THE HAYWARD 179
the duties for both these men on one manor. The beadle is almost
always ignored in these treatises, being referred to only in some
common-form inclusive way when the general duties of the
"provost or beadle or hayward or any other servant of the
manor"1 are in question. We may define the duties of each of
these two officers roughly as these: the beadle was the policeman
of the village, taking pledges, levying distresses, etc., while the
messor was in charge of all those operations connected with the
sowing and gathering of the crops. There is little in these two
offices that made the holding of them by one man an impossi-
bility, and we therefore need not be surprised to find this is
what actually happened on many manors.
At Forncett, for example, the terms bedelli and messores were
used interchangeably in the rolls,2 and many other examples
might be given,3 while at the Glastonbury manor of Dilcheat we
are definitely told that the hayward is also the beadle. With this
caution in mind let us see what was the position and duties of
the hayward. They are very well defined in Seneschaude:
The hayward ought to be an active and sharp man, for he must,
early and late, look after and go round and keep the woods, corn, and
meadows and other things belonging to his office, and he ought to
make attachments and approvements faithfully, and take delivery by
pledge before the reeve, and deliver them to the bailiff to be heard.
And he ought to sow the lands, and be over the ploughers and
harrowers at the time of each sowing. And he ought to make all [those]
who are accustomed to come, do so, to do the work they ought to do.
And in hay time he ought to be over the mowers, the making and the
carrying (of the hay), and in August assemble the reapers and the boon-
tenants and the labourers, and see that the corn be properly and cleanly
gathered; and early and late watch so that nothing be stolen or eaten
by beasts, or spoilt. And he ought to tally with the reeve all the seed,
and boon-work, and customs, and labour which ought to be done on
the manor throughout the year.4
This account is well substantiated by documentary evidence,
and may, therefore, be accepted as substantially accurate. We
see the hayward keeping an eye on the pasture, and arresting
1 Walter of Henley, 91, 93, 101.
2 Davenport, op. cit. 25.
3 Clutterbuck, Hertford, in, 619; V.C.H. Middlesex, n, 68; Selden Soc.iv,
140.
4 Walter of Henleyt 103. Cf. Fleta> 172 (n, cap. 84).