Credit in the Later Medieval English Village: The Example of Willingham,
Cambridgeshire, 1377-1458
Chris Briggs
Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure
Department of Geography
University of Cambridge
[This paper represents work in progress to be presented at the annual conference of
the Economic History Society 2006. Please do not cite or reproduce without
permission.]
Introduction
The peasant economy changed in several important ways in the century and a half
following the Black Death of 1348-9. Dramatically reduced village populations meant
that some tenants could accumulate holdings that were much larger than the bigger
peasant holdings of the pre-plague period. In spite of low demand for cereals, and
high labour costs, the yeomen working such expanded farms were fully and perhaps
increasingly engaged in production for the market. In recognition of the changing
nature of that market, peasants in most places turned more and more from arable to
pastoral husbandry, a development that reflected changes in diet and a general
increase in living standards.
Credit played an important part in peasant production and consumption
throughout the middle ages. It is not yet clear, however, whether the role of credit
changed in tandem with the broad shifts in the peasant economy witnessed in the later
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. As these long-term changes took effect, did the
overall significance of credit in peasant economic life increase or decrease? If credit
played a different role in the later middle ages than it had done c.1300, what were the
most important areas of contrast? This paper suggests ways of addressing these
questions.
There is not a vast amount of research available on credit in the medieval
peasant economy, but the work that has been done gives some grounds for thinking
that the functions of credit did indeed change, and that by c.1400 they became, if
anything, more important than before. Elaine Clark’s pioneering research on agrarian
credit concentrated on the large village of Writtle (Essex) in the period 1382-1490. 1 It
showed that credit was routinely used for a range of different purposes, many of them
associated with rural crafts and trades, including cloth production. Not all the debts
incurred were small-scale; in fact, Clark found that around half of all money debts
were for amounts over five shillings. Clark also found that relationships between
creditors and debtors were more ‘horizontal’ than ‘vertical’. Credit was typically
extended back and forth between households to facilitate the ‘material flow’, and the
role of a household in the credit market did not correspond in any predetermined
fashion to its wealth and status within village society.
Work done on rural credit more recently, however, has tended to focus on the
period before 1350. 2 This has revealed contrasts with the picture from Writtle. For
instance, the range of purposes for which credit was used appears narrower in the
earlier period, with fewer references to credit in craft production and commerce. Also,
to judge by the debt litigation evidence, most pre-plague credit was smaller scale than
in fifteenth-century Writtle. Finally, although one would not wish to stress this feature
too much, the period before 1350 does appear to yield greater evidence of exploitative
credit relationships, in which a small number of richer peasants exercised a position of
power over their heavily indebted poorer neighbours.
In what follows, I seek additional evidence to help evaluate more fully this
picture of apparent temporal contrasts, by investigating manor court debt litigation in
the large fen-edge village of Willingham. This village, located around eight miles
north of Cambridge, is familiar to historians of English rural society as one of the
Elaine Clark, ‘Debt litigation in a late medieval English vill’, in J.A. Raftis (ed.) Pathways to
Medieval Peasants (Toronto, 1981), 247-79; Elaine Clark, ‘Medieval debt litigation: Essex and
Norfolk, 1270-1490’, PhD thesis (University of Michigan, 1977).
2
See, for example, P.R. Schofield, ‘Dearth, debt and the local land market in a late thirteenth-century
village community’, Agricultural History Review, 45 (1997), 1-17; P.R. Schofield, ‘Access to credit in
the early fourteenth-century English countryside’, in P.R Schofield and N.J. Mayhew, (eds.), Credit
and Debt in Medieval England c.1180-c.1350 (Oxford: Oxbow, 2002), 106-26; C. Briggs, ‘Credit and
the peasant household economy in England before the Black Death: evidence from a Cambridgeshire
manor’, in C. Beattie, A. Maslakovic and S. Rees Jones (eds.), The Medieval Household in Christian
Europe, c. 850-c. 1550. Managing Power, Wealth, and the Body (International Medieval Research 12,
Turnhout, 2003), 231-48.
1
2
contrasting communities in Margaret Spufford’s classic 1974 work of that title. 3
Willingham parish covered about 4,500 acres, but only about one third of this was
taken up by arable common fields. Most of the remainder consisted of a very large
and frequently flooded common fen pasture which provided extensive grazing for the
villagers’ animals. The bulk of the arable in the three open fields comprised
approximately 28 customary holdings of fifteen acres each (half yardlands), and there
were also around 24 cottagers and other smallholders, plus about eight free tenements.
However, the main focus of the village economy lay in the commons, and the grazing
of cattle and sheep.
Willingham has an excellent series of court rolls featuring a lot of debt
material. 4 Because these records begin only in 1377, this paper cannot attempt to
compare the situation after 1350 in this village with that prevailing beforehand.
