Romney Marsh: Environmental Change and Human Occupation in a Coastal Lowland (ed. J. Eddison, M. Gardiner and A. Long), OUCA Monograph 46, 1998, 109-128

7. The Farmers of Canterbury Cathedral Priory and All Souls College on c. 1443-1545

Gillian Draper

Records belonging to two ecclesiastical landowners on the Marsh reveal great changes in social structure and landholding there after the Black Death. This paper investigates those leasing land from Christ Church Priory, Canterbury, and All Souls College, Oxford from mid-15th to mid-16th centuries. This is set in the context of the post-plague changes, which are considered through an examination of the endowment of All Souls, and of sales and transfers of land in connection with this from the 1350s onwards. The particular environmental conditions of the Marsh and effects of late medievaljlooding are also discussed. Comparisons are made with the work of Hawey on the Westminster Abbey estates, Dyer's work on the possible origins of capitalism in the 15th century and Rigby's analysis of late medieval society in terms of exclusion. It is argued that plague mortality and the depressed agrarian conditions of the later 14th and 15th centuries gave people of peasant origin on the Marsh opportunities to lease land, but that they were displaced by rich, ambitious lessees and gentry from the early 16th century, with significant consequences for agriculture and the landscape.

Introduction Wainway and Appledore Channels (Fig. 7.1). Changes This study is concerned with people who were leasing in the shingle barrier to the south of Walland Marsh land on Romney Marsh c. 1443-1545 Cfirrnarii, that is, were promoted by extreme climatic conditions, notably lessees or 'farmers'). It is set in the wider context of in the late 13th century. These resulted in tidal flooding changes in landholding and social structure which which directly affected the occupation of Walland Marsh. occurred after the Black Death, both on the Marsh and An important cordon of earthen embankments crosses more widely. The implications of the special environ- Walland Marsh from Fairfield in the north-west to mental conditions of the Marsh, the occurrence of Broomhill in the south-east, and this was apparently the flooding, the necessity for sea defences, and the pos- successful line of sea defences when southern Walland sibilities of reclaiming land, are also considered. Marsh was inundated in the late 13th century.' Further significant flooding occurred in the 15th ~entury.~Several towns such as , and Hythe were located The environment of the Marsh along and adjacent to the coastal fringe of the Marsh. This area of marshland, one of the three largest in They were small, and declined in a striking way in the , comprises Romney Marsh proper, Walland 15th century, but retained some importance as members Marsh and Denge Marsh, and is encircled by the sea to or 'limbs' of the Cinque Ports ~onfederation.~ the south and east, and by higher land to the north and west. It evolved and was reclaimed behind massive but mobile banks of shingle, and the movements of this Yeomanfarmers and the leasing of the demesnes shingle resulted in the opening and closing of various Two general developments in the structure of landholding tidal inlets.' In the Middle Ages these included the are of particular relevance to Romney Marsh in the later

* In this paper farmers' and other accounts are quoted by the year in which they began. 110 Gillian Draper

GRIMSLAND

MENELANDS

DUNGENESS

Tidal limits in the Wainway circa 1500

---- Tidal limits circa 1600

Present-day coastline

---m- Sussex boundary

Upland

0 km 10

Fig. 7.1. Romney Marsh, showing some properties of Christ Church Priory and of All Souls College.

Middle Ages. Firstly, from the later 14th century the top levels before the Black Death, had been directly exploited ranks of the peasantry began to gain larger landholdings under their management and control. Towards the end in the wake of severe mortality caused by the Black Death of the 15th century as much as a fifth of lowland England of 1348-9 and subsequent plague epidemics. Never- was former demesne land which was leased out, and theless, in a number of areas, stable hereditary trans- people with such leases therefore formed a small but mission of such enlarged holdings did not develop until significant group in society. Dyer argued that these two the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th developments in landholding gave 'capitalist potential' centuries. Secondly, by 1420 many ecclesiastical houses, to wealthy peasants in the 15th century, from whose ranks including Christ Church Priory, Canterbury, had reverted yeomen farmers 'emerged' by realizing this potential. He to an earlier policy of leasing out their demesne arable suggested that this was achieved in a short period of rapid and pasture lands which, in the period of high population change in the mid- to late 15th century, with the butcher- The Farnzers of Canterbury Cathedral Priory and All Souls College 111 graziers of the Midlands being the most innovatory of marshland properties of the Priory and the College because these yeoman farmers. They made modest profits by farmers listed their claims for expenses for the upkeep of leasing former demesnes running into hundreds of acres marshland walls, ditches, houses and agricultural buildings and managing them on a large scale intensively and on the properties they leased. The names and wages of efficiently on the basis of stock farming, but without workers were normally given, together with the nature excessive specialisation. Avoiding extensive arable and location of work they carried out, which was often the production allowed them to get round the low demand essential work of ditching. The farmers also claimed for for grain crops, to gear agricultural output for the market, various small rents, and for payments made to collectors invest in a prudent way in buildings and equipment for of scots (marshland taxes for communal land drainage animals, and employ only the comparatively limited and sea defence). In contrast with the terms of standard amount of expensive labour that pastoral farming leasehold contracts elsewhere and practice on the Priory's required." other Kentish properties, the College and the Priory paid Dyer had a special concern to identify the possible these costs of routine upkeep on their marshland properties origins of capitalism in the 15th century, but he was not in the 15th century, probably to encourage people to take alone in analysing lessees in terms of peasants, or up the leases." capitalists, or the 'emergence' of yeomen farmers in this All Souls leased out its properties from the beginning, period."n a different perspective, Rigby proposed the and farmers' accounts for its Marsh lands survive from analysis of landholding and social structures in medieval 1443. An important valor of its properties was made in society in terms of those who were excluded from power, or about 1545.12 The Christ Church farmers' accounts privileges and communal resource^.^ All these themes survive as a series covering a significant number of are important in considering the leasing of land and the properties on the Marsh from 1477 until 1543, although broader changes in landholding on Romney Marsh from for the earlier 15th century there are some from Apple- the 1350s. There are particular opportunities for com- dore, and a few from Fairfield and another property called parison with the developments and chronology outlined Menelands.13The accounts generally become less detailed above, and for evaluating whether and how yeoman and more repetitive in nature from the late 15th century farmers on the Marsh emerged from the peasantry. Such onwards. Preliminary examination of the accounts farmers can be seen in the context of the smaller-scale indicated that significant changes in the leasing pattern cultivators who may have lost out or been left behind by occurred from the 1520s, initiating conditions which the emergence and activities of these yeoman farmers. appeared very different from those of the mid- to late 15th century. These factors influenced the decision to take the years 1443-1545 as the main focus for the Sources analysis of leasing. The evidence for the study came mainly from the records of two ecclesiastical landowners with substantial holdings on the Marsh, Christ Church Priory, Canterbury and All The Christ Church Priory Properties Souls College, Oxford. A major source was the accounts of lessees of these landowners. The accounts cover at Location, nature and demand least 20 properties on Romney Marsh and more than 130 The Christ Church properties were varied: there were people over the period 1443-1545.X Using a database, salt and fresh marshes, the advowsons and tithes of these people and properties were linked with wills, leases, rectories, and rents and profits of court. Some properties bonds, charters, manorial surveys, maps and other were conventional manors: Agney and Fairfield on material. Property examined for this study forms a cross- Walland Marsh; Orgarswick on Romney Marsh proper; section of what was available for leasing on Romney and Ruckinge, Ebony and Appledore, which were partially Marsh in the later Middle Ages, in terms of types and on the upland which surrounded the Marsh, but had geographical spread (Fig. 7.1). But there were major substantial and valuable parts of their lands on the Marsh differences between the two landlords studied in detail. itself.14 Christ Church was an ancient foundation, which had Certain Christ Church properties such as Parkhall, owned properties on the Marsh since the ninth or 10th Grimsland and Menelands do not appear in the enrolled cent~ry.~All Souls was founded and endowed by Arch- farmers' accounts until the early 1490s, although bishop Chichele in 1438-43, and the records of his Menelands certainly was in the possession of Christ activities in obtaining property for the College's endow- Church in 1409. They were parcels of land, rather than ment indicate the structural economic and social changes conventional manors. Menelands, for instance, was said in property-holding, the landmarket, agriculture and the in 1534 to consist of a '100 acres and a lodge', and lay communal use of resources which had taken place since about one mile south of Newchurch, on Romney Marsh the Black Death.lo These changes were both exploited . .. proper. Parkhall and Grimsland lay near Menelands, and and stimuktdby-. - &e been detached parts of Ruckinge manor.15 The farmers' accounts are a rich source for the Other Priory properties, including Kete Marsh, the 112 Gillian Draper

T Tenant land of Appledore Manor

D Demesne land of Fairfield Manor

The Great Cordon of Embankments

Wall of Appledore Channel

-.-m- KentISussex boundary

0 kilometres 2

\ Fig. 7.2. Walland Marsh, showing the demesne of Fairfield manor, some tenant land of Appledore manor, the Great Cordon of embankments, and marshes outside the cordon.

