An Inventory of Eversden Manor House (1397) History
Over
the last couple of years I have been following in the footsteps of Anthony
Richards whose easy writing style and high standards of scholarship made for
marvellous reading in his articles in earlier editions of Tailcorn. Like
him, I have been working on the medieval history of the Eversdens and the other
parishes in the Bourn Valley, although I cannot hope to emulate his readability.
Recently I came across an Inquisition - that is, an investigation into
a complaint - made in 1397 "on the Wednesday before the Translation of St
Edward the Confessor" by Sir William Castleacre who had owned the manor in
Great Eversden since 1382. His lands had been confiscated in that year because
the king, Richard II, suspected him of rebellion and his house at Great Eversden
had been occupied by Sir Thomas Hoo, probably seizing the opportunity rather
than with any legality. Sir William issued proceedings to try to recover the
contents of his home, and it is this list which has survived among the crown
papers. It is written in so much detail that it allows us to move with him from
room to room, examining the furnishings of a house most of which has long since
been destroyed.
We don't know what the house itself looked like, since the present
house is almost entirely post-medieval in construction. It was almost certainly
a "hall and crosswings", since medieval architecture was based on conformity
rather than with individualism. If so, it contained a large central room, the
hall, open to the rafters and flanked on either side by two-story structures
which were roofed at right-angles to the hall and which jutted out a little in
front of it . Croxton Manor is a very nice example, although it was built in the
early 16th century; it can easily be seen from the road.
The inventory lists not only Sir William's goods but also his estimates
of how much they were worth. Since he was attempting to gain recompense or
repossession, at least some of these items might be expected to have been
overvalued. Some idea of their relative worth can be gleaned from the fact that
the daily wage in the period was about 4d.
Like all farmers, most of Sir William's wealth was tied up in his crops
and farm animals, which he listed first. In his barns were 300 quarters[1]
of new (recently harvested) and old (last year's) wheat worth 6s. per quarter,
140 quarters of malt worth 5s per quarter, 360 quarters of dredge (a mixture of
grains, usually oats and barley) worth 4s. 6d. per quarter and a stack of
"pease" worth £10. Wheat was used for making bread for the wealthy, and
most people ate bread made from mixed grains excluding wheat, rather like many
of the German breads one can still buy today. Some of this grain would have been
kept for household use throughout the year, but much was produced for sale.
He
had 12 oxen for ploughing, worth 15s. each., 2 bulls worth 15s. each (who
probably served the village herds as well as his own) and 6 cows worth 10s.
each. The cows produced milk, butter and cheese for his household, as well as
the 13 calves worth 3s. 4d. and 10 "stirks"
(a young bullock or heifer between one and 2 years old) worth 4s. 6d.
each, which would form the basis of future dairy herds and plough teams. There
were also 12 horses worth 10s. each. This seems rather a large number for riding
and since riding horses were probably worth more than a plough ox, perhaps they
were used for farm-work. The numbers of these large animals were restricted by
the ability of local meadows to produce enough hay each year to feed them over
the winter.
Sir
William's herds also included 120 sheep worth 18d. each, and 80 pigs worth 2s.
6d each. His sheep almost certainly generally grazed on the fallow fields each
year, together with the sheep of the men of the village, as well as on the
enclosed pastures which still stand around the manor. Perhaps the pigs foraged
with them on the fallow fields; it is very unlikely that any pigs were allowed
to graze in the wood, as they would have eaten the shoots of any newly-coppiced
trees. (Coppicing is a form of woodland management which involves cutting a tree
- usually ash or hazel - almost down to ground level. The many, new straight
branches are allowed to grow from the stump for between 8 and 14 years before
they are cropped to make woven hurdles for fencing, tool handles, the walling of
houses and so on.)
Nearer
to home, Sir William also had poultry, including 100 capons worth 3d. each, 20
cocks and hens worth 2d. each and 38 geese worth 3d. each. The numbers of capons
suggests that at least some of these birds were being farmed for sale, although
others were certainly finding their way to his table, as we shall see.
Other
barns contained the heavy farm equipment: the "cartes" with all their gear worth
60s., 2 double ploughs with all their gear worth 20s., two "barwes" (barrows),
as well as sacking ("barleppes"), baskets or hampers ("skeppes"),
and a "dragge" - probably a sled or cart without wheels - worth 40s. There
was also wood, presumably from Eversden Wood, which included "new boards"
(planks) worth 40s. as well as "timber for building houses" worth 20 marks[2]
and a stack of fuel for cooking and heating worth 100s. Peas (and beans) worth
10 marks, hay worth 100s., and 30 quarters of oats worth £4 were also stored in
these out-buildings.
