Description:Serfs in the 12th century could be sold by their lords together with the land. Though the term ‘serf’ in the 13th century gave way to that of ‘villein’ and the connotations with slavery disappeared, villeins were far from free. Villeins had to pay merchet (a payment to the lord of the manor on the marriage of a daughter) and leyrwite (a payment if a wife or daughter was found to be sexually active outside marriage). He also had to work on the lord’s land, and if he wished to leave the manor or to send a son away to school or into the church he needed a licence from the lord.
The idea of freedom was vague before about 1200, but as the common law
came to protect free tenants, it became necessary to attempt to define the nature of freehold. If the tenant owed heavy labour services, paid merchet and was liable to serve as reeve, then he and his family were judged to be of basically servile status and outside the jurisdiction of the courts of common law. The life of the unfree tenant was regulated by the lord’s manor court and was essentially uncertain.
In theory villeins could not purchase their freedom because their goods and lands and any profit which could be made from them belonged to the lord any way, but this could be circumvented by a lord selling the villein to a third party who then gave the villein his freedom. Roger Northburgh, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield 1322-58 complained that the abbot sold too many corrodies and manumissions without sufficiently consulting the other canons but acted on his own authority.
A key demand of the rebels in the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381 was for their freedom: they believed that service should depend on contracts agreed freely by both sides. Though the Revolt was at the time unsuccessful, the strength of support alarmed landlords and the changed economic climate after the Black Death with the shortage of labour meant that it was necessary for lords to make concessions in order to keep their tenants.
A relatively small number of peasants paid quite large sums - £5 or £10 – to purchase their freedom so that they could continue to live in their native village. However, most gained their freedom not by political action but by simply moving to another village where they would not be known and their labour would be welcome and accepted without too many questions. 1461 seems relatively late for a formal grant of manumission.
To learn more about Medieval life in Shropshire, follow the link below to the article 'Aspects of Medieval Life: The Lilleshall Collection' written by Dr. Sylvia Watts and Robert Cromarty.
The transcripts and translations of Medieval deeds in the Lilleshall Collection and the stories written about Medieval life were produced by Dr. Sylvia Watts and Robert Cromarty at Shropshire Archives.