Bekard, Halland Marsh, Estmarshe and Cowlease, lay belonging to the Priory (the Bekard and Estmarshe) were outside the great cordon of embankments which crossed found by an inquiry to be poorly embanked and in danger Walland Marsh (Fig. 7.2).lThey were thus in the area of being flooded. Various nearby marshes, however, had which had been severely affected by flooding in the late recently been re-embanked or enclosed, and were not 13th century. Some marshland there was reclaimed again vulnerable to inundation. These were Kete Marsh, in the 14th century, and some, including Kete Marsh, in belonging to Christ Church, and Denecourt Marsh, the early 15th century.17However, land outside the cordon Bourgchier's Marsh (the Archbishop of Canterbury's was inundated again in the late 1440s and Prior Goldstone Marsh), and others recently taken in by John Elryngton of Christ Church spent massively on the repair of the sea and Richard Guldeford, esquires (Fig. 7.2).19 Flooding defences in next decade.I8 In the early 1470s two marshes occurred yet again in 1477-8, with four Christ Church The Farmers of Canterbury Cathedral Priory and All Souls College 113

marshes affected (the Bekard and Estmarshe, Cowlease Table 7.1. The size of Christ Church properties on Romney and Halland Marsh). The Bekard had to be re-enclosed and Walland Marshes in the late Middle Ages in 1480 due to the inundation, but Halland and Cowlease were only temporarily affected. These episodes of flooding Ebony Prioratus 5 l [scotted] acres substantially reduced the value of the affected marshes to The Bekard (one part) 54 acres the Priory.20 The Bekard (another part) 71 acres Heavy expenditure on reclamation of marshland out- Ebony manor (without 72 andtor 92 [scotted] acres side the cordon in the second half of the 15th and early Prioratus) 16th centuries has been noted by Smith, Carlin and Hare.21 Ketepen 90 acres Carlin believed that marshes in this area, such as Kete and Menelands 104 acres the Bekard were 'new land' in this period and, as such, were 'a valuable addition to the Priory's rent roll' in the Halland Marsh 140 acres late 15th and early 16th centuries.22However, the timing Agney manor 140 [scotted] acres (in 1478) and progress of reclamation in this period, and the demand Ruckinge manor 142 acres (minimum) for land which it implies, were not as simple as Carlin's Kete Marsh (part) 145 acres comments suggest. Instead, what she called the 'great Manor of Fairfield and part of 280 [scotted] acres works of marsh reclamation of the 1470s onwards' must Kete Marsh be seen primarily as a response to the severe flooding of Grimsland 300 acres the mid- and later 15th century .23 Orgarswick 400 acres There are other indications that demand was low for Appledore manor ?200 acres upland demesne, the Priory's land on Walland Marsh over most of the 940 acres tenant land on 15th century: the breakdown of properties into smaller Marsh units for leasing; special reductions in the farm of one property which was flooded; and the conversion of grazing land used by many tenants into leasehold land farmed by Table 7.1 gives a summary of the size of Christ Church one person.24The latter occurred at Halland Marsh which properties in the 15th century, where these are known.'O lay outside the cordon of embankments. Until the early 'Scotted' acres are calculated from claims for payments 15th century this had been grazing land used for animals of scots by the farmers, but such payments may not have belonging to tenants of Halland, which was customary applied to the whole acreage of a property, although at land of Appledore manor within the cordon (Fig. 7.2). In Agney and at Ebony (manor and Prioratus together) the 1417 Halland Marsh was leased out to a group of tenants, scotted acreage of 1478 is not widely different from but by the 1470s the Priory was farming it out to a member measurements made earlier in the Middle Ages3' The of the Goddard family which leased the adjacent property sizes of the Christ Church properties were mostly small Fairfield.25Simon Goddard kept at least 180 sheep there, in comparison with those leased by the capitalist butcher- a profitable activity at the height of the cloth industry in graziers of Warwickshire described by Dyer where one, the nearby Weald.2hThe appropriation of such pasture by for example, consisted of 500 acres of demesne with a farmers was accompanied by protests locally on the lands rabbit warren and a windmill.32 of All Souls College and of Battle Abbey, and more widely in the 15th cent~ry.~'Someincrease in the level of demand for the Priory's land is suggested from the late 15th The All Souls College Properties century onwards by new reclamations of marsh which were not related to episodes of flooding, for example at and its First Lessees Ebony and possibly Kete Marsh in the late 1480%and at The marshland properties with which Archbishop Chichele Appledore and possibly Kete Pen in the second and third endowed All Souls, and which the College subsequently decades of the 16th century.28 leased out, were the Rectory of Romney, the manors of The flooding and reclamations of the 15th and early Gogyhall and Scotney, rents at Bletching and lands of 16th centuries resulted in a strong contrast between the various sizes at Newland, Ivychurch and Hope All Saints landscape of areas within and outside the cordon of (Fig. 7.1).33 Some of the property on the Marsh which embankments. The manor of Fairfield, for example, Chichele acquired and granted to the College had become

C reveals an early medieval landscape in which the demesne available over previous decades as a result of severe land, both meadow and pasture, lay in small parcels mortality in the initial outbreak of plague in 1348-9 and interspersed with some of the tenant land of Appledore in subsequent outbreaks. The record of Chichele's manor and with houses, barns and the church. Kete Marsh, activities in acquiring land for the endowment therefore however, outside the cordon, exemplifies a landscape of makes it possible to consider some of the changes in late medieval reclamation, consisting in the early 16th landholding on Romney Marsh after the Black Death in a - century only of freshand salt marsh, and one barn m general way. Furthermore, certain individuals played 7.2).29 significant roles in the landmarket of the late 14th and 114 Gillian Draper The Farmers of Canterbury Cathetdral Priory and All Souls College 115

