I find[1] that the lands there were in the possession of Lord John Bek at a rent of 32d per annum, and that the earl of Lincoln granted this rent to him before A.D. 1295.
The Manorial Court.
It is with much diffidence that I venture to write anything on this difficult subject, and yet it seems well that I should point out a few facts, referring, however, my readers to such works as Professor Maitland’s Introduction to ‘Select Pleas in Manorial Courts,’ and Professor Vinogradoff’s ‘Villainage in England’ for more general information.
It may be asked, ‘who attended and formed the Court of Ingoldmells?’ I answer, the suitors—the tenants who owed suit. These were both freemen and villeins. The villeins were in the earliest times obliged to attend personally, and were not ‘essoined’ or excused.[2] The freemen were at first the freeholders, who for the most part owed suit from three weeks to three weeks, though some may only have owed it twice a year and when specially summoned, but later there were freemen who held customary lands for which they owed suit. The freemen could be essoined, and frequently paid a small fine to be excused suit for a year, a practice which villeins were allowed to adopt also later. The list of fines for respite of suit of court 10 Henry V shows 80 tenants who paid, from which I infer that there were over 100 tenants of the manor, for there were 24 tenants on the two inquisitions, and others must have attended the court for various reasons. I am inclined to think that the free and bond tenants were about equal in number, but in consequence of the rule that no villeins were to be essoined the court, except on special occasions when all tenants were summoned, would be composed of more villeins than freemen. On the other hand the list of tenants sworn on the inquisition 4 Edw. III shows more freemen than villeins. A good way to get an idea of the business done in the manorial court will be to turn to the proceedings of three or four courts at different periods, and and see what went on. For example we might take[3]
