13 - Villeins and their lands

Summary

In this chapter, for convenience, ‘villein’ is used to denote a tenant who was personally unfree, and ‘customary tenant’ a tenant who was personally free but held land by an unfree tenure. This is an arbitrary choice of terms, for in charters tenants of both classes were often referred to indiscriminately as homines, as indeed were freehold tenants, while a man who was personally unfree was more often referred to as nativus or rusticus than as villanus, and even, though rarely, as homo consuetudinarius. The documents which need to be considered fall into three groups, the first (1) relating to transfers of villeins as chattels, where there was no question of manumission. These comprise (a) transfers of villeins together with their lands, and (b) transfers of villeins alone, without lands. Such grants, particularly (a), were common from the mid-twelfth century onwards. The second group (2) comprises charters relating to the manumission of villeins, and the third (3) comprises various transactions relating to villeins or customary tenants. These include (a) grants to free persons to hold in villeinage, (b) dealings by charter between lords and villeins, (c) acquisitions of land by villeins from persons who were not their lords, and (d) grants made by villeins or customary tenants, purporting to be made in free tenure, of the land which they held from their lords by unfree tenure. Deeds falling into (a) and (b) are uncommon, because such transactions were usually conducted at manorial level without the handing over of charters.