Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/292

 Chip. VIII. OF MANCHESTER. z6i bailiff and his four deputies with bread beer and other necefla- ries, and with provifion for their iervants and horfes, upon no- tice of their arrival among them * Thefe were the two only ranks ©f the Britifh citizens, the nobles a»d the villains * All below the latter were Caeths or {Laves, made fuch by the voluntary fale or the public condem- nation of their paribus bo fervkude ; were fometimes denomi- nated Yfdafellawgeu or cottagers, anfwering to the Bordarii and Cottarii of Doomiday Book ; and,, like the flaves of the Stxcpa, wefre certainly poflefled of forae property * And both th(s£c ranks- were obnoxious to die payment of an heriot upon the deceafe of the poffefTor, and to the impofition of a relief "or a fine of 'renewal upon the fucceffion of the heir 19 .. The; eftates of both thefe ranks paid equally to their refpeftive fwpe- riors the maritagium or fine for the marriage of a daughter ** The nobles and ffoe villains did homage to the lord for their fond, and their infants in orphanage received a tutor and' guardian from: his appointment 3 The nobles and the villains were obliged to attend their lord to the wars, or to pay him a> Lloyd, an efcuage* or a. commutation for it. J . And the lea ef the former was forfeited to the crown upon negleft of tho fervices, and devolved to the crown upon failure of ifliie'Y But thefe payments were all, except the efcuage, regularly de* fined by the law. The marriage-fine for an uchdwyr's daugh- ter was an hundred and twenty pence, ami for a villain's only twenty* four 3 The heriot and the .relief were combined to- gether under one common appellation of Ebediw, as I fhall here** after evince both to have been, denominated the Heriot among the Saxons a^d the Relief among the Normans 3. And the ebe- diw of an uchelwyr was fettled m general at an hundred and tatfenty pence, of an uehelwyi's villain at fixty, aad of a king's villain at, ninety * The royal villain muft have enjoyed one third more advantage from his eftate than the private.. And the. Britifh nobles paid much ealier heriots than the Saxon 3. Such iwere the tenures- ef (belauds in Wales before the Eng- tifh. .cuftoias were tranfpiaated iuto the country by the Englifh arms..