THE LORD'S OFFICIALS 157
illustrated above, makes it necessary for us to examine what the
various manorial officers are actually found to do before we can
accept the titles indiscriminately conferred on them by the
writers of the documents.
So much it was necessary to say, for it is the overwhelming
influence exerted by Fleta and other treatises which has con-
fused our knowledge of the actual working arrangements of a
medieval manor, giving us a Utopian rather than a real version.
On some manors, doubtless, there was a hierarchy of servants
such as is there laid down, but in very many manors a more
primitive organisation sufficed, and about this Fleta and Walter
of Henley are silent. We must bear in mind, therefore, that the
full-scale organisation which must now be discussed was the ex-
ception rather than the rule, and yet it was sufficiently prevalent
to make it important for us to understand its working, since it
undoubtedly controlled the lives of tens of thousands of men
centuries ago.
Let us consider this organisation at its fullest—say that re-
quired by a Bishop or one of the great nobles to administer his
estates. The personnel may be divided into two groups: one, the
administrators whose primary duty it was to see that every part
of their lord's property was used to the best advantage. Secondly,
there was a select band of manual workers, such as ploughmen,
carters, shepherds, etc., whose activities were vital to the well-
being of the manor. The higher ranks of the administrators were
all free men, while those in the lower ranks, as well as the manual
workers, were drawn from the lord's serfs. All these men came
into contact with the ordinary peasant from time to time, and
their various activities were of great importance to the everyday
lives of the villagers.
At the head of the lord's officials stood the seneschal or steward.
To the peasant he must oftentimes have seemed as all-powerful
as the lord himself, and indeed he was frequently a man of rank
and standing. The stewards of the manors of the Abbey of
Ramsey may serve as examples. "About 1160 the steward was
the brother of the abbot___About 1188 Sir Joscelin of Stukeley
was steward___It is possible that he is the man of that name
who is mentioned as the sheriff of Cambridgeshire about that
time. Sir Joscelin's office of steward descended to his son Sir