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Line 1: {{Short description\|Medieval land term; a town rental property}} [[File:Tron Kirk surroundings.JPG\|thumb\|The closes (passageways) off [[Edinburgh]]'s [[Royal Mile]] follow the lines of the old burgage plots]] '''Burgage''' is a [[medieval land terms\|medieval land term]] used in [[Great Britain]] and [[Ireland]], well established by the 13th century. A burgage was a town ("[[borough]]" or "[[burgh]]") rental property (to use modern terms), owned by a king or lord. The property ("burgage tenement") usually, and distinctly, consisted of a house on a long and narrow plot of land (~~[[Scots language~~{{Lang-sco\|~~Scots]]: ''~~toft''}}), with a narrow street frontage. Rental payment ("tenure") was usually in the form of money, but each "burgage tenure" arrangement was unique, and could include services. As populations grew, "burgage plots" could be split into smaller additional units. (Amalgamation was not so common, until the second half of the 19th century.<ref>T. R. Slater, The Analysis of Burgage Patterns in Medieval Towns</ref>) Burgage tenures were usually money -based, in contrast to rural tenures, which were usually services -based. In [[Anglo-Saxon England\|Saxon times]] the rent was called a ''landgable'' or ''hawgable''. [[File:Rothe House model.png\|thumb\|Model of [[Rothe House]] and modern surroundings illustrating its burgage plot, with buildings in grey and garden in green]] ~~==History==~~ Burgage was the basis of the right to vote in many boroughs sending [[Member of Parliament\|members]] to the [[unreformed House of Commons\|House of Commons]] before 1832. In these boroughs the right to vote was attached to the occupation of particular burgage tenements. These burgages could be freely bought and sold, and the owner of the tenement was entitled to [[conveyancing\|convey]] the right vote, for the duration of the election, to a another person, their "nominee", who could then vote. The vote of each person entitled to the franchise was a matter of public record. Therefore the owner could monitor their nominees' votes. By purchasing the majority of the burgages one rich person could acquire the right to elect a Member of Parliament. Such burgage boroughs were called [[pocket borough]]s. Most of the burgage boroughs had become pocket boroughs in this way by the time of the [[Reform Act 1832\|Great Reform Act 1832]]. The practice was abolished by the Act, which applied a uniform voting right to all boroughs. Burgage grants were also common in Ireland; for example, when the town of [[Wexford]] received its royal charter in 1418, English settlers were encouraged into the town and were given burgage plots at a rent of one [[shilling]] per year.<ref>{{cite web \|url=http://irishwalledtownsnetwork.ie/page/wexford/wexford-info \|title=Wexford Info - Irish Walled Towns Network \|website=irishwalledtownsnetwork.ie \|access-date=13 January 2022 \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208110510/http://irishwalledtownsnetwork.ie/page/wexford/wexford-info \|archive-date=8 December 2015 \|url-status=dead}}</ref> The term was translated into [[Irish language\|Irish]] as {{lang\|ga\|buiríos}}, and the element "[[Borris (disambiguation)\|Borris]]"<!--intentional link to DAB page--> survives in many Irish place names. [[Rothe House]] in [[Kilkenny]] is an exceptionally well-preserved medieval burgage.<ref name=rothehouse>{{cite web\|title=Welcome To Rothe House Kilkenny \|url= http://www.rothehouse.com/\|work=rothehouse.com\|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303130559/http://rothehouse.com/ \| archive-date= 3 March 2016 \| quote = Rothe House & Garden, a historic house in Kilkenny [...] is the only example of an early 17th century merchant’s townhouse in Ireland.}}</ref> In medieval England and Scotland, and some parts of the [[Welsh Marches]], '''burgage plots''' or '''burgage tenements''' were [[inclosure\|inclosed fields]] extending the confines of a town, established by the lord of the manor, as divisions of the 'open' manorial fields. The [[Burgess (word)\|burgesses]] (equivalents of "burghers") to whom these tracts were allotted, as tenants of the enclosed lands, paid a cash rent instead of, as previously, feudal service. In 1207, for instance, Maurice Paynell, the Lord of the Manor of Leeds, granted a charter to 'his burgesses of Leeds' to build a 'new town', and so created the first borough of Leeds, Briggate, a street running north from the River Aire.<ref>[http://www.leodis.org/discovery/default.asp Discovering Leeds]</ref> ~~These burgesses had to be freemen: those who were entitled to practise a trade within the town and to participate in electing members of the town's ruling council.~~ In the very earliest chartered foundations, predating the [[Norman Conquest]], the burgage plots were simply the ploughland strips of pre-existing agrarian settlements. In towns like [[Burford]] in Oxfordshire and [[Chipping Campden]] in Gloucestershire, [[Bromyard]] in Herefordshire, and [[Cricklade]] in Wiltshire, the property on the road frontage extends in a very long garden plot behind the dwelling even today, as English property boundaries have remained very stable.{{fact\|date=May 2017}} In [[South Zeal]], in Devon, burgage plots were known as "borough acres".<ref>http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/42396/laf-szburgage.pdf</ref> The basic unit of measurement was the [[Pole (length)\|perch]] which was 5.5 yards (5.03 m) and the plots can be identified today because they are in multiples of perches: at Cricklade most were 2 by 12 perches (10.1 by 60.4 m), while at Charmouth in Dorset, a charter of the year 1320 provided plots 4 perches wide and 20 perches long (about 20 by 100 m), giving a typical plot size of half an acre (0.2 hectare), held at an annual rent of 6[[penny\|d]].<ref>[http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getfaq.php?id=216 Wiltshire County Council]</ref> Burgage grants were also common in Ireland; for example, when the town of [[Wexford]] received its royal charter in 1418, English settlers were encouraged into the town and were given burgage plots at a rent of one [[shilling]] per year.<ref>[http://irishwalledtownsnetwork.ie/page/wexford/wexford-info]</ref> The term was translated into [[Irish language\|Irish]] as ''buiríos'', and the element "[[Borris (disambiguation)\|Borris]]"<!--intentional link to DAB page--> survives in many Irish place names. ==See also== Line 26 ⟶ 18: [[Land tenure]] [[Grid plan]] [[Feudalism]] ==References== {{~~reflist~~Reflist}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20050404115544/http://the-orb.net/encyclop/culture/towns/glossary.html Medieval English Towns - Glossary] The Local Historian's Encyclopedia by John Richardson - {{ISBN\|0-9503656-7-X}} Line 43 ⟶ 36: }} T.R. Slater, The Analysis of Burgage Patterns in Medieval Towns, Area, Vol. 13, no. 3, 1981 ~~==External links==~~ [http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getfaq.php?id=216 Wiltshire County Council: Burgage plots] [http://www.leodis.org/discovery/default.asp Discovering Leeds: Briggate] [[Category:History of agriculture in the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Feudalism in the British Isles]] [[Category:Real estate in the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Local government in England]] [[Category:Land tenure]]