early 15th centuries and in the transfer of land to Chichele inquiry in a Hundred Court found that Lynot's bequest and the College. Some went on to be concerned in the was 'not now maintained and that John Darell ... acquired early stages of the College's management of its lands or the said land to the use of the prior and convent of Christ in leasing. Their roles and their involvement are also Church Canterbury' with the Priory's collusion. The manor considered here through an investigation of the College's of Gogyhall, which had also belonged to the Lynot family endowments of land at Newland, Hope, Gogyhall and had similarly been conveyed 'into the dead hand' of the Ivychurch. church, although the Hundred jury believed this had been done with a royal licence. In the late 1420s, Gogyhall was conveyed to Archbishop Chichele, along with the lands in Newland Hope and Ivychurch. These lands then seem to have been The basis of the College's property at Newland was a leased back to Christ Church Priory, until Chichele collection of small plots of land which lay north-east of endowed All Souls College with them in 1443. John Darell an early medieval reclamation wall called Sea Wall, near who colluded with the Priory was in fact Chichele's the head of the Wainway (Figs. 7.1 and 7.3). In 1390 to steward between 1428 and 1432, and involved at least six 1423 one Thomas Godfrey bought up many plots of 1% other men in the conveyance of Gogyhall, Hope and acres and upwards in size in this area.34Buying and selling Ivychurch to Chichele in 142EL3' of these plots had begun shortly after the onset of plague, Various men were subsequently involved in the sale of with several of the sellers inheriting them following the an additional three acres at Hope from one Robert death of a relative. Thomas Godfrey then transferred the Armenard to Chichele. These men were Richard Clitherow, plots as a consolidated property to the Archbishop in esquire, John Darell again, and one Roger Heron. 1427-30 via Master Andrew Aylwyn, a priest, and various Clitherow had also acted as Chichele's attorney, authorized other men. In 1443 Chichele endowed the College with to receive seisin of land in Gogyhall. Clitherow became this land. The use of intermediaries such as Aylwyn was one of the College's first lessees, at 'Rumney et Newland', to avoid the provisions of the Statutes of M~rtmain.~~ with Andrew Aylwyn who had been especially closely Between 1442 and 1479 further lands were obtained involved in Chichele's acquisition of Ne~land.~~Robert by Aylwyn and by one Master John Engham, and then Armenard, the vendor of land at Hope, later became the transferred to the College. These lands, ranging between second lessee of the College there.4' 14 and 40 acres, were probably in the unreclaimed Other early College farmers were also men who had saltmarsh which lay to the south-west of Sea Wall. At special connections with All Souls. They were John the end of the 15th century the New Innings was created Cobbes, gentleman of Newchurch, the College's receiver, from these pieces, probably with the active involvement steward and bedel; Henry Aleyn who sold land to the of the Engham family, and in co-operation with Christ College and acted as a feoffee (effectively a trustee) in its Church which owned adjacent land.3hThe New Innings land transactions; and two men who sold Cobbes small were then let with Newland. The very different character pieces of land adjacent to that which he himself leased.42 of the New Innings from that of the early medieval It is notable that neither John Darell esquire nor Master landscape of Newland is still evident in the map of John Engham, both from the ranks of the gentry, became 158819 reproduced here as Fig. 7.3.37The small fields of lessees of College property on the Marsh, although their Newland lay in a landscape containing ditches, barns and connections with its acquisition would have put them in ponds and would have been suitable for arable crops. The a good position to know of its availability. Neither man fields of 50 to 60 acres in the New Innings would more lived on the Marsh, and this may have been one reason for likely have accommodated sizeable flocks of sheep or their lack of interest. Leasing parcels of land on the Marsh herds of cattle. does not seem to have appealed to men of their social stratum in in the 15th century. Members of the Engham family in any case seem to have regarded Hope, Ivychurch and Gogyhall themselves as owners of the New Innings, and had a I The record of Chichele's acquisition of property in these protracted dispute about this with the C01lege.~~ three places reveals the names and roles of several more It is notable also that the many people who sold land people involved in that acquisition, some of whom went which provided All Souls' endowment, and their heirs, on to become lessees of All Souls. failed to become lessees of the C01lege.~~The people selling plots at Newland to Thomas Godfrey were in the L Land belonging to the Lynot family of Lydd formed the basis of All Souls' property in Hope, Ivychurch and main of peasant status and limited wealth.45They seem Gogyhall. In the late 14th century, John Lynot bequeathed to have been concerned to dispose of small parcels of properties in Hope and Ivychurch for a chantry, to find inherited land rather than to gain land by leasing. Godfrey one chaplain to celebrate masses for his soul 'for ever' in himself, apparently termed a 'husbandman', died before D Ivychurch. Lynot had gained these properties by marrying he could have become a lessee of the College, but his a rich widow after the Black Death and obtaining her actions in accumulating and selling land at Newland to daughters' inheritances too.38By the 1420s, however, an Chichele undoubtedly contributed to his own moderate 116 Gillian Draper wealth, and to the later prosperity of the extensive Godfrey 15th centuries and showed little recovery before the early family .4" 16th. On many estates, demesne farms fell by 40% or The early All Souls farmers seem to have been located even more in the 1420s and 30s. Such a fall is in general economically and socially below gentlemen like Dare11 likely to be evidence of a weakening in demand due to and Engham, and above many of the peasant vendors of the low prices obtainable for agricultural products, parcels of land to Chichele and the College. They appear especially grains.50 Harvey's detailed discussion of the as men of a certain degree of wealth and local status, leased demesnes of Westminster Abbey between 1350 although not necessarily popularity. Master Aylwyn, in and 1540 demonstrated that the low farms of the 1420s particular, was in frequent disagreement with his fellow and 30s belatedly reflected the decreasing corn prices at townsfolk of Lydd over tithes and his non-payment of the end of the 14th century, and that more generally the large scots due from the farms and his own purchased farms mirrored the lowered prices in the wider market. land on which he kept his cattle. In this he had much in In the second half of the century some farms rose from common with Andrew Bate, farmer of Denge Marsh from this low point, notably near London or other towns. Battle Abbey, and forbear of Thomas Bate, farmer of Harvey also found that the inclusion of extra meadow or Scotney and member of a family of butcher-graziers living pasture with leased properties was a feature of this period in L~dd.~'Antagonism revolved around the exercise of on Westminster Abbey's estates, and raised the farms.51 power, the payment of dues, and the sharing of resources The levels of the farms of the leased properties on the among local inhabitants, particularly for the grazing of Marsh belonging to Christ Church and All Souls are cattle. Aylwyn and the Bates held positions of respons- given in the tables opposite and then discussed in the ibility and power in the town in the mid- to later 15th context of this brief background. century. But the scale of their farming operations and Data was available in the farmers' accounts and in their involvement in All Souls land transactions conflicted some leases for a few Christ Church properties over a with earlier practices of landholding and with the town's long period, most of the 15th and into the 16th centuries: customs and usages.48There was friction, for example, these places were Appledore, Ebony and Ruckinge. The between the Aylwyns and members of the Melale family level of the farm at the manor of Appledore remained from whom All Souls bought customary land which it steady between 1413 and 1450.52At Ebony in 1408 the turned over profitably to leasehold. James Aylwyn, a close farm was £24, and fell by 8% by 1431. In 1478 it was relative of Andrew Aylwyn, sued Melale, the constable of equivalent to that of 1431 (£22) although at the later Lydd, and 'unduly' took a case concerning him out of the time Ebony was let in two parts, the manor and Prioratus jurisdiction of Lydd to a court in Dover. The townsfolk (Table 7.2). At Ruckinge the farm declined between the also complained that the Bates sold sick and unwholesome 1430s and the end of the century, rising slightly by 1524, animals for meat, and practised as butchers to the 'hurt although not reaching the level of a century before even and undoing' of those who should have been carrying out by 1533 (Table 7.3). the trade in the town. The attitude of the townspeople Information about the level of farms on most of the veered between tolerance or need of such influential Priory's properties commences in the later 15th century. farmers as members of the town authority and hostility There is data about Menelands from 1450 to 1514 which when they abused their powers and wealth.4y shows that its farm rose substantially in this period. The The special connections between All Souls and its farm of Agney rose from £17 in 1478 to only £18 by early farmers, and the fact that they were men of some 1496, but to £33 6s 8d by 1524, and to £50 by 1532, wealth and social standing, meant they were privileged by including some new marsh let with it.53The rise between the College as regards leasing. At the period immediately 1496 and 1524 can be attributed to large-scale reclamation after its foundation, the College leased its properties in at Agney at that period, in the joint initiative with All groups of two or three, and for longish periods, to these Souls at the New Innings. At Parkhall and Grimsland, men. This was quite exceptional, and by the early 1450s whether let together or separately, the farm did not rise the properties were instead let singly to farmers of less between 1496 and the early 1530s, and the farms of the wealth, and on shorter leases, which were not so favour- Manor of Fairfield with part of Kete Marsh, Ketepen and able. The wider pattern of leasing on the Marsh from mid- Orgarswick were stable in a similar period. In or after 15th to mid-16th century is discussed in the next section. 1532 the farms of four properties are known to have risen, although not by very large amounts; these were the Manor of Fairfield with part of Kete Marsh, the other part of Kete Marsh, Ruckinge and the Bekard (Tables 7.2 The Pattern of Leasing and 7.3). The agricultural depression of the 15th century made There are figures in 1429 for the farms of three of the demesne land generally available to lease in England at properties which came into All Souls possession in the low farms (that is, the cost of the lease). There were local mid-1440s, Gogyhall, Hope and Ivychurch (Table 7.4). variations, but the general pattern in the level of farms These farms fell by approximately 20% between 1429 was that they declined between the late 14th and early and 1446.54At Hope the farm continued to fall so that The Farmers of Cariterbury Cathedral Priory and All Souls College

Table 7.2. Farms of Christ Church Priory on Walland Marsh

Ebony manor Ebony Agney Fairfield Bekard Part of Kete Ketepen Manor of Fairfield with Prioratus Rectory Marsh 1 1 part of Kete Marsh

Table 7.3. Farms of Christ Church Priory on Romney Marsh

Orgarswick Parkhall and Grimsland Parkhall Menelands Ruckinge Grimsland 1436 £25

Table 7.4. Farms of All Souls College on Romney and Walland Marshes

Gogyhall Hope All Saints Ivychurch Scotney Scotney and Newland Rectory of Bletching Romney 1429 £12 £2 18s 4d £3 6s 8d 1

1454 £1 6s 8d £56 13s 4d E10 £8 1459 £9 13s 4d £7 1469 £9 13s 4d f54 fll £4 1493 E10 £1 10s £2 16s 8d £45 £3 13s 4d 118 Gillian

even by 1545 it was only just over half of that of 1429. suggests, like other indicators mentioned above, that There is no data for lvychurch in 1454 but by 1493 the demand for land on the Marsh dropped in this period, farm had risen a little, although it did not reach its 1429 although perhaps not quite so drastically as in some other level even by 1545. On the larger property of Gogyhall, places. This reflects greater demand for meat rather than the farm fell again between 1446 and 1454 and remained grain crops in the 15th century and increasing use of the at that low level until 1469 at least. It then rose gradually, Marsh for sheep and cattle.h0 The decline was more so that by 1524 it had just passed its 1429 level, and from marked at Ruckinge, which was at least partly on the there continued to rise. upland fringe. There was a more mixed picture in the The farm of All Souls' most valuable property, Scotney, second half of the century, again as elsewhere. The fell continuously from mid-15th century to the early 16th growing amount of evidence for marshland properties in century (1504). By 1524 the farm had risen by about the last quarter of the 15th century shows stable or slightly 20%, and almost overtaken its earlier highest point, rising farms, with some further increases at certain places although by 1545 it had fallen back a little.5s A reeve's in the 1530s. Again this largely follows the trends account of 1394 and various later leases allow the level elsewhere. The increases at Newland and Agney highlight of the farm to be seen in relation to changing agrarian the value to the landlords of new enclosures, which gave practices at Scotney over the 15th and first half of the additional fresh, rather than salt, marsh to lease. Both 16th centuries. In the late 14th century, there was a mixed new reclamations and the level of farms on the Marsh agricultural economy at Scotney, although it was weighted testify to the end of the 15th century, and particularly the towards stock. Wheat, beans and oats were grown, and first decades of the 16th, as the period when demand for sheep, cows, horses, and piglets raised. The income from marshland began to increase. the disposal of the animals was twice that from crops; income from wool was greater than from wheat, and far exceeded that from the lease of a fishery and small parcels The lessees, c. 1450-1545 of demesne land and payments for grazing rights The extensive source material for the Marsh reveals two (herb~gium).~'By 1446, when Scotney was farmed out major phases of leasing between the mid- 1450s and 1545, by All Souls, its lease included a large stock of sheep, and allows the social characteristics of the lessees in presumably in response to demand for wool from the these phases to be contrasted. In the first phase, covering Wealden cloth indu~try.~'This industry was at the height most of the period until the 1510s or 20s, marshland of its prosperity in the mid- to late 15th century, although leases were taken up for short terms and at low farms by there was some dislocation in the late 1440s when exports local people, typically called h~sbandmen.~'Of 29 All fell sharply, possibly a contributory factor in the falling Souls farmers between 1443 and 1505 whose wills have farms at Scotney from the fifth decade of the 15th century. been identified, nine came from rural Romney Marsh Although the cloth industry was reaching stagnation by parishes and two came from rural parishes beyond the the late 16th century, leases of Scotney and the level of Marsh.62 Rather more farmers lived in urban than in farms there in mid- 16th century suggest a reasonable living rural parishes at the time of will-making. Of these town could still be made from sheep raising by farmers with dwellers, eight were from Lydd, five from New Romney links to the Weald. The College's lessee in 1546, John and one from Sandwich, well to the north-east of the Philypp, yeoman, came from Smallhythe in Tenterden, Marsh. 63(Thesewills included those of the earliest College where the Marsh met the Weald. He was a butcher, farmers who, as noted, were of rather higher wealth and suggesting that profits may have derived as much from status that those of the second half of 15th century). During the sheep meat as the the next phase from the 1510s to 20s onwards, the farmers At Newland the first data available is for 1454, after were increasingly members of the gentry who lived away which the farm rose a little before the large jump caused from the Marsh and who had longer leases at higher farms. by the New Innings, and a further increase caused by a In the first phase the social origins of the lessees were subsequent smaller enclos~re.~~The farm of Romney, a mostly in the peasant elite. This was the case on the rectory, fell continuously between 1454 and 1493. It rose Priory's estates and on the Marsh more generally. It is substantially in 1495 and remained at this level, which evident from a comparison of the names of lessees with was nevertheless below 75% of its mid-century value till names of tenants of Fairfield and Appledore in the late at least 1545. It is noticeable that at the two properties 14th and early 15th centuries, of tenants contributing to which were rectories, Romney and Christ Church's the repair of wall of Broomhill Marsh in 1399-1483, Fairfield, the farms did not recover their 15th-century and of holders of customary land at Appledore in 1503.h4 levels in the early 16th century, unlike several of the Harvey suggested that on the Abbot of Westminster's properties consisting primarily of land (Table 7.4). lands, where many lessees were also of peasant origins, Overall, farms of the College's and the Priory's long leases 'determinable on lives' (renewable to the properties follow a similar pattern to those elsewhere, widow or sons of a deceased lessee for the term of the with a decline in the early decades of the 15th century. lease) gave lessees 'a measure of dynastic sec~rity'.~~ The data is limited for the first half of the century but However, long leases of this sort were not apparently The Farmers of Canterbury Catlzerrlral Priory and All Souls College 119

