Vill

Last updated

Vill is a term used in English, Welsh and Irish history to describe a basic rural land unit, roughly comparable to that of a parish, manor, village or tithing. [1] [2]

Contents

Medieval developments

The vill was the smallest territorial and administrative unit—a geographical subdivision of the hundred and county [3] —in Anglo-Saxon England. It served both a policing function through the tithing, and the economic function of organising common projects through the village moot. [4] The term is the Anglicized form of the word villa, used in Latin documents to translate the Anglo-Saxon tun. [5]

The vill remained the basic rural unit after the Norman conquest—land units in the Domesday Book are frequently referred to as vills [6] —and into the late medieval era. Whereas the manor was a unit of landholding, the vill was a territorial one—most vills did not tally physically with manor boundaries [7] —and a public part of the royal administration. The vill had judicial and policing functions, including frankpledge, as well as responsibility for taxation, roads and bridges. [8] It would also organise the communal pastures, the seasonal chronology of rural agriculture, and the three-field system. [9]

With the Angevin growth of royal, as opposed to feudal, government, new duties were imposed upon the vill. By the early 12th century, the reeve and four villagers were required to attend the hundred court "on behalf of all"; [10] in the 1166 Assize of Clarendon, "four of the more lawful men of each vill" were required to present malefactors. [11] Four men and the reeve were again called on for tax assessment in 1198; the Ordinance of 1242 on policing provided for "continuous watch ... in every vill by six men or four or less according to the number of the inhabitants". [12]

At the same time, the vill emerged as a legal entity in its own right, taking oppressive lords of the manor to court, or suing other vills, or purchasing privileges from the Crown, as well as repairing bridges and churches as required. [13] While retaining and even extending its hierarchical and socially stratified nature to the end, the medieval vill always remained a vibrant part of local rural life. [14]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Archaeology in Wales – Ymddiriedolaeth Archaeolegol Dyfed – Dyfed Archaeological Trust". dyfedarchaeology.org.uk.
  2. ↑ Graham, B. J. (1988). "Medieval Settlement in County Roscommon". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature. 88C: 19–38.
  3. ↑ Maitland, Frederic William (1897). Domesday Book & Beyond. Cambridge University Press. p.  10.
  4. ↑ G. O. Sayles, The Medieval Foundations of England (London 1967) pp. 188, 127–128
  5. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Vill"  . Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 67.
  6. ↑ G. O. Sayles, The Medieval Foundations of England (London 1967) p. 246
  7. ↑ G. O. Sayles, The Medieval Foundations of England (London 1967) p. 247
  8. ↑ Paul Vinogradoff, in The Cambridge Medieval History Vol III (Cambridge 1922) p. 483
  9. ↑ R. D. Davies, The Age of Conquest (1987) p. 130
  10. ↑ G. O. Sayles, The Medieval Foundations of England (London 1967) p. 443
  11. ↑ Quoted in R. Wickson, The Community of the Realm in Thirteenth Century England (London 1970) p. 92
  12. ↑ Quoted in R. Wickson, The Community of the Realm in Thirteenth Century England (London 1970) p. 101, and cf pp. 40–41
  13. ↑ R. Wickson, The Community of the Realm in Thirteenth Century England (London 1970) pp. 32–33
  14. ↑ C. Dyer, "The English Village Community and its Decline", Journal of British Studies 33 (1994) pp. 407–429
  15. ↑ Winchester, Angus (2000). Discovering Parish Boundaries. Shire Publications. pp. 21–29. ISBN   0-7478-0470-2.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tithe barns in Europe</span> Type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing rents and tithes

A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing rents and tithes. Farmers were required to give one-tenth of their produce to the established church. Tithe barns were usually associated with the village church or rectory, and independent farmers took their tithes there. The village priests did not have to pay tithes—the purpose of the tithe being their support. Some operated their own farms anyway. The former church property has sometimes been converted to village greens.

The term soke, at the time of the Norman conquest of England, generally denoted "jurisdiction", but its vague usage makes it lack a single, precise definition.

In England, a township is a local division or district of a large parish containing a village or small town usually having its own church. A township may or may not be coterminous with a chapelry, manor, or any other minor area of local administration.

The Provisions of Oxford were constitutional reforms to the government of late medieval England adopted during the Oxford Parliament of 1258 to resolve a dispute between Henry III of England and his barons. The reforms were designed to ensure the king adhered to the rule of law and governed according to the advice of his barons. A council of fifteen barons was chosen to advise and control the king and supervise his ministers. Parliament was to meet regularly three times a year.

