William Oswald Massingberd

“ In fact the lord was a constitutional ruler, [107] and the villeins, as well as the freemen, had a real share in the system of self-government which prevailed. It must, too, in those rough and turbulent times, have been a considerable advantage to the villein to be under the protection of a great and powerful lord, such the earl of Lincoln, or later the duke of Lancaster. I think it will be admitted that the Ingoldmells villein was neither down­-trodden, wretched, nor miserable, as by some accounts were villeins elsewhere. ”

“ It easy to see how liable to oppression by a bad, unjust, or grasping lord this rule of law rendered the villein, though there were some excep­tions to this rule, for a villein may not be slain or maimed at pleasure, and the lord may not seize his wainage. Still in ordinary daily life under a decent lord the villein might live on, as he seems to have done at Ingoldmells, without experiencing any grievous wrong through this want of protection by the king's courts. Secondly I must put the exaction of merchet, a fine the villein had to pay for marrying his daughter. ”

“ We may divide the free tenants into two classes: (1) those who held lands in Ingoldmells or the soke; (2) those who held lands outside, but owed suit at the court.
I. The lords of the manor of South Hiltoft held an independent manor, but still were not included amongst the ‘foreign’ tenants, as S. Hiltoft was in Ingoldmells. On the earliest roll appears the name of Sir Thomas de Burnham, knight, who held this manor probably in right of Philippa his wife, who seems to have been the same person as Philippa de Hiltoft who presented to the church of Ingoldmells in 1273. ”

“ The fine for incontinence naturally connects itself with the merchet, and was by no means so uncommon at Ingoldmells as one could wish.
Other disabilities were that the villein could not leave the lordship nor take orders without the licence of the court, and his goods and chattels were in strict law considered the property of his lord. But the Ingoldmells villein who held land seems to have had no desire to leave it, and the landless man appears to have gone away [102] to get work, paying a small sum of money (chevagium) as an acknowledgement of the lord’s hold over him. ”

“ There could have been no serious difficulty here in finding sufficient freemen to present, and serve on the inquisitions, and in the fifteenth century the second jury presented certain offences and the first jury affirmed that what they said was true, but I cannot show that the system of double presentment, whereby one jury presents that a man is suspected of an offence and another jury says whether he is guilty or no, went on at Ingoldmells. ”

“ They also present that a free tenant owes fealty or other services, and that a villain is dead, and his heirs owe a fine for entry, or that he has acquired free land and owes a new rent, or that he has left the manor without licence, or that his daughter has been guilty of immorality. ”

“ I had hoped to be able to give in an appendix some rather long extracts from the Ministers’ Accounts &c. at the Public Record Office relating to the manor of Ingoldmells, but have been obliged to refrain. These accounts of the rents and issues of the manor make clear the customs of the manor concerning the acquisition of land by villeins, and mark the progress of their prosperity. It seems that the old rent paid by villeins for bond land was 4d. per acre, and that on alienation an additional rent of 8d. per acre became payable, and that a rent of 2d. ”

“ The lord might, perhaps, have summoned his Lincolnshire tenants to the court of his honor at Pontefract, but this would have been most inconvenient to them, and have caused much discontent, and so he summoned them to his principal manor in the county of Lincoln; even so they often made default, but eventually seem to have fallen into the custom of paying a fine for respite of their suit of court for a year, though in 2 Henry VI John Harpyswelle of Toft Newton actually served on the inquisition of freemen. ”

“ Edmund de Lacy, son of John and Margaret, married Alesia daughter of the marquis of Saluzzo, but died in 1258 [13] before his mother. His son and heir, Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, was lord of Ingoldmells when the earliest court rolls we have were written, and had been [14] found to have free warren in Ingoldmells on his own lands and other people’s twenty years in 1276. ”

“ III the form is ‘to him and to his heirs for ever,’ which seems to bring the lord into danger of losing his villein, so the words ‘according to the custom of the manor’ are added, and a little later ‘in bondage.’ We find him claiming bond land as ‘his inheritance,’ and settling it upon his wife and children. A widow could claim her dower, a third part of her deceased husband’s lands for life. ”