The
inventory starts its listing of the contents of the house itself with the
larder, which was probably situated in one of the cross-wings. It is tempting to
see Sir William trying to list the contents of his house from memory. He seems
to have moved methodically - in his imagination - from one room to the next,
perhaps helped by his wife and senior servants with their detailed knowledge of
the workings of the household.
The
contents of the larder tells us a great deal about the food on his table. There
were 12 "bacouns" in the larder worth 18s. and a quarter of salt beef worth
2s. For Fridays, saintsdays and Lent, when no meat was eaten, there was "salt fyssh, stockfyssh [air-dried rather than salted cod], heryng, salt eel and
sturjoun" worth 33s. 4d. These meats and (some) fish had to be preserved at
home, in the contents of the 3 vessels of "verjous [crabapple or unripe grape
juice], vynegre and eysell" worth 6s. a tonne and the barrel of salt worth
20s. They were flavoured with mustard ground in a querne "with all its gear"
worth 5s, after being cut up into appropriate sizes by the axe for
"larderye" worth 12d. Many fish were imported from the sea, but some -
like the sturgeon and the eels - may have been caught nearer to home. There is
no surviving evidence of fish ponds near the house, and although there may have
been some fish in the moat, the water in many moats was dirty and smelly: not
the sort of place one might like to catch fish for the table from. Fish and eels
might have been caught locally at "Whaleseyepool", somewhere on the Bourn
Brook near the bottom of Toft High Street, in fishtraps, from the bank or with
the "trameyle" (a fishing net) worth half a mark from the boat worth 20s.
which Sir William also listed.
The
inventory moves on into the hall, the main room of the house, where the central
business of the household, farm and manor was conducted. It was almost certainly
open to the roof, heated by a fire made on an open hearth without a fireplace or
chimney, whose smoke found its way out through the thatched rafters of the roof.
Sometimes, but not always, a small shuttered opening, called - for obvious
reasons - a "louvre", was made in these roofs to draw the smoke. There certainly
appears to have been a hearth in Sir William’s hall since his inventory lists a
"fuirforke" (firefork) worth 12d. It is possible that a
little cooking was also done in the hall because the inventory also lists 2 sets
of "cheynes" from which pots could be suspended over the fire, although it
seems likely from entries further on in the inventory that much cooking was done
in a separate kitchen, probably standing at a little distance from the house in
order to reduce the risk of fire to these timber-framed buildings.
The
hall was decorated with 2 "costers" or wall-hangings (probably painted
rather than woven cloths). Seating was provided by 3 "bankers" (benches)
with 10 "coysshynes" (cushions) worth 4 marks and a "stol" for the hall.
Sir William himself may have sat in the chair worth 12d. There were 2 side
tables worth 3s. covered with some of 6 "clothes", whose numbers meant that
there was always a covering for these, even if some were in the wash.
Meals
were probably eaten from the 4 dozen "garnysshed [decorated] peutrevessell"
worth 53s. 4d. They were set on what seems, from its value, to have been a fine
"borcloth" (tablecloth) covering a board with a set of trestles worth 3s.
4d. Before and after meals, hands could be washed in 4 basins filled from a ewer
(together worth 16s.) and dried either with the "towayll" (worth 13s. 4d.
with the tablecloth) or with the 6 "shorte towaylls" worth 4s.
The
makers of the inventory then passed, in imagination at least, into the buttery,
a room on the ground floor of one of the cross-wings, and entered either from
the hall or from a small passage separating the hall from the crosswing. It
contained 18 barrels of low-alcohol "small beer" worth 10s. and one full and
one half-full vessel of wine, together worth 90s. (A visit to any of the
medieval colleges in Cambridge will show the buttery (for "wet" goods) and
pantry (for "dry goods") side by side just across a narrow passage from the
hall.) Drink may have been taken
from the barrels to the table in 5 leather bottles (worth 5s.). Also stored
there were 2 earthenware pots worth 12d. and an empty beer-cask or "tounne"
worth 2s.
