Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/460

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A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK de Warenne held estates in the hundreds of Thedwastre, Lackford, and Stow."^ These lands, poor and insignificant when compared with his exten- sive holdings de escangio Lewes or pro escangio Lewes in the county of Norfolk,^*- had probably been granted to him as compensation for encroachments on his Lewes honour in Sussex.^*^ They consisted of small plots, one of loo acres, one of 60 acres, and one of 80 acres, which had formerly been held under the abbeys of Ely and Bury St. Edmunds, and were now transferred, with the freemen holding them and their bordar tenants, to the Warenne fief. Ralph Baynard or Bainard {Baignard) also held a large part of his Suffolk ^&i pro escangio, with some portion of his estates in Norfolk and Essex.^** From the Norfolk record we learn that this exchange was effected during the lifetime of Archbishop Stigand, presumably before his deposition in 1070."' Humphrey Fitz Aubrey {HumfrUus Filius Alberici) seems to have obtained lands in Suffolk in exchange for estates in Normandy, de escangio normannie}^ and elsewhere Hugh de Montfort appears to have been making bargains with the King. At Dagworth a carucate and a half, which had belonged to a freeman who fell at the battle of Hastings, was ' delivered ' to Hugh for a half-carucate ' in exchange ' {de escangio). At Newton he held a freeman and half a carucate ' by exchange ' (^ro escangio), and two freemen ' whose soke was in the hundred,' with 27 acres, ' by livery and by exchange ' {ex liberatione et pro escangio), while on the royal manor of Thorney he held two freemen and their land in the same way {de escangio)}" At Battisford {Betesfort), in the hundred of Bosmere, land had been exchanged between Hugh de Montfort and his Kentish neighbour and fellow tenant-in-chief, the great Canterbury abbey of St. Augustine.^*' Robