7. the Farmers of Canterbury Cathedral Priory and All Souls College on Romney Marsh C

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 Romney Marsh 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 Lydd, New Romney 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 England, 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.

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