Mapledurham (October 2017) • Social History • P
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VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Mapledurham (October 2017) • Social History • p. 1 VCH Oxfordshire Texts in Progress MAPLEDURHAM Social History Social Character and the Life of the Community Mapledurham has long been a rural backwater despite its proximity to Reading. The ‘village’ remained small, inaccessible, and dominated by the large manor house, whose owners monopolized parish landholding but who, as recusants, maintained a relatively low profile in local and national affairs. Other settlements were small and scattered, though some had better access to main roads than others. Farming dominated almost to the exclusion of craft and trade activities, and inhabitants presumably looked to neighbouring settlements for social contact as well as for basic retail requirements. From the early 20th century, however, limited housing development in the south-east drew increasing numbers of residents towards the life of Caversham and Reading. The Middle Ages Mapledurham’s medieval population included resident lords alongside a variety of free and villein tenants. Both manors had a mix of villani and lower-status bordars in 1086, but by the 13th century there was also a significant minority of free tenants, many of whom lived in scattered farmsteads ‘above the down’.1 The social character of the parish’s upper and lower parts probably differed as a result, with the two manor houses (where courts were presumably held), the church, and the bulk of the collaboratively farmed open fields all concentrated in the south. Even so the parish was closely interconnected: some holdings incorporated land in both areas, and the northern commons and wood-pastures supplied shared resources.2 Local deeds indicate regular contact from across the parish with inhabitants of neighbouring settlements, including the nearby town of Reading, especially after the Black Death.3 Royal authority was manifested by a gallows located by the Reading road in the south-east.4 1 Long, ‘History of the Manors of Mapledurham’, 94–103; above, settlement. 2 e.g. Eton College Archive, ECR 48/6–7. 3 e.g. Mapledurham Archive, C1/10, 17–19; TNA, WARD 2/8/27/5; Cooke, Early History, 204. 4 Below, local govt. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Mapledurham (October 2017) • Social History • p. 2 Social stratification was reflected through types of tenure as well as size of holding, with free tenants generally having slightly larger holdings. On the small Chazey manor in 1279 the cottagers had similar sized holdings to the villein half-yardlanders, while four of the six free tenants held yardlands, and a fifth (who was non-resident) two yardlands.5 Over all (as at nearby Goring and Gatehampton) freeholders held more land than did their unfree neighbours.6 Richard de la Ryver, probably a Chazey demesne lessee, paid 10s. 6d. tax in 1316, while three other tenants paid 3–5s., and the remaining nine taxpayers under 2s. The 14 Gurney manor taxpayers were similarly stratified, with four better-off people paying 2–6s. and the lord (John Bardolf) 16s.,7 while in 1343 the manor’s free tenants (who made up 15 per cent of the total tenant population) were almost all amongst the leading rent payers.8 Subsequent sales suggest that their holdings were often quite modest,9 although they were more likely to hold additional land elsewhere10 and had broader social networks, with local free men regularly witnessing lordly charters,11 and three in 1241 acting as sureties for the lady of the manor.12 The freeholder Robert of Mapledurham (who held land in Chazey) became sheriff of Berkshire in the 1230s and was later steward of Reading abbey, while his two clerical sons leased the parish’s Lewes priory tithes in 1286.13 Some tenants in the earlier 14th century sought to prove that they held their land freely in order to avoid paying tallage, a humiliating levy on bondsmen.14 Periodic disputes between the lords of Gurney and Chazey, often over pasture rights,15 may have sometimes fuelled wider conflict. In 1241 the lords brought suits against each other and their neighbours, while local jurors falsely presented a murder in Matilda de Gournay’s household, and the vill of Mapledurham Gurney was accused of failing to pursue a member of Geoffrey de Chausey’s household for a killing.16 Weak lordship during Juliana de Gournay’s minority perhaps encouraged an intrusion (probably a poaching foray) by Nicholas of Mongewell’s men in Mapledurham park in 1251,17 while the Gournays’ apparent 5 Rot. Hund. II, 778–9. 6 Long, ‘History of the Manors of Mapledurham’, 105. 7 TNA, E 179/161/8, rot. 7, m. 1d. 8 Mapledurham Archive, C1/6. 9 Above, manors; econ. hist. 10 e.g. Oxon. Fines, 156; Eynsham Cart. I, 346–7 (John de la Dene, Goring, 1300). 