SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY Sara was taken on the road between Stamford and Empingham, and chemin- age demanded from him, and because he maintained that he was not bound to pay this, as the ash trees had been cut from his own court outside the metes of the forest, the forester, Thomas de Salford, distrained him until he gave him 2j. and found pledges to come to the swanimote. And when he came to the swanimote he was imprisoned at Allexton by Peter de Nevill, and was not liberated until he had paid a fine of half a mark.^* Such inci- dents show that the inhabitants within the royal forest of Rutland probably suffered as much from the injustice and dishonesty of the officers as from the actual forest laws. But it was not only the forest officers who abused their power and caused the people to suffer. In turning to the Hundred Rolls we find many instances of injustice and oppression. For example, ' Edmund the aforesaid Earl (of Cornwall) makes the men of Normanton do suit twice ... at the view of Frankpledge when they ought not and used not so to do.' " ' All the bailiffs of the late Earl Richard and of the present Earl Edmund . . . have taken at Ocham both during the time of the lord King Henry and of the present King (Edward I) toll from carts selling and buying, also to the loss of the county of £,io per annum.' ^* 'The same Richard late Earl of Cornwall took five acres of pasture and wood in Gnosington and inclosed them within his park of Fliares which five acres used to be common for all the aforesaid towns ... to the loss of the county of half a mark for 22 years past.' ^^ Also ' Peter de Nevill diverted the course of the water called Littleby which is the boundary between this county and the county of Leicester on the field of Wilton, and by this he appropriated to himself one rood which was common of the said town.' ^* In the Domesday Book for Rutland we read of socmen, villeins, and bordars ; in the Inquisitions Post Mortem and the rentals and other records of the 13th and 14th centuries we read of free tenants, customary tenants (frequently called nat'roi or bond tenants) and cottagers. The rents paid by the free tenants varied greatly, some being merely nominal, others being fairly substantial, but rarely as large in proportion as those paid by the cus- tomary tenants. At Greetham (i 3 i 5) one free tenant paid i lb. of pepper price od., and two capons price z,d. Another held a messuage and virgate for bd. ; another 3 virgates for i lb. of pepper. On the other hand, in the same manor, and in the same year, Thomas Hertewyke held a messuage and i virgate of land for 23^. od., which was an exceptionally high rent. In Ashwell (1370) Robert Palmer held two messuages and 2 virgates containing 60 acres of land for lbs. id., including id. for ' gressilver,' and also 6 acres of free land for a root of ginger.^" Besides doing homage and suit of court the free tenants sometimes had to perform agricultural services ; for instance, in Ash- well, the same Robert Palmer had to plough 3 acres each year, the ploughing of each acre being worth yd. The typical holding of the customary tenant was the virgate or yard- land, consisting in Rutland of from 22 to 30 acres. Occasionally the virgate " Turner, op. cit. 51. " Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 49. " Ibid. 50. Ibid. " Ibid. 53. Several other encroachments are mentioned, but they are usually more to the damage of the king than to that of the people. " Intj. p.m. file 50, no. 57. '" Rentals and Surv. R. (P.R.O.), S06, m. i. 213
