Contents of the fikst volume
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ad majorem hujus rei evidenciam presentibus sigillum meum apposui in testimonio premissorum. Dat apud Whalleye die Lune px post festum sancti Luce Evangeliste, anno Domini M.ccc.xxx. sexto, 20 Oct. 1336. (Addit. MS. 10,374, f. 24 b.) W. de L. perpetuus vicarius ecclesie de N. gave a similar engagement to the Abbot and Convent of Stanlawe on the feast of Trinity 1289. (Addit, MS. 10,374, f. 25.)] VOL. I.
2 G
226
BOOK III.
ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND RAMIFICATIONS OF PROPERTY. IN that obscure period which intervened between the final retreat of the Romans and the origin of the Northumbrian kingdom this wild and remote tract appears to hare been once more reduced almost to a state of nature ; for, though not absolutely depopulated, it must have been thinly sprinkled and feebly occupied by the poor depressed remnant of its aboriginal inhabitants. Accordingly, no vestiges of their language can be traced but in the names of great natural objects, which belong to a much earlier period, no remains of their works, 1 and no memorials of their habitations.
almost in the light of prime occupants : they seem to have had nearly an universal blank before them, without fortresses to subdue, or towns to seize, or names of artificial objects to continue. Unlike the Norman Conquest, which, five centuries after, transmitted into the hands of new masters a country already built and planted, a system of society already formed, a local nomenclature already established, this revolution gave birth to a new era of manners, language, and religion. Hence it appears, not only that our mllare is almost entirely Saxon, but that our local names are generally formed from those of the first Saxon possessors, combined with some attribute of place, as the cot of Hun, the home of Elvet, the boundary of Oswald." Or, if intended to express some peculiar circumstance in the situation of a village, still the name is significant in the Saxon language, as Clayton, Brunley, Merelay, Downum, and many more. 3
BOOK III. CHAP. I] ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PROPERTY. 227
now fixed ; but something was wanted to remove the confusion incident to single names of persons, especially in a language of so little copiousness as the Saxon ; and hence owners of lands, laying aside the inconvenient mode of calling them by their own names, began to borrow distinctive personal appellations from them. Yet these appear to have been changeable at first, and to have been descriptive merely of present habitation ; so that, if a son, for example, quitted the place of his paternal residence, he would assume a new denomination from the estate to which he had removed. Thus, even brethren of the same house frequently adopted different surnames, which were continued by their descendants. This remark is grounded on the authority of our oldest charters, in which the first subscribing witnesses (men of landed property) are denoted by local surnames ; while their inferiors, who follow, if not designated by their occupation, 1 have nothing more than the rude Saxon Christian name," though sometimes distinguished by a patronyrnical addition. 3
whenever it took place, appears to have been very regularly conducted ; and the general principle upon which it proceeded was evidently this : that under a system of military colonization every subordinate chief should receive a proportion of land adequate to the support of himself, his family, and immediate dependants. And this proportion in the parish of Whalley never exceeded two carucates of land, and never fell short of one. Seated upon this domain, the Saxon leader, softened into a peaceful layeman, was occupied in husbandry and pasturage : here he erected his rude but independent mansion, surrounded by the huts of his shepherds and husbandmen, over whom he exercised the primitive rights of sac, soc, &c. &c. ; and such appears to have been the origin of our manors, vills, or townships (for the terms were at first convertible), which, having commenced in the earliest period of the Northumbrian kingdom, still subsist, with little alteration but in the orthography of the names, the increase of their population, and the extent of their cultivated lands. In all the succeeding tract of time few townships appear to have originated, and none have been depopulated and lost. 4 The carucate, as a measure and principle of distribution to families, is mentioned as early as the laws of Ina ; 5 and the twelve followers of Joseph of Ariniathea are said each to have received his hyde or carucate of land.* 1 In the days of Saxon freedom and inde-
Domesday Survey. I am not speaking at present of villages within the forests, for they are all of much later date. <( Ad forestas dixi villas non competere." Spelman. 5 Leges Inae xxxii, &c. Hence it is, that by conversion the word familial is rendered, by the Royal Interpreter of Bede, pybelanber. 6 I mention this fact merely to show the antiquity of this principle of distribution ; for, if we reject the whole story 2 G2 228 HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK III. CHAP. L pendence amongst us, these lands were held in socage ; that is, for a certain render or service, immediately, and in capite, of the crown. " Vulgaris opinio (says the author of the Status de Blackburnshire), tenet et asserit, quod, quot fuerunt villse, vel mansse seu maneria hominum, tot fuerunt domini, nedum in Blackhurnshire, verum etiam in Eachdale, Tottington, et Bowland, quorum nullus de alio tenehat, sed omnes in capite, de ipso domino Rege." This representation is confirmed by Domesday Book, which, though it passes over the hundred of Blackburn with an indistinctness strongly implying the obscurity of the place, and perhaps the difficulty of access to it, has ascertained, with sufficient exactness, the number and independence of the manors contained within it, and the proportion of each to the original carucate.
