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Law, Land Transfer, and Lordship on the Estates of St. Albans Abbey in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2011

Leon A. Slota
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Extract

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the manor courts of medieval England were evolving into formal legal bodies with written records and standard procedures. An important reason for this development was that lords needed to protect their prerogatives, which were endangered from above by the king's increasing authority expressed in the royal courts and common law, and from below by peasants who actively sought greater freedom. Lords met these challenges to their authority by altering the law and practice of the manor courts to reinforce the institution of villeinage. This is particularly true of the land law enforced in the manor courts.

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Articles
Information
Law and History Review , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , Spring 1988 , pp. 119 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 1988

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References

Notes

1. Pioneering work in manor court records, when it deals with legal matters, concentrates on inheritance customs. Homans, G. C., English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century (New York, 1975Google Scholar); and Raftis, J. Ambrose, Tenure and Mobility (Toronto, 1964Google Scholar). Barbara Harvey was the first to deal with legal problems that arose from intervivos land transfers in Westminster Abbey and Its Estates in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1977) 294–330Google Scholar. Recent studies of the land market are not concerned with the law of land transfer in the manor courts. Harvey, P. D. A., ed., The Peasant Land Market in Medieval England (Oxford, 1985Google Scholar); Smith, R. M., ed., Land, Kinship, and Life-cycle (Cambridge, 1984Google Scholar). In the best work to date, R. M. Smith summarizes a wide range of legal changes. Still, there is little primary research save for his own on the Suffolk manors of Redgrave and Rickinghall. Smith, R. M., “Some Thoughts on ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Proprietary’ Rights in Land under Customary Law in Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Century England,” Law and History Review 1 (1983) 95–128CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2. British Library, London, Add. MS 40625, Park Court Book and MS. Stowe 849, Codicote Court Book [hereinafter cited as PCB and CCB respectively]. Hertfordshire Record Office no. 7583, Park Extent (1331). Codicote Extent (1332) printed in Levett, A. E., Studies in Manorial History (Oxford, 1938) 338–68Google Scholar. Public Record Office, London, E179.120/2, 120/3, 120/5, 120/7, 120/8, 120/9, 120/10, 120/11 Park and Codicote Lay Subsidies (1291-92, 1292-93, 1295-96, 1305-6, 1307-8, 1313-14, 1316-17, 1322-23).

3. Riley, H. T., ed., Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, Rolls Series, 28 (London, 1863-1866) part 4, nos. 1–3Google Scholar [hereinafter cited as Gesta Abbatum].

4. The Winchester account rolls recorded court fines beginning in the early thirteenth century. Dating of the earliest court records is discussed in R. M. Smith, “Some Thoughts,” supra note 1 at 98-99.

5. A. E. Levett, supra note 2 at 79-86.

6. The first of these notes and blank spaces appear in the Park and Codicote courts in 1241. CCB, 2 and PCB, 2.

7. References to earlier actions in the court books show that the manor courts were, indeed, held long before the earliest courts recorded in the court books. One of these references occurs in a dispute over land between William Prepositus and Alice the wife of Robert in the court of Codicote in 1268. The jury decided the dispute in favor of William because Alice's parents had transferred the land to William forty years before, nine years before the court books begin. CCB, 10 (7 May 1268).

8. Strictly speaking, villeins had no rights in perpetuity but here, as elsewhere, they had de facto hereditary rights and regularly inherited land from their predecessors.

9. CCB, 2v (16 October 1245); PCB, 3v (5 August 1246); British Library, London, Add. MS 40167, Barnet Court Book, 3(18 October 1247). The following is an example of the fully developed form of surrender and admittance: Johannes Longman reddidit sursum in manus domini dimidiam acram terre in campo de Parco prout mete et divise se habent et Simon Bercarius seisitus est inde tenendo secundum consuetudinem halimoti reddendo inde annuatim eidem Johanni j d. et domino per annum de incremento obulum et dat pro seisina xii d. PCB, 18v (8 May 1273).

10. These developments were briefly noted by M. M. Postan in Additional Note III in his introduction to Postan, M. M. and Brooke, C. N. L., eds., Carte Nativorum. A Peterborough Abbey Cartulary of the Fourteenth Century, Northamptonshire Record Society xx (1960) xxviii–lxGoogle Scholar. Smith, “Some Thoughts,” supra note 1 at 107-12 finds a similar situation for Redgrave and Rickinghall.