used on Christ Church or All Souls land on the Marsh, although by the end of his life the largest farm he had held and this raises the question of whether such dynastic had itself been taken over by gentry farmers. These gentry security was in fact sought by the farmers on the Marsh, farmers had similarly acquired the lease of two large and if so at which periods. Legally, a right to inherit properties whish Thomas Strogyll, a local man, had property held by lease could not be granted by means of formerly leased. By the mid-16th century, local people a will or similar legal documents. But, as Harvey noted, were apparently mostly sub-leasing.hx and the evidence of the Marsh implies, in practice both The second investigation showed that before the end lords and relatives of lessees expected heirs to complete of the 15th century there were only two instances of a the remaining years of a lease." This practice may have person leasing from both lords. The first was Stephen been regarded as a benefit or an onerous commitment by Champion of , who farmed Newland from the heirs, but certainly did not give them dynastic security. All Souls between 1463-7, and Agney from Christ Church For when an analysis was made of changes of lessee in in the early 1470~.~"The other was Jarnes Sebrand who the All Souls accounts (1443-1505) only seven or eight slightly later leased the same two farms as Champion. examples in which a lessee was followed by a relative as Neither held Agney and Newland concurrently so, while lessee were found, out of 44 recorded changes. This these two properties were adjacent, the farmers were analysis slightly underestimated the connections between clearly not accumulating leases in order to expand their lessees because there are gaps in the accounts, because scale of operations. It seems likely that both Stephen links through the female line are not evident in surnames, Champion and James Sebrand held the leases of these and because people sometimes took over leases as two places because the land was local to their homes.70 executors but were not mentioned in the accounts as also Neither Champion nor Sebrand appears to have made a being relatives. Nevertheless, it is clear that among this will, and both were perhaps of relatively limited wealth. group farmers did not transmit leased properties to their Another member of the Champion family, Simon Cham- descendants to any significant degree. Additional pion, was employed as a worker on the Mar~h,~' investigations of changes in lessees, and the evidence of Stephen Champion and James Sebrand were among wills, indicated that other factors besides family relation- the few farmers noted as being followed by a relative as ships were important when leases changed hands: con- lessee. Stephen was followed at Newland by William siderations of patronage, clerical connection, personal Champi~n.~~James Sebrand held the farm of Agney in acquaintance, dwelling in the vicinity of the leased land, the late 1470s, although by 1490 one John Sebrand, did and links through the execution of wills or devolving of so." By then, James was holding the neighbouring (non-leased) property ." property Newland from the College, doing so until at If dynastic security was not sought or found by least 1493, at which time it was of roughly half the value marshland lessees in the 15th and early 16th centuries, it of Agne~.~~Yet neither Stephen nor James established a is nevertheless possible that farmers were seeking to pattern in which family members followed them as lessees accumulate leased land during their lifetimes. Two beyond this one relative each, and cannot therefore be investigations of such possible accumulation were made. regarded as accumulating leasehold land for their heirs. One charted the farming of more than one property at a Instead, Sebrand should be seen as an example of someone time, and the other the numbers of people who were lessees using leased land in a way characteristic of the landholding of both College and Priory. These investigations dealt of peasant farmers, to fulfil needs of himself and his family with all the lessees known from the 15th century and the over the course of the lifecycle. He took up a lease of the first half of the 16th century, and therefore covered both manor of Agney for a few years while in his prime, saw it phases of marshland leasing. This enabled the farmers' passed to a younger relative when he no longer required attitudes and policy towards accumulation in each phase such a large amount of land, and himself farmed a smaller to be compared. parcel later in life.75 The findings from the first investigation highlighted There were two more instances of people farming from the small extent to which people accumulated leases over both All Souls and Christ Church. These occurred at the most of the period. Of the Christ Church farmers known very end of the 15th century and in the first half of the between 1399 and 1543, 18 held leases of more than one Ibth, and involved the same two properties, although place at some point in their lives, and 77 did not. Of the Newland by then also included the New Innings. The 68 All Souls farmers between 1443 and 1545 there were people concerned were once again Richard Stuppeny, 58 who only ever held a lease of one place from the and a man crucial in the second phase of leasing, Stephen College. There were also eight who had leases of two Thorneherst. Stuppeny, yeoman of New Romney, leased places at the same time, plus two more who held a lease Agney in the 1490s and 1 500s, and Newland in 15 17. of two places at different times. Most of this total of ten The year before Stuppeny had been involved in enclosing were cases where people held two places traditionally a salt marsh with Williarn Brokhill, and John (at) Hale associated, namely Scotney and Bletching. One case in of Tenterden, servant of Richard Gilford, knight. This the early 16th century was of an ambitious man, Richard saltmarsh was probably adjacent to Ne~land.~"y 1517 Stuppeny, gradually taking larger farms over his lifetime, Stuppeny no longer held the lease of Agney which was by 120 Gillian Draper then in the hands of one William Marsshe of Old Romney, of members of families which entered the gentry within a also a yeoman, and Stuppeny's partner in a bond of 1517.77 generation or two. These people in the main did not live The scale of Richard Stuppeny's interests in leased on the Marsh. Examples of such farmers in 1545 beside land would seem to have been greater than Sebrand's or Thorneherst were John Baker knight (leasing Ivychurch), Champion's. When Stuppeny had Newland it was, with Edward Pye of Oxford (the Rectory of Romney), Sir the New Innings, approximately twice its earlier size, Thomas Colpeper of Bekesbourne (Scotney and Bletching) and he was involved with enterprising men with extensive and Robert Master yeoman of Willesborough (Gogyhall). concerns in reclamation and property h~lding.'~Richard The remarkable pattern of accumulation of leases in the appears as a good example of an increasing involvement hands of such people, and of Stephen Thorneherst in in leasing of those of greater wealth and status in the particular, was an important feature of this phase.83Its early 16th century. Members of the Stuppeny family timing suggests points of comparison with the hereditary continued to live on the Marsh, being closely concerned transmission of stable landholdings in various tenures by in the town government of Lydd.7yNevertheless, the the emerging yeomanry el~ewhere.'~This aspect was number of leases Stuppeney held was in sharp contrast to further investigated by an examination of the wills of that of Stephen Thorneherst, yeoman, the last instance people leasing from All Souls between 1443 and 1545. of a farmer known to have leased from both the College and the Priory. Thorneherst had leases of at least nine marshland Status and inheritance among the College properties. From the 1530s onwards he held Fairfield farmers Rectory, the Manor of Fairfield with part of Kete Marsh, Initially an investigation was made into the wills of the other part of Kete Marsh, and the Bekard. Beyond College farmers between 1443 and 1505, that is before the Marsh, Thorneherst held the lease of Brook bedelry." changes in the social characteristics of the lessees began By the 1540s he also had Agney and Newland, although to be apparent the 1520s. Fifty people were identified as not Ketepen, which was held by John Harward, the lessees or bedels of College properties on the Marsh in executor of Richard Stuppeny. By this time Thorneherst this period, of whom 46 were men and four women, two also held Appledore bedelry and Brookland Rectory. Of or three of whom were farming as widows. Over half of these properties, Newland belonged to the College, all these 50 lessees or bedels made wills, those who did so the rest to the Priory. He held them on long leases (one being likely to be the more wealthy of the lessees. All the for 60 years), which formed at least part of the basis of wills were proved in the Archdeaconry and Consistory the rise to gentry status of his heirs." courts of Canterbury. None could be found in the registers Thorneherst differed from 15th-century farmers such of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, which proved as James Sebrand and Stephen Champion as well the wills of people with land in the two Provinces, or in Stuppeny in several aspects of his leasing. He held his more than one diocese, or who were especially wealthy leases concurrently, certainly in the 1540s, had them for and conscious of their status.u5 much longer terms than Champion or Sebrand, and paid The economic status of the 29 testators at the point of higher farms. The farms had not simply risen in line with will-making was analysed using a wealth-index derived others in the 16th century: those of Newland and Agney from five aspects of the The analysis demonstrated had nearly trebled since the 1470s, as areas of newly a considerable range of wealth among the testators. Four reclaimed land had been added to the properties. When were very well-off, notably two who were among the Sebrand leased these two places their farm totalled £28 a College's early and specially privileged lessees, John year; when Thorneherst did so they totalled £77 a year. Cobbes the receiver, and Henry Goddard. Another was The Champions, Sebrand and Richard Stuppeny appear Richard Tille, probably father of a prior of Christ Church, to have been permanent residents on the Marsh. Thorne- and the fourth was a lessee of Romney. The other 25 herst, on the other hand, moved away from Brookland by testators were spread across a range from middling to 1542 to live in Canterb~ry.~~Unlike them, Thorneherst little wealth. At the lower end of this range, a farmer held a lease of some non-Marsh property from Christ would typically have wanted burial in the churchyard, Church (Brook bedelry), something which was extremely left a shilling for forgotten tithes, had property to leave uncommon among marshland lessees before about 1520, in just one parish, made a small bequest to some friars and then found only among one or two gentry lessees. and named two executors but no feoffees. It was in the second phase of marshland leasing from This analysis provides a context for the will of William about 1520 onwards that the accumulation of leases and Byrcheley, which is discussed in more detail because it dynastic security were priorities for farmers. In this phase, has much in common with those of other people leasing farms rose and the planned duration of leases increased. on the Marsh in the 15th century, in its short length, Even ambitious local men like Richard Stuppeny who had restricted geographical and social horizons, and limited held leases in the first two decades of the 16th century as~irations.~~Byrcheley's will is then compared with that were displaced by the increasing involvement in marsh- of Stephen Thorneherst, whose leasing formed part of land leasing of yeomen like Thorneherst, of the gentry, or the different pattern found from the 1520s onwards. The Farmers of Canterbury Cathedral Priory and All Souls College 121

