POPULATION TRENDS AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS FROM THE WARWICKSHIRE HUNDRED ROLLS OF 1279

Abstract

HE significance of the Hundred Rolls of 1279 has been appreciated since the end of the nineteenth century by those historians concerned with the social and economic evolution of England in the early middle ages. The latest, most comprehensive and authoritative treatment of this source is by E. A. Kosminsky;' his chief preoccupation, however, is with the correction of a previously over-simplified or idealized concept of manorial structure, and consequently much of his book is devoted to this central theme, together with the allied topics, of peasant tenure and rent, the evolution of social and economic differences within the peasantry, and the function of the small landowner in medieval England. These studies are based mainly on categories of information which the 1279 Hundred Rolls afford in reasonable detail and accuracy,2 although variably for each manor. Essentially these are: i. A survey of the demesne: arable land, and sometimes meadow, woodland, mills etc. 2. A survey of the land in peasant tenure and of the scattered possessions of the larger landlords, which includes a list of the tenants by name, the size of their holdings and the nature of their rent. These lists are sub-grouped in the folios for land in free tenure, in villeinage, and that held by cottagers. The contention of this paper is that problems outside the scope of Kosminsky's work can be clarified through a regional and comparative analysis of the Hundred Rolls. Accordingly from the unpublished Warwickshire folios 3 two groups of statistics have been abstracted: first, the number of the total landholding population, and secondly, the total of recorded arable land, given in both cases for the manorial unit. It is proposed to employ this information to assess: i. The regional pattern of population change by direct comparison with Domesday figures. 2. The relationship of these changes to agricultural development, specifically as expressed by the amount of arable land recorded in the manor.