Lancashire Folk-lore Part 30

Until within these few years a relic of Saxon polity more ancient than the Domesday Survey existed in the Constablewick of Garstang, which continued to our own days, the _freo borh_, _friborg_, or Saxon manor, in a very perfect state. The free-burgh consisted of 11 towns.h.i.+ps, surrounding the original lords.h.i.+p to which all but one were subject. The reason for establis.h.i.+ng this inst.i.tution is stated in a Saxon law. The _Wita_, or counsellors, having considered the impunity with which trespa.s.ses against neighbours were committed, appointed over every ten friborgs, justiciaries whom they denominated _tien heofod_ or "head of ten." These (says Dr. Keuerden) handled smaller causes between townsmen and neighbours, and according to the degree of the trespa.s.s, awarded satisfaction; made agreements respecting pastures, meadows and corn-lands, and reconciled differences among neighbours. The constablewick of Garstang comprised the towns.h.i.+p of Garstang and ten other towns.h.i.+ps, all of which are styled hamlets in the books of the court, and were divided into three portions. Two constables were annually elected for this district, and were alternately taken from each third portion of the constablewick. The jury were nominated in a similar manner. The jury were accustomed to adjourn from the court to an eminence called Constable hillock, adjoining the river Wyre, where they made choice of the constables by inscribing their names upon slips of wood. These officers were empowered to collect the county-rates, and serve for all the hamlets. The court was held annually, by direction of a steward of the Duke of Hamilton, the superior lord of the wick, till 1816, when it fell into neglect, and its powers are now exercised in such of the towns.h.i.+ps only as are the property of the Duke. The adjournment of the court to the hillock is obviously the remnant of a custom far more ancient than the inst.i.tution of the friborg itself.[218]

TALLIAGE OR TALLAGE.

This was a kind of occasional property tax, levied by order of the monarch in emergencies, and throughout the kingdom. In the charter granted by Randle, Earl of Chester, to the burgesses of Stafford, about A.D. 1231, is a clause reserving to him and his heirs reasonable tallage, when the King makes or takes tallage of his burgesses throughout England. A precisely similar clause is found in Thomas Greslet's charter to his burgesses of Mamecestre in 1301. In the 11th Henry III. (1226-27) a still earlier talliage was made in Lancas.h.i.+re, which enables us to measure the relative importance of the princ.i.p.al towns in the county early in the thirteenth century. The impost was a.s.sessed by Master Alexander de Dorsete and Simon de Hal; and the payments were for the towns of Lancaster thirteen marks (8 13_s._ 4_d._); Liverpool, eleven marks, 7_s._ 8_d._ (7 14_s._ 4_d._); West Derby, seven marks, 7_s._ 8_d._ (5 1_s._); Preston, fifteen marks, 6_d._ (10 0_s._ 6_d._). The tenants in thanage paid ten marks (6 13_s._ 4_d._) to have respite, that they might not be talliaged. Baines deems it remarkable that Manchester, Stafford, and Wigan were not included; but in these old manors it was the lord of the manor who had the right to levy talliage within his manor. In 1332 a tallage of one-fifteenth was levied by Edward III., to enable him to carry on the war against Scotland.[219]

ROCHDALE t.i.tHE, EASTER-DUES, MORTUARIES, ETC.

The following is a literal copy of a small hand-bill in possession of the writer, which appears to have been printed for distribution among the farmers and the paris.h.i.+oners generally, with the purpose of supplying information as to the various payments to be made to the vicar, or at all events to the parish church:--

An EXTRACT out of the _Parliament Survey_, Taken the 10th of _January_ 1620.

The Parish of _Rochdale_ is divided into four Divisions, viz.

_Hundersfield_, _Spotland_, _Castleton_, and _b.u.t.terworth_. There is also belonging to the Rectory of _Rochdale_, the Parish Chapel of _Saddleworth_, in the County of _York_; and certain Parcels of Glebe Lands, lying in _Saddleworth_.

? There is no Tythe Hay paid within the Parish, but a Penny a Year every one payeth that holdeth any Lands within the Parish.

No Tythe paid for Eggs, Apples, Hemp, or Flax.

