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Glossary.

Acre: customary acre larger than a standard acre of 4840 sq.yds.

Andirons: firedogs to hold spits for roasting meat. Support for the grate.

Arras: a rich tapestry fabric. Originating in Arras, Flanders.

Arminians: o riginally the followers of a Dutch theologian called Arminius. They believed

all were offered salvation, not just the Elect, and could work out their own salvation and

were reacting against the Reformation.

Artisan: skilled worker. Used here as a craftsman or shepherd.

Awn: prickley bristle at the top of the barley grain's sheath.

Backside : area or yard behind a house.

Barrel: these stored butter, beer, fish, salt or wines (qv firkin).

Batter: a walls receding slope from ground upwards.

Bay: space between main roof supports.

Bays: a fine lightweight cloth.

Beam : a scale which could be used for weighing fleeces.

Bed : referred to the mattress.

Bedsted/ Bedstead : bed frame.

Black- jack jug : a leather jug

Board cloth : table cloth.

Bole: special alcove in a wall for a hive. A bolle was a container for honey and thick liquids

Boulting tub or hutch : container to sieve flour into (p664).

Bond : deed by which a person binds himself to pay another.

Brandiron : (1) a branding iron for stock. (2) a gridiron.

Bressumer : horizontal timber carrying a wall. The lintel supporting the chimney over the inglenook.

Brogger : a factor who acted as middleman between sheep-breeders and the clothiers who

needed raw wool to make cloth.

Bushel : measure of corn (Appendix 2). 8 bushels in a quarter.

Butt : measure of land equal to a rood.

Calkins : end parts of a horseshoe turned up and then sharpened to prevent the horse slipping.

Capon : a castrated cock for eating.

Card: iron-toothed instrument for combing out wool or flax.

Carpet : cover for wall, table and other furniture.

Cartload : a measure for coal, faggots, hay, lime and straw.

Cast : when the cow has the calf prematurely.

Caudle : Warm gruel with spice, sugar, and wine, for invalids.

Chirurgeon: one who operates with the hand. Rede [32] then combined surgery with his

barber's shop. The striping on a barber's pole represented the ribbon round the arm of

a person, who was having his blood let. Some thought of them as low practitioners of surgery.

Cimer: a vessel for making dough in?

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Cloome: cloam: usually oxen or horse dung.

Close: enclosed piece of land, in this period next to the house.

Clove: 7 lbs of wool was equal to a clove. 4 cloves made 1 todd.

Coney : a rabbit.

Coopery ware : "cowpery ware" mostly tubs, casks etc for brewing. Made by a cooper.

Corvisor/ cordwainer : a shoemaker.

Cowl/coul : a cooler, a large wooden tub for brewing.

Coulter : a vertical iron cutting blade. This is fixed to the front of the ploughshare.

Curb: wall, or edge round the well.

Cut: woollen carded 1 cut giving approximately 300 yds single ply wool per lb.

Damask : a patterned linen imitating silks woven at Damascus (p649).

Danske chest : a foreign chest (Danish).

Demesne : land attached to the manor farm.

Diaper : a system of weaving small twill patterns using unbleached threads for napkins.

Doale: dole or lot meadow. Shared out every year.

Ear[th] : to plough and destroy weeds.

Ell : measure for linen and haircloth equal to 45 inches.

Ewe : female sheep that has had at least one lamb.

Ewe-crone : an old barren ewe.

Ewe-lamb: (gimmer or chiver) female lamb up to weaning.

Ewe-teg : (gimmer hog, ewe hog) weaning up to first shearing.

Exhibited : The inventory presented at the church court with the will.

Face cloath : women used them when riding out.

Family : The people in a household (qv) who are related by blood and marriage.

Fetter : D- shaped shackle for tethering a horse by the leg.

Firebote : the wood or rough ground granted to the tenants by the lord of the manor for

the purpose of gathering fuel.

Firkin: small butter barrel, half a hundredweight. A liquid measure for beer of 9 gallons.

Flasket : (1) a shallow washing tub. (2) Shallow basket.

