The English Village Community Examined in its Relation to the Manorial and Tribal Systems and to the Common or Open Field System of Husbandry: An Essay in Economic History

The Yorkshire-born barrister, banker and economic historian Frederic Seebohm (1833-1912) first came to attention with his work on the Reformation intellectuals Colet, Erasmus and More. In this work, first published and then reissued in 1883, Seebohm’s focus is on the agrarian history of medieval England, with special reference to problems of early land tenure and the social system that developed from it. Seebohm stresses the continuity between Roman settlement and English villages, and he regards the manor, whose lands were cultivated by serfs, as the original form of landed property among the Anglo-Saxons and other Germanic peoples. He was the first British historian to provide a detailed description of the structure and economic life of the large manor, based on the unpaid labour of the serfs, and of the relations between the manor and the community. The book remains an influential treatment of the feudal system.