Page:VCH Herefordshire 1.djvu/360

 A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE Turning again to Leominster we find the villeins T.R.E. making a customary- payment of no less than £i i 4J-. /.d., while the ' Radchenistres ' used to con- tribute I 3 J. 4^d. and four sestters of honey. In 1086 the customary payment, apparently from all classes combined, had fallen to ^j 14^. 'i^d., but there were some further payments by way of commutation. Eighteen shillings were paid for fish {pro piscibus) ; 8j. towards salt [ad sal) ; and 65J. in respect of honey {de melle). ' Fish silver ' and ' a payment for salt ' are occa- sionally met with in manorial surveys,^*" but their origin is not wholly clear, I have shown that at Burton (Staffs.) the holder of two bovates had to go and fetch salt {pro sale) once a year and to make another journey for fish {pro piscibus)^ or commute each journey for a payment of 2^. to the abbot."^ The conjunction of the payments appears to me to suggest their similar origin at Leominster. In Cambridgeshire, however, Domesday records a payment de presentatione piscium, and on the Ramsey Abbey manors the fish silver or ' haringsilver ' seems to have been paid ad pisces emendos}^^ As to the honey, it will have been observed that the ' Radchenistres ' T.R.E. made their render partly in money, partly in honey, and so did the Rad- mans of Westminster Abbey at Pershore, who ' used to render T.R.E. £^2 and 50 sestters of honey,' and also the ' Radchenistres ' at Deerhurst, which was farmed T.R.E. for £&^ and 8 sestters of honey. Honey renders, though characteristic of Welsh tenants, were by no means restricted to them. The customary payment in money by the Leominster villeins may be compared with those on the royal manors at Kingsland.^*''^ On the second of these the villeins made a customary payment of i y. d., while the ' coliberts ' rendered three sestters of wheat and of barley, and two and half {sic) sheep with their lambs and 2ld. On the other manor, the villeins and the ' coliberts' are named among the sources of a money payment. We know so little of the ' coliberts ' that any light on their renders is welcome ; in a Worcestershire manor they are found giving both money and work."* Good instances of payments by villeins are found on the church of Hereford's three manors, Walford, Ross, and Upton, on the first of which the villeins pay zos. for the waste land,"* on the second i8j. as rent {de censu), and on the third 20J, as a customary due {per consuetudinem) . Of actual money rents there are examples at Leintwardine, where two tenants {homines) render 4J, de loca- tione terrae^^^ and at Marden, where 9J. were received in rent,"^ At Baysham 5J-. was rendered de consuetudine by 14 homines, who it would be rash to assume were villeins. At Eardisley a Welshman rendered 3J, a year ; to the king's manor of Cleeve cum Wilton Welshmen rendered o sestiers of honey and 6j, 5^'. ; in the same Archenfield region a Welshman paid to Roger de Laci 5J. and a sestier of honey, while the lord of Kilpeck's tenants paid him 1 5 sestiers of honey and loj. ; there also, on a manor of Gilbert Fitz Turold's, four 'free- men ' paid him a customary due {de consuetudine) of four sestiers of honey and "° VinogradofF, Villeinage in Engl. 291. "' Engl. Hist. Rev. xx, 287. '^'^Neilson, Manors of Ramsey Abbe-j, 55. "** i.e. the two manors of ' Lene,' which are probably now represented by Kingsland and Eardisland. '^ ' Ibi vi coliberti reddunt per annum xi sol. et ii den. et arant et seminant de proprio semine xii acras.' Aichintune (fol. 1743). "* At Fownhope, higher up the river, the lord had zs. d. ' de wastis terris.' '''Fol. 2 60. '"*' De mercede terre Manerii hujus exeunt ix solidi.' 292