Elsdon : Tenurial Development

The existence of the earthwork castle at Elsdon suggests the township must originally have been directly held by the Umfravilles, as one of their demesne manors, presumably as direct successors to whichever Anglo-Saxon lord had held the area previously.

When the castle was abandoned and the centres of Umfraville manorial administration or concentrated on Harbottle and Otterburn, the manor appears to have been divided into several holdings and granted to different landowners or free tenants who owed either military service or other dues such as labour service or, increasingly, a cash rent, to Redesdale lordship.

This practice, whereby a superior lord granted land within his barony to other lords to hold as a fief, is known as subinfeudation. This had already been at least partially implemented at Elsdon by the time abundant documentary evidence first becomes available, in the mid 13th century. The process was complicated, but can to some extent be traced through a series of law suits, inquisitions and other medieval documents relating to Elsdon.

The earliest clear indication occurs in the feudal return of 1242 contained in the Book of Fees (Liber Feodorum), which lists the English baronies and their principal fiefholders or tenants. There is no reference in the return to any demesne manor at Elsdon held directly by the Umfraville lords themselves. Instead, Richard 'son of William' (they should perhaps be translated from the original Latin filius . . . into the Norman French name Fitzwilliam, cf. Hedley 1968, 20-1), Robert de Umfraville and Hugh Payn were each recorded as holding a carucate (120 acres) of land (i.e. ploughland) in the vill of Elsdon from Gilbert de Umfraville, lord of Redesdale, for a twentieth of a knight's fee in the case of the former two and one pound of pepper in the case of Hugh Payn (Liber Feodorum II, 1121).

Later on, however, the Umfraville lords may have regained some direct holdings in Elsdon. In 1279 Gilbert de Umfraville II (son of Gilbert named in the Book of Fees) was accused of having granted to John of Herlaw, without royal licence, lands in Kerneslaw (Kearsley) worth 6 marks (£4) a year, in exchange for property in Elsdon to the value of £5 a year held by John (Hodgson 1827, 24; Northumb Assize R., 357).

No direct documentary record has survived relating to the original land grants by the Umfravilles, which established the three holdings listed 1242. However a late 12th-century document relating to the territory south of the village, between the Elsdon burn and 'the Woodburn' (Lisles Burn), has been preserved in the Swinburne Papers held in Northumberland Record Office. This extensive tract of 'forest' was granted by Robert de Umfraville, lord of Redesdale between c.1181/2-1195, to Sir William Bertram, lord of Mitford, on the occasion of the latter's marriage to Robert's sister, Alice (NRO Swinburne Papers; Hodgson 1827, 12-13; 1828, 24-25).

The grant comprised all his forest of Altercoppes (Ottercops) and Ellesden, between the brooks of Ellesden and Wodeburn, with chase, soil and vert and all other liberties appertaining to it, saving nevertheless to himself and his heirs, the men and towns he had within it before the marriage between them was fixed, (i.e. all the settled communities within the area, whether village, hamlet or farmstead, with their associated farmland).

Also forming part of the grant were four hunting grounds on the west side of the Rede, at 'Crossansete' (Corsenside), 'the Snape of Wodeburne' (probably the tongue of land bounded on three sides by the Rede to the north east of Woodburn), 'Smoltewelford' (Smoutel Ford) and Redesbank (unlocated).

The Robert de Umfraville named in 1242 was a younger brother of lord Gilbert I (grandson of lord Robert named in the late 12th century land grant) and may well have received his carucate at Elsdon from their father, Richard, who lord of Redesdale between c. 1195-1226. Together with the Ottercops-Elsdon Forest grant, this would suggest the main phase of subinfeudation in and around Elsdon occurred in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, and this presumably reflects the abandonment of the castle and a commensurate lessening of interest in Elsdon on the part of the Umfraville lords.

By 1281, Robert's estate had passed to his third son, William (William's two elder brothers having died childless), who in that year was granted a charter by Edward I permitting him to hold a weekly Thursday market and an annual fair on his manor of Elsdon (Rot. Cart. 9 Edw. 1, no 10 Turr. Lond., reproduced in Hodgson 1827, 87). This reference to a manor at Elsdon need not imply that William's estate was any larger than that previously held by his father Robert. Although the classic image of an English manor is one of a large estate essentially coterminous with a village and the associated township, in practice such classic manors were much less common than might be supposed.

The majority of medieval manors were relatively small and most villages embraced a number of manors (Bailey 2002, 6-7). Thus all three of the one-carucate holdings listed in the feudal survey of 1242, as well as others mentioned in later sources, could potentially have been described as manors. Nevertheless, the fact that William petitioned the king for permission to establish a market and fair on his manor does suggest that, even if he had not actually expanded the estate he'd inherited in Elsdon, he was actively seeking to maximise the revenue it generated during the 1280s. Unfortunately this appears to have brought him into conflict with his cousin, Gilbert II, the domineering lord of Redesale who was clearly considered that William's market and fair infringed his own seigneurial rights (see below: Markets and Fairs).

William too died childless and in 1292 we find his youngest brother, Ingelram, claiming 12 messuages, 120 acres of land, 80 acres of meadow, 300 acres of wood, 1000 acres of pasture against Thomas de Lucy & Margery his wife. This presumably represents William's manor and gives a fuller picture of its extent and composition than the summary description in the Book of Fees, which listed only the single most important resource, the ploughland. It is unclear how Thomas and Margery de Lucy had acquired possession of the estate, but they are also recorded in possession of another estate in the township in that year. Indeed Ingelram's plea was one of a series of law suits relating to Elsdon documented in 1292 (cf. Hodgson 1820, 176-8; 1827, 27-8, 32), which together give another snapshot of land tenure in Elsdon:

Since these pleas appear to be contemporary they may be totalled up to give some indication of the extent of cultivation in Elsdon township in 1292 (see below).  However they probably do not record the full extent of land holding in Elsdon in that year. The 'FitzWilliam' holding, for example, is listed both before and after that date but does not figure amongst the disputed estates. Furthermore the Umfraville lords may also have held property directly in the township by this stage, which they received from John of Herlaw in exchange for land in Kearsley some time before 1279 (see above). The holdings listed in the various pleas can therefore only be regarded as providing a minimum extent. We are not informed as to the outcome of these pleas, but in 1309 Ingelram is again recorded trying to claim possession of 12 messuages, 120 acres of land etc., this time from Alexander de Swinburne, the same individual who had earlier been a plaintiff in another case against Thomas de Lucy.

In 1325, three holdings were again listed in the inquest following the death of Robert de Umfraville, Earl of Angus and lord of Redesdale (Cal IPM VI, no. 607; cf. Hodgson 1827, 31):

John FitzWilliam's holding is probably the same as that held by Richard FitzWilliam in 1242. The lands formerly belonging to Gilbert of Cayrewyk's are referred to again in 1363, in the inquest following the death of Robert de Umfraville's wife, Eleanor. She had evidently received the annual free rent of 5s due from Gilbert's former lands and a further annual rent of 2s from lands in Elsdon which had formerly belonged to Nicholas Don.