The will of William Byrcheley, 15th-century The importance of social contacts with a member of a farmer significant Canterbury family appears in his description of the bowls. Thorneherst noted that these had been 'bought Byrcheley leased the small property at Ivychurch from of Mr Alday, chamberlain sometime of the city of All Souls College in 1488-9, just before his death." He Canterbury'. He went on to make what seems partly an was at the lower end of the range of wealth among the attempt to have legal wording in order to devolve leased lessees, although he did request burial in the chancel, land, noting that he expected his property to be leased by rather than the churchyard, of Ivychurch. Bequests of a his sons 'for ever'. He made an equal division between few pence were made to altars and lights in the church his two sons of leases of lands which he held by the demise and to godchildren, and the rest of his goods and chattels and grant of the dean and chapter of Christ Church, left to his wife and one William Rede, another farmer. Canterbury. Thorneherst mentioned first his manor of Byrcheley also bequeathed them lands and a tenement, Fairfield, left to his elder son, together with further lands, or tenements, which he had bought from four people, tenements and appurtenances in the parishes of Ebony, one a tenant of customary land at Appledore, and one a Fairfield and Appledore. The younger son was to have the family member.8Wo interest in the remaining term of manor of Agney, with more land in parishes of Old Romney his lease of the land at Ivychurch was mentioned, but his and Midley, and would also have the family home after widow shared in the common 15th-century pattern in his mother's death. As well as appearing even handed, which the term was completed by a family member, these bequests demonstrate a concern to mention first sometimes in conjunction with other executors. Stephen Thorneherst's manors, and only subsequently his other Thorneherst in contrast, would use his will to try to lands, tenements and their appurtenances. That it was devolve the remaining terms of his leases to his sons and important for Thorneherst to be known and remembered limit the rights of his widow. There is no indication of primarily as a lessee of manorial lands is also evident in the nature of Byrcheley's goods and chattels in his will, the description of Kete Marsh as a manor from the time he perhaps implying that he had little in the way of luxury became lessee." These were the major bequests of items of great monetary value to give, although of course Thorneherst's interests in various pieces of land. Leases such things could have been disposed of earlier in life. of lands which Thorneherst had accumulated in his lifetime His house may have been furnished rather as some would form a block of land for each of his sons. Many of inventories of Ebony manor suggest, giving a reasonably pieces which the elder would get were certainly adjacent, comfortable but unpretentious lifestyle, and where the and the rest were nearby. The younger son's pieces were item of greatest luxury was an iron candelabrum. The similarly all together in the same area. This consolidation other house goods at Ebony included two tables with a suggests that their father had planned for ease of manage- pair of trestles, another table with feet, plus a chair and ment in the future, and anticipated that his sons would be two benches, some bowls, of which one was old, a fire- actively concerned with that management. grate, a tripod and a gridiron, and a mortar and pestle.g0 In contrast to her sons, Thorneherst's widow Agnes was to receive from the Romney Marsh property not manors but a barn at Newland. The bequest highlights the 'Three Bowles of Silver to my Sonne': Stephen changes in landscape caused by farmers living or moving Thorneherst and his will away from the Marsh, in addition to those already caused Stephen Thorneherst had an exceptionally large number by the shift from arable cultivation towards stock raising.93 of marshland leases, but he shared certain characteristics Even in the early-reclaimed part of the landscape where with other lessees of land on the Marsh in the 1530s and buildings such as houses existed, they tended to fall into 40s." There were connections with the Weald and with disuse in the 16th century. A hall house, for example, had Ashford, where there was a major cattle market. There stood and been occupied at Newland in the late 15th were also connections with Canterbury, through com- century, but by the 1560s it had apparently gone, the mercial livestock farming arrangements and dependence property consisting of the barn and land~.~Vtis clear on direct financial backing from men of that city. Other from Thorneherst's will that by the 1560s the family common characteristics were the large size of their regarded themselves as living long-term in Canterbury. landholdings, and a marked concern for the involvement Agnes was also to receive the 'lease and term of years' of of sons in the holding of leases and in the continuation property in St Mildred's parish in the suburbs of Canter- of leasing arrangement^.^^ bury, and this would go to her sons together if she died At or near the end of his life Stephen Thorneherst before the term expired. As well as these meadows, the lived in the parish of St George's in Canterb~ry.'~His will property which the Thornehersts had near their home in provided no description such as yeoman or gentleman, St George's parish and in St Mary Magdalene's consisted but launched very quickly into bequests related to his of a barn and meadows, suggesting that they were active lands and tenements, which were held by lease in Canter- as butcher-graziers. Stephen was also concerned in bury as well as on the Marsh. However, his first concern property development in these two parishes.97 was a bequest to his elder son of 'three Bowles of Silver'. The order of bequests in Thorneherst's will is striking. 122 Gillian Draper

