Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/369

 ON CERTAIN OBSCURE WORDS IN CHARTERS, REN- TALS, ACCOUNTS, &c., OF PROPERTY IN THE WEST OF ENGLAND.— (Co«/mMed) Berbiagium ; Barbage. — Bloimt, in his Uragmenta Anti- quitatis, mentions, under villenagc tenure, the berbiage rent paid by the serfs of Clymeshuid and Calstock in Cornwall. The following are the extracts contained in his notes : " A. B. nativus de stipite quondam tenuit unum messuayium cum per- tinentiis in Clymeslond. . . etrespondet inde per annum ad quatuor terminos, 2*. 4"^ ; et berbiagii ad fest. Apost. Phil, et Jacob. 16^. &c, " Nativi tenentes de Calistoke reddunt per annum de certo redditu vocato berbiagium ad le Hokeday." His authority is an ancient survey of the duchy. The word also occurs in his Glossary, as well as in Cowel's Interpreter, voc. Berbicage. — " Wliy this rent was called berbiagium," says Blount, "I am to seek. — For the meaning you must consult some learned Cornish man." As neither CoAvel nor Blount had the advantage of the labours of Ducange, their inability to explain the word is not inexcusable. Later annotators on Blount have obtained from that author some obscure conception that it had something to do (as it certainly had) with brebis or sheep. The word is noticed by Ducange, who cites several examples of its use in French documents ; but he does not seem to have ])cen aware of its use in this country, and the instances which he gives look, at first sight, rather like a tax than a regular, annual, rent, such as it was in Devon and Cornwall. The l)est ex- planation of its meaning will be afforded by extracts from the records which throw liglit upon it, in connexion with other documentary notices which seem to throw back the proof of its existence in fact to a period long before it occurs in name. The Domesday survey shews that customary ])ayments in sheep and cattle were received from tenants of different manors in CornwaU and Devon. Under St. Petrock is a list of lands alleged to be usurped from that priory. Five out of the seven ])arcels of land rendered, or luul before the Conquest ren- dered, either oxen or sheep, as well as money. The following are instances ; " In Trefornoc diniid. hida terrtr. Reddebat 12