Pimp tenure

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Pimp tenure was a form of feudal land tenure which required the land-holder to keep and maintain prostitutes for the king or his army. It was thus a variety of serjeanty. It was described in Bouvier's Law Dictionary, volume 5, as: "A very singular and odious kind of tenure mentioned by old writers". The term is not contemporary, pimp being a neologism dating from 1607. At least three such tenures are recorded, the earliest in the 12th century, the other two during the reign of King Edward I (1272–1307):

Sherfield-on-Loddon, Hampshire

The manor of Sherfield-on-Loddon was held in the reign of Edward I (1272–1307) by Thomas de Warblington, sheriff of Hampshire, in-chief from the king, by the service of being marshal of the king's meretrices (Latin for whores, sing. meretrix) and of dismembering malefactors and measuring the gallons and bushels in the royal household.[1] Longcroft, C. quotes as his source "Pas. Comms. 24 & 25 Edw. I" (i.e. 1295/6).

Bockhampton, Berks.

Wilielmus Hoppeshort tenet dimidiam virgatam per servitium custodiendi sex damisellas, scilicet meretrices, ad usum domini regis.

Translated by Bouvier thus:

"William Hoppeshort holds 1/2 a yard-land (i.e. virgate) of the king by the service of keeping for the king 6 damsels, to wit whores, at the cost of the king"

Bouvier quotes "12 Edw. 1" (i.e. 1283) as a source, possibly Close or Patent Rolls. The Victoria County History quotes as source for the same: "Assize Roll, 48, m. 28 d.: sex daunsellas scilicet meretrices".[2]

In fact ad usum means "for the use" of the king; "at the cost" comes from a suggestion of misreading by a copyist.[3]

Lower, M.A. suggested that the gloss as meretrices was mistaken and the reference was to female hunting dogs.[4]

Guildford

Such tenure is recorded in the reign of Henry II (1154–1189), dated here to 1172:

Robertus Testard tenuit quandam (quondam ?) terram in Volla de Guideford per scriantiam (serjantiam?) custodiendi meretrices in Curia Domina (Domini ?) Regis

"Robert Testard held at a certain time land in Volla in Guildford by serjeanty of keeping whores in the court of the Lord King".

(Pla. Coronae 19 Henry 2 Surrey, given in Ancient Tenures of Land etc. )

Sources

  • Bouvier's Law Dictionary, 1914, vol.5 Archived here.
  • Longcroft, Charles John. A Topographical Account of the Hundred of Bosmere in the County of Southampton, Including the Parishes of Havant, Warblington and Hayling. London, 1857
  • Discussion in Liebrecht, Felix. "Die Folk-lore society in London". Englische Studien 3 (1880) pp. 1–12, p. 10, citing Jacob's Law Dictionary.
  • Ancient tenures of land etc. by T.B. (now known to be Thomas Blount) of the Inner Temple, London 1679 (page 8) quoted in Sombart, Werner. Luxus und Kapitalismus. 1913. p. 82: Beispiele für die Belehnung mit Land für das Halten von Dirnen (Examples of enfeoffment with land in exchange for keeping whores). Discussed in Brentano, Lujo. Der wirtschaftende Mensch in der Geschichte. Leipzig: Meiner, 1923. pp. 261–62, note 3 (German)

References

  1. ↑ Longcroft (1857), p.100
  2. ↑ Victoria County History, volume 4, 1924, Lambourn, pages 251-266
  3. ↑ The Solicitors' Journal 101 (1957) page 499.
  4. ↑ Lower, Mark Antony, Patronymica Britannica, a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom, London: Smith, 1860, page 371.
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