11 e.g. Long, ‘History of the Manors of Mapledurham’, 99. 12 Oxon. Eyre, 1241, 63. 13 Reading Abbey Cart. II, 133 n.; Cooke, Early History, 71, 101; Long, ‘History of the Manors of Mapledurham’, 99–100; Cat. Ancient Deeds, IV, A. 7918. For the tithes, below, relig. hist. 14 Cooke, Early History, 28. 15 Above, econ. hist. 16 Oxon. Eyre, 1241, 24, 63, 64, 120–1, 156. 17 Rot. Hund. II, 38. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Mapledurham (October 2017) • Social History • p. 3 introduction of French (and possibly Flemish) retainers may have created further social tensions.18 The Black Death brought long-term population decline, greater availability of land, and increased family turnover, with only half the surnames listed in a Gurney manor rental of 1343 still featuring in 1397,19 and scarcely any early 14th-century names in 1419.20 The Frethorn family of freeholders sold their land in 1356 and moved possibly to Cane End, 21 while in the 15th century one of the Coxeters moved to Caversham, and his son, apparently, to Reading.22 Incoming families included the Alloways, mentioned from 1397 until the 19th century,23 and prosperity for a segment of the population is suggested by the building of new houses throughout the 15th century.24 As elsewhere lordly control was undermined by such changes, although the lords of Mapledurham Gurney remained locally influential despite their wide geographical interests, which included a house in London.25 Sir Robert Bardolf (d. 1395), exceptionally, remembered his tenants (including the ‘tenants in bondage’) in his will, 26 and as late as the 1440s the homage was ordered to locate runaway villeins. One man paid for leave to remain in Reading for a year,27 and in 1449 the lord John Iwardby used the royal courts to repossess a free tenement, after its holder apparently forged a charter in an attempt to pay a reduced rent.28 Manorial courts also reported incidents of assault, burglary, and theft especially in the 1460s, while roads and ditches were sometimes neglected both by lords and tenants.29 Around the same time the Gurney manor tenants collectively petitioned the absentee lord of Chazey (John Norris) after his farmer Thomas Beckington drove their beasts from Ham field with his hounds, during a dispute over grazing rights.30 18 Mapledurham Archive, C2/18, f. 38 (mentioning Hugh de Gournay’s ‘men of Mapledurham, French and English’); Cooke, Early History, 14; Long, ‘History of the Manors of Mapledurham’, 6, 97; Oxon. Eyre, 1241, 24 (John le Fleming). 19 Calculated by Long, ‘History of the Manors of Mapledurham’, 92. 20 Atte Lee and poss. Edrich (Thedryth): TNA, E 179/161/10, rot. 26d.; E 179/161/8, rot. 7, m. 1d; SC 2/197/56. The name Brauns (or Braune) appears in 1306 and 1525: TNA, E 179/161/201, m. 4d. 21 TNA, WARD 2/8/27/1; WARD 2/8/27/5; WARD 2/8/27/7; WARD 2/8/27/9; WARD 2/8/27/29. 22 Cat. Ancient Deeds, I, A. 580, A. 582. 23 Long, ‘History of the Manors of Mapledurham’, 93. 24 Above, settlement; buildings. 25 Some Oxon. Wills, 9–11 (Amice Bardolf, who also requested burial in London). 26 Ibid. 8–9. 27 Ibid. 125–6. 28 Long, ‘History of the Manors of Mapledurham’, 117–20. 29 Cooke, Early History, 50, 59–60, 188–93 (court roll transcripts); Long, ‘History of the Manors of Mapledurham’, 46. Cooke, Early History, 30 Mapledurham Archive, C1/22 (‘Wydehamme’ field); Cooke, Early History, 77–8, 194; Long, ‘History of the Manors of Mapledurham’, 133. VCH Oxfordshire • Texts in Progress • Mapledurham (October 2017) • Social History • p. 4 c.1520–1800 By the 16th century the population comprised mainly small to medium farmers alongside labourers and one or two petty craftsmen.31 Most were tenants of the Blounts’ combined Mapledurham estate,32 although within it the former manors of Mapledurham Gurney and Chazey were still viewed as separate vills, and were taxed independently. 33 The wealthiest tenants in both in 1525 were the demesne farmers Anne Atwell of Mapledurham Chazey (taxed on goods worth £16), and Henry Annesley of Mapledurham Gurney (taxed on £30, though with other land and assets outside the parish).34 Two other Gurney taxpayers (presumably farmers) had goods worth £11–£14, and 15 others £3–9, while another ten people were taxed at the lowest rate as wage labourers. Over all Mapledurham Chazey had fewer wealthy taxpayers, with Thomas Brown paying on goods worth £6, and three others on £4. The Atwells appeared in both vills, and in 1551 Anne Atwell’s successor John Atwell was assessed at £20.35 Amongst the wealthiest late 16th-century inhabitants was John Thorne (d. 1597), a demesne lessee who made bequests of over £120 and employed eight servants.36 Better-off inhabitants had wide social contacts (the overseer of Henry Annesley’s will was Sir Francis Englefield), and often made small bequests to their servants.