ELECTION OF THE REEVE 171
privilege from the lord, they found it had its disadvantages.
Indeed, some of the manuals distinctly state it to be an advantage
to the lord that his serfs should elect their own reeve; for, says
the author of Hosebonderie: "All those who hold in villeinage on
a manor must elect as reeve such an one as they will answer for,
for if the lord suffer any loss by the fault of the reeve, and he
shall not have of his own goods the wherewithal to make it good,
they shall pay for him the surplus which he cannot pay."1 This
was not mere theory, for the manorial injunctions of the monks
of Gloucester expressly lay down this communal liability as a
corollary of free election, and the same is true on manors in other
parts of England.2
Once popular election obtained, it was not long before the
possibilities of evasion exercised men's minds. Sometimes whole
communities paid a lump sum in order that none of their number
might be compelled to serve as reeve. Thus the men of Bulver-
hythe, in 1222, were to pay their lord twenty shillings, for they
were all unwilling to serve,3 while at Inglethorp the twelve vir-
gaters there compounded for 6s. 8d. "that they might not be
chosen for the reeveship".4 Individuals also were constantly to
be found willing to pay a fine for permission to decline the office,
when elected to it, and the fact that they disgorged quite con-
siderable sums indicates the onerous and responsible nature of
the office.5 It may well be that there is some connection between
this custom of buying exemption and the fact that on some
manors the office devolved solely on the holders of certain lands.
Thus at Kirton, in Lincolnshire, an inquisition of 1300 tells us
that there were two tofts and four bovates set aside "whose
tenants ought to be the lord's reeve".6 In other parts of the East of
England again, somewhat similar conditions obtained, as at
Hindolvestone, in Norfolk, where, in 1309, we find that "certain
land of William Erl was elected to the office of reeveship".7
1 Walter of Henley, 67. It is expressed more briefly by Walter himself on
p. ii.
2 Glouc. Cart, in, 221. Cf. D.S.P. Ixvii.
8 Gale, Honour of Richmond, Appendix, 45.
* Kettering Compottts, 88; and see Cttst. Rents, no.
5 Hales Rolls, 258; Wakefield Rolls, n, 14, 54, etc.; Selden Soc. II, 23, 45,
168; cf.ibid. rv, 128.
6 Inquis. Post Mortem, Ed. I, in, 470.
7 Hist. Teachers' Misc. I, 157, 180. Cf. Davenport, op. cit. 50.