Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/440

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432 THE COURT OF STAR CHAMBER July herd how his seniauntea had not doon his commaundment, he putt the said Thomas Blake out of his place and vii acres of land in Wynston, the whiche the said Hargrave had geuen hym during his lief, and toke his goodes and put him from his seruice. And the Tywysday than next after I came to the said Manoir of Nusshelyng at afternoon, and ther I found con Piers Wellys, the whiche was bailief of the said Manoir to the said Peter Marmyon. And than and ther he told me that Thomas Hargrave was Rydden to Wynchester the ftorenoon, and caryed with him Piers Marmyon to thentent that the said Piers Marmyon shuld make him a Kelesse of alle the Right that he had in the said Manoir and other landes and tenementes in the Countie of South. And yf he wold not make the said Relesse to the said Thomas Hargrave, the said Thomas Hargrave wold brynge him before the Kyng. And afterwardes I herd diuerse men sey that the said Marmyon by compulsion of the said Hargrave at Wyn- chester had made a Relesse of the said Manoir and other landes and tenementes in the Countie of South, to the said Hargrave. And this I know, ffor it was the comen spekyng in alle the Countre. Thes ben tharticles to be proved by Syr William Stonor, knyght, against Thomas Dormer and his wyf, and John Welles and his wyf, for the title of the Manoir of Nusshelyng with other landes and tenementes in the Counte of Hampshire. First to prove whether euer Peter Marmyon sold the land or Manor of Nusshelyng with other his landes in Hampshire to the said Syr William Stoner or noo. And also to prove whether Syr William paied eny money for thies landes or noo. And also to prove whether Piers Marmyon made this Relesse enrolled in the Cite of Wynchester by duresse of emprison ment, ye or nay. In primis, Christofer Holand of Tame in the countie of Oxfordshire, of thage of Ixj yeres and more, sworne vpon a boke and saith by his othe that : I saw Syr William Stoner, knight, and Piers Marmyon with Thabbot of Thame called Austyn, Maister John Allerton, the vicar of Tame, Walter Elmesse, oon of the Justices of peas et quorum in the seid countie, and oon William Lentall, with many and diuerse moo of my Neighbours in the Inne called the Corone in Tettysworth about Midsomer in the xxj yere of the Regne of King Edward the iiijt^. And then and ther I herd and saw an evidence of Covenauntes that were made betAidx the said Syr William Stoner of that oon partie and the said . . } The Cxdtivation of Closes in the Seventeenth Century The advocates of inclosure in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries maintained that the resultant closes eliminated the faJlow field ^ ; that is to say, the former system of allowing a percentage of the arable to remain idle annually was no longer necessary in view of the improved methods of agriculture. Farm- ing in severalty to these writers was evidence of a higher agricul-

  • See above, p. 423. * Conner, Common Land and Inelosures, p. 311.