The
pantry seems stored the "worked" and "unworked" wax worth 13s. 4d.
needed to make the candles to fill the 10 "candlesticks of latoun" (a form
of brass) worth 6s. 8d. for Sir William and his family, and perhaps for the
chapel. The rest of the household would have made do with rush-lights: reeds in
tallow, which burned with a low, smoky, smelly flame. The pantry also contained
the covered salt cellar worth 12d. and a wooden cup worth 12d. It is just
possible that it also contained unground grain, flour, peas and other dry goods
which could have been stored in the 8 "kemelynes" (tubs) worth 6s. 8d,
possibly standing on the 6 "fate" (feet for furniture), mentioned further on
in the inventory.
Sir
William had been given permission to have an oratory or small chapel in the
house in 1389, and the inventory included its furnishings, worth altogether a
massive "8. They included a chalice with 2 ‘cruettes" (the vessels which
held the water and the wine for use in the celebration of Mass), 3 vestments for
the priest, 2 "parayles" for an altar, 5 towels for the priest to wash the
chalice and "cruettes" after the Mass, a board to make an altar and an
alabaster image of St Mary to stand on it.
Some
of the rooms in the cross-wings, particularly those upstairs, were likely to
have been used as bedrooms. Sir
William and at least some members of his immediate family probably slept in the
2 beds with "curtynes, testers and sylours" worth £4, perhaps also using
the "bolstre [bolster], beddeshed and 8 pelewes [pillows]" worth 20s.
Perhaps in Sir William's bedroom were kept the 6 "coferes (coffers) and trussyng panyeres [lidded baskets tied up with rope or belts]" which contained
an unknown amount of treasure. There were a further 7 beds "with all their
apparel" worth 5 marks for the other members of the household, furnished with
6 "couchers" (mattresses) worth 30s. and 6 blankets worth 15s, as well as 6
covers for beds worth 33s. 4d. It was common for there to be more than one bed
in each bedroom, so we cannot infer from this that there were 9 bedrooms.
The
makers of the inventory then moved outside the main building to list the
contents of the kitchen, where food was prepared and cooked. There, they
remembered, food had been prepared in 2
bowls (8d.) and 4 earthenware pots (4d.). Six scoops worth 20s. were used for
measuring, stirring and dishing up. There was a boulting cloth for sieving flour
into a boulting "tounne" or cask worth 2s., and a kneading trough worth 2s.
for making bread. Marinating and other food preparation involving liquids could
be done in a "tappetrogh" (a trough with a plug from which it could be
drained), also worth 2s. Malt was ground in a special quern worth 20s., and
herbs and spices were crushed in a "brasene" (brass) mortar with a "pestle of yrene" (iron) worth 13s. 4d., to
add a little flavour to very dull food, and
very fine it must have looked too.
Food preparation was undertaken with a "dressyng knyf" worth 12d. Cooking was done in 8 brass pots worth 50s., in a posnet (small three-legged pot) worth 20d, or in the "fryyng panne" worth 6d. Some of the geese outside the house ended up inside, in the "gose panne" worth 2s. Whole cuts of meat could be suspended over the fire by a flesh hook worth 3d. or cooked on a "spete" and a "broche of irene" worth 2s. whose listing in this context suggests that they were cooked here rather than in the hall.
Military
service was one of the duties of landowners in this period and Sir William was
well-prepared. One of the out-houses or barns contained enough to cover him from
head to - well, waist, anyway: 3 "haberjouns" (sleeveless coats of mail),
a "basenet" (small light headpiece closed with a visor) worth 20s, as well
as "vombras (?) and rerebras (armour for the upper arm from the elbow to the
shoulder)" worth 10s., a set of "cloves" (?weights) of "plate" (sheet
metal), and a "brest" (a breast-plate) worth 26s. 8d. He had a wide choice
of weapons ranging from a launcegay (a kind of lance) worth 6s. 8d., 2
"speres" worth 3s. 4d., to 5 "arblastes" (cross-bows, which were
considered so lethal when they were first introduced that they were banned).
There were also 2 baudrykes ( sword belts) worth 20s; there were also 9 bows and
10 sheaves of arrows worth 21s., 2 swords worth 13s. 4d. and a "polle"
(poleaxe) worth 3s 4d.
Although
the inventory records a house and its furnishings more than 600 years ago, Sir
William's list brings it as vividly to life as any we could enter today.
Susan
Oosthuizen