Erringham appears to have been a single large farm by 1541, when it was occupied by a tenant, John Cobby, headborough of Erringham tithing in 1538. (fn. 48) He grew corn and sheep, and his son Hugh (fn. 49) had the highest assessment for tax in Old Shoreham parish in 1571. (fn. 50) In 1577 the Erringham estate included 270 a. of arable, 40 a. of meadow, 158 a. of pasture, 100 a. of marsh, 150 a. of furze and heath, and grazing for 1,000 sheep; (fn. 51) the stock there included 500 ewes, 20 qr. of wheat seed, 40 qr. of barley seed, 8 draft oxen, 6 cows, and 20 pigs. (fn. 52) On the Duchy manor of Old Shoreham in the early 17th century there was a freehold farm of c. 300 a., another of 35 a., and 33 copyholders had 293 a. between them. The copyholders claimed to enjoy customs which included fixed entry fines of a year's rent, fixed heriots of 8s. a yardland (the yardland being c. 16 a.) and 6d. a cottage, borough English, widow's freebench, freedom from forfeiture, and the right to entail copyholds and to let them from year to year without licence. They also resisted the attempts of the tenants of New Shoreham to intercommon with them. (fn. 53) In the later 18th century and earlier 19th the copyholds, by then heritable by heirs other than the younger son and mostly owned by rentiers, were gradually bought up by the Bridgers of Buckingham House. (fn. 54) From: 'Old and New Shoreham: Economic history', A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 1: Bramber Rape (Southern Part) (1980), pp. 154-64. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=18239. Date accessed: 18 January 2006.