i io The Norman Conquest
police functions such as guarding prisoners, taking them
to gaol, etc. It was communal responsibility in crim-
inal matters,1 household retainers now being the only
ones allowed to find a single pledge, their lord. It prac-
tically amounted to making every man in a community
responsible for every other man. And if the criminal
were not produced, the appropriate fine might be col-
lected from the tithing; the whole tithing could not run
away and was not likely to be in league with the crim-
inal. All men were their brothers' keepers. In south-
west England, and irregularly in some other parts, the
tithing and vill are known to have coincided, and the
tithingman was simply the township reeve. In the mid-
lands it was sometimes the manor. In considerable parts,
it has been found hard to tell whether it was territorial or
numerical. Where territorial it was probably of tenest the
vill; where numerical, the members must have lived
near enough to act together. It is known that where
tithing vills were too large to make good police units they
were often subdivided, that is, a tithing could be divided
into two or more frankpledge tithings. Thus in the
mass of English people, as members of manor or vill,
hundred or shire, there was much activity and responsi-
bility aside from winning one's daily bread from the
soil. Every man, free or unfree, was born to serve the
public weal, and here in post-Conquest England he was
serving it least often in a military way.
3. The Boroughs.—Although the Norman Conquest
resulted finally in greatly stimulating commercial and
industrial interests in England, its early effect upon the
boroughs was depressing. We have seen that in the late
Anglo-Saxon period the boroughs were more and more
regarded as being upon the domain of some lord, and
*A feature of this was tlie well-known "presentment of Englishry"
A man found slain was assumed to be a Norman and the hundred in
which he was found was bound to produce the criminal or pay a heavy fine
unless it could present his Englishry, that is, prove that he was an English-