relates to the hundred of Blackburn ; and, after a few remarks, will compare it with known and positive facts, from later authorities, respecting the extent of freehold (that is, the only original) property within every manor. IN BLACHEBURNE HUNDRET. Hex Edwarclus tcnuit Blaclieburno, ibi II. hiclze et n. carucataj terras. Ecclesia liabebat n. bovatas de liac terra, et ecclesia Seta; Marioi liabebat in Wallci II. carucatas terras quietas ab omni consuetudine. In eodem Manerio 1 silva i. leuva longa ct tantundem lata, et ibi aira accipitris.
torn. i. pp. 10, 11. 1 Familiar as the term manor is now become to us, I know not whether it has ever been defined with precision. The word itself, though found (I believe for the first time) in the charters of Edward the Confessor, is unquestionably Norruan: but the peculiar species of private and local jurisdiction which we now express by the term was unquestion- ably known to our Saxon ancestors; and the layeman halens socam et sacam super homines suos was indisputably the same character which was afterwards termed lord of a manor. Coke Litt. c. 9, s. 73.
now understood implies little more than a peculiar right to kill game within certain limits, although such a privilege depends upon a distinct grant of free chace, which many manors never possessed at all, or upon prescription.
manerimn, as referring to the subject of this work, in the ancient evidences from which it has been taken, bears four senses :
the passage quoted above. 2nd. A single vill, township, or sometimes hamlet, under the jurisdiction of a lord holding, before the Conquest, of the Crown in capite, and afterwards of the chief lord of the fee. This is the sense of the word where it first occurs, in the passage of Domesday before us, referring to the town of Whalley alone ; and such are all our real mesne manors at present, commensurate, that is, with townships or hamlets. 3rd. An arbitrary collection of mesne manors never granted out by the chief lord of the fee, but in later times grouped together under the name of one manor for the convenience of holding courts. For ordinarily the Court Baron, as well as Customary or Copyhold Court, must be held within its own manor; but if a lord be seized of two or three manors, then, by custom, courts may be held upon one for alL Coke, Litt. M supra. And thus Colne, Ightenhill,. Accrington, and Tottington have obtained the appellation of manors.
BOOK III. CHAP. L] ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PROPERTY. 229 Ad hoc Manerium vel Hundretum adjacebant xxvui. liberi homines, tenentes v. hidas et dimidium et XL. carucatas terras pro xxvui. Maneriis. Silva ibi vi. leuvis longa et mi. leuvis lata, et erat in supradictis consuetudinibus.
Peniltune de dim. hyda. Totum Manerium cum hundreto reddebat Regi de firma xxxul. et xi. solidos. Hancterram totam dedit Rogerius Pictaviensis Rogerio de Busli et Alberto Greslet, et ibi sunt tot homines, qui habent undecim carucatas et dim. quas ipsi concesserunt esse quietas usque ad tres annos, et ideo non appreciantur modo.
every difficulty, and to extract from it a pretty accurate representation of the state of property at that early period.
of the parishes of Whalley and Blackburn alone : those of Bibchester and Chipping, now annexed to it, being surveyed in Amunderness.
