Duties of a Bailiff

A thirteenth-century manuscript detailing the duties of the officials on the manor, called the Senechaucy, was translated by Elizabeth Lamond in 1890. The last history blog post discussed the duties of a Seneschal. this time, the Bailiff. As you can see, the instructions were very detailed:

The bailiff ought to be faithful and profitable, and a good husbandman, and also prudent, that he need not send to his lord or superior seneschal to have advice and instruction about everything connected with his bailley, unless it be an extraordinary matter, or of great danger; for a bailiff is worth little in time of need who knows nothing, and has nothing in himself without the instruction of another.

The bailiff ought to rise every morning and survey the woods, corn, meadows and pastures, and see what damage may have been done. And he ought to see that the ploughs are yoked in the morning and unyoked at the right time, so that they may do their proper ploughing every day, as much as they can and ought to do by the measured perch. And he must cause the land to be marled, folded, manured, improved and amended as his knowledge may approve, for the good and bettering of the manor.

He ought to see how many measured acres the boon-tenants and customary-tenants ought to plough yearly, and how many the ploughs of the manor ought to till, and so he may lessen the surplus of the cost. And he ought to see and know how many acres of meadow the customary-tenants ought to mow and make, and how many acres of corn the boon-tenants and customary-tenants ought to reap and carry, and thereby he can see how many acres of meadow remain to be mowed, and how many acres of corn remain to be reaped for money, so that nothing shall be wrongfully paid for. And he ought to forbid and reeve for beadle or hayward or any other servant of the manor to ride on, or lend, or ill-treat the cart-horses or others. And he ought to see that the horses and oxen and all the stock are well kept, and that no other animals graze in or eat their pasture.

The bailiff ought to be just in all points and in all his doings, and he ought not, without warrant, to take fines or relief from the land, nor enfranchise a woman without the seneschal, nor hold pleas touching fees or freehold or franchise which turn to the loss of the lord. And he must not remove or make a reeve without the seneschal; but if he have trespassed or done wrong, let him be put in good surety, he and his goods, to answer for his doings before the seneschal. He must not in any wise bake or brew without the lord’s warrant. And no one who comes to the manor, for the lord or without the lord, may be at the expense of the manor, unless the bailiff wish to pay it from his own purse. And let the bailiff be appointed money wages for his needs, so that he may take nothing from the manor but straw, hay and firewood.

The bailiff must see that there be good watch at the granges over the threshers [separating the grain from the corn], and that the corn be well and cleanly threshed, and that the straw be well saved in good stacks or cocks well covered, and that no forage be sold from the manor, but let the forage and fern, if there be any, be thrown in marshy ground or in roads to make manure. And no stubble should be sold from the manor, but let as much as shall be wanted for thatching be gathered together, and the rest remain on the ground and be ploughed with the ploughs.

And the bailiff ought to oversee the ploughs and the tillage [preparing the land for a crop], and see that the lands are well-ploughed with small furrows, and properly cropped, and well sown with good and pure seed, and cleanly harrowed; and all the winter seed may be bought by warrant of the writ of the lord or seneschal, for this is a point that must have a warrant; and all the spring seed may be sown from his own store, if cheapness does not prevent him by issue of a writ.

Let nothing on the manors which ought to be sold be taken by the people, but let it be sent to fairs and markets at several places, and be inspected and bargained for, and whoever will give the most shall have it; for it is not chattel of death, or of war, or sold from the king’s pinfold.

No seneschal or bailiff, or servant, or reeve, or beadle, or hayward, should take for money, or through any sale, anything from the manors of which he is keeper; for they ought not, by right, to buy the things or take for price what they themselves ought to make profitable and sell. No bailiff shall allow any horse or aver, ox or cow, young beast, wether [castrated ram] or ewe, or hog in his charge to be flayed before it be seen for what default it died. For, from want of a guard, a horse or aver may perish in many ways – by running into the mares, or be drowned by falling into ditches or water, or be hurt in some other way; or the loaded cart may overturn and hurt the horse, or the driver may put out its eye or break its leg or thigh, whereby the horse or aver is lost. And so with oxen, and cows and all other beasts.

The wethers and ewes and hogs, by want of guard, may be killed or hurt by dogs or stolen, and the wethers and ewes may struggle and be strangled, and then the keepers shall say that they died by violence, or they may be sold and killed, for although it is a chance of this it is good to have an inspection, for one can quickly know a fresh carcass and a fresh skin. And if the shepherd can acquit himself, before one who knows little, of ten carcasses or twenty oxen stolen or taken in the way mentions, by returning the skins, he has a good bargain.

And the bailiff ought, after shearing, to cause all of the skins of all the sheep killed in the larder or dead of murrain [infectious disease] to be brought before him, and then he can see how many are fresh and which are flayed without leave and inspection; and then he must see that all the skins of the sheep are of one mark and that the wool and the skins match, and that the skins be not changed or bought, and then sell the skins with the wool. And the wool ought to be sold by the sack or the fleece, according as he shall see there is the greatest profit and advantage. And if he sell by the sack, each sack shall weigh 30 stone of wool by touch, or 28 stone by stone and balance, well weighed by the right stone of 12 pounds. And the bailiff, or someone in whom he trusts, should be every year at the selling and tithing of the lambs and at the tithing of the wool and skins, because of fraud.

The bailiff ought, in August, to see and command throughout the manors that the corn be well gathered and reaped evenly, and that the cocks and sheaves be small, so will the corn dry the quicker; and one can load, stack and thresh the small sheaf best, for there is greater loss in the large sheaf than the small.

The bailiff ought, after St John’s Day (June 24th), to cause all the old and feebly oxen with bad teeth to be drafted out, and all the old cows and the weak and the barren, and the young avers that will not grow to good, and put them in good pasture to fatten, so the worst shall then be worth better.

And he ought, three times a year, to cause all the sheep in his charge to be inspected by men who know their business – that is, after Easter, because of the disease of May, and later, for then sheep die and perish by the disease; and all that are found so, by the sure proof of killing two or three of the best, and as many of the middling, and as many of the worst, or by proof of the eye or of the wool, which separates from the skin, let them be sold with all the wool. And again, let all the old and weak be drafted out before Lammas (August 1st), and let them be put in good pasture to fatten, and when the best have presently mended and are fat, let them be sold to the butchers; so can one do well, for mutton flesh is more sought after and sold then than after August; and let all the rest of the draft beasts which cannot be sold then be sold before Martinmas (November 11th).

And the third time, at Michaelmas (September 29th), let all the sheep be drafted out; for although sheep are sound at Easter and in May and before Lammas, afterwards, they can, between the two feasts of Our Lady, by bad keeping, eat the web of the rime and the little white snails, from which they will sicken and die; and for this it is good to provide beforehand to make profit of such, for if not all will be lost.