11. The following is an example of a license to demise and accept: Stephanus de Thikeney dat domino vi d. pro licencia dimmitendi dimidiam acram terre Johanni de Wintridie habendi sibi et heredibus suis. Johannus de Wintridie dat domino xii d. pro licencia capiendi dimidiam acram terre sibi et heredibus suis reddendo annuatim ad festum sanctis Michaelis unum denarium de augmento. CCB, 5 (22 May 1251).

12. Some examples are: Galfridus Bruman cepit terram Willelmi Gosewell infeodum et in hereditatem et dat de gersuma xii d. PCB, 1 (13 October 1237); Radulphus le Tenur dedit domino xii d. pro una roda terre quam cepit de Roberto filio Petri. PCB, 7 (9 June 1251); Ricardus Pistor positus est seisina de duabus acras terre que fuerunt Elie Molendinarius et faciat debita et consueta servicia et dat pro seisina habenda xviii d. per plegium Reginaldi Bedellus. PCB, 10 (8 November 1257).

13. R. M. Smith, “Some Thoughts,” supra note 1 at 106-7.

14. Beckerman, J. S., “Customary Law in Manorial Courts in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries” (unpublished dissertation, London, 1972Google Scholar) in Smith, “Some Thoughts,” supra note 1 at 103.

15. Hyams, Paul, King, Lords, and Peasants in Medieval England (Oxford, 1980) 38–48Google Scholar.

16. Ibid. at 38.

17. Ibid. at 82-83.

18. At Park for the period 1237-49 the phrase appears in 51.4 percent of permanent interpersonal transfers, from 1250-99 in 9.5 percent, from 1300-49 in 94.3 percent, and from 1350-99 in 97.2 percent. For Codicote the respective figures are 56.2 percent, 7.1 percent, 98.6 percent, and 97.3 percent. Before 1250, in addition to holding sibi et suis, grantees were also said to have taken land hereditate. This is still reminiscent of the common law usage in feodo et hereditate and also indicates an affinity with the wording of common law grants.

19. P. Hyams, supra note 15 at 45, 112; Hyams, P., “The Origins of a Peasant Land Market in England,” Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 23 (1970) 24–25CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20. Hyams, supra note 15 at 44 n. 33.

21. Bean, J. M. W., The Decline of English Feudalism (Manchester, 1968) 56–90Google Scholar.

22. Milsom, S. F. C., Historical Foundations of the Common Law (London, 2nd ed., 1981) 114–15Google Scholar.

23. Levett, supra note 2 at 102-9, 117-25.

24. Smith, “Some Thoughts,” supra note 1 at 107-8.

25. Bean, supra note 21 at 56-127.

26. Ibid. at 90-91.

27. Hyams, supra note 15 at 125-51.

28. Milsom, supra note 22 at 169-99.

29. PCB, 10v (8 November 1257) and CCB, 10 (4 November 1266).

30. The effects of crop failures on the frequency of land transfers have been detailed in Kershaw, Ian, “The Agrarian Crisis in England, 1315-1322,” in Peasants, Knights, and Heretics: Studies in Medieval Social History, ed. Hilton, R. H. (Cambridge, 1976) 119–22Google Scholar.

31. These include transfers with clauses specifying entails or other inheritance specifications, maintenance agreements, and transfers to or from two parties jointly (overwhelmingly husband and wife).

32. Smith, “Some Thoughts,” supra note 1 at 120-21.

33. Gesta Abbatum, supra note 3, no. 1 at 453-55.

34. Ibid. at 410-11.

35. See discussion of Codicote cartulary at 12, infra.

36. Gesta Abbatum, supra note 3, no. 3 at 324, 328.

37. Levett, supra note 2 at 138.

38. PCB, 30v-31v (30 May and 27 October 1295) and 91-92v (8 May and 23 October 1348). Crackdowns at other manors in 1312-14 and 1346 are noted in Levett, supra note 2 at 79, 149-50.