However, for comparative purposes the character of the pre-Black Death rural credit
market is indicated using manor court evidence from manorial court roll series
relating to other villages, especially those of nearby Oakington.
The next two sections analyse more fully the types of credit transaction and
nature of creditor-debtor relations revealed by the debt litigation. Yet a key feature of
the Willingham rolls is a dramatic reduction the volume of debt litigation between
1377 and 1458 (Table 1). Whereas a total of 314 separate debt lawsuits were begun in
the manor court in the ten-year period 1378-87, the equivalent figures for 1412-21 and
1441-50 were just 92 and 17 suits respectively. The paper concludes with some
reflections as to what the dramatic diminution of Willingham debt litigation might tell
us about the availability and importance of credit in the local economy.
The Nature and Size of Debts
Most of the debts recorded in litigation at Willingham were in money form, and only
13 per cent were claimed in the form of animals, grain or other goods. This offers
something of a contrast to the pre-Black Death evidence from the manor court of
Oakington, where over one third of debts were claims for the repayment of grain or
the return of unjustly detained animals and other commodities (Figures 1 and 2). The
M. Spufford, Contrasting Communities: English Villagers in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
(Cambridge, 1974).
4
Cambridgeshire Record Office (hereafter CRO), L1/177-9.
3
3
importance of Oakington grain debts in particular may be a sign that the pre-plague
credit network was more orientated towards lending of foodstuffs for consumption
than its Willingham counterpart of a century later. The contrast between the pre- and
post- plague periods in the numbers of grain debts might alternatively show that
creditors tended to prefer grain rather than money as repayment medium before 1349,
owing to the frequent scarcity of grain.
In the case of both Oakington and Willingham, the court roll sometimes
reveals the reasons for a debt in money, and sometimes it does not. However, if we
assume that the set of ‘sum of money only’ debts was distributed in the same fashion
as the money debts whose context is known, it is clear that there are considerable
similarities between the pre- and post-plague evidence in Figures 1 and 2. Simple
loans of money are relatively rare at both periods, while sums owed for goods
purchased and not yet paid for (deferred payments) are the most common type of
money debt.
The 136 Willingham deferred payments are dominated by debts owed for
livestock, revealing the crucial role of credit in the village’s pastoral economy. Sixtynine of the 136 deferred payments related to purchases of animals of various kinds.
Payments were most commonly claimed for steers (boviculi), for which debtors owed
a median sum of 8s. A number of bylaws and presentments recorded in the court rolls
suggest that the typical transaction was to purchase beasts for fattening from a nonresident cattle drover, which would later be sold on to butchers originating both inside
and outside the village. Clearly, such purchases were often made on credit, as is
further indicated by the presence in the two periods 1378-87 and 1412-21 of seven
individuals amongst the creditors and six among the debtors described as either
butcher or drover (surname or occupational descriptor). Willingham residents also
earned income by agisting the livestock of outsiders on the common.
Where debt size is concerned, there are notable similarities between the preBlack Death data and the Willingham figures of later date (Table 2). Judging by the
the debt litigation evidence, individuals in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
were not involved in credit transactions that were substantially larger than in the early
1300s. The Willingham and Oakington courts, unlike that of Writtle, were not
empowered to hear cases concerning debts of 40s and over. When considering the
prevalence of larger debts, therefore, it is necessary to focus attention on the 5s-40s
4
bracket. Doing so shows that Willingham looks much more like early fourteenthcentury Oakington than fifteenth-century Writtle.
Creditors and Debtors
The parties to credit transactions revealed by debt litigation are analyzed largely in
relation to the following question: how far did creditors and debtors form two mutally
exclusive groups? A relatively high proportion of individuals acting at various times
as both creditor and debtor is arguably indicative of a local credit market entailing
‘horizontal’ social relations. In such a market, both rich and poor villagers borrowed
to meet a diverse range of objectives, and the extension of credit was not restricted to
a specific social group, but was practised by most villagers whenever they had the
resources to do so. This sort of credit network emerges from Clark’s study of Writtle,
and from several early modern studies. By contrast, where there was little overlap
between creditors and debtors, the credit market tended to produce ‘vertical’ social
relations. It is roughly this picture that emerges from the work on the early fourteenth
century. In some circumstances, such a lack of overlap could indicate a market in
which the main form of credit involved richer villagers lending to poorer in order to
facilitate the latters’ consumption needs. It is probably not indicative of a market in
which most households routinely maintained a flow of credit both into and out of the
household.
