THE REEVE'S DUTIES 173
I331 far fr°m his Oxfordshire manor, for he was busy on the
wharf at Southwark, whither he had come to inspect and pur-
chase millstones for his lord's mill. We may follow his anxious
homeward progress with his five precious stones, for which he
had paid the large sum of £15. i6s. Sd. First he took them by
water to Henley, and from there he arranged for their transport
the rest of the journey in carts hired for the purpose.1 Similarly
many reeves journeyed considerable distances to fairs or markets
to buy and sell on their lords' behalf. And from time to time
with four of his fellows he was called on to appear at the Hundred
Court, there to answer for all things concerning the manor, and at
rare intervals he might even have to appear before the dreaded
itinerant justices at their Eyre.2
The reeve, then, was the chief of the peasants for the time
being, and is often found, not peacefully leading his fellows to
answer at the King's Courts, but encouraging them to resist
authority. Two cases must serve to indicate this phase of his
activities. In the first the reeve leads the men of his village of
Carleton on an expedition to throw down the dyke which has
been erected by the Abbey of Byland at Wyldon,3 and in the
second, after the King's foresters had taken certain beasts as
pledges, the animals were rescued by certain men. They were
reproved by the bailiff of a local lord, Ralph de Ralegh, where-
upon
Robert de Byham, reeve of the said Ralph, ordered all the villeins of
bis lord and of the Abbess of Pratis, and of the prior of the hospital of
St. Bartholomew, London, and all the villeins of Streton to make
themselves ready with arms and they made a league (statutum) among
them and put scouts (insidiatores) in a wind-mill and in the church
tower to watch when the King's ministers (officials) came to do their
office; and when they came all the villeins raised the hue and came
together and rescued their beasts and beat and wounded and ill-
treated the said bailiffs.4
It is clear that the power entrusted to these men was often very
great, for frequently they were left in sole charge of the man-
orial labours for weeks at a time. We have already seen that some
bailiffs were unfaithful, and it is not to be wondered at that some
1 Rogers, Wages, 113; cf. Cunningham, op. cit. 598.
* Statutes of the Realm, Henry I, cap. 7.
* Col. Inquis. Misc. No. 199. 4 Ibid. No. 209.