“ Several entries show the steward exercising considerable influence and control. The court was sometimes held [38] before him, though even then the township presented what the custom of the manor was. We find cases postponed for the coming of the steward, and others presented for the common council. In 7 Edw. II a woman was [39] put in the pillory by the consideration of the steward. Sometimes he condones a fine. Occasionally tenants complained to the lord for lack of justice, and the steward was directed to administer to the parties such justice that they have no reasonable cause to complain. ”

“ William de Waycroft, Robert de West­mels, Robert de Steping, William son of Richard de Hilletoft, William Cadihorn, Robert de Caleflete, and William Marays. Here we have the names of families which held free lands under the manor of Ingoldmells, and, frequently appearing in the courts, must have materially influenced the proceedings.
The absence of any survey of the manor makes it difficult to define the social position of the different freeholders. ”

“ The Lords de Cantilupe are the earliest tenants of these fees mentioned on the court rolls. To them succeeded the Lords de la Zouch, of whom Eudo had [69] married Milicent, daughter of William, and sister and coheir of George de Cantilupe. In 1376 Ralph de Daubenay is mentioned as tenant. I suppose he and others held lands in Withcall which were of the Cantilupe fee, for in 1428 [70] the Lord de la Souch, Patrick Skypwith, John Legburn, clerk, William Daubenay and the abbot of Kirkstead held severally 1 fee in Withkall, formerly John Daubenay’s, of the fee of Cantilupe. ”

“ As regards the business, at first the largest part of the rolls is taken up with pleas of debt and trespass, but as time goes on the conveyancing entries fill more and more space, and at the view of frank pledge held twice a year the presentments occupy considerable space also. These presentments were made at first by the townships, and sometimes Ingoldmells, Skegness and Burgh presented separately. ”

“ A William de Fristona is mentioned in the Pontefract Chartulary, his father was Robert son of Gerbodo, his son Bertram died in his life time, and his [William’s] daughter Alice was his heir. In 1210–12 Guy de Olebec [79] held 2 fees in Cockerington of the honor of Lascy. In 1295 it was found [89] that Alice de Vavasor, deceased, held cer­tain lands in Cockerington of Henry de Lascy, earl of Lincoln, and William Vavasor is her son and heir. In 1342 Henry le Vavasour [90] granted his manor of Cockerington to feoffees, who were sworn to assign it to the abbot and convent of Louth Park. ”

“ I Begin my short account of the manor of Ingoldmells, or, as it is now called, Ingoldmells-cum-Addlethorpe, by trans­cribing two entries from Domesday Book, which I translate.
‘Land of Robert Le Despenser [Robertus Dispensator] .
‘Manor. In Herdertorp Wiuelac had 3 carucates of land for geld. There is land for 3 ploughs. There Robert has 3 ploughs in demesne, and 32 sokemen with a moiety of this land and 12 villeins with six ploughs. There are there two churches, and 400 acres of meadow. In King Edward’s time it was Worth 8l., now it is worth 10l. There is soke in Guldelsmere. ”

“ He could, and often did, purchase free land. And in the fifteenth century, if not earlier, he disposed of his land and chattels by will. [104] On the whole it must be admitted that his was no servile tenure in the ordinary as distinguished from the legal sense of the term, but rather ‘customary freehold,’ although he had lost legal protection in the king’s courts. ”

“ William, son of Sir Alexander de Gipthorp, had succeeded to lands in Skegness, which had belonged to Simon de Thorp, whose daughter he had married. To one branch of the Gipthorps William Manby esqr succeeded as tenant before 9 Elizabeth, having married Alice, daughter and coheir of Thomas Gipthorp. It seems probable that Alice was sister to William son of Thomas Gipthorp, who died [51] in 1506, leaving a son William, who seems to have died without issue. Sir John Babington, who was tenant in 1499, and Lord Sheffield, who was tenant in 1567, held lands which had been William Gipthorp's. ”

“ On the earlier rolls such entries are comparatively few, the object of recording the proceedings of the courts not being to afford the villein written evidence of his title to the land he occupied, but to serve as a check on the manorial officers, and show what the amercements, fines, and profits of the manor were. [41] As time goes on we find these entries increasing in number and importance, a tenant pays a small fine to be allowed to search the rolls for evidence of his title, later he calls the rolls to ‘warrant’ it, and temp. ”