Surrey Archaeological Collections
Surrey Archaeological Society, 2003. (updated 2023) https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © Surrey Archaeological Society unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Primary contact
Surrey Archaeological Society
Castle Arch
Guildford
Surrey
GU1 3SX
UK
Tel: 01483 532454
Fax: 01483 532454
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 379
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221
- How to cite using this DOI
SURREY ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS
The peasant land market on the bishop of Winchesters's manor of Farnham, 1263-1349
MARK PAGE
This paper explores the nature of the peasant land market on the bishop of Winchester's manor of Farnham in the period 1263-1349, as revealed by the entry fines recorded in the Winchester pipe rolls. The aim is to demonstrate, first, that inheritance was the pre-eminent means by which land was transferred from one tenant to the next. Secondly, the paper suggests that despite the large amounts of purpresture available, the visible inter-vivos land market was surprisingly muted. Purpresture was land recently brought into cultivation which lay outside the ancient tenurial structure of the manor. Nevertheless, at Farnham, this new land tended to be absorbed into the standard customary holdings and remain within the family, thereby stifling the growth of an active market in land. This was a distinctive feature of the manor's pattern of landholdings. Finally, the paper also reveals that the bishop of Winchester might intervene to prevent the accumulation or fragmentation of customary tenements. Thus, lordship appears to have been a powerful factor in the evolution of the peasant land market on Farnham manor.
