Note 354 — Chapter III · OUTLAWS, WANDERING WORKMEN, AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND

“Sciant presentes et futuri quod ego Johannes filius Thome vendidi et quietum clamavi de me et heredibus meis domino Hugoni abbati Sancti Edmundi et successoribus suis inprimum Servalum filium Willielmi de Wurtham cum tota sequela sua et omnibus catallis suis et cum toto tenemento quod de me tenuit in Wurtham sine ullo retenemento pro sexdecim solidis argenti quos idem abbas michi dedit. Et ut hec mea vendicio . . . firma sit . . . presentem cartam meam feci . . .” Temp. Ed. I, MS. Addit. 14850, in the British Museum fol. 59. “The existing evidence,” says Vinogradoff, “entitles one to maintain that a villain could be lawfully sold, with all his family, his sequela, but that in practice such transactions were uncommon.” “Villainage in England,” Oxford, 1892, p. 151.