Flaxen: cloth made from a lower quality linen (flax) thread.

Flitches : sides of bacon.

Foremilch : a cow not yet in milk.

Forke : the crutch part of a garment.

Frame : joined table frame fixed to table board.

Frieze : coarse woollen cloth with nap usually on one side only.

Furnace : for brewing.

Gals/Gyles : girls.

Garner : a container to store grain or malt.

Hackles of straw : long pieces of straw resembling the long feathers on the neck of a cock.

Spreading out like a protective tent to keep the bee skep dry.

Hadelay : A narrow piece of land left as leyland. Hades: leyland.

Haulm : dry stems of peas (minus the peas) for fodder.

"The haulm is the straw of the wheat or the rye,

which once being reaped, they mow by and by..." Tusser.

Long straw left on the field, minus corn, to be cut later. Rye straw (haulme) was needed

for thatching after first removing the leaves and cutting off the ears.

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Hayding: alongside another furlong.

Heifer : young cow expecting her first calf.

Hempen: using thread spun from hemp.

Heriot: best beast, or value in money, owed to landlord after death of a tenant.

Hilling : A cover for the bed.

Hoggerells: two year old ewes.

Hogshead : barrel holding 54 gallons of beer.

Holland: unbleached linen cloth woven from high quality thread (p649).

Homestall : farm and yard.

Horse gears: harness.

Horse locks: locks for the fetters (q.v).

Household : all those who live under one roof, and owe allegiance to the master, or if a

widow to the mistress. Includes wife, relations, servants and children.

Houseled : to receive the sacrament. As man and wife were counted as one this could give

the number of households, except it does not include all the adults in the house.

Housewright : Organised the building of a house.

Humnel stick : used to soften the awns on barley which are sharp.

Impropriator : a layman who has taken over tithes once reserved for clergy. In this case

the rectorial or great tithes.

"Joyned bedsted"/Joined bedstead : a four poster with a canopy or tester made by a joiner.

Journeyman : qualified artisan who works for a wage.

"Joynture" : estate settlement on a wife for use during widowhood.

Kerseys : a coarse but still lightweight material. Narrower than the broadcloths.

Kiddes : a bundle of faggots.

Kin: Those relations who can lay claim to a particular group. In return they will be expected

to support them and obey their customs.

Kirtle: outer petticoat or gown.

Kiver : a shallow wooden tub.

Kyne : cows.

Land : a strip of arable or ley land equal in Cropredy to half an acre. Two roods.

Lea : 1 lea equals 300 yards single ply linen per lb. (qv Cut and combed wool).

Ley: greensward kept for hay and pasture. Two leys to the acre.

Lead : a vat for brewing.

Light : part of a window division.

Lineagae : all those relations gone before, at present and still to come. Some of which are

represented in the family trees.

Long cart : Had two wheels. A waggon had four.

Long-house-type : barn and house under one roof. Sharing one entrance.

Loom : vessel.

Mark : a coin valued at 13s-4d.

Maslin : usually wheat and rye mixed together.

Midden: dung heap.

Milch cow: a cow yielding milk, or kept for milk.

Mortuary : customary payment to the incumbent upon the death of a parishioner [Tate W.E..

The Parish Chest 1946 Cambridge Univ. Press].

Napery: linen.

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Neatherd : cowherd. A neat animal was any bovine animal.

Nether house : lower than the hall. Originally made from a bay of a long house barn next to the entry

passage.

New draperies : bays, arras, says and kerseys (qv).

Newel post: centre pillar of a winding stairs.

Noble: gold coin usually worth 6s-8d. With a ship shown on one side it was intended for foreign trade.

Orris : lace with patterns of gold and silver embroidery.

Painted cloth : substitute for tapestry. A cloth painted in oil.

Partition : a wall dividing two rooms.

Petty school : elementary school. Taught reading, religion and discipline.

Pieces : plots of land larger than a strip. Often a collection of strips which remain attached

to one farm.

Piklet or pytel : a small piece of enclosed land, often triangular.

Pillowbere: pillow case.