Table 3 shows that overlap of creditors and debtors was considerably larger at
Willingham in 1378-87 than at Oakington before 1351. Just over 45 per cent of all
Willingham debtors of 1378-87 are also recorded at some point in that period as
creditors, compared with about one in five at Oakington 1291-1350. This evidence
suggests some support for a picture of change in the ways in which people
participated in credit markets in the decades after the Black Death. However, the
Willingham overlap between creditors and debtors reduced slightly in 1412-21
compared with 1378-87. It is also worth noting that the contrast in overlap between
Willingham in 1378-87 and Great Horwood between 1302 and 1360 is not large.
All the courts mentioned in Table 3 reveal a long tail of individuals recorded
in only a single act as either creditor or debtor, and a minority of individuals who
appear more frequently than that. Considering these ‘serial’ creditors and debtors is
particularly revealing. At Willingham in 1378-87, 14 creditors were recorded in five
5
or more debt actions, and of these only three failed to act also as borrower. Some of
the most prolific creditors were notable for also appearing amongst the most prolific
debtors. For example, William Torell and Andrew Hendyman were the most
frequently recorded creditors, with 15 transactions as creditor apiece, and they were
also second and fourth respectively in the list of most prolific debtors, William with
19 debtor appearances, Andrew with nine. This tendency continued in 1412-21: five
creditors of that period made three or more appearances as creditor, and only one did
not also act as debtor, and again several individuals were unusually prolific in both
capacities. By contrast, at Oakington before 1351, there were 14 creditors recorded in
five or more debt actions, but 10 of them have left no record of activity as borrower,
while at Horwood only one of the 11 creditors appearing in three or more
relationships has left record of activity as borrower. The Willingham records thus
indicate a late medieval credit network in which the most frequent participants were a
core of prominent villagers bound up in complex webs of credit where the flow of
credit went in both directions. This poses something of a contrast to a pre-plague
system in which, to a considerable extent, the most frequent participants were
polarized into habitual lenders and habitual borrowers.
The Disappearance of Willingham Debt Litigation
The disappearance of debt litigation from manor court records during the fifteenth
century is not specific to Willingham, but is a feature fairly familiar from other parts
of England. Why did debt cases largely cease to be brought to the manor court at this
time? Does the drying up of debt cases signify a corresponding drop in the use and
availability of credit in the local peasant economy?
It has been argued that in the later middle ages the manor courts became
increasingly moribund institutions which held fewer and fewer sessions annually. As
a result, civil justice became very slow, driving away potential debt plaintiffs. 5 At
Willingham there was, in the 1420s and 1430s, a drop of just this kind in the average
number of court sessions (Table 4). An argument could thus be made which explains
the disappearance of lawsuits as a response to the failure of the manor court as an
instititution for debt recovery, though one would have to offer some explanation for
5
J.S. Beckerman, ‘Procedural innovation and institutional change in medieval English manorial
courts’, Law and History Review, 10 (1992), 244–5.
6
the fact that numbers of new plaints had already dropped off considerably by the
1410s.
In the 1380s, the Willingham credit market was thriving. Some 215 people are
recorded between 1378 and 1387 as credit market participants. These, of course,
represent only those involved in failed credit transactions that came to court. Total
numbers of creditors and debtors were undoubtedly higher. There were 287
Willingham poll tax payers in 1377, and although there was obviously turnover in
village population over the following decade, it is quite possible that the figure of 215
creditors and debtors shows that a very high percentage of all Willingham residents of
the years 1378-87 were involved in at least one credit arrangement. But by 1450, debt
cases had become a rarity – does this mean that credit, and the economic activity it
fuelled, had essentially disappeared?
As Chris Dyer reminds us in his recently published Ford Lectures, the sources
produced by landlords upon which historians of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
traditionally rely, such as court rolls, become in the fifteenth century an increasingly
inadequate guide to the activities of peasants. 6 Thus it could well have been that the
high intensity of credit use of the 1380s continued into the fifteenth century at
Willingham, but in a form that is now largely undocumented. On the other hand, we
cannot assume that the development of the credit market was unaffected by the
quality of local legal institutions, as the absence of a reliable local court could well
have discouraged lending, and vice-versa. 7 There are also further circumstances, such
as increasingly acute coin shortage, that suggest that the mid-fifteenth century
disappearance of manorial debt litigation at Willingham and elsewhere is not an
illusion, but represents a genuine withdrawal of credit. At present, however, we are
not in a position to offer a convincing overview of temporal patterns in the availability
and use of rural credit in the later middle ages.
Conclusion
Comparison of the Willingham debt evidence with information for the early
fourteenth century reveals a mixture of similarities and contrasts. The types and sizes
C. Dyer, An Age of Transition? Economy and Society in England in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford,
2005).
7
C. Briggs, ‘Manor court procedures, debt litigation levels and rural credit provision in England,
c.1290–c.1380’, Law and History Review, Fall 2006, forthcoming.
