Agistment was an arrangement whereby landowners or tenants permitted others to pasture their livestock on lands for a specified fee. Animals placed under this arrangement were termed “agisted animals” or colloquially as “jestments” in regional dialect.
Both manorial lords and tenants with common pasture rights could engage in agistment. Lords typically collected fees for livestock grazing on demesne lands, wastes, or forests, while qualified tenants could sublet their common grazing rights for profit. This tenant-led agistment was subject to local customs, bylaws, and manorial regulation, with unauthorised arrangements often resulting in fines recorded in court rolls.