The position of those who rested under the stigma of servitude is
brought home to us pretty forcibly by a report of proceedings in the
Middlesex Iter of 1294:
"One A. brought a writ of imprisonment against B.
"_Heilham_ (for B.): 'He ought not to be answered, for he is our
villein.'
"_A._: 'A free man and of free condition, ready, etc.'
"_Heilham_ said as before.
"_Metingham_ [the judge]: 'He cannot give a higher answer in a writ of
Neifty.'
"_Heilham_: 'We will tell you the truth; his father was our villein, and
held of us in villeinage land in the vill mentioned in his count, and
where he was taken; and he begot this A., and also one B., his brother,
of whom we are now seised, as of our villein; and this A. went out of
the limits of the villeinage, and afterwards returned, and we found him
at his hearth in his own nest, and we took him as our villein, as every
lord may well do; and we pray judgment.'
"_Metingham_: 'If my villein beget a child on my land which is in
villeinage, and the child so begotten go out of the limits of my land,
and six or seven or more years after return to the same land, and I
find him in his own nest and at his own hearth, I can take him and tax
him as my villein for the reason that his return brings him to the same
condition as he was when he went.'
"_Heilham_: 'He fell into the pit which he hath digged.'"
We must beware of attributing this doctrine of Neifty to the Norman
Conquest, which merely supplied names; in definiteness and cruelty
nothing could exceed the practice of serfage under the Saxons.
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