Free Bench


Free bench was a customary legal right in certain parts of England, allowing a widow to retain tenancy of her deceased husband's copyhold land, provided she remained unmarried and, in many places, chaste. Unlike dower, which was a legal entitlement under common law, free bench arose from manorial custom and varied significantly between manors.
The widow of a tenant was usually permitted to retain her free bench as long as she remained chaste. If there was evidence of sexual misconduct or she declared an intention to remarry, her rights to the land were forfeited.
The rules governing free bench were not uniform and depended on local custom. Some manors did not recognize the right at all.
In a few instances, local customs included ritual acts by which a widow could regain her tenancy despite having violated the conditions. One such case, recorded in No. 614 of The Spectator, describes a widow who was required to ride into court on a black ram, holding its tail, and recite the following lines:

Legrewite

A similar practice to freebench sometimes applied to the children, who had to follow the conditions of their father. The lord had to look narrowly after the morals and marriages of the daughters of his farmers. A case of female incontinence was punished by a fine called 'Legrewite' or 'Leyr-wite' , and the birth of an illegitimate child was followed by another called 'childwite' , which in one of the manors of Bury Monastery was fixed at 2s. 8d.: it was due from the guardian, who might be the father or the brother, of the unfortunate damsel. In some cases the young woman went through a grotesque act of penance. At Faringdon, a tenant's daughter, on being convicted of incontinence, forfeited forty pence in the reign of Henry III, to the lord of the manor; which was only remitted on condition of the offender's appearing in the lord's court, carrying a black sheep on her back, and making confession of her shame.

Manors where this custom is recorded