Thrale history
Historic Sandridge. The story of a Hertfordshire parish (1952).
The first substantial chronicle of Thrale history, written by R.W. Thrale (1931-2007) & E. Giles. Reproduced in full with consent of the author.
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Perhaps he suspected that there was good reason why William failed to reach Canterbury. Travelling would be neither cheap nor easy when all his horses had been seized. So the King allowed both parties to come before Parliament fifteen days after Easter in the year 1274.
At Westminster the abbot once more claimed William to be his Villein, and William was required to attend on the morrow if he wished to say anything against the abbot, and it was agreed that if he did not appear on the morrow judgement would be delivered. On the morrow William Merun was publicly proclaimed, but he did not come. Enquiries were made about the investigation of the rolls before Mr. Stanes in the time of King Henry. It was declared that William was deprived of liberty, that he did not hold his land free, and his goods were not free but were at the disposal of the abbot. And it was declared that the land remained the villeinage of the abbot permanently, and likewise that the said goods were permanently the goods of the abbot. Therefore the Abbot Roger, when making fresh arrangements for his lands and tenements, enfeoffed Hugh the Son of Walter of Sandrugge, in accordance with the usual obligations of service.4
The feudal manorial system was simple and crude, providing the overlord with absolute might. There was the lord of the manor, in our case the abbot of St. Albans, who by means of his bailiff worked the home farm. Then there were the Villeins, bound to the soil and sold with their families along with the land when the manor changed hands. The Villeins could not move away if they wished, nor could they strike. They had to work on the lord’s farm so many days in the year and supply their own oxen for the plough. In return for these services to the lord they received, not a money wage but strips of land of their own on which they worked during their free days, when the lord had no claim on them. The Villeins also shared with the lord the use of the village meadow and pasture and the surrounding woodland and heath where the pigs were turned loose. Such places as these would be Barnet Wood, now Bernard’s Heath, and No Mans Land. Then, beside the bailiff and the Villeins, there might be in the village one or two free men who held land from the abbot, not for service but for money rent, and this was what William Merun claimed to be. The manor and its people could be sold or exchanged like so much merchandise. In 1331 abbot Richard de Wallingford granted Sandridge manor to Robert Albyne of Hemel Hempstead for his life, rent free for fourteen years and then for a rent of thirty quarters of wheat and thirty quarters of oats. Together with this grant there was an income from half the fines and from half the heriots5, the latter being a type of death duty to the overlord. Under abbot Michael de Mentmore, 1335-49, there was a reorganisation of the Abbey charities. The small tythes of Sandridge were transferred from the abbey almoner to the abbey infirmarer, and the great tithes were also transferred from the almoner to other offices.5
The appalling plague of the Black Death in 1349 altered the way of life for Sandridge to a great degree. This plague, which swept into Europe from the east, was more destructive even than modern warfare, for in one year it reduced the population of England from about four millions to about two millions. It left no village or hamlet untouched, and some places were completely wiped out. Among the victims were the abbot of St. Albans and three vicars of Sandridge in quick succession. The social consequences of the Black Death were far-reaching. The market value of labour was suddenly doubled and the bailiffs were hard put to it to find enough workers. The free man struck for higher wages and the Villein struggled against the demands of the bailiffs for his services. "Gradually he was led on to demand his full freedom, the right to take his labour where he would, to plead in the king’s court even against his own lord, and to be free of irksome feudal dues."7
The lowly classes no longer passively accepted their lot as inevitable, and were beginning to think for themselves.Footnotes
- Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani 793 - 1411. 1. 459-464. Compiled by Thomas Walshingham. Three volumes.↩︎
- Calendar of Patent Rolls 5 Edw. III, pL2. m.31.↩︎
- Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani 793 - 1411. 2. 314. Compiled by Thomas Walshingham. Three volumes.↩︎
- G.M.Trevelyan, History of England, p.237.↩︎
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