villein

Only neither the villein nor the farm labourer starved, when the master was a man like Sir Ector.

When you think about the matter, it’s as good as any sermon, For the villeins feed the miller, and the miller feeds the vermin.

The farm was cultivated partly by the work of these hired servants, partly by the services owed by the villeins.

At the latter date besides seventy-three villeins, bordars and serfs there were forty cervisarii, a species of unfree tenants who rendered their custom in the form of beer.

Not in free and common socage, but in this amphibious subordinate class of villein socage.