The Manner of receiving the _Easter-Role_ and Mortuarys are thus--each Horse payeth a Penny; for every married Man or Widow at the Offering, a Penny; every Plough a Penny; every Swarm of Bees a Penny; every Cow one Penny; and every Colt, and every Calf, one Halfpenny.

For Mortuarys--Every one buried in the Chancel payeth 6_s._ 8_d._ every one that dieth worth twenty n.o.bles, in moveable Goods, over and above his Debts, payeth 3_s._ 4_d._ if worth 30_l._ payeth 6_s._ 8_d._ if worth 40_l._ or upwards, 10_s._--Stat. 21. Hen. 8.

Chap. 6.

N.B. That House or Smoke, and Garden, hath been subst.i.tuted in the Room of Horse and Plough.

In Closes where there are more than ten Stacks of Corn (or even tens) in one Close, _the odd Stacks shall not be tythed_; the Land-Owner setting up the Corn in Stacks, may be a good Consideration for the same; because of Common Right the Tytheman is to take the Corn Tythe in the Sheaf, but when the same is stacked, as is customary in many places, the Tytheman may not break any odd Stack, for he cannot tythe both by the Stack and Sheaf. And this was the Opinion of Serjeants _Poole_ and _Kenyan_, and of Lawyer _Wilson_.

No Complaint concerning any small Tythes, &c. shall be determined by Justices of Peace, unless the Complaint be made within two Years after the same Tythes, &c. become due. Stat. 7. and 8. William 3.

Chap. 6.

FARM AND AGRICULTURAL CELEBRATIONS IN THE FYLDE.

In the olden times almost every great agricultural operation had its peculiar festivities; now almost everywhere obsolete. The harvest home, its procession and feast, still linger the last of these rural celebrations, but shorn of much of its old ceremonial and jollity.

"Shutting of marling" had also its gala-day. Then a "lord" and a "lady"

presided at the feast; having been previously drawn out of the marl-pit by a strong team of horses, gaily decorated with ribbons, mounted by their drivers, who were trimmed out in their best. The procession paraded through the village lanes and streets, some of its members shaking tin boxes, and soliciting contributions from the bystanders. The money collected was expended in good cheer at the feast. Again, "Cob-seeding" was a time when mirth and good-nature prevailed. Like the "bee" of our American cousins, it was an occasion when all helped every one else in turn,--collecting, thres.h.i.+ng, winnowing the crop on the field; "housing" the seed ready prepared for the market; and when all the work of the day was finished, partaking of a substantial supper, and closing the evening with many a merry dance on the barn's clay floor.[220]

DALTON-IN-FURNESS.

Among the ancient customs of Dalton, is the practice of hiring reapers on Sundays in time of harvest. Endeavours have been made to abolish it; but by the statute of 27 Henry VI. cap. 5, for suppressing Sabbath-breaking, four Sundays in harvest time are excepted from the prohibition against holding markets and fairs on holydays, and the people of Dalton have construed it to the hiring of such servants. Till of late years there was at Dalton an annual festival called "The Dalton Hunt," in which the gentlemen of the district partook of the sports of the field by day, and joined the ladies in the ball-room at night. A suite of rooms was erected in the town, and handsomely fitted-up for this annual jubilee, which existed as early as the year 1703, as appears from the columns of the _London Gazette_, in which it is styled "the Dalton Route," and the pen of an elegant contributor to the _Tatler_ has imparted to it additional celebrity. To the regret of the beaux and belles of the neighbourhood the "route" was discontinued in 1789, and has never since been revived.[221]

LETTING SHEEP FARMS IN BOWLAND.

One custom, in letting the great sheep-farms in the higher parts of Bowland, deserves to be mentioned, as I do not know that it prevails anywhere else. It is this: That the flock, often consisting of 2000 sheep, or more, is the property of the lord, and delivered to the tenant by a schedule, subject to the condition of delivering up an equal number of the same quality at the expiration of the term. Thus the tenant is merely usufructuary of his own stock. The practice was familiar to the Roman law, and seems to have arisen from the difficulty of procuring tenants who were able to stock farms of such extent.[222]

MEDIaeVAL LATIN LAW TERMS.

