Bordaria

A cottage.

Bordimanni. L.Lat. [from Sax. hard, or Fr. borde, a house or cottage; a table.] In old English law. Bordmen, bordars, or cottagers. One of the classes of tenants or agncultural occupiers of land mentioned in the Domesday Survey, and, with the exception of the villani, the largest. Domesd. Titt, Norf. Middlesex, Oloucett Huntedons. The origin of their name, and the exact nature of their tenure have been variously interpreted. Lord Coke, who makes the word of French origin, (Fr. horde, a cottage,), defines hordarii to be " boors or husbandmen, {bores), holding a little house with some land of husbandry bigger than a cottage." Co, Lilt, 6 b. According to others, they were cottagers merely. But Spelman remarks on this, that they are often found in Domesday as cultivating more land than the proper allotment of a tugurium, or cottage; and hence Lord Coke has properly explained their houses to be bigger than a cottage. According to Spelman, the most probable derivation of the term bordarii is either from Sax. bord, a table, as denoting those who cultivated the lands which the lord kept for the particular maintenance of his table, (termed bord lands, q. V.,) or who supplied the lord with small provisions for his table; or from Sax. bord, a house, as denoting those tenants who performed servile offices about the lord's house (domestica navantes servitia,) such as grinding corn, bringing in wood, drawing water, &c.; villeins being, according to Spelman, occupied in agricultural labors in the fields, {yilloB et agris addicti, rem co Umicam exercebant) According to Bishop Kennett, the bordarii were distinct from the servi and villani, and seem to be those of a less servile condition, who had a bord or cottage, with a small parcel of land allowed to them, on condition they should supply the lord with poultry and eggs, and other small provisions for his board and entertainment. Kennetfs Gloss. Paroch. Ant From various passages of Domesday their condition appears to have been considerably above that of villenage, and Sir Henry Spelman seems inclined to the belief that they were actually freemen, though holding by base services.