Having begun with the three bowls of silver to his elder his sons to alienate any part of them before they reached son, Thorneherst then dealt in detail with the disposal of adulthood. Furthermore, he stated that if his wife was to his leases. After that he remembered his younger son with claim her dower out of his lands, she was to repay its a bequest of two silver goblets bought from Rose Jaques, value out of the bequest to her. A concern to order his an apparently less prestigious individual than the chamber- children's lives from the grave is also evident in Thorne- lain of Canterbury. Next he dealt with charitable gifts to herst's will, one which reflects those of the landowning the prisoners and poor of parishes firstly in Canterbury, gentry in the 16th cent~ry.'~'There were clauses concern- and secondly in Romney Marsh. After this there were ing what would happen if Stephen's sons died young, and several bequests to named individuals, who seem to have when his widow died or remarried. Careful provision was had important personal or business connections with made that any unexpired years of the leases of one brother Thorneherst. One woman, apparently a close relative, should go to the other if either died young. The benefits received the large sum of £10. This was Margery, wife of of the occupation of land, if only by leasehold, which John Knelle of Appledore. John was also a lessee and a Thorneherst had built up over 30 years, were not to be contemporary of Thorneherst, and John's father, Thomas, allowed to slip out of the family's control. Over and over appears as a practical working farmer of the Marsh, again, the will states that Thorneherst had most of his carefully specifying in his own will the type and quality of lands by the demise and grant of the dean and chapter of all sorts of livestock which each member of his family Canterbury. Undoubtedly this was partly to identify it, but was to recei~e.'~Nevertheless it is noticeable that Thomas it is also an indicator of social status and of the utility of had left £4 to send his son to John to school, evidence local and family connections in obtaining leases. Thorne- perhaps of a desire to appropriate the benefits of literacy herst in fact held only Newland from All Souls College, to his family, or to use it as a route to social rising. Oxford, but many properties from Christ Church. He had Thomas Cobbes, relative of John Cobbes, the College connections via marriage with Christ Church personnel, receiver, also received an annuity from Thorneherst, and namely a female relative married to petty canon there, Thomas's wife and maidservants received bequests too, who might have been helpful in ensuring availability of suggesting that the Cobbes family may also have been leases.'02 He himself made a bequest to two prebendaries related by marriage to Thorneherst. Instead or in addition, there. Thorneherst may also have been a beneficiary of Cobbes may have been receiving a reward for overseeing Christ Church's policy of increasing its lay friends in the Tliorneherst's will. The will also shows connections with last decade before the Dissolution by granting long leases people of higher social status who could provide financial on its Kentish properties.IiJ3 backing in the form of sureties, and who were involved Overall, wills demonstrate quite a degree of variation in the legal and property arrangements of people like in the resources of the earlier lessees, which is to be Thorneherst. The named individuals receiving bequests expected, not least because of the diversity of property included Mr. James Godfrey of London and his son-in- available to farm on the Marsh. The wealth-index accorded law. Godfrey acted as feoffee for some of the marshland with findings from other data examined that All Souls' farmers and a witness to their wills, and probably earliest lessees, in the 1440s and 50s, were men some Thorneherst was acknowledging such lifetime favours affluence and status. The study has shown that this derived and help."" James Godfrey was a descendant of the from their engagement in the College's acquisition and Thomas Godfrey who was active at Newland in the late management of its lands. However, the wealth-index also 14th and early 15th centuries. Members of this extensive showed that the lessees between about 1455 and 1505 Godfrey family included another Thomas, who possessed were people of more limited means, and this ties in with a 'Book of Lydd', a custumal of the town written out by other evidence which demonstrates their very local him in 1587. This is bound in a book containing, among connections and involvement with the cultivation of their many other items, a 15th-century cautionary verse in own land. When agriculture was more profitable by the English on the legal pitfalls surrounding land purchase. 1530s, leases were largely in the hands of gentry or It strongly retlects the concerns of families such as ambitious 'yeoman' lessees like Thorneherst, whose riches Thorneherst's and his own, part of which had earlier and aspirations are revealed in his will. been known as Fermor-alias-Godfrey'.""' Apart from the silverware and bequests to ten servants, Thorneherst's will gives little impression of the household and farming economy, in contrast, say to Thomas Knelle's. Conclusions At the end of his will, Thorneherst made a brief reference The pattern of leasing on the Marsh between the mid- to his plate, jewels and household belongings, but was 15th and mid- 16th centuries has been considered here much more concerned to reiterate the provisions for the against the background of changes on the Marsh after the leases of his manors. He noted that those relating to the Black Death. The mortality of the first and subsequent family home in Canterbury were laid down in accordance epidemics had immediate and long-term effects. In with an Act of Parliament. In fact he wanted to lay down particular. the market in small plots of land and the desire further conditions about the house and lands, forbidding to establish chantries were stimulated, and played a The Farmers of Canterbury Cathedral Priory and All Souls College 123 significant part in making property available for the acquaintance, which potential lessees had with the endowment of All Souls. One or two individuals such as ecclesiastical lords of the marsh. These lessees were able Thomas Godfrey and John Dare11 took advantage of the to pay farms which, though they were rising, represented opportunities presented by the availability of land and very good value in comparison with long-term levels. the desire of the Archbishop to found the College. Men Some of those of the 1540s were, after all, barely above like Andrew Aylwyn and John Engham continued to those of the early 1440s, and some were lower.Io4The exploit such opportunities in the later 15th century by rising farms were undoubtedly one reason why such assisting the College with the acquisition of land which farmers preferred to get as long a lease as possible. In would be profitably enclosed when the time was right. addition, they may have valued the leased properties But the consequences of plague mortality and the founda- differently from the majority of 15th-century farmers: tion of All Souls for small-scale landholders, for agri- for the greater scale of opportunities they gave, perhaps culture, and for the landscape are striking, and well particularly to butcher-graziers like Thorneherst; for the demonstrated at Newland. Between the 1350s and the chance of profit when the market was right; for the 1440s peasant cultivators there who worked fields of a opportunities of patronage which the sub-letting of land few acres were replaced as occupiers by a single College and presentation to rectories offered; for the status derived lessee, and a similar phenomenon was also evident at from the effective lordship of manors, or for an entry Halland Marsh, belonging to Christ Church. The growing into the world of gentry status partly dependent upon importance of stock-raising over the course of the 15th landholding. Long leases could offer all these in a way century, a consequence of the decline in population, also which short ones did not. Amongst these farmers, more precipitated the changes in the landscape which are than one property was frequently taken, revealing a very illustrated in the large fields of the New Innings. different perspective on the uses and accumulation of The establishment of All Souls created some temporary land from that of earlier farmers. Some of Thorneherst's local demand for land for its endowment. But once leased land, the meadows and pastures specifically, was established, the College adopted the policy of leasing out undoubtedly fundamental to his activities as a butcher- its lands as other major landowners like Christ Church grazier. However his other leases, consisting of rents did. Demand for leased land was low for much of the 15th and rectories, must have been appreciated rather as century, as is evidenced in the level of marshland farms, investments, to bring income and influence, and the way the ability of local people to afford to lease land, and the in which he exploited his land meant he did not want or postponement of reclamation, apart from rescue opera- need to live on the Marsh. Furthermore, Thorneherst tions, until the end of the 15th and the early 16th centuries. successfully established his sons and descendants as lessees Up until the 1520s or 30s, the farmers came in the main of these lands after him, and demonstrated a marked from a stratum of wealthy peasants who took leases for contrast with farmers such as Sebrand and the Champions short terms and at low farms. They were able to take in connection with the inheritance of land. leases because landlords' response to conditions of high The marshland data allows Dyer's and Harvey's mortality, demographic uncertainty and low demand was distinction between peasant and capitalist lessees to be to reduce farms, break down properties into smaller units investigated in detail, and in relation to its chronology. and keep the durations of leases short. In general, these The data does indicate that a fairly wealthy stratum of farmers took on just one property close to their home and local people of peasant origins took up the leases which for a quite limited period, when need demanded. Their were newly available on the Marsh from the end of the operations were small-scale, and the farmers and their 14th century, but Harvey's suggestion that dynastic families were involved personally in the cultivation of security was an aim or achievement of this stratum does their land and the raising of stock. Because of the not seem to be applicable to the Marsh in the 15th century. circumstances of its foundation, All Souls had some rather As the great majority of 15th-century lessees were taking wealthier lessees of higher social standing in the first few short leases of only one property at a time, close to their years of its existence, but this did not fundamentally affect homes, and for production of a limited extent in which the overall pattern. they were personally involved, they can hardly be called From the 1530s, increased demand resulting from capitalists. Nor was the leasing of land a route to social population growth and rising prices meant gentry and and economic advancement for most farmers of the 15th ambitious men saw opportunities of profit from the century or their descendants. A few people such as Thomas marshland, especially through animal husbandry. These Godfrey, John Cobbes and Andrew Aylwyn can be opportunities were reflected in All Souls' and Christ observed in the mid- 15th century establishing their own Church's ability to raise the farms, as such people were or their families' wealth and social position. But this was tempted by the higher profits to take leases of marshland. through their involvement in the acquisition and manage- These people were also willing and able to take on the ment of All Souls' land, and not purely through leasing. longer leases which the landlords were ready to give to The activities of such people, specifically the Aylwyns, them. This readiness seems to have been stimulated by raising cattle on a scale greater than was customary among the connections of social class, and sometimes of personal the local population, and using communal grazing marsh 124 Gillian Draper

intensively, became a point of conflict in the social and only Godfrey appears to have been a peasant, and did not agricultural transition. become a lessee. The others received specially favourable Dyer's view was that certain lessees, the yeoman treatment from All Souls as lessees because of their farmers, could be seen as 'emerging' as capitalists in the connections with acquiring or managing land. The actions mid- to late 15th century from the sort of stratum of peasant and attitudes of the remainder of 15th-century lessees lessee which existed on the Marsh throughout the 15th should perhaps not be seen as failure to break economic century. His detailed example of a mid-15th-century constraints or to throw off a peasant mentality. Rather, capitalist yeoman farmer was defined by specific character- they might be seen a logical response to conditions of istics; the extent of his production on large amounts of continued demographic uncertainty, the environmental leased land; production which was for the market; pastoral difficulties posed by flooding, and conditions of depressed farming, with reduced arable production, in connection agriculture. Very few of these 15th-century lessees with a large town which was a centre of demand even in established themselves or their heirs in a position to take a time of urban decline; urban commercial contacts; the advantage of the improved profitability of early 16th- leasing more than one demesne, and their organisation in century agriculture, and of the possibility of making new compact groups often for pastoral farming; the extensive reclamations of land. Instead, from the 1530s these use of servants, and will clauses about sons who were opportunities were exploited by three groups; the descend- 'wasters'."'* On the basis of these, Stephen Thorneherst ants of those who helped All Souls obtain or administer might be considered a capitalist too, but he was a 16th- its properties; rich and ambitious lessees like Thorneherst century one. It is clear that on the Marsh the emergence of with financial and farming interests which extended beyond such ambitious, aspiring lessees, typically calling them- the Marsh; and non-resident gentry lessees with the selves yeomen and, like those of the Midlands, involved resources and standing to commit themselves to the long in agriculture as butcher-graziers, was a feature not of the leases at increased farms which were offered by landlords mid-15th but of the early 16th century onwards. Descrip- in the 16th century. tions such as husbandman and yeoman were complex and perhaps changing terms of social, economic and occu- pational titles, but it is clear that any developments in nomenclature were insignificant beside those in the social Acknowledgements and economic status of lessees over the period.lO" Research for this paper was partly funded by a grant from Dyer alho questioned 'how many of the peasant elite the Romney Marsh Research Trust. I would like to thank really broke out of the economic and mental restraints of Dorothy Beck, Andrew Butcher, Spencer Dimmock, Mark their communities' to become capitalist yeoman farmers, Gardiner, Anne Reeves and particularly Jill Eddison for and the evidence from the Marsh shows that the numbers comments on this paper and for information about people there were small. Although the economic conditions of and places of the late medieval Marsh. Fair copies of Figs the 15th century did provide the peasant elite of the Marsh 7.1 and 7.2 were drawn by Ian Agnew, Department of with opportunities to lease land, the people who broke out Geography, University of Cambridge. The photograph of their economic restraints were those who had special which appears as Fig. 7.3 was taken by Mike Scutt. It is connections with All Souls through the gaining or handling reproduced by permission of the Warden and Fellows of of its lands, John Cobbes, gentleman, Messrs Andrew All Souls College, Oxford. Norah Carlin kindly gave Aylwyn and John Engham, and Thomas Godfrey. Of these, permission to quote from her thesis.

