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Home > Agricultural History Economic History Studies in Regional and Local History > Land and Family
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Land and Family

Trends and local variations in the peasant land market on the Winchester bishopric estates, 1263–1415

Author: John Mullan, Richard Britnell

Price: £18.99 (free postage)

"

“An impressive study. Its generalizations about broad patterns are compelling ... its local case studies enhance our understanding ... It should offer a welcome stimulus to research on the medieval peasant land market.”


Agricultural History Review

About the book

Medieval peasant families are closely identified with the land to which they had a hereditary right, especially in periods of land scarcity. By contrast, historians in recent decades have become increasingly interested in the growing facility with which even servile tenants could exchange land, especially from the thirteenth century onwards.

This book concerns the tension between these contrasting trends in the study of village life, showing how they were affected by changes over time and place.

  • More about the book

    Unlike earlier studies of the peasant land market, which have mostly concentrated on individual manors, this study employs the vast amount of evidence available from the Winchester bishopric estates between 1263 and 1415.

    It uses computerised technology to analyse 66,000 transactions across over 50 different manors ranging from Somerset to Surrey, and from Oxfordshire to Hampshire, providing unparalleled opportunities for comparing local and regional differences of experience.

  • View the table of contents

    Contents


     List of figuresix
     List of tablesx
     Abbreviationsxii
     General Editor's prefacexiii
     Prefacexv
    1The peasant land market and the Winchester pipe rolls
    P.D.A. Harvey
    1
    2The bishop's estate11
     The bishop of Winchester's estate12
     The pipe rolls13
     Other estate records17
     Principal sources of supply18
     Population25
     Location and commerce27
     The regional distribution of fines28
     Conclusion35
    3Units of property37
     Virgated tenements38
     Unvirgated lands48
     Cottages, cotlands, messuages and houses51
     Property outside agriculture54
     Conclusion55
    4Tenures57
     Changes affecting customary tenure58
     Changes affecting non-customary tenure64
     Tenures and the written word68
     Conclusion70
    5Entry fines71
     The changing number of transfers71
     The changing level of average entry fines, 1263–134974
     The changing level of average entry fines, 1350–141577
     Conclusion82
    6Families and their land84
     Families and outsiders84
     Intermanorial and interregional variation90
     New tensions, new devices97
     Conclusion101
    7Transfers within families103
     Custom and inheritance: (a) widows104
     Custom and inheritance: (b) sons108
     The impact of epidemics110
     Ways of modifying custom112
     Intrafamilial transfers inter vivos113
     Marriage115
     Conclusion116
    8Buyers and sellers118
     Transactions between families inter vivos119
     Buyers and sellers120
     Reasons for selling123
     Extrafamilial transfers post mortem126
     Leases128
     Conclusion131
    9Accumulation132
     Before the Black Death132
     After the Black Death136
     Large accumulations142
     The polarisation of land tenure148
     Conclusions150
    10Conclusions152
     The estate as a whole152
     Regional differences154
     Intermanorial differences155
     Appendix159
     Bibliography161
     Index169

  • About the Author/s:

    John Mullan

    John Mullan is a researcher and lecturer in Medieval History at Cardiff University.

    In 2000 he was appointed research associate on a Leverhulme-Trust-funded project researching the transfer of customary land on the estates of the Bishopric of Winchester, between 1350 and 1415.


    Richard Britnell

    Richard Britnell taught in the University of Durham from 1966 until 2003.

    He was a specialist in the economic and social history of the medieval period and was the author of several monographs and textbooks.

    He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2005.

ISBN: 978-1-902806-95-2 Format: Paperback, 192pp Published: Sep 2010

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Any questions

Contact us at UH Press if you have any queries or would like to find out more about this book.

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