6
7
of debt at Willingham are roughly similar to equivalents from the earlier period. On
the other hand, there was at Willingham an increased tendency for people to be
involved in both lending and borrowing, which perhaps indicates that credit at that
date was serving somewhat different purposes than it had done under the very
different conditions of the earlier 1300s. On balance, however, a study of Willingham
suggests that relying on Clark’s pioneering study of Writtle leads to an exaggerated
sense of the later medieval changes in the role of credit in the peasant economy. We
do not have the sources to tell us whether credit was as important at Willingham
c.1300 as it undeniably was there between 1377 and c.1400. However, what does
seem clear is that without credit, local people would have had much less flexibility in
the buying and selling that was central to what was obviously a burgeoning local
economy based on grazing livestock. Yet what happened to that credit market in the
mid-fifteenth century – whether it collapsed, or simply carried on undocumented - is
currently something of a mystery.
8
Figure 1. Oakington etc. debts 1291-1348
(N=263)
In kind: animals etc.
In kind: grain
8.4
In money: loan
In money: rent arrears
39.9
30.4
In money: payment for
services/wages arrears
In money: dower payment
arrears
3.4
12.9
03
1.9
In money: deferred
payment for grain,
livestock etc.
In money: sum of money
only
9
Figure 2. Willingham debts 1377-1458 (N=401)
In kind: animals etc.
5
In kind: grain
8
7.2
34.9
2.2
8.2
0.5
In money: loan
In money: rent arrears
In money: payment for
services/wages arrears
In money: dower payment
arrears
33.9
In money: deferred payment for
grain, livestock etc.
In money: sum of money only
Sources: Cambridge University Lib. Q Boxes 3, 4 and 11, rolls 1-5 and 12; CRO L1/177-9
10
Table 1. New debt plaints initiated in Willingham
manor court
Period
New debt plaints
No. court sessions
1378-87
314
39
1412-21
92
34
1441-50
17
19
Source: CRO L1/177-9
Table 2. Percentages of money debts falling within various size ranges
(a.) Oakington (with Cottenham and Dry Drayton) (Cambridgeshire), Great Horwood
(Buckinghamshire), Willingham (Cambridgeshire) and Hinderclay (Suffolk)
Size of debt
≤ 1s.
1s. 1d.2s.
2s. 1d.5s.
5s. 1d.10s.
10s.
1d.-20s.
20s.
1d.-40s.
>40s.
Oak’ton etc. 1291-1348
(161 debts)
25.5
11.2
34.2
11.2
11.8
4.3
1.9
Great Horwood 1302-60
(58 debts)
29.3
15.5
22.4
17.2
13.8
1.7
0.0
Willingham 1377-1458
(349 debts)
21.8
18.1
30.1
16.3
10.3
3.2
0.3
Hinderclay c.1300
(21 debts)
47.6
28.6
9.5
14.3
-
-
-
1d.-5s.
6s.-10s.
11s.20s.
21s.40s.
41s.-£10
Loans (104)
57
21
11
7
4
All pleas (889)
46
27
14
9
4
a
(b.) Writtle, 1382-1490
Size of debt
Note: a 5s. and above
Sources: P. Schofield, ‘L’endettement et le crédit dans la campagne anglaise au moyen âge’, in M. Berthe (ed.),
Endettement paysan et crédit rural dans l’Europe médiévale et moderne: Actes des XVIIes journées internationales
d'histoire de l'abbaye de Flaran, Septembre 1995, Toulouse, 87; Clark, ‘Debt litigation in a late medieval English
vill’, 263; Cambridge University Lib. Q Boxes 3, 4 and 11, rolls 1-5 and 12; CRO L1/177-9; Oxford, New College
Archives 3912-3914.
11
Table 3. Numbers of creditors, debtors, and persons acting as both creditor and debtor
A
B
Creditors
C as % A
C
Debtors
C as % B
Acting as
creditor &
debtor
Willingham 1378-87
147
(38.8)
125
(45.6)
57
Willingham 1412-21
57
(33.3)
57
(33.3)
19
Oakington 1291-1350
214
(17.8)
184
(20.7)
38
Gt Horwood 1302-50
81
(35.8)
92
(31.5)
29
Sources: Cambridge University Lib. Q Boxes 3, 4 and 11, rolls 1-5 and 12; CRO L1/177-9; Oxford, New
College Archives 3912-3914.
Table 4. Willingham: average
number of court sessions per annum
Period
Ave. no. court
sessions per annum
1378-1390
3.6
1391-1400
3.4
1401-1410
3.9
1411-1420
3.5
1421-1430
2.7
1431-1440
1.9
1441-1450
2.0
Source: CRO L1/177-9
Note: based on sessions for which record
survives; a small amount of evenly
distributed record loss is evident.
12