Rochester In The Border Surveys c. 1600

Nevertheless progress can be made. In particular two early 17th-century documentary surveys of Border settlement, the 1604 "Survey of the Debateable and Border lands" (1604 Survey) and the 1618 "Rental of the ancient Principality of Redesdale" (1618 Rental) shed considerable light on Rochester. The relevant passages are tabulated in full overleaf.

The two surveys usefully complement one another.  Whereas the inventories of the 1604 Survey preserve considerable detail concerning the composition of the tenancies not found in the 1618 Rental the latter is more informative with regard to their location, enabling a start to be made in identifying the various farmsteads. Together a picture of the settlement in the first two decades of the 17th century can be built up.

Table 2: Rochester Customary Tenants

Table 3: Rents for Rochester And Associated Lands in 1618

Five customary tenants are listed at Rochester in 1604, all bearing the Hall 'surname' but each belonging to a different lineage. Their holdings varied considerably in size from that of Roger Hall valued at a rent of £1 per annum to those of Thomas Hall senior and junior which were each worth no more than 2s 6d annual rent. Roger had purchased the larger part of his tenement and seems to have been the senior figure in the settlement. Though listed as liable for border defence (a duty which he had neglected), he was named as a felon by the juries of the Middle and East Marches in 1597 and considered one of those Redesdale men "more fit to be punished, than trusted for defence against thieves" (CBP, 404).

The acreages of land attached to each tenancy and the number of buildings is also included. Again Roger Hall's holding - with one house, three outbuildings, 11 acres of meadow and 12 acres of arable land - is by far the largest. Only one tenancy besides Roger's had more than one building, that of the third Thomas Hall.  It was, not surprisingly, the second largest holding with 15 acres of meadow and arable land worth 10s per annum.  The rough rule of thumb appears to be one building per five shillings of rent.

The five 1604 tenancies can readily be identified in the 1618 list by comparing the rents and the personal names, though some of the individuals have changed in the 14 years between the compilation of the two surveys. It appears that the two smallest holdings lay in Nether Rochester, where one of the Thomas' (senior?) has presumably died and been succeeded by his son Robert.

One might speculate, on the basis of their very small size, that the Nether Rochester tenements had originally been a single tenancy subdivided at some stage between two brothers. Similarly, Robert Hall, possessor of the fourth (5s) tenancy in the 1604 list, appears to have been succeded by Ralph Hall by 1618. The greatest change, however, must have overtaken the 10s tenement of Thomas Hall 3, which has been divided unequally between Robert Hall son of Thomas, at Over Rochester, and Michael Hall at Rochester, with a rental values of 6s and 3s 2d respectively.

A far more significant innovation revealed by the 1618 survey is the establishment of leasehold tenure over a third of the lands at Rochester, and the acquisition of that lease by Roger and Ralph Hall. This marks the beginning of the transition from the Border customary tenure or tenant-right - with its low rents, partible inheritance and border service - to more conventional leasehold or tenant-at-will (cf. Charlton & Day 1979, 215; Watts 1971). The new landlord of Redesdale, Theophilus, Lord Howard de Walden, who obtained the manors of Harbottle and Wark from the Crown in 1614, played an instrumental role in this process in his efforts to establish a form of tenure more convenient and profitable for himself.

The significance of the Rochester third is explained by a correspondent of the earl of Northumberland in 1635 discussing the way in which Lord Howard had come to terms with his Redesdale tenants some years earlier:

The tenants of Redesdale did agree with (Lord Howard) that he should have the third part of their tenement and they continue the two parts paying the whole ancient rent, which was divided and set forth with some of them accordingly and my lord disposed of that third part set forth for him to his best profit and the tenants do at this time the two parts according to the agreement and pay the whole rent (Alnwick Castle Archives, Syon P ix, 2/a; cf. Watts 1971, 80 & NCH XV (1940), 286-287).

As Watts (1971, 80) notes, by accepting this agreement Lord Howard's tenants in the manor of Harbottle effectively admitted that they were mere tenants-at-will. The appearance of leasehold lands in the 1618 rental, at Rochester and elsewhere, shows that even before his final victory in the courts in 1621-22 over the more recalcitrant of his Redesdale tenants Lord Howard had already had some success in coercing the Redesdale men to settle on terms favourable to himself.