Pipe : equal to 2 hogsheads or 4 barrels. 105 imperial gallons.

Pleashed : plashing a hedge to lay it and so make it stock proof.

Portal : a partition or screen to keep out some of the draughts.

Posnet : a small metal pot with a handle and three short feet. Used to make a hot drink

curdled with ale or wine. A posset.

Powdering tub : used for salting meat.

Press : (1) for cheese (2) a cupboard.

Quarter: (1) division of Open Field. (2) Eight bushels.

Quartern : a quarter of a yardland.

Ram/ shearing tups : first to second shearing. 2,3,4 shear rams/tups according to the number

of times shorn.

Ram-lamb : (hoggets, hogs) male lamb to first shearing.

Register: Act of Parliament 24 Aug. 1653 the custody of parish registers were entrusted to

the new Parish "Registers" who were not called the Registrar. Ratepayers elected them.

Rendle stone : possibly used to help press the cheese.

Retting: steeping flax in water.

Rood : four roods to the acre.

Satin : broken twill. Originated in China. Weave which produces even and smooth surface

hiding ribbed appearance of twill.

Saucer: a vessel to hold condiments and sauces.

Says : another fine cloth resembling serge. Twilled worsted.

Scaffold : wooden platform standing upon staddle stones to support a rick. Or forming a

loft over stalls.

Scot and lot: a parish tax paid according to ability.

Serge: a twilled woollen cloth, also used as a blanket.

Sherrogg : two year old (and over) wether (qv).

Shippicks: shippon (cowshed) pitchfork? Or shepherd's pitchfork?

Skep hive : a bee hive made of straw.

Skutching: cleaning retted flax.

Small corn: medium quality wheat or maslin.

Soft grains: oats or rye.

 

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Specialty : a sealed contract.

Spence: a room for storing food. A larder.

Standing bed : tall bedstead with high head and foot ends joined by a tester.

Stint : limiting, especially the rights of pasture.

Stocks : Bee hives.

Stop : decorated or simple end to a chamfered edge of a house beam.

Stryke/ strike : half a bushel. Revd. Holloway used this measure rather than a bushel. The

strike was a rod which was passed across the container measuring the grain.

Sumptuary (laws) : in this case laws regarding clothes as to who was allowed to wear

particular materials or colours.

Sydling/ sidling : a piece of grassland alongside arable furrows used as leyland.

Table : often just the board to fit on trestles.

Tabby, taffeta : plain weaving.

Tapestry : tabby weaving in mosaic, with loose weft.

Terrier : a description of land giving size, direction of strip, furlong and neighbouring tenant.

By mid seventeenth century the number of bays in the house and farm buildings were added.

Tester : wooden or cloth canopy over bed.

Theal: plank of wood.

Throme cloath : remnant from end piece of cloth.

Ticknall ware : coarse earthenware. Often made at Ticknall in Derbyshire.

Tod/ Todd: 28lb weight, used to measure wool.

Toft: homestead.

Treen : small articles of household equipment made from wood.

Truckle bed: low bed pushed under another bedstead during the day.

Trumpery : items of low value.

Tup : male sheep. A ram.

Tweed: a twilled woollen cloth woven in one ply wool.

Twillie : bed cover made in a twill pattern using unbleached linen thread.

Valence : short curtain round bedstead, or canopy.

Wainscot : wooden panelling round the lower part of a room.

Warden : cooking pear.

Wether/wedder : weaned castrated lamb to first shearing. Shearing wether: first to second shearing.

Whitbaker : baker who uses fine bolted white flour.

Whittaw/ whittawer: (white leather) he prepared hides not with tannin but with alum and

salt in a lime vat (p474).

Whorl: a spindle weight.

Winnow cloth: cloth used in winnowing, or to cover windows.

Woollen wheel : for spinning wool.

Worsted: combed wool. 560 yds per lb.

Yardland : measure of land. Average number of acres in Cropredy being 32a 2r (p296).

Yeeling tub : a brewing vat.

Yerd : three roods. Three quarters of an acre.