In the fourth class came the bordarii, the cotarii, and the coliberti
or buri; or, as we should say, the crofters, the cottagers, and the
boors.

The bordarii numbered 82,600 in Domesday, and were subject to the same
kind of services as the villeins, but the amount of the service was
considerably less.[32] Their usual holding was 5 acres, and they are
very often found on the demesne of the manor, evidently in this case
labourers on the demesne, settled in cottages and provided with a bit
of land of their own. The name failed to take root in this country,
and the bordarii seem to become villeins or cottiers.[33]

The cotarii, cottiers or cottagers, were 6,800 in number, with small
pieces of land sometimes reaching 5 acres.[34] Distinctly inferior to
the villeins, bordarii, and cottars, but distinctly superior to the
slaves, were the buri or coliberti who, with the bordars and cottars,
would form a reserve of labour to supplement the ordinary working days
at times when work was pressing, as in hay time and harvest. At the
bottom of the social ladder in Domesday came the slaves, some 25,000
in number, who in the main had no legal rights, a class which had
apparently already diminished and was diminishing in numbers, so that
for the cultivation of the demesne the lord was coming to rely more on
the labour of his tenants, and consequently the labour services of the
villeins were being augmented.[35] The agricultural labourer as we
understand him, a landless man working solely for wages in cash, was
almost unknown.

All the arrangements of the manor aimed at supplying labour for the
cultivation of the lord's demesne, and he had three chief officers to