CONDITIONAL MANUMISSION 285
and the lord fed them.1 Sometimes men were given their freedom
only to suit the lord's convenience, and at the price of abandoning
their holdings altogether. When the Earl of Lincoln wished to
found Revesby Abbey, in 1142, he offered all the men of the three
villages involved in his new foundation either fresh land in ex-
change for their holdings, or leave to "go and dwell where they
will". Six accepted land (and the charter sets out their holdings
and services), but 31 left the Earl's lands to seek new habitations.2
Again, when Henry II was founding the Carthusian Priory of
Witham in Somersetshire, he cleared the villeins off the land, but
gave each of them the choice of freedom or a tenement on any
royal manor that he might choose.3
Generally, however, freedom came by direct action on the
part of the serf himself. Bit by bit, we may imagine him saving
enough to offer to his lord as a fair sum for his charter of manu-
mission. Medieval records, as noted above, are full of such
entries, and we need not be surprised to find that the sums paid
to the lord vary very considerably. All that is recorded is the
sum paid: the willingness or unwillingness of the lord or the
reasons for the release are seldom apparent; and, as we have seen,
even if reasons are given, they are not always to be taken at their
face value.
Even when the lord consented to free a man he was not always
willing to give away all his rights. The Prior of Bath manumits a
serf, but only on condition that he serves the priory all his life
in his office of plumber and glazier;4 the Chapter of Canterbury
confirm a manumission by the Archbishop of a bondman and
his sons, with the reservation that his youngest son is to remain a
serf and stay on the manor with the family fixtures and live-
stock.5 The Bishop of Winchester grants a charter to J. de
Wamblesworth and his children, but does not include John's
tenants, nor does he excuse John and his heirs from certain
duties such as suit of court, and payment of pannage and heriots
on their death.6 And so the list might be continued endlessly;
1 Bed. Hist. Rec. Soc. n, 239-40.
2 Northants. Record Soc. 1930, 4; and cf. Monasticon Anglic(mu.m9 ed.
Caley and Ellis, v, 454; and see for Kirkstall, v, 530.
8 Hugh, St (R.S.), 68.
4 Hist. MSS. Com. Bath, II, 164.
6 Lit. Cant. II, 411. * Reg. Pontissara, 274.