udges, who permitted the copyholder to bring his action of trespass
against the lord for dispossession.

While some of the more fortunate villeins crept up into property as well
as freedom under the name of copyholders, the greater part enfranchised
themselves in a different manner. The law, which treated them so
harshly, did not take away the means of escape; nor was this a matter of
difficulty in such a country as England. To this, indeed, the unequal
progression of agriculture and population in different counties would
have naturally contributed. Men emigrated, as they always must, in
search of cheapness or employment, according to the tide of human
necessities. But the villein, who had no additional motive to urge his
steps away from his native place, might well hope to be forgotten or
undiscovered when he breathed a freer air, and engaged his voluntary
labour to a distant master. The lord had indeed an action against him;
but there was so little communication between remote parts of the
country, that it might be deemed his fault or singular ill-fortune if he
were compelled to defend himself. Even in that case the law inclined to
favour him; and so many obstacles were thrown in the way of these suits
to reclaim fugitive villeins, that they could not have operated
materially to retard their general enfranchisement.[409] In one case,
indeed, that of unmolested residence for a year and a day within a
walled city or borough, the villein became free, and the lord was
absolutely barred of his remedy. This provision is contained even in the
laws of William the Conqueror, as contained in Hoveden, and, if it be
not an interpolation, may be supposed to have had a view to strengthen
the population of those places which were designed for garrisons. This
law, whether of William or not, is unequivocally mentioned by
Glanvil.[410] Nor was it a mere letter. According to a record in the
sixth of Edward II., Sir John Clavering sued eighteen villeins of his
manor of Cossey, for withdrawing themselves therefrom with their
chattels; whereupon a writ was directed to them; but six of the number
claimed to be freemen, alleging the Conqueror's charter, and offering to
prove that they had lived in Norwich, paying scot and lot, about thirty
years; which claim was admitted.[411]

By such means a large proportion of the peasantry before the middle of
the fourteenth century had become hired labourers instead of villeins.
We first hear of them o