170 MANORIAL ADMINISTRATION
would to be reeve. This is definitely laid down by the Battle
Abbey Customals, the only limitation being the obvious one that
the man chosen should be one of the larger holders.1 The same
state of affairs is implied by the payment of 6s. 8d. by the men of
Staplegrove to the Bishop of Winchester in 1284, in order that
they might "elect their own reeve, and have no reeve save by
election".2
Naturally this crude assertion of rights did not always pass
unchallenged. When the steward of Preston, Simon de Pierre-
point, endeavoured to force Hildebrand Reynberd to serve as
reeve in 1280, Reynberd was not willing. To convince the steward
of this, Reynberd gathered together a band of fifty or more of his
fellows who proceeded to the steward's house which they fired
in three places. Then they killed his falcon and maltreated his
horses. After this, they caught the steward himself, and there
and then before his own burning house, threatened him with
knives and axes, until he swore not to make exactions against
their will in future and not to call them to account for their
insubordination.3 On another occasion the villeins of the monks
of Burton were equally recalcitrant. The steward removed the
reeve from his office and tried to substitute another in his place,
but everyone refused, as the lord had recently seized all their
cattle and lands for certain offences on their part. "No land, no
reeve", was their cry.4
On manors where the powers of the lord were not quite so
autocratic we find that the peasants were allowed to make a
preliminary selection among themselves, and then the lord or his
agent made the final choice. The four men of Brightwaltham
mentioned above as the " most competent men of the whole vill"
had to appear before the steward, and his choice fell upon
Thomas Smith.5 The most general method, however, was that of
election by the peasants themselves. This gave a semblance of
power into their hands, and gradually, by purchase or other
means, the right to elect their own reeve was obtained by the
villani on many manors. Yet, even when they had won this
1 Op. dt. 66; and see V.C.H. Middlesex, n, 68.
2 Levett, op. cit. 14. * V.C.H. Sussex, n, 185.
4 Btirton Cart. 83, and see p. 305.
6 Select Pleas of the Crown, 168; cf. Borough Charters, n, Ixxxvi, for an
example of this in a borough; W. Rees, South Wales', 183.