same, but internal changes, by inheritance or otherwise, or external change of possession necessitated an occasional census for the purpose of finding its detailed condition. The sworn juries who gave the information from which such extents were made up were usually, as in the case below, villeins, and varied in number from three to twelve. Indeed in most of the cases where juries sworn to give testimony as to manorial custom were necessary, they were composed of villeins, as freemen could not be required by the lord of the manor to take an oath.

The extent then is the fullest form of description of the condition of a manor at any particular time, while the first two forms of documents are of more value for telling the actual life, action, and change of the community. The document translated below is an extent, made in 1307, of the manor of Borley, a small manor in the northeastern part of Essex on the river Stour. It has been copied by Professor Cunningham from a MSS. book formerly the property of Christ Church, Canterbury, but now in the British Museum, where it is numbered, Additional MSS., 6159. It was probably copied into this book from the original parchment about 1346. Professor Cunningham has printed it as an appendix to the first volume of his History of English Industry and Commerce, from which this translation has been made.

The manor of Borley at the time of Edward the Confessor was in the hands of a freeman named Lewin. At the time of Domesday it was held, along with two other manors, by Adeliza, countess of Albemarle, half sister to William. It came by marriage, with the above title, into the powerful de Fortibus family, and finally to Isabella de Fortibus, who inherited also from her brother the earldom of Devon. In 1269 she was married to the second son of Henry III., and died without issue in 1293. Before this time, however, she had transferred the manor of Borley along with some other domains to King Edward I., in exchange for property of equivalent value. It was, therefore, in 1307, at the time of

the extent a royal manor, and remained so until 1346, when it was granted by Edward III. to the convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, which retained it until the dissolution of that corporation in 1539. After various changes, in that period of change, Borley was granted to Edward Waldegrave, a courtier of Queen Mary, and to descendants of this family it still belongs.

In the document 81134 acres are enumerated, in addition to mention of a common pasture of such size that the lord could pasture 120 sheep in it as his share. In the modern parish of Borley, which is apparently coterminous with the manor, there are but 7941⁄2 statute acres. This discrepancy may be explained in one or other of two ways. There may have been some outlying lands, included in the extent, as was not unusual and which might be the meadow of Rainholm," mentioned below. On the other hand the mediæval acre was by no means always a definite term, and if any considerable number of the scattered strips were below the statute acre the apparent discrepancy would disappear. The use of the land according to the extent was distributed as follows:

The distribution of its possession is given as follows:

The total annual value of the estate to the lord of the manor is calculated to be £44 8s 534d. It would therefore, if in the possession of an individual, be double the necessary

amount to allow of him being knighted, and in modern value may be considered to be equal to about $2750 a year. This sum came from the following sources:

Forty-six persons are named in the extent. Seven are indicated as free tenants, seven as molmen, twenty-seven as villeins or customary holders, and five as cotemen. If these all lived on the manor and if they included the whole population, at an estimate of five persons to each land-holder, the number of inhabitants would be about two hundred and thirty. According to the census of 1831, there were in Borley forty-four families, forty-one inhabited houses, and one hundred and ninety-five persons. In 1891 there were two hundred and ten inhabitants, a striking suggestion of fixedness in rural population. The medieval value of the benefice is given at 10, the present value being £240 a year. In regard to distribution of land, the proportion of villeins to freemen, the nature of the services, the characteristics of jurisdiction, and the general manorial customs this account of a manor of the early fourteenth century would seem to be as nearly typical as the wide diversity of mediæval conditions renders possible.

University of Pennsylvania.

E. P. CHEYNEY.

TRANSLATION OF THE TEXT.

Extent of the Manor of Borley made there on Tuesday next after the feast of Saint Matthew the Apostle, A. D., 1308, in the first year of the reign of King Edward, son of King Edward, in the presence of John le Doo, steward, by the hands of William of Folesham, clerk, on the oath of Philip, the reeve of Borley, Henry Lambert, Dennis Rolf, Richard at Mere, Walter Johan and Robert Ernald, tenants of the lord in the said vill of Borley. These all, having been sworn, declare that there is there one messuage well and suitably built; that it is sufficient for the products of the manor, and that it contains in itself, within the site of the manor, 4 acres, by estimation. The grass there is worth yearly, by estimation, 25. And the curtilage there is worth yearly 12d., sometimes more and sometimes less, according to its value. And the fruit garden there is worth yearly as in apples and grapes, perhaps 5s. and sometimes more. Total, 8s.

And it is to be known that the lord is the true patron of the church of Borley, and the said church is worth yearly, according to taxation, in grain, in offerings, in dues, and in other small tithes,

10.

And there is one water-mill in the manor, and it is worth yearly on lease, 60s. And the fishpond in the mill dam, with the catch of eels from the race, is worth yearly, by estimation, 12d. Total, 61s.

There is there a wood called le Hoo, which contains 10 acres, and the underbrush from it is worth yearly, without waste,

5s. ; and the grass from it is worth yearly, 5s. ; and the feeding of swine there is worth yearly, 12d. And there is there a certain other wood called Chalvecroft, which contains, with the ditches, 5 acres. And the herbage there is worth yearly, 2s. 6d.; and the underbrush there is worth 35.; and the feeding of swine there is worth yearly, 6d. Total value, 175.

There are there, of arable land in demesne, in different fields, 300 acres of land, by the smaller hundred. And it is worth yearly, on lease, £15, at the price of 12d. per acre. Total acreage, 300. Total value, £15.

And it is to be known that the perch of land in that manor contains 161⁄2 feet, in measuring land. And each acre can be sown suitably with 21⁄2 bushels of wheat, with 21⁄2 bushels of rye, with 21⁄2 bushels of peas, with 3 bushels of oats, and this sown broadcast, and with 4 bushels of barley, even measure. And each plough should be joined with 4 oxen and 4 draught horses. And a plough is commonly able to plough an acre of land a day, and sometimes more.

There are likewise of mowing meadow in various places 29 acres and rood. This is worth yearly, £7 6s. 3d., at 5s. Total acreage, 29 A., 1 R. Total of pence, £7

an acre.

6s. 3d.

There are likewise of enclosed pasture, 28 acres, and this is worth yearly 42s. at 18d. per acre. Of this sixteen acres are assigned to the dairy for the cows, and twelve for the oxen and young bullocks. Total, 425.

It is to be known that the lord can have in the common pasture of Borley, along with the use of the fresh meadows and of the demesnes of the lord, in the open time, 100 sheep, by the greater hundred. And their pasture, per head, is worth 2d. yearly, and not more, on account of the resumption of the food of the shepherd. Total, 20s.

There is there likewise, a certain court of free tenants of the lord and of the customary [tenants] meeting every three weeks. And the fines and perquisites thence, along with the view of frank pledge, are worth 20s. a year.