Note 485 — Chapter II · THE REACTION OF THE AGRARIAN CHANGES ON THE PEASANTRY

For petitions on this subject see Hist. MSS. Com., Cd. 784, pp. 81–82 (Wiltshire). The Warwickshire Quarter Sessions were much occupied with this, e.g. the following: “Trinity Sessions 1625. Fforasmuch as this Court was this present day informed ... by Sir Edward Marrowe, kt., and Thomas Ashley as the lords of the manor of Woolvey in this county ... that the said lords are content that William Wilcox of Woolvey in this countie shall build and erect a cottage for hys habitation hys wyfe and his small children uppon the waste within the said lordshippe, it is therefore ordered that the same being with consent of the lord as aforesaid that the same cottage shall be and continue,” and later “which cottage the Court doth licence" (Warwick Quarter Sessions MSS. Records).