See Brady, of
Boroughs, p. 3, 4, 5, 6, etc. These are the most
considerable he mentions. The account of these is extracted
from domesday-book.]
[*** Brady's Treatise of Boroughs, p. 10. There
were six wards, besides the archbishop's palace; and five of
these wards contained the number of families here mentioned,
which at the rate of five persons to a family, makes about
seven thousand souls. The sixth ward was laid waste.]
[**** Page 102. See also de Gest. Angl. p. 333.]
[***** LL. Inae, sect. 70. These laws fixed the
rents for a hide; but it is difficult to convert it into
modern measures.]
But the most numerous rank by far in the community to have been the
slaves or villains, who were the property of their lords, and were
consequently incapable themselves of possessing any property. Dr. Brady
assures us, from a survey of domesday-book,[*] that, in all the counties
of England, the far greater part of the land was occupied by them, and
that the husbandmen, and still more the socmen, who were tenants that,
could not be removed at pleasure, were very few in comparison.
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