The English Village Community Examined in its Relation to the Manorial and Tribal Systems and to the Common or Open Field System of Husbandry
An Essay in Economic History

In this 1883 work, Frederic Seebohm focuses on the agrarian history of medieval England and the consequent structure of society.

Frederic Seebohm (Author)

9781108036344, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 December 2011

546 pages, 3 b/w illus. 11 maps
21.6 x 14 x 3.1 cm, 0.69 kg

The Yorkshire-born barrister, banker and economic historian Frederic Seebohm (1833–1912) first came to attention with his work on the Reformation intellectuals Colet, Erasmus and More. In this work, first published and then reissued in 1883, Seebohm's focus is on the agrarian history of medieval England, with special reference to problems of early land tenure and the social system that developed from it. Seebohm stresses the continuity between Roman settlement and English villages, and he regards the manor, whose lands were cultivated by serfs, as the original form of landed property among the Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic peoples. He was the first British historian to provide a detailed description of the structure and economic life of the large manor, based on the unpaid labour of the serfs, and of the relations between the manor and the community. The book remains an influential treatment of the feudal system.

Preface
1. The English open-field system examined in its modern remains
2. The English open-field system traced back to the Domesday Survey
3. The Domesday Survey (AD 1086)
4. The open-field system traced in Saxon times
5. Manors and serfdom under Saxon rule
6. The tribal system (in Wales)
7. The tribal system (continued)
8. Connexion between the Roman land system and the later manorial system
9. The German side of the continental evidence
10. The connexion between the open-field system and serfdom of England and of the Roman provinces of Germany and Gaul
11. Result of the evidence
Appendix
Index and glossary.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]