The old charters and deeds of Manchester, Warrington, and other Lancas.h.i.+re towns, contain various words now obsolete, and amongst others the words _namare_ and _namium_, which it is not easy to render accurately. The first may be translated to seize in pledge, to arrest, to distrain; the second is a pledge, or a distress, what is seized by distraint. In connexion with the substantive _namium_, the following anecdote of the great Sir Thomas More may be told, as ill.u.s.trative of the obscurity of some of these ancient law terms. It is said that Sir Thomas, when travelling, arrived at Padua just as a boasting Professor had placarded the walls of that University with a challenge to all the world to dispute with him on any subject or in any art, and that Sir Thomas accepted the challenge, and proposed for his subject this question:--

"AN AVERIA CARUCae CAPTA IN VEt.i.tO NAMIO SINT IRREPLEGIBILIA?"

which, it is almost needless to add, proved such a stumbling-block to the challenger, who did not know even the very terms of the question, that he surrendered at discretion, and acknowledged himself vanquished.[223]

Perhaps the best way to English the puzzling question, would be to render it thus:--"Whether plough-cattle, taken in illegal distress, are irrepleviable?" But several of the words are susceptible of two meanings. Thus _averia_ means goods, as well as cattle; _caruca_, a cart, as well as a plough; _namium_, a pledge, as well as a distress. It is not to be wondered at that the continental Professor found himself unable even to comprehend the terms of this perplexing question.

CUSTOMS [DUES] AT WARRINGTON.

Amongst the Tower records are three royal charters bearing date respectively 3 Edward II., 15 Edward II., and 12 Edward III. (1309-10, 1321-2, 1338), and granting, for the purpose of effecting repairs in the bridges and pavements, certain temporary customs on articles brought into Warrington for sale. In the two first of these charters, a custom of one farthing is imposed on every 100 f.a.ggots and every 1000 turves; and of one halfpenny on every cart-load of wood or wind-blown timber.

The last of the charters imposes a custom of one penny on every 1000 f.a.ggots, one farthing on every 10,000 turves, one penny on every s.h.i.+p-load of turves, and one halfpenny weekly on every cart-load of wood and coals [_carbonum_, ? charcoal]. Amongst other articles, a custom was imposed on salt, on bacon, on cheese (probably from Ches.h.i.+re), on b.u.t.ter, on lampreys, on salmon, on pelts of sheep, goats, stags, hinds, deer, does, hares, rabbits, foxes, cats, and squirrels; on cloths in the entire piece; on grice work (_i.e._, fur of the skins of blue weasels); on Cordovan leather, on oil in flasks (_lagenas olei_); on hemp, on linen webs; on Aylesbury webs and linen; on canvas, Irish cloths, Galways and worsteds; on silks, diapered with gold (_de Samite_) and tissue; on silks within gold; on sendal [or _cendal_, a kind of silk]; on cloth of baudekin [silk cloth, interwoven with threads of gold]; on gads of maple, and on Aberdeen gads; on every tun of wine (_et cinerum_--the ashes of burnt wine lees); on honey; on wool in sacks; on tin, bra.s.s, copper, iron, and lead; on alum, copperas, argil, and verdigris; on onions and garlic; and on stock-fish, salt mullet, herrings, and sea-fish, amongst a number of other articles.[224]

FOOTNOTES:

[202] Baines's _Lancas.h.i.+re_.

[203] Claus., 7 Edward III., 1333, p. 1, m. 23.

[204] Baines's _Lancas.h.i.+re_.

[205] Dr. Whitaker's _Whalley_.

[206] Baines's _History of Lancas.h.i.+re_.

[207] Baines's _History of Lancas.h.i.+re_.

[208] Baines's _Lancas.h.i.+re_.

[209] West's _History of Furness_.

[210] Baines's _History of Lancas.h.i.+re_.

[211] Baines's _History of Lancas.h.i.+re_.

[212] Baines's _Lancas.h.i.+re_.

[213] _Ill.u.s.tration of the Customs of a Manor in the North of England._

[214] Dr. Hibbert-Ware's _Ill.u.s.tration of the Customs of a Manor in the North of England_.

[215] Dr. Hibbert-Ware's _Ill.u.s.tration of the Customs of a Manor in the North of England_.

[216] _Ill.u.s.tration of the Customs of a Manor in the North of England_, by Dr. Hibbert-Ware.