Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/446

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A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK TABLE II— VILLS AND MANORS {continued) Wadgate. [Vill containing no Manors] Dom. Bk. foL Hundred Tenant in Chief Mesne Tenants Tenants Caru- cates Acres Mea- dow Valet Manors Lineal Measure- ments and Geld 340J . J42< . Coloeis Roger Bigot Wihtmar 5 freemen [cammended' (Leuric and Moregrim and Aldulf and Goda and Godwin) 8 freemen [commended] (Langfer, Fegar, Brumar, Goda, Edward, Godric, Aldolf, Osketel)


20 •5 Acres I 3 Tunc. Mode £ '■ i- 4 030 — 2 furlongs X 2 fur- longs 2d. geld I I "3

35 i — 070 — 2 furlongs X 1 fur- longs zd. geld The phrase quicunque ibi teneat, which frequently follows the geld entry, seems to imply that the assessment is not regarded as ' tenurial ' or manorial ; it lies on the land as a public obligation, independent of accidents of changing tenure and special privileges. Still there was un- doubtedly a tendency to shift public burdens on to the shoulders of the greater landholders, and possibly to make the lords of the manors responsible for the collection of the geld. Although in Suffolk, when the Domesday Survey was taken, the vill had by no means lost its importance as a fiscal unit, in a very large number of cases the geld and the manor were linked together.^' In one instance, where manor and vill coincide, the lineal measurements and geld are definitely related to the manor." In another, at Thurlow, in Risbridge Hundred, both vill and manor are measured and assessed.*^ It seems safe to conclude that in Suffolk, towards the close of the iith century, the manorial organization of the county was not fully con- solidated, though it was fast consolidating, and that the political and adminis- trative duties of the vill or township were being gradually transferred to the manor. Within the hundreds and leets two rival systems of local government were striving for the mastery, the ' communal ' or ' villar ' system, and the 'feudal' or 'manorial' system. The result was cross-division, inter-connexion, variety, and complexity, and final compromise. The 'manorial superstructure' rested on the foundation of the vill or township. °' Of the two systems, the older villar or ' communal ' organization has left many traces. In the modern county of Suffolk there are 517 civil " VinogradofF, Engl. Soc. in the Eleventh Cent. 199-200, 211, 218. " Dom. Bk. 304. ' Edwardestuna. Habet hoc manerium vi quarentenas in longo et vi in lato et de gelto loJ. quicunque ibi teneat.' " Ibid. 286, 37 13, 397. These entries show (i) the minor and 5 freemen valued separately, but measured and assessed as a whole ; (2) 9 freemen valued separately ; (3) 10 freemen and the church, valued together and followed by the measurements and assessment of the whole (Jota) ; (4) 2 sokemen valued separately. " VinogradofF, op. cit. 390-402. 368