Frankpledge was a system of joint suretyship common in England throughout the Early Middle Ages and High Middle Ages. The essential characteristic was the compulsory sharing of responsibility among persons connected in tithings. This unit, under a leader known as the chief-pledge or tithing-man, was then responsible for producing any man of that tithing suspected of a crime. If the man did not appear, the entire group could be fined.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Overton</span> Human settlement in England

West Overton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) west of Marlborough. The river Kennet runs immediately north of the village, separating it from the A4 road. The parish includes the village of Lockeridge, also near the river, further east (downstream).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Landbeach</span> Human settlement in England

Landbeach is a small fen-edge English village about three miles (5 km) north of Cambridge. The parish covers an area of 9 km2 (3.5 sq mi).

A tithing or tything was a historic English legal, administrative or territorial unit, originally ten hides. Tithings later came to be seen as subdivisions of a manor or civil parish. The tithing's leader or spokesman was known as a tithingman.

Anthony Roger Dorrien Wickson was headmaster of the King's School, Chester, where he served from 1981 until his retirement in 2000. Born and raised in Croydon, Wickson was educated at Whitgift School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he read history. Narrowly missing out on national service, Wickson embarked upon a career as a teacher. After undertaking a brief training period at Charterhouse School, he moved on to Ardingly College, where he taught contemporary notables, such as Ian Hislop. In a career that spanned four decades, Wickson taught in a number of southern schools before becoming head of Shaftesbury Grammar School and, thereafter, The King's School, Chester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Market Lavington</span> Human settlement in England

Market Lavington is a civil parish and large village with a population of about 2,200 on the northern edge of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, 5 miles (8.0 km) south of the market town of Devizes. The village lies on the B3098 Westbury–Urchfont road which skirts the edge of the Plain. The parish includes the hamlets of Northbrook, Lavington Sands and Fiddington Sands.

In English law, the assize of novel disseisin was an action to recover lands of which the plaintiff had been disseised, or dispossessed. It was one of the so-called "petty (possessory) assizes" established by Henry II in the wake of the Assize of Clarendon of 1166; and like the other two was only abolished in 1833.

A charter roll is an administrative record created by a medieval chancery that recorded all the charters issued by that office.

George Osborne Sayles was an English historian best known for his work on the medieval English law courts and the early English Parliaments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peatling Magna</span> Village in Leicestershire, England

Peatling Magna is a village in Harborough district, south Leicestershire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 210. It lies 3.7 km north-east of Ashby Magna and 2.9 km north-north-east of Peatling Parva.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of England in the Middle Ages</span>

The economy of England in the Middle Ages, from the Norman invasion in 1066, to the death of Henry VII in 1509, was fundamentally agricultural, though even before the invasion the local market economy was important to producers. Norman institutions, including serfdom, were superimposed on an existing system of open fields and mature, well-established towns involved in international trade. Over the five centuries of the Middle Ages, the English economy would at first grow and then suffer an acute crisis, resulting in significant political and economic change. Despite economic dislocation in urban and extraction economies, including shifts in the holders of wealth and the location of these economies, the economic output of towns and mines developed and intensified over the period. By the end of the period, England had a weak government, by later standards, overseeing an economy dominated by rented farms controlled by gentry, and a thriving community of indigenous English merchants and corporations.

The Inquest of Sheriffs was a commission held by King Henry II of England in 1170 into the conditions of local government in England.

The Grand Assize was a legal instrument set up in 1179 by King Henry II of England, to allow tenants to transfer disputes over land from feudal courts to the royal court.

Walter of Hereford was a twelfth- and thirteenth-century Abbot of Vale Royal Abbey in Cheshire. He was Abbot from around 1294 to approximately 1307. His abbacy occurred at a time of tribulation for the abbey, mostly due to poor relations with the local populace. Walter is in portrayed in his Abbey's later chronicler in superlatives. He is described as "greatly venerable in life and always and everywhere devoted to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary" and as

A man of most beautiful appearance, as regards externals...and in good works also he fought a good fight for Christ, for he used a hair shirt to conquer the flesh, and by this discipline subdued it to the spirit. He rarely or never ate meat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government in Anglo-Saxon England</span>

Government in Anglo-Saxon England covers English government during the Anglo-Saxon period from the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. See Government in medieval England for developments after 1066.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government in Norman and Angevin England</span>

From the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the death of King John in 1216, England was governed by the Norman and Angevin dynasties. The Norman kings preserved and built upon the institutions of Anglo-Saxon government. They also introduced new institutions, in particular, feudalism. For later developments in English government, see Government in late medieval England.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.