by 28 freemen for 28 manors, of which the whole rental was xxxijZ. ijs. 3. Deduct one-third for the number of manors and carucates in the parish of Black- burn, which is nearly the proportion, and there will remain for the parish of Whalley, in integral numbers, about 19 manors, consisting of 30 hides or carucates, and paying a rent of xxj/. 4. Our original manors, therefore, some consisting of one carucate and others of two, may be estimated, one with another, at If carucate each. 5. Every hide or carucate paid about xiijs. Consisting, therefore, as they did, of 8 oxgangs each, and the oxgang, on an average, of 16 acres, the mean rent per acre would be one penny and a fraction. The carucate, by the same rule, would measure 128 acres ; and the whole amount of ancient freehold lands surveyed by Domesday in the parish of Whalley would not exceed 3,840 acres, Lancashire measure. 1
thing, than a capital messuage or mansion-house. In this sense, Hesandforth, Catlow, Blakay, Greenfield, and others, none of which were ever vills or hamlets, or ever enjoyed manerial jurisdiction, are sometimes styled manors. Vide Townel. MSS. This last use of the word is also common in the monkish historians, maneriorum edlficator extitit. Matt. Paris, sub an. 1251. Stanmure abbas Joh. manerium construxit. Lib. St. Albani, as cited by Spelman in voce. \Manerium. de Kyverdale fuit integraliter combustum. Add. 10374, fol. 142.] 1 It may assist the reader, in understanding this survey, to be informed that the bovate or oxgang, here averaged at 16 acres, fluctuated between the two extremes of 11 and 18 acres in different places, and sometimes even in the same township (vide Padiham), according to the quality of the land : but in the parish of Whalley, in general, lands were anciently divided, according to the mode in which they were estimated or measured, into the terra lovata, i.e. oxgang land, and the terra rodata, i.e. rode land. The first of these was ancient inclosure, which, having been time im- memorial under the plough, was measured by the quantity which one ox (of which it appears from hence that there were eight in a caruca) could plough in one season. The second was land lately reclaimed and thrown into cultivation ; and it may be proved, by the following authorities, to have been synonymous with essart : " One essart, called Swainey rode Martin's essart, or Martin rode One essart called Malyn rode." Burton's Mon. Ebor. under Kirkstall. This word rode, which in the dialect of the parish of Halifax becomes royde, is plainly a participial substantive, formed 230
HISTORY OF WHALLEY.
[BOOK III. CHAP. I. 6. But farther, we have here the first hint of tenure in villenage, which appears to have commenced in this parish after the Norman Conquest, since no notice is taken of it as having existed in the Confessor's time ; but it is merely affirmed by Domesday, that there are homines or homagers, besides the 28 free tenants, who hold xi et dim. carucates, and that they are free from the geld for three years, and therefore not rated now, evidently, I think, because these lands were but in the infancy of cultivation. After the confused and careless survey of the parish in Domesday is thus reduced to order, little would be wanting to put this account on a footing with the more accurate parts of Domesday but the names of the several manors, vills, and hamlets, and the particular admeasurement of each.
the Inquisition J after the death of Henry de Lacy, the last Earl of Lincoln, taken A.D. 1311, from which I have extracted the following table of manors and freehold lands. It must be premised that I have discarded all those which are held in thanage (a tenure the nature of which will be ascertained hereafter), namely, -Oswaldtwisle, Read, Henthorn, Twislcton, Simonstone, and Padiham, because there is the strongest reason to conclude that they were parts of the 11 carucates held in villenage 2 at the time of the Domesday survey, and have never been regularly granted as manors, but have acquired the right by gradual usurpation and connivance. 3
Manor.
Whallcy Huncot
Measure. 2 carucates 2 carucates
Ancient Tenure. Frank almoigne Never granted out from the provincial verb rid, to clear or grub up. Again, ridding, or riding also, which yet remains in the names of many fields, may be proved to bo synonymous with essart, and therefore confirms the former etymology. Thus : " One essart called Todhill riding An essart called Tullin riding." Burton's Mon. Ebor. from Charters circ. 1258. Lastly, the word essart itself is supposed by Spelman (voce Foresta) to be corrupted from exsercre, and to be the opposite of desererc. But surely the meaning of the term might have led him to the sarrio of the Bei Ruslicce scriptores ; which, in barbarous Latin, became cxsarrio, and the participle passive exsartus, i.e. essarted. I have been the more diffuse in explaining this word, because Thoresby, and after him Mr. Watson, without any account of its origin or etymology, have contented themselves with defining royd land, terra debitis et inculta.
