THE REEVE 167
detailed and intimate knowledge of the reeve than by the over-
bearing exterior pressure exerted by an "outsider*' bailiff? This
contention is further strengthened when we observe that very
frequently it is the reeve, and not the bailiff, who is called on
"to account in great detail for everything under his charge".
The annual accounts, it is true, may be presented by the bailiff
solely, or sometimes by the bailiff and reeve jointly, but quite as
often we find them presented by the reeve only. The fact that a
serf was so trusted as to be allowed to render on his own authority
the most detailed return of every item on the manor, should make
us wonder whether he was relatively so insignificant as we have
been taught to believe.
Further, when we enquire how long he held his office, the
most enlightening evidence is forthcoming. The reeve was
generally elected or presented at the Manor Court, usually at
Michaelmas, and his term of office was for the ensuing year. It
is quite wrong, however, to infer from this that he necessarily
held office only for a year. We may remember Chaucer's reeve
of Baldeswell who had held office "syn that his lord was twenty
yeere of age", and he was not singular in this. Indeed, there is
much evidence to show that, if a reeve displayed any aptitude
for his office, his lord was only too ready to continue him in the
same year after year. The Ministers' Accounts in the Public
Record Office furnish valuable evidence on this point, and the
present writer has examined all those series which cover a number
of years consecutively (and many of those which have breaks in
them) and which therefore yield the most exact information ob-
tainable, with the object of finding who presented the accounts
and how long they continued in office. The evidence is too bulky
to be given here in full, but a few specimens may be quoted. On
the manor of the monks of Westminster at Teddington in 1304-5
the reeve is Walter le Notiere. We find this same Walter reeve in
every subsequent year for which the accounts are still extant
until 1326-7—a period of twenty-two years.1 At Eastwood in
Essex one man is reeve from 1351-2 until 1373-4;2 at Earnwood
in Shropshire Adam atte Halle renders the accounts as reeve in
1379-80, 1384-5, and again, after a break, for the three years
1392-5.3 In every county in which the accounts can be tested
1 Mm. Ace. 918/2-19. * Ibid. 840/22-34. * Ibid. 967/3-13.