A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK But it was impossible for the old personal relation between the lord of the manor and the customary tenant to give place to the impersonal relation involved in the payment of fixed money rents to pass away entirely, without even at this late date some difficulties arising. Even as late as 1597, on the sale of the manor of Monk Soham,"* an item of ' 14 days' divers works to be done upon the demesne in harvest at i id. a day,' figures as one of the assets of the property, 'which at 10 years' purchase amounteth to ^Ti 4' ; also i y. 9^. of palfrey silver and lbs. %d. of knowledge money due to every lord at his first entrance into the manor, and amounting at five years' purchase to £b ly. d. The barter of ancient rights could not always be effected with such an exact computation of their value. A curious and typical case is exemplified in the history of the same manor."' Upon the surrender of some portion of the land about 1595, a dispute arose about the fine, whether or not it were certain, i.e. ' s. the acre for Molland and is. the acre for Workland according to the pretended prescription.' "' The Court Rolls showed, it was alleged, that fines had been taken at several rates, sometimes s., sometimes 3J-. 4^/., sometimes is. an acre ; there was, therefore, no prescribed fine, and further, ' it is not known at this day which land is molland and which is workland,' in the copies land being taken up by the names of so many acres of molland and workland generally, without specifying how much of each sort. ' Of late time,' the statement concludes, ' since about primo Elizabeth, no fine is set down in the Court Rolls, but the steward left the copyholder to compound with the lord himself.'"^ But from the close of the century the most striking feature of the agrarian records is the eagerness for the acquisition of landed property, by advantageous purchase or by less questionable methods. Rcycc (16 1 8) complains"' that in this latter age, 'through the immoderate desire of the next bordering lords,' the very highways are ' straitened and narrowed in many places.' In the same year a commission was appointed to adjust the boundaries of the freehold and copyhold lands of one John Haughfen, lying at Slaughden End in Sudbourne. The defendant held certain copyhold lands under the manors of Sud- bourne, Dunningworth, and Staverton-cum-Bromeswell, and was accused of having defaced the ancient abuttalls and boundaries of these freeholds, and under colour of certain deeds of feoffment claimed the same as his own freehold property, and refused to the lord of the manor, Sir John Stanhope, his due of rent."' The extraordinarily complicated condition of Haughfen's property may perhaps be urged in extenuation, if not as an excuse, for his attempt to enrich himself at his neighbour's expense. By a survey of 1577 brought forward in evidence, he owned partly in bond, partly as freehold, thirty-five pieces of land (farmed jointly by two tenants), thirty-four of which are between i acre 1 rood and a rood in size, while one is 2 acres 2 roods. The surveyor of the manor of Ixworth in 1616^'"' complains to the lord that ' the revenue of the manor is much diminished by late encroach- ments made by the lord of Wyken, and by inclosures and intrusions upon '" Add. MS. 23959, fol- 3+- '" Ibid. fol. 40. "' ' Molland,' land in villeinage with largely commuted services ; ' workland ' with services uncomffluted. "' Add MS. 23959, fol. 41. "» Breviary, 53. "' B.M. Add. MS. 21054. '" Harl. MS. 98, fol. 28. 666
