Social Life in the 13th Century.

You will ask me, perhaps, where and how all these people lived. It is probable that there were clusters of rude hovels round Debden Green, Loughton Hall, and Alderton Hall, and that the tillers of the soil dwelt there. Some few copyholders, if such they can be called, may have lived on their own small estates away from the villages. But the strip system of cultivation probably prevailed, though the traces of it in later times are very slight.

Before passing on, I must just mention that, by some curious accident, one or two Court-rolls of very early date have been preserved. 13th century rolls of that sort are rare—and this is dated 1270. The entries are brief and mainly concerned with land; but they tell us that one man insulted the official in the court; that another thievishly took of the lord’s corn in the lord’s barn; and that Walter Linge stole sheep all over the country and was seen at the lord’s fold; ‘and when the shepherds would take him, he fled from them.’