Page:A History of Cawthorne.djvu/27

Rh "By thus assembling at the Foot of the Cross, there was a tincture of religion diffused through the conduct of the civil affairs of the time."

The following is a full translation of the report on the Manor of Cawthorne, as given in the "Dom Boc," commonly called the Domesday Book, which is now preserved, since 1696, in the Chapter House, Westminster, having been formerly deposited in Winchester Cathedral:

"Manor. In Caltorne Alric had three carucates of land to be taxed, and there may be two ploughs there ("poss. ibi esse"). The same has it now of Ilbert: himself two ploughs there and four villanes with two ploughs. There is a Priest and a Church ("Ibi presbyter et ecclesia"). Wood pasture two miles long and two broad. The whole Manor three miles long and two broad. Value in King Edward's time, forty shillings; now, twenty shillings.

"To this Manor belongs Silchestone (Silkstone), one carucate and a half; Holant (High Hoyland), six oxgangs; Clactone (Clayton West), six oxgangs. That is, three carucates of land to be taxed, and there may be two ploughs there."

The "carucate" of land here mentioned was probably no fixed number of acres, but variously estimated according to the quality of the land at from sixty to one hundred and twenty acres; the "oxgang" or "bovate," being as much land as could be worked by one ox, was the eighth part of a "carucate;" the "villanes," or villeins (from vill—a village) were an order of tenants holding under the lord, born upon and transferred with their lord's estate, and bound by their tenure to perform what were called villain services, ignoble in their nature and indeterminate in their degree.The mile of Domesday Book was about one and a half of our present miles: the shilling, it need hardly be said, many times the value of the shilling of the present day. A "manor" was so called a manendo, as being the usual residence of the owner.