jan 1, 1537 - feemanlike

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All these terms occur in documents relating to the feemen of Fountains abbey and they concern the standards expected of such tenants. In the lease of 1508 Richard and Henry Atkinson bound themselves <i>dewly and trewly to serve the abbot … doynge … there office of housbandre and feamanshipe </i>… <i>after the custome hadde and usyde of olde</i> (YRS140/232). In 1516 Robert and Alison Elyson of Brimham agreed to keep the animals <i>trewly and feamanly</i> (YRS140/178); the term <i>feemanlyke</i> was used in the lease in which the feeman at Lofthouse bound himself to the abbot <i>in maner … of aunchaunt tyme accostomede</i> (YRS140/294) and the service of <i>femasterscepe</i> was referred to in the Bouthwaite lease of 1537 (YRS140/253). The apparently regional use of these words may point to Scandinavian <i>f?</i> as the source of the word for cattle.

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