39. British Library, London, Add. Ms. 40734, Codicote Cartulary, 18-30 (1284).

40. Chew, H. M., English Ecclesiastical Tenants in Chief and Knight Service (London, 1932) 124–25Google Scholar.

41. A note of a grant of rents he made to Abbot Roger appears in Gesta Abbatum, supra note 3, no. 1 at 475.

42. Henry de Cokreth held at least eighteen acres of land, acted as a juror on fortyfour occasions, and was assessed in the lay subsidies of 1305-06, 1307-08, 1316-17, and 1322-23 ranking, on average, in the upper third of taxpayers. There is no information on the landholdings of Bartholomew de Thikeney and his wife Letitia. He did serve as a juror four times and was assessed for tallage in 1277, ranking in the upper tenth of those assessed. Letitia was assessed for lay subsidy in 1305-06, ranking in the lower third of taxpayers. The 1322 extent lists Walter at Strate as the former holder of forty-four acres, but he appears as a juror in the court books only once. He was assessed in five lay subsidies, 1291-92, 1293-94, 1295-96, 1305-06, and 1307-08 with an average ranking in the upper 13 percent of taxpayers.

43. An analysis of the status groups of the participants in illegal transfers was done for the manor of Codicote. Individuals were assigned to high, middle, and low status groups according to their landholdings, lay subsidy assessments, and jury participation. Participants in illegal transfers were assigned to status groups on the following basis. High: more than twenty-nine acres of land, or in first quartile of lay subsidy assessments, or served over twenty-nine times a juror. Middle: six to twenty nine acres of land, or assessed for lay subsidy, or served as juror. Low: fewer than six acres land, not assessed for lay subsidy, did not serve as juror. People for whom no information was available were assigned to the low group.

44. Available valuations rank Park and Barnet nearly equal. The following figures come from the Taxation of Pope Nicholas and Augmentations office roll of 1543-44 respectively: Park—£39 9s. 5.25d., £49 8s. 9d.; Barnet—£15 2s. 4.75d., £51 3s. 6.5d.; Codicote—£17 5s. 4.75d., £24 14s. 9.75d. Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliae et Walliae Auctoritate P. Nicholai IV. circa A. D. 1291, Record Commission (London, 1802) 52Google Scholar. Dugdale, William, Monasticon Anglicanum, 6 vols. (London, 1817-1830) iv: 250–55Google Scholar.

45. Page, William, ed., The Victoria County History of Hertfordshire, 4 vols., (Westminster, 1902-1914) iii: 371Google Scholar.

46. PCB, 21 and Barnet Court Book, supra note 9 at 16 (29 September 1277); Paris, Matthew, Chronica Majora, 7 vols., ed. Luard, H. R. (London, 1872-1883) vi: 435–36Google Scholar.

47. Slota, Leon A., “The Village Land Market on the St. Albans Manors of Park and Codicote: 1237-1399” (unpublished dissertation, Michigan, 1984) 97–125Google Scholar.

48. Hyams, supra note 15 at 49.

49. Gesta Abbatum, supra note 3, no. 2 at 317-29, and no. 3 at 40-41.

50. Barnet Court Book, supra note 9 at 65v (19 May 1340).

51. PCB, 77 (15 May 1337). The entry referred to in the injunction above is recorded in PCB, 29v (22 May 1293). Inheritance on the estates was impartible and by primogeniture. On the abbot's council as a high level executive advisory body, see Levett, supra note 2 at 153-59.

52. PCB, 102v (19 December 1354); CCB, 83v (11 December, 1354). The text of the passage is unclear about precisely who instituted the new rule, but the fact that it was recorded simultaneously in seven of the abbey's manors points to the central administration of the abbey as its origin. See Levett, supra note 2 at 188.

53. An example of this behavior is noted in Searle, Eleanor, “Seignorial Control of Women's Marriage: The Antecedents and Function of Merchet in England,” Past and Present 82 (1979) 28–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54. Gesta Abbatum, supra note 3, no. 1 at 399.

55. Ibid. no. 2 at 56-57.

56. Ibid. at 114, 188.

57. Ibid. no. 3 at 146-84.

58. Ibid. no. 2 at 2-6.

59. Ibid. no. 3 at 137-46.

60. Courts for the accession year of Roger de Norton are missing.

61. Entry fines also may not have shown their usual rise because a special fine was taken solely to subsidize the creation of the new abbot. PCB, 96v (29 April 1350) and CCB, 78 (21 April 1350).