Words In History: Grasshouse, Grassman
A grassman was a particular kind of tenant, one dependent on pasture rather than arable land, as George Redmonds reveals.
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There is a reference to 'Hurdmannis et Bondis et Gresmannis' c.1150, and the context makes it clear that a grassman was a certain class of tenant. It has been suggested that it was then equivalent in meaning to cottar or cottier, that is a villein tenant in possession of a cottage. However, in an extent of Peter of Savoy's lands in 1280, the average annual rent of cottars was 3s, twice the rent paid by those tenants 'qui vocantur gresmanni'. This implies an even lower status.
Later references allow direct comparisons to be made between a husbandman and a grassman. In 1461 William Bardsey made bequests of 1s to each of the husbandmen in his township but only 6d to each 'gresman'. In 1542 a husbandman of Scruton was allowed to keep two geese and one gander, whereas a 'gresseman' was restricted to one goose and one gander.
The word 'grass house' throws further light on this matter. In a tithe dispute in Heworth, in 1542, one tenant was referred to as a 'gresman, havyng but a gressehows'. Such a tenant was allowed to keep only twenty sheep 'by reason of his dwelling hows'. One of these grassmen testified that 'every inhabitant there dwellyng in a gresse howse ... havynge no arrable land langyng (belonging) to itt may kepe no mo shep but xx'.
Over the centuries the word 'grassman' may have developed significant regional distinctions, particularly as villein status declined, but it clearly emphasises the dependence of certain tenants on pasture as opposed to arable. As late as 1638, when the tax rate of different properties was commented on at the West Riding Quarter Sessions, properties were rated as follows: 'for a husbandrye xvjd; for a grassehouse viijd; for a cottage iiijd'. Clearly the grassman was not then at the bottom of the pecking order in that region.
