Volume I - Little Baddow History Centre

THE TENEMENTS
The fields, which gradually since earliest times had been cleared from the forest and
waste and enclosed with bank, hedge and ditch, were divided between the lords and
the tenants. The “demesne” land of each manor was farmed by the occupant of the
manor house, while the remainder of the fields, with the houses and cottages, formed
the holdings of the tenants – the freehold, copyhold (or occasionally leasehold)
tenements. Tenancy transactions took place at the manor courts.
The extant court rolls of Bassetts manor give some of the most interesting references
to specific property in the parish and date from 1558.
(original handwriting above sentence)
At the court of 1558 the Jury reported that the lord (Richard Blake), according to the
custom of the manor, had seized the customary or copyhold tenement of 6 acres called
Loves because the tenant, Anne Wentworth, had withheld the rent of 4s. a year for
three years “though often asked”. Finally Anne’s two daughters and their husbands
attended the court of 1563 and, on payment of £8 by one of the husbands (George
Elyett), he and his wife were admitted as tenants in the accustomed manner, that is
“by the rod at the will of the lord according to the custom of the manor by the ancient
dues and services” and by doing their fealty to the lord. The rod was the Steward of
the manor’s rod of office which he held out for the tenant taking over a tenement to
grasp in sight of all the court. The dues included “suit of court”. The services had
originally been a condition of customary tenancies and could include such work as
ploughing, carting and harvesting for the lord on his demesne land. These services
had been commuted over the years into rents in money or kind and “fines” were
charged for admission to a tenement. The copy of the relevant part of the court roll
which George Elyett would have been given constituted his proof of “copyhold”
tenancy of the tenement. Bassetts manor retained the mediaeval custom of claiming a
heriot (the best beast or money in lieu), on the death of a customary tenant, right up to
the nineteenth century. When George Elyett died, therefore, his widow had to
surrender a black cow valued at 30s. By 1622 Loves had been taken over by Henry
Bastwick, whose tenant was Edward Saffold, and it was described as “a mesuage with
an orchard a gardeyn and ii pytells of land”. On Henry Bastwick’s death a filly horse
priced at 40s. was claimed as heriot. With the consent of the court, he had left Loves
by will to his wife (who later married Edward Saffold) for 18 years, his elder son,
Thomas, being only nine years old. Thomas died in 1645, leaving the property to his
brother Giles. In 1649 the tenement was transferred to John Mabbs, who later,
without licence from the lord, let it for three years and thereby forfeited it. The
Bailiff of the manor was sent to seize it into the hands of the lord, so that at the 1666
court Mabbs had to pay a fine for his re-admission. On his son’s death in 1716 a cow
worth £4 was taken as heriot, and his grandson paid 7s. for permission to sub-let
Loves, Sareland and Petfield for 7 years. He renewed this licence in 1722. Widow
Witham was his tenant for Loves. The Mabbs family remained in possession
throughout the eighteenth century, later sub-letting to the Fosters, but in 1801 when
the daughters of the late John Mabbs were admitted it was reported that the house
“was fallen into decay and wasted”. By the 1830s the house had gone, the field was
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