Reference
GY10
Title
Survey of St John Estates
Date free text
1622-1628
Production date
From: 1622 To: 1628
Scope and Content
Volume, folio, bound calf, made between 1622 and 1628 by Evans Mouse of lands in Wales, Hunts., and Beds.
The lands are evidently those of Lord St. John [Oliver, 4th Baron]; though this is not specified, and the cover bears the label and bookplate of William Hugh Wade-Gery of Bushmead Priory (b. 1794).
The volume gives tenants, acreages, rents, state of cultivation and of enclosure; also the seasons of open fields, and the abuttals of strips. It reveals that Bletsoe was newly enclosed. The earlier entris are arranged by field, the later ones by season. There are a number of closes or pightles with each tenant's holding; but except for Bletsoe the bulk is always in open-field land; and even here enclosure did not extent to the meadow.
In the Bedfordshire section rents ''after the rate of ... P.a.'', i.e., apparently not the actual cash paid, are given at the end of the holding, apparently in a slightly later hand. In the margin is given, apparently later still, a not of the (current?) lease, the latest being 1640 (f.151 d); these money rents are always lower than the above, but also add:up to 2 capons, up to 3 days' carriage, and sometimes wheat; while there is also a fine of two to three
times the amount of the annual cash rent.
It is usually stated that the pasure and enclosure were surveyed by Evens Mouse at the rate of 161/2 ft. to the perch, but that themeadow and arable in the common fields are '' by ancient estimation.''
The last folio in each section usually gives the bailiff's allowance.
Exent
300ff
microfiche of the transcript see Micf 92
Reference
External document
Level of description
item