Their ad-   able to no one. They were also free from many of the burdens

'ιn'i⅛s'-^s    in the shape of legal obligation to which the freeholder was

abilities. ] ialjl_e, and, whatever may have been their position before the
statute of 1430, they were, unless they also possessed a free-
hold, excluded by that act from the county franchise. They
contributed however to the taxes in very much the same pro-
portion ¹, being assessed ‘ in bonis ’ whilst the freeholder was
assessed ‘ in terris ; ’ their rank and comforts were the same.
Their personal weight and influence depended, as always, rather
on the amount of cattle and extent of holding, than on the
exact nature of the tenure. Under the older system the pam-
pered bailiff could safely look down on the poor freeholder ;
under the newer the wealthy tenant was far more independent
than the man whose all was in the few fields to which he was
as much bound by his necessities as was the legal villein by the
Gradations condition of birth and tenure. But it would be a mistake to
man θia¾ argue as if all the freeholders were owners of forty-shilling
freeholds, and all the tenant farmers were rich men. The
gradations of wealth and poverty were the same throughout;
the political franchise linked the poor freeholder on to the
gentry and nobility ; community of habits and a common liability
to suffer by the caprices of the seasons, good and bad harvests

’ This distinction became very important after the adoption of the later
form of ⁱ subsidy ’ in taxation, a measure which does not fall within our
period, but deserves some notice here as a sequel to our inquiries into the
earlier taxes. The custom of granting a round sum had already appeared
in the reign of Edward IV, in 1474 5 see above, p. 220 ; and particular
methods of levying the money were devised in such cases. Under
Henry VIII the sums were much increased; the grant in 1514 was
£160,000, which was raised on an elaborately graduated calculation of
lands, goods, and rents. Under queen Mary the name of subsidy, like
that of tenths and fifteenths, acquired a technical sense, and meant a tax
raised by the payment of 4s. in the pound for lands, and 2s. ⅛d. for goods ;
aliens paying double. Each of these brought in a sum of about £70,000 ;
and the clerical subsidy £20,000 more. The taxes were then granted in
the form of one subsidy and one or two tenths and fifteenths ; the latter
being likewise fixed sums of about £29,000 ; in the 31st of Elizabeth, the
parliament voted an unparalleled grant, two subsidies and four tenths and
fifteenths ; Coke, 4th Inst. p. 33. How these sums were locally raised we
learn from the Subsidy Rolls, some of which have been printed by the
Yorkshire and other Archaeological Societies ; and especially from Best’s
Farming Book (Surtees Society), pp. 86, 87-89, where will be found some
invaluable hints for the history of local administration.

XXI.]

and the like, linked him on to the villein class. The tenant
farmer was not so linked to the gentry, and was not so tied to
the land. In other respects the two classes were companions
and equals.

481. The Black Book of Edward IV, describing the domestic Economyof
economy of the squire who can spend fifty pounds a year, may houɪɪl
be compared with Hugh Latimer’s often-quoted account of his
father’s yeoman household. Of his £50 the squire spends in
victuals £24 6s. ; on repairs and furniture .£5 ; on horses, hay
and carriages £4 ; on clothes, alms and oblations £4 more.

He has a clerk or chaplain¹, two valletti or yeomen, two
grooms, ‘ garciones,’ and two boj s, whether pages or mere ser-
vants ; and the wages of these amount to £g ; he gives livery
of dress to the amount of £2 10s., and the small remainder is
spent on his hounds and the charges of hay-time and harvest².
Hugh Latimer’s father was not a freeholder, but farmed land Compared
_p _ n      n n      ι∙τι ∙∏τ         T with that of

at a rent oɪ from. £3 to £4; Irom which, he ‘tilled so much as the yeoman,
kept half a dozen men.’ His wife milked thirty kine ; he
had walk for a hundred sheep. He was able and did find the
king a harness with himself and his horse, until he came to the
place of muster where he began to receive the king’s wages :
this of course was a rare piece of occasional service. He could
give his daughters at their marriage £5 or 20 nobles each.

He sent his son to school, and gave alms to the poor : ‘ and all Comparison
this he did of the same farm; where he that now [in 1549] yeαmm‰
hath it payeth £16 by the year or more, and is not able to do
anything for his prince or for himself or for his children, or
give a cup of drink to the poor ³.' The balance of comfort in
this comparison is in favour of the yeoman.

The wills and inventories of the well-to-do freeholder and

¹ ‘ Clericus ’ at 40s. wages. The ordinary fee of a chaplain which gave
him a title for holy orders was fixed by a constitution of archbishop Zouch
at a maximum of 6 marks (£4). In 1378 the choice was given between
8 marks and 4 marks with victuals ; see above, vol. ii. p. 465 ; Johnson,
Canons, ii. 405.

² Ordinances of the Household, p. 46.

³ First sermon before King Edward, cited in the Preface to the N orth-
Umberland Household Book, p. xii.

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