratepayers, 27, 34, 58. Relief , general, loi. Relief of infants and impotent, 136. — of sick persons, 129. Repayments of relief, 165. Rogers, Thorold, 143. ' Round ' system, 130. — , The, 150. Roundsman system, 154, 155, 160. Select Vestries Act, 44. Settlement Act, 65, 80, 170. — operative provisions of, 67. — rights of, 66. Settlements of servants, 67. Small-pox, 133. Smith, Adam, 61. Speenhamland Act, 87. — allowance system, 155. Stadford, 3, 5. Sturges Bourne Act, 43, 44, 45. Surveyors, 13. Tithes, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 63, loi, 102. — of increeise, loi. Tooke, Home, 128. Town lands, trustees of, 139. Trades and handicrafts, ^2>y 34* Travelling certificates, 78. Vagabond, branded, 65. Vagrancy Acts, 119. Vagrants, 69. Vestry, Easter, 45. — meeting, 40, 42, 43, 44. — Select, 45, 48. Village as a corporation, 48. — guild, 106. — guilds, loi. Villages, open and close, 62. Villiers, 4, 31, 33, 35, 60, 65, 67, 120. 131, 132, 143, 159, 160, 178, 183. Wages List of Quarter Sessions, 140. — , regulations of, 38. Warren rents, 13. Webb, Sidney, 21, 24, 34, 66, 150, 177. Widows in receipt of pensions, 144. Workhouse test, 119, 120. Oxford : Horace Hart, M.A., Printer to the University UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY This book is DUE on the last date stamped below NOV 8 ^«S* X' ■ -^^ ^ noy 1 7 I960 il APRiOTt Ui- NOV 2 H 0\ !,i jAN3iiMe URL Form L-9-15n!-2,'36 966 ptA •'^^^TTY of CALIFOJttilA AT -'•i ANGELES A 000 633 397 5 t PLEA^^e DO NOT REMOVE THIS BOOK CARD %OJI1V3JO^ University Research Library o t^a^Jl^t^|AjUJt^tX8A|!A8^i^JtVgJJtV8^t)^l^l From the Thomas Frederick Tout Library »^.