of finding an heir. Their descriptions are almost always in round numbers, which must generally be false, e. gr. ICO acras terra;, 50 prati, 200 jampnorum et brueree ; and it is not uncommon, in two successive generations, to find the same premises estimated at twice the quantity, or perhaps one half. But after the death of the last Earl of Lincoln, leaving a single daughter, on whose decease, without male issue, the vast estates of the family were settled upon the Crown, it was thought necessary to make a strict and accurate survey, and for the jurors to find with equal exactness according to the result. To this circumstance we are indebted for one of. the most valuable documents from which the History of Whalley has been compiled. There is extant, indeed, another general inquisition of the Honour of Clitheroe, after the death of Henry Duke of Lancaster, but it is comparatively slight and inaccurate. [See the prefatory account of Record authorities prefixed to this volume.] The rest of these lands I suppose to have lain in the parish of Blackburn, as there is no room for them in that of Whallej. 3 See Read and Oswaldtwisle, where the steps of this usurpation may be traced. BOOK III. CHAP. L] ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PROPERTY. 231
Manor. Peniltone and Coldcoats .... Little Mitton Wiswall Clitheroe ....... Merlay mag. ...... Merlay parv. ...... Worston cum Chatburue .... Downham ....... Alvetham with Clayton .... Accrington vetus, originally an hamlet under Alvetham Haslingden ....... Bruuley, 1 car. cum Habergham eaves \ car. and Townley cum Brunshaw car. Colne Folrig Cliviger, 2 car. and also the grange of Kirk- stall Abbey, which appears originally to have belonged to the parish of Rochdale, 1 car.
horn and Extwisle, a car. each Hapton, 1 car. with Bridtwisle, \ a car. 1 Measure. 1 an hide .
1 carucate 7 oxgangs or 7-8ths of a carucate 1| carucate \\ oxg. 1 carucate \ a carucate . 1 carucate 2 carucates . 1 carucate 2 carucates . 3 carucates . 2 carucates Ha cai'ucate Ancient Tenure. Peneltone in mil. serv. Coldcoats in
Mil. serv. Mil. serv. In demesne Mil. serv. Mil. serv. Never granted out
Mil. serv. Frank almoigne
Mil. serv. Two manors, one in mil. serv. the other
Three manors, the first never granted out, the second held in mil, serv., the third in frank almoigne Two manors in mil serv. Before I dismiss this subject, it may be proper to subjoin a few observations on the Manors held in Thanage, which have been excepted out of the former catalogue, and must now be assigned to a baser origin than their neighbours. These are Manors. Read .
Simonstone 3 Padiham 2 . Twisleton . Oswaldtwisle Henthorn . In all 5 carucates, 3 oxgangs. Measure. 7 oxgangs 7 oxgnngs 4 oxgangs
\ a carucate 1 The accuracy of these measurements will be proved from the Inquisition of 1311, under the survey of the several townships.
232 HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK III. CHAP. I. Now, whoever attends to the earlier passages of lands in Read and Oswaldtwisle will find no vestige of a formal grant of those manors from the chief lord ; but the mention of services, and the word manor, appears to have been introduced by stealth, and the right established by subsequent usurpation on one part and inattention on the other. The above-mentioned facts, together with the peculiarity of the tenure, first induced a suspicion, in which I am now confirmed, that these townships never formed any part of the ancient free lands of the parish in the Saxon times, but were in fact a portion of the llf carucatcs held at the time of the Domesday survey by homines or homagers, that is, in villenage.
services were generally commuted for by rents ; and theinage may be proved to have existed in Lancashire at an early period ; for in the llth year of Henry III. or 1227, when a tallage was made in this county, the tenants in theinage paid ten marks to have respite that they might not be tallaged. Mag. Rot. Pip. 11 Hen. III. 3 Rot. 1 Lane.
earls of counties were free rents, but they were also paid by copyholders to lords of manors. 1
species of tenure in villenage amongst us. It will now be satisfactory to remark the coincidence between these two ancient records, though at the distance of more than two centuries from each other. For, if we dismiss the manors held in thanage on the presumption that they are parts of those lands which are mentioned in Domesday as held in villenage, and if we also consider the hamlets as separated, after the time of the Conqueror, from the vills to which each belonged, we have here again 19 manors, precisely the number collected from Domesday ; but instead of 30 carucates, the result of our former computation, we have, in the Yüklə 4,81 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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