Notes ASCO All Souls College, Oxford 4. Butcher, 'Marshland economy'. BL British Library 5. Rigby, English Society in the Later Middle Ages, 82; Bodl Bodleian Library, Oxford Bailey, 'Rural society', 151; Hare, 'The monks as CCA Canterbury Cathedral Archives landlords', 82-94; Dyer, 'Were there any capitalists?', CKS Centre for Kentish Studies, Maidstone 9-18. MCA Magdalen College, Oxford 6. For example, Harvey, Westminster Abbey, 151-2; Smith. PRO Public Record Office Canterbury Cathedral Priory, 193; Bailey, 'Rural society ', 150-68; Hare, 'The monks as landlords', 151-2. 1. Eddison, 'The evolution of barrier beaches'. 7. Rigby, English Society in the Later Middle Ages, 1-14, 2. Eddison and Draper, 'Landscape of medieval reclama- 18-25, 59. tion'; Eddison, 'Catastrophic changes'. 8. Draper, 'Leasing of Demesnes'. 3. Gross and Butcher, 'Adaptation and investment', 107; 9. Brooks, 'Romney Marsh in the Early Middle Ages', 95. Bailey, 'Per Impetum Maris', Table 6.1 ; Smith, Canter- 10. Evans and Faith, The History of the University of Oxford, bury Cathedral Priory, 203. 636. The Farmers of Canterbury Cathedral Priory and All Souls College 125

Dyer, 'Were there any capitalists?', 13; Hare, 'The monks CCA DCc RE 377; DCc MA6, ff. lr, 66r, 82r, 120r, 176v; as landlords', 9 1. MA12, f.36r; MA13, f.294~;MA120, f.88r. Bodl MS dd All Souls c268. The valor is dated as CCA DCc MA17, f.35r; MA31, ff. 1-12, 1533-6 in Trice Martin, Catalogue of All Souls, 394. But Ebony Prioratus: CCA DCc Charta Antigua E209; Gross it cannot be related to the Valor Ecclesiasricus since it and Butcher, 'Adaptation and investment', 108; CCA DCc notes a property (Newland) as let in November 1542, and MA6, f.13~;Ebony manor (without Priomtus): in 1478 presumably is related to the 1545 Chantries Act, Swanson, two scots were assessed at the court of the Bailiff and 12 Church and Society, 357. jurats on 72 acres, and one on 92 acres, CCA DCc MA6, CCA DCc Miscellaneous Accounts; Dcc Prior's Accounts f.14r; Grimsland: CCA DCc MA33. 2, 13; U6317033 1. Appledore was a large and complex An early 14th-century listing of the size of the Priory's manor with accounts of bedels, farmers, and surveyors marshland properties tucked inside an Appledore court and expenditors of sea walls and manorial repairs for roll of 141 1 provides a basis for comparison with the various years between 1399 and 1469, CCA DCc Apple- situation in the 15th century; at Appledore and Ebony dore 59-75. Its lands were leased in various ways in the there were 350 acres; at Fairfield and Brookland 180 period covered in this study and it is therefore not included acres; at Agney, 200 acres. CCA U15/10/17. At the end in Table 2. of the 13th century, maximum acreages of arable sown at CCA DCc MA3 1, ff. 1-1 2; Gross and Butcher, 'Adaptation Agney were about 180 acres, and at Ebony 140 acres. and investment', 108. The figures for Agney therefore suggest that the early CCA U63170331; CCA DCc Prior's Account 2 (1409); 14th-century list was measuring demesne arable, allowing CCA DCc MA8. f.49r, f.123r: Carlin, 'Christ Church, for some fallow. On this basis, Ebony probably had about Canterbury, and its Lands', 12-15. Menelands consisted 150 acres, and Appledore therefore about 200 acres of of four adjacent fields, at least in 1758, CCA U6317033 1. demesne in the early 14th century, Gross and Butcher, The information on Ruckinge manor was supplied by 'Adaptation and investment', 108, 112. Anne Reeves. Dyer, 'Were there any capitalists?', 10. Eddison and Draper, 'Landscape of medieval reclama- This Rectory was 'alias Punteney', and was the church tion'. of St. Martin in New Romney, one of three churches Gardiner, 'Medieval settlement and society', 115; CCA there, Bodl MS dd All Souls c129; Scott Robertson, DCc Charta Antigua F35, f.4; Reg. C, f.270; Dugdale, 'Destroyed churches of New Romney', 237-8. History of Intbanking and Drayning, 49, 69. Gardiner, 'Medieval settlement and society', 11 3-6. The sum of £1200, Carlin, 'Christ Church, Canterbury, Bodl MS dd All Souls c61; c129. and its Lands', 165, 171. Bodl MS dd All Souls c129; Gardiner, 'Medieval settle- Dugdale, History of Imbanking and Drayning, 49. ment and society', 115. CCA DCc MA6, ff.78v, 148v. ASCO CTM 417al4. Smith, Canterbury Cathedral Priory, 203-4; Carlin, Bodl MS dd All Souls c6 1. 'Christ Church, Canterbury, and its Lands', 171-5; Hare, What seems to be an extract of material from a Hundred 'The monks as landlords', 93. court of St Martins is found on a small slip sewn in with Carlin, 'Christ Church. Canterbury, and its Lands', 172: three surviving farmers' accounts of 1429, at which time her evidence was the Priors' Accounts. She does not the Priory had let the properties. Ivychurch was 'a name the marsh involved but it was clearly the Bekard, tenement and 31 acres in Ivychurch, Brookland and which was adjacent to Kete Marsh, CCA DCc MA12, Appledore'. Hope All Saints was a tenement and 26 acres f.30~;MA13, ff. 183r, 294r. in the parish of that name, Bodl MS dd All Souls c61; Carlin, 'Christ Church, Canterbury, and its Lands', c62; Du Boulay, 'The Archbishop as territorial magnate', 174-5. 66. CCA DCc Bedel's Accounts, Appledore 60,70-74; DCc Bodl. MS dd All Souls c61; c62. MA6, ff.lr, 13v, 17r, 40r, 66r, 82r, 116, 120r, 131v, Bodl MS dd All Souls c321; c323; c324. 176v; MA8, ff.48v, 98v, 110v, 128v; MA1 3, f.294~; Bodl MS dd All Souls c61; c323; c321.8. Of the early MA108, f.41r; MA109, f.26~;MA110, ff.27r, 28r; farmers, only Richard Benet is not known to have had MA111, f.27r; MA112, f.9r; MA114, f.17~;MA115, such a connection with the College. He was lessee of ff.42v, 48r; MA1 16, f.41r; MA118, f.71r; MA119, ff.64, Hope as a subordinate of Henry Goddard in 1444, although 65r; MA120, f.84r; MA126, f. 12r; MA130, MA139; Gross later on his own account. and Butcher, 'Adaptation and investment', 112-3. Bodl MS dd All Souls ~321.14;c322.3; c325. By the 1470s Halland Marsh was known simply as the Armenard and Aleyn were exceptional in being both 140 acres, CCA DCc MA6, f. 148v; DCc Prior's Account vendors and lessees, as was Richard Stuppeny, a probable 13. descendant of another vendor, who did become a lessee, When Simon Goddard paid part of his farm at Fairfield CCA DCc MA116, f.41~;MA115, f.43r; MA111, f.29r; in sheep in 1478, they were valued at 20d. each, a high MA112, f.lOr; Bodl MS dd All Souls c325. value compared with that of sheep let with Scotney in Bodl MS dd All Souls c129. 1542 (16d. each), CCA DCc MA6, ff.lr, 14th.; Bodl. MS In the All Souls archive there is a bond for £40 of three dd All Souls c185. The farmer of Agney delivered 100 people, described as husbandmen, of whom one is Thomas sheep to the Priory in 1472 valued, like Goddard's, at Godfrey, Bodl MS dd All Souls c266. The Godfrey family 20d. a head, CCA DCc RE 3 13. was extensive and the bond is not clearly dated Thomson, Transformation of Medieval England, 41. ['l3 Henry'], but it may be of this Thomas Godfrey; Gillian Draper

