Essex Sessions of The Peace 1351,
1377-1379
Essex Archaeological Society,
Occasional Paper No. 3 (1953)
Edited with an introduction by
Elizabeth Chaplin Furber
This is one
of a short series of extracts taken from this Occasional Paper, no longer available
from our storeroom. Members of the Essex
Society for Archaeology and History may receive a digital copy of the book by
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Chapter 1
Introduction
THE years of the Essex sessions
of the peace (1351 and 1377-79) fall between two important landmarks of the fourteenth
century, the Black Death of 1349 and the Great Revolt
of 1381. The last half
of the fourteenth century constituted
a period of far-reaching social and economic
change and discontent. The old manorial system
was breaking up; new forces
were at work to transform
the position of the agricultural labourer, and to quicken the industrial and commercial life of England. While historians now agree in discounting the 'revolutionary' effects of the Black Death and the Great Revolt, the publication of manorial accounts
and court rolls
has thrown a clearer light on actual
social conditions at the
time. In this direction, the peace rolls published in this volume are especially important in giving a partial picture of life in a county which, with Kent, may claim the honour of having first raised the standard of revolt in 1381.
By 1351 the great victories of Sluys and Crecy and the capture
of Calais were glorious
memories. The victory
of Poitiers was to follow in the next few years. The
first, and most successful, phase of the war with France came to an end with the treaty of Calais in 1360. There followed
a decade of 'peace, retrenchment and reform'. Edward III was at the height of his glory. Yet in 1362,
the year after Froissart arrived in England to chronicle the magnificence of Edward's court and the deeds of chivalry
of his nobles, appeared
the first edition of Langland's Piers Plowman,
which gives a picture
of discontent, decay, and corruption in English society
probably nearer to actuality than the most vivid pages of Froissart. The war with France broke out anew in 1369. Queen Philippa
died in the same year, and Edward III, now practically in his dotage,
came increasingly under the influence of his mistress,
Alice Perrers, and of his second son, John of Gaunt, the duke of Lancaster. During the last
years of Edward III and the minority
of Richard II the war dragged on unsuccessfully. Yet the war was still popular
with the nation. The successive parliaments of the 'seventies, which grudgingly
granted war credits, collected with increasing difficulty from an almost
exhausted people, concerned
themselves, not with the question
of peace, but rather with attempts to supervise the expenditure of the money, to call the ministers to account and to reform
the administration. The stresses and strains of the period
reached breaking-point with the rebellion of 1381.
Though Essex was primarily an agricultural county,
the development of new, or the quickening of old, economic activities after 1350 was typical of the changing
times. Much of the wool from the sheep which grazed on the marshes of the maritime hundreds was exported from such Essex ports as Colchester,
Harwich, Manningtree and Fobbing,
and from the nearby ports of
Ipswich and London; the rest was used in the rapidly
expanding textile industry. By the last decade of the century, Essex,
with East Anglia, was the chief centre for the production of worsteds; the region ranked second in the product ion of woolens. The cloth industry flourished especially in the towns of Colchester, Dedham, Coggeshall,
Maldon, Braintree and Witham. From
the milk of the sheep were made the famous
sheep cheeses of Essex. In Thaxted, the cutlery industry was developing, although it reached its greatest
height in the next century. Brick-making and tilemaking were important
in a region with practically no building-stone. Oyster fisheries abounded in the Essex estuaries. Traces of some of these industries
are to be found in the peace rolls, but, as might be expected, the rolls reflect,
on the whole the predominantly agricultural
nature of the Essex economy.
To this economy, the Black Death of 1348-49 gave a profound shock. Though the estimates of earlier historians of a mortality
of one third to one half of the population are not now
accepted, the effect of
the pestilence in undermining the already decaying
fabric of the manorial economy were far-reaching. Chief among these were the more or less irregular
development of the commutation of services
and the leasing
of the demesne land, the feverish rivalry of the lords for possession of the surviving labourers, an.d the increase
in wages paid to
fugitive villeins, common labourers
and artisans. Faced with an unprecedented situation, the government took immediate steps. Since parliament was unable to meet on account of the plague,
the king's council issued the Ordinance
of Labourers of 18 June 1349, compelling all able-bodied men and women under sixty, with no means of support, to work when required; establishing as the legal rate of wages the level of 1346, or the few years immediately preceding; forbidding breaches
of contract; imposing
penalties of fine or imprisonment on those violating
the ordinance, whether .employers or
labourers; and providing for the sale of food by retailers and innkeepers at reasonable prices. When parliament
met in February 1351, it passed the Statute
of Labourers, supplementing the Ordinance, by
making it more precise
and by fixing definite amounts for many kinds of wages,
and providing that money penalties assessed
by justices to
be appointed under the act - both
fines and 'excess' - were to be turned over to the collectors of the subsidy of the tenth and fifteenth in aid of the poorer districts. Continued complaints of the commons
and new legislation in successive parliaments afford evidence of the unsolved
character of the labour problem. In the words of the preacher, in all probability a prejudiced and conservative witness:
Nouz also the comyn
peple is hie stied
into the synne of
pride. For now a wrecchid cnavc, that
goth to the plouz and to carte, that
hath no more good but serveth
fro zer to zer for his liflode,
there-as sumtyme a white curtel and a russet gowne wolde have served suchon ful wei, now he muste have a fresch
doublet of fyve schillynges or more the price; and above, a costli
gowne with bagges hangynge to his kne, and iredelid' undir his girdil as a newe ryven roket,'
and an hood on his heved, with a thousande ragges on his tipet; and gaili hosid an schood as thouz it
were a squyer of cuntre
; a dagger hameisid with selver hi his gurdel, or ellis
it were not worth a pese. This pride schulle
ther maistirs a-buye, whanne that thei schul
paie hir wages. Fer, there-as thei weren wont to serve for x or xii schillingis in a zer, now thei musten have xx oor thritti and his lyverei
also therto; not for he wol do more werk, But for
to meynten with that pride.'
The labour situation and the prevalence
of violence and disorder in the country, occasioned to a great extent by the war and the return of large numbers of soldiers
from France, led the government, after the
enactment of the Statute
of Labourers in February, to issue joint commissions of the peace and for labourers
in March 1351 similar to those of February 1350, but including
jurisdiction over the new statute
as well as over the ordinance of labourers of 1349. During
the next thirty years various experiments were tried.
From 1352 to 1359 separate justices
of labourers were appointed and the justices
of the peace thus lost control of the labour laws.
But
the
Statute of Westminster
of 1360-61, besides making some additions to the labour
legislation, again gave the justices
of the peace powers to enforce it, also powers
to take surety for good behaviour, to hear and determine felonies
and common law trespasses,
and to enf orce the laws on weights and measures as laid down in 25 Edward III.
In 1362 the dates of quarter
sessions previously specified in 1351 were
changed. The reaction in the commission of 8 March 1364, which gave the justices jurisdiction over regrating and forestalling, but deprived
them of final authority over labour laws
and of the power of determining felonies, was ended by the statute of 1368. By that year, largely
as a result of the successful agitation of the commons, the
justices of the peace had definitely won complete jurisdiction over various
economic offences,
including the labour
laws, and also the power of hearing and determining felonies and common law trespasses by normal
common law procedure. From then, until the reorganization in the parliament of 1380, no new statute
concerning their position was enacted, and few
changes were made in the form of their commission. At that time, in spite of numerous competitors, they were well on the way to becoming
the 'pivot of the English
constitution'.
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