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.
The officers of the manor besides the steward were:
The grave, or reeve, who was elected by the whole homage, i.e. by the villeins, and sworn to serve the lord faithfully. He had to render a strict account of the receipts from fines, amercements &c.
The graves of the sea dikes, or banks, at Ingoldmells and Skegness, whose duty[1] it was to see that all defects were repaired, and to distrain those who did not repair the portion for which they were answerable, the township deciding what was necessary.
The bailiff, who summoned tenants to come to the courts, and to serve on the inquisitions, and levied distraints &c. To threaten or beat the bailiff, or make a rescue against him, was a serious offence.
The foreign bailiff, who summoned the foreign or outside tenants, and, I suppose, levied the distraints made upon them, but was not always willing to perform his office.[2]
The constables, the wardens and tasters of ale, and the clerk of the courts. An ‘officer of the court’ is also mentioned, 1 Henry VI, as condoning certain damages. A grave of the meadows is mentioned on the earliest roll.
Some of the dues paid for ships may be explained by a lease,[3] 11 July 1511, to Thomas Totoft of ‘the herbage of the meles in Skegnes, with the profits of the warren of rabbits there, and with the spreading of nets to dry upon the soil of the lord the king there, and the custom of ships called Leyre, that is to say for a ship laden with herrings, 100 herrings or the price, for every strange ship carrying its nets upon the soil of the lord the king there to dry as often as it shall ground fourpence for custom.’
The Freeholder
There were, in 1086, 37 sokemen at Ingoldmells, including the soke, as compared with 14 villeins. In later times the numbers of both increased. We may divide the free tenants into two classes: (1) those who held lands in Ingoldmells
