136 Grant of an Advowson of a Chantry

pallets and on a chief as many mullets pierced ; the legend is igillmn Vtcattlt afcrvnun. in black letter. Though this is a good heraldic coat, there is nothing to indicate the rank or position in life of the bearer ; nor do I find him mentioned elsewhere, or the coat ascribed to any one of the same surname. It may have been one of the many coats of arms met with on medieval seals, which, owing pro- bably to an early failure of the issue of those who bore them, have never found their way into any of our ordinaries or heraldic collections. The surname, Acreman, having been derived from the occupation of those originally so called, may be found in various localities, without any ground for inferring consanguinity. In a few manors a small class of tenants of the humblest grade appear to have been called Acremcn or Akcrmen, but the word had evidently a more extensive signifi- cation. Acre or Aker, in early times, did not mean any definite quantity of land, but, like Ager in Latin, was equivalent to field or plot of land ; and it was the same in Anglo-Saxon and German. Acremen were, in our early English, fieldmen, men employed in agricultural labor, i. c., in modern language, husbandmen. At that time free laborers were few, and money wages rare : the demesnes of a manor, those parts which the lord retained in his own hands, were cultivated almost exclusively by men attached in various degrees of serfdom to the soil, who were allowed to occupy for their own benefit small pieces of ground, at low and some- times almost nominal rents, and on the produce of those plots they chiefly subsisted. Such tenant-laborers were distinguished by several designations. Some rendered more days' work per annum than others, and some only certain kinds of work. Akcrman occurs, as a surname, several times in the Hundred Rolls, under Cam- prpsentacionem ego preclictus Ricardus nui>cr habui ex traditions, dimissione, ct confinnacione Thome Coburlcy ct Thome Burghillc ; et qui quidcin Thomas et Thomas candcm Advocacionem ac presentacionem prcantcu habummt, inter alia, ex dono ct feofl'amento Ricardi Bastardi dc Bedford' et Isabellc uxoris sue, consanguince et heredis predicti Nicholai dc Wokyndone ; Habendam et tenendam predictam Advocacionem ac presentacionem Capellan' Cantarie prcdicte prefatis Johanni Oudenc, Magistro, Johanni Ruttour et Willclmo Terry, Gardianis, ac Fratribus ct Sororibus predictc Fraternitatis sive Gilde, et successoribus suis imperpetuum. In cujus rei tcstimonium huic present! carte mee sigillum meum apposui. [Hiis testibus,J Willelmo Manve tune Maiore Civitatis London', Johanne Yonge et Thoma Ouldegrevc tune "Vicecomitibus ejusdcm. I>atum London' septimo die mcnsis Augusti anno Domini millesimo quadringentesimo quinqua- gesimo sexto, et anno repni Regis Henrici Sexti post conquestum Anglic tricesimo quarto." Under the fold is " Ecton," and also " r' coram M" et Abraham viij die Augusti Anno xxxiiij* Henrici vj u ." Indorsed is " Ista carta lecta fuit ct irrotulata in hustengo London' de communibus placitis tent' die June proximo ante festum Sancti Kalixti Pape anno regni Regis Henrici Sexti post conquestum tricesimo quinto. Spycer." And a little lower down is " Ista carta fuit lecta, sigillata, et rcgistrata in rcgistro Reverendorum dominornm Decani ct Capituli ecclesie Cathedralis Sancti Pauli London' primo die mensis Aprilis anno Domini millesimo quadringentesimo scxagesimo nono, tempore magistri Rogeri Radclyfle Decani. Percy."