alternatively it might be of a son or other descendant. of the New Innings, land which was subsequently Comparison of his wealth with that of All Souls' lessees reclaimed, Gardiner, 'Medieval settlement and society', between 1443 and 1505 (see below), indicates he would 116; Bodl MS dd All Souls c129. have been in the middle of the range, Jacob, Register of Harvey, Westminster Abbey, 156-7. Henry Chichele, 2, 454. One of Thomas's descendants, This was the description of four lessees of a Christ Church Augustine Godfrey, was specially favoured by Christ property in 1431 in a draft lease, which is endorsed Church with a longish lease in the first decade of 16th 'Ruckinge' but is probably of Ebony, CCA DCc Chartae century, CCA DCc MA1 15, f.45, MA1 16, f.43~.For the Antiquae R13a; E207a; E208; E209; Bunce's Schedule, family's fortunes in the 16th century, see below. volume 2. John Fagge, farmer of Parkhall and Grimsland Thomas Bate junior and senior were active there in the in 1492-3, was described as a husbandman (of ) late 15th century. Bate junior was a jurat and Bailiff. in a bond relating to a marshland lease of 1522, as also Besides farming the Rectory of St Martin's in Romney, was Nicholas Fagge of Aldington, his partner in the bond, Aylwyn had the sinecure of Broomhill, was master of the CCA DCc MA8, f. 123r; MCA, Chancery Lane 10; EL12 hospital of Sts Stephen and Thomas at New Romney and p. 123. was the local representative of the vicar of Lydd, Finn, The Marsh parishes were , , Records of Lydd, xix, 430, 446; MCA, EP 138120. Newchurch and Ivychurch. Of the farmers living beyond Bodl MS dd All Souls c323; c324; Finn, Records of the Marsh, one was a widow living at Rolvenden in the Lydd, 26,109-1 1,172. Weald of Kent, suggesting links with the cloth industry. The sick animals were a sow and a ewe, although many The other, Richard Tille, lived at and was of Bate's were in fact cattle, suggesting a lack of probably father of William Selling, Prior of Christ Church, specialization among marshland butcher-graziers in this CKS PRC 3213, 102; Bodl MS dd All Souls c321.12. period, like those of Warwickshire, Finn, Records of Leases, accounts, wills, and the Lydd records all indicate Lydd, xx, 14, 109-1 1, 277. I owe information on Bate to the very local nature of the concerns of the farmers in Spencer Dimmock. landholding, both those of the Priory and the College. Bailey, 'Rural society', 152-3; Thomson, Transformation This applied even to the early All Souls farmers, Bodl of Medieval England, 19; Harvey, Westminster Abbey, MS dd All Souls ~268.216;c321; c322.1; c323; c324; 150; Rigby, English Society in the Later Middle Ages, c322.5; CKS PRC 31/31, f.78; PRC 1711, f.137; Finn, 86. Records of Lydd, 383, 429-30. Harvey, Westminster Abbey, 156, 159-160. Smith, Canterbury Cathedral Priory, 193; BL Harl. MS CCA DCc MA130; MA 139; Bedel's Account, Appledore 1006, f.133-98; Bodl MS dd All Souls c183. In 1460-1, 60; Appledore 74. Menelands was leased by one John Poundeherst, a farmer CCA DCc MA6, f.3r; MA120, f.84~;MA122, f.69r. of apparently fairly low social standing, with heirs who Bodl MS dd All Souls c61. had a small holding of three acres of some customary land In the 1440s it was let with Bletching, and then separately not far from Menelands, Bodl MS dd All Souls c62; CCA for the next 70 years. Bletching consisted of rents worth U6317033 1; DCc MA3 1, ff.1-12. Parkhall and Grimsland £6 9s.7%d., which were farmed out for £5 about 1504. In were leased by John Fagge, husbandman, in 1492-3, thc calculation of the farm of Scotney in 1524, it was although subsequently (with Menelands) by Thomas assumed that the farm of Bletching was still £5, Bodl Assheherst and Richard Knatchbull, gentlemen, acting as MS dd All Souls c323; c321.14; c325. executors, CCA DCc MA8, f.49r; MA108, f.26r; MA109, Bodl MS dd All Souls c183. A stock inventory for Ebony ff.33v, 34r; MA1 10, f.45; MA1 11, ff.32r, 33r; MA1 12, with leases of 1408-34, apparently a rare survival, ff.lv, 2r; MA114, ff.30r, 31r; MA115, f.53~. similarly suggests the importance of both stock and crops. The estates of the prior and convent of Westminster were The farm stock included stotts, heifers, cows, a bull, more often leased by people whom she termed capitalists oxen, mares, calves, sheep of various ages, pigs and than those of the abbot, where most of whose farmers piglets, beans (22 acres), vetch (no acreage given), wheat were 'peasants'. Peasant was defined as 'a self-employed (26 acres), and oats (58 acres), CCA DCc E207a; E208; farmer who took part in the working of his own land', E209; Carlin, 'Christ Church, Canterbury, and its Lands', Harvey, Westminster Abbey, 151-2, 155. 114. Agriculture at Gogyhall was geared towards the Harvey, WestminsterAbbey, 162. The right or responsibil- production of cattle and dairy produce in the 1420s, Bodl ity to do so was certainly sometimes recorded by written MS dd All Souls c61. agreement, for example in the leases of Ebony in the early The stock was 800 ewes and 200 lambs valued at £63 6s. 15th century. 8d. in 1508. Leases and the level of farms indicate that Draper, 'Leasing of Demesnes', 17. such a stock was leased by All Souls with the property CCA DCc MA1 16, f. 38v; Bodl MS dd All Souls c133; from the outset, and until at least the mid-16th century, c184; c268; ~321.14;c321; c322; c323; c325. Bodl MS dd All Souls c266; c185. Stephen Champion farmed Agney with a relative, John, Thomson, Transformation of Medieval England, 36; Zell, CCA DCc RE3 13. 'Population and family structure in the sixteenth-century Information from the will of Hamo Lamberd, CKS Weald', 256; Bodl MS dd All Souls c184. PRC3213 f.86~. In 1536 two men, probably brothers, released a further CCA DCc MA1 12, f.5. 20 acres of marsh in 'le Newlande' to the College. This William Champion of Old Romney farmed Newland alone acquisition can be linked with the College's continuing until at least 1482, Bodl MS dd All Souls c321; c322; concern to gain further parcels of saltmarsh on the fringes c324. The Farmers of Canterbury Cathedral Priory and All Souls College 127

CCA DCc MA6, f.3r; MA108, ff.4lv, 48r, IOlv, 130v. goods bequeathed, and they also confirmed that farmers Bodl MS dd All Souls c321; c321; c322. At Agney two of the 15th century leased properties very close to, or men, one a Sebrand, accounted for Agney for two years within, the parishes in which they lived. from 1496, probably as John's executors, CCA DCc 87. CKS PRC 3213, f.206. MA109, f.28~;MA1 10, f.41r. 88. Bodl MS dd All Souls c.321.4 Five members of the Sebrand family are known to have 89. CCA DCc MA31, f.8. had leases of three different places in the late 15th 90. CCA DCc Chartae Antiquae E207a; E208; E209. century, and also had tenant-land at Appledore, CCA 9 1. For example, John Styll, yeoman of Stone-in-Oxney, John DDc MA3 1, ff. 1-12; Butcher, 'Citizens and farmers'. Philyp, mentioned above, and the Goldwell and Master There are many wills for this family, but not apparently families, CKS PRC 1715 f.278; PRC 17/27 f.119; PRC for this James Sebrand, Plomer, Index of Wills. 3213 f.206. DCc Bond 90; MA1 19, f.46~. Bodl MS dd All Souls c325; c133; c266. 92. See, for example, CCA DCc Bond 123, 124; DCc CCA DCc Bond 117. Marsshe held Agney from BB 8211 69 and 169a. 1522-33. 93. Thorneherst's will was proved in the Consistory court, Bodl MS dd All Souls c183. Stuppeny was bailiff of Lydd CKS PRC 32/30 f.235. in 1530-1, Finn, Records of Lydd, 353. 94. Perhaps in the same way as prosperous gentlemen in Clement Stuppeny of Lydd and Robert Freeman of Oxford, Havering in Essex at this period formed their miscel- yeoman, were lessees of Scotney and Bletching in 1588, laneous acquisitions of land into 'manors', McIntosh, Bodl MS dd All Souls c183; Finn, Records of Lydd, 413. Autonomy and Community, 224; CCA DCc MA17, f.35r. Brook is north-east of Ashford and south-east of Wye, 95. Gogyhall similarly was leased by 1545 by a man who did between the Marsh and Canterbury. not live on the Marsh, Robert Master of Willesborough, Surviving leases are for part of Ketemarsh, at first for 21 CCA DCc Bond 90. Only the site of the manor house years, and then for 60, and for Newland for 20 years, remained to be mapped in 158819, although there was a CCA DCc MA122, f.64r; MA17, f.35r; Bodl MS dd All 'Shepecote', ASCO CTM 417a14. Souls c268; c133. 96. Bodl MS dd All Souls c324. CCA DCc BB 67/35; BB 70126; MA126, f.17~;MA17, 97. Urry, Christopher Marlowe and Canterbury, 7, 14. f.22r, f.35r, f.37~. 98. CKS PRC 31/31, f.78 The College's small property, Hope, was leased by 99. Godfrey acted as such for Thomas Knelle, for example. Thomas Strogyll, bailiff of Lydd, who was not among the 100. Lee, 'The compilation of a seventeenth-century Kentish Gentils of Kent, but who nevertheless contributed £10 to manuscript book', 390-1, 405, 408. the Lay Subsidy in 1542, Greenstreet, 'List of Kentish 101. Simpson, History of the Land Law, 183, 191. gentlemen', 394-7; Greenstreet, 'Kentish contributors to 102. CKS PRC 32/28 f.82. a loan', 398-404. 103. The same may be true of the Goldwell family, which Rigby, English Society in the Later Middle Ages, 82, included Henry, a religiously 'reformist' Justice of quoting the work of six others; Bailey, 'Rural society', Ashford in the late 1530s, Cnrlin, 'Christ Church, 151. Canterbury, and its Lands', 99; Duffy, 'Stripping of the The ways in which the wills were located and analysed Altars', 419. are detailed in Draper, 'Leasing of Demesnes', 20-4. 104. Cf. Harvey, Westminster Abbey, 161, 163. It involved requests for burial in church or churchyard, 105. Dyer, 'Were there any capitalists?', 11, 13, 14, 17. amounts bequeathed for tithes, and so on, the numbers of 106. For comparison with the Marsh data, lessees with churches or religious houses with which the testator made 'additions' on all the Archbishop's Kentish estates in 1503 some spiritual connection, the parishes in which the to 1532 included l l husbandmen, 42 yeomen, and 32 of testator mentioned having property, and the numbers of gentry status, Du Boulay, 'Calendar of archbishopric feoffees or executors named. These five aspects corres- demesne leases'. ponded closely with the resources of testators in terms of

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