Page:Massingberd - Court Rolls of the Manor of Ingoldmells in the County of Lincoln.pdf/7

Rh rent of 8d. per acre became payable, and that a rent of 2d. per acre was paid for free land purchased by villeins besides the ﬁnes on surrender and admittance. They also give us some insight into the economic history of a Lincolnshire manor. The process of subinfeudation enabled great barons to keep up great retinues, and ride out to war at the head of goodly companies of knights and followers, but little did they foresee the enormous loss to their successors. What would have been the value of the estates of the Earls of Lincoln had the Domesday estates of Ivo Tailboys, Hugh Earl of Chester, and Ilbert de Lacy been kept in hand, instead of being granted out to tenants to be held by knight service, one hardly dare think, but happily the danger to the country of such estates was averted, and we have only to consider the actual facts as they concern one of the manors which were kept. In 1086 the annual value of the manor of Ingoldmells was 10l., an increase of 2l. upon the value temp. Edward the Confessor. In 1295 the rents of the free and bond tenants were 51l. 17s. 1d., inclusive of 10l. of tallage, but exclusive of ﬁnes, perquisites of courts &c. amounting to 18l. 11s. 8d., and some small rents for the N. and S. warrens, &c. In 1347 the same rents were 61l. 9s. 4d., and in 1421–2 they were 71l. 10s. 3d. So far the customs of the manor with regard to the new rents for lands purchased by villeins had provided an increase of revenue. But in 1485, 2l. 7s. 4d. has to be deducted for lost rents, chieﬂy per fluxum maris, from a total of 72l. 6s. 8d., so that there is a slight decrease, and when the manor was sold in 1628 by Charles I. the reserved rent, which corresponded to the sum of the freehold and copyhold rents then payable, was only 73l. 17s. 2d., and this was reduced in 1665–6 to 65l., because part of the land chargeable was ‘swallowed up by the sea.’ It is therefore clear that at Ingoldmells the tenants appropriated virtually the whole of the increase in the value of the land, and one sees how hopeless in the face of growing expenses it was for lords of manors to keep up their position unless they could acquire actual possession of the lands over which they had the lordship. Thus a struggle went on for years. Many county families disappeared, others by some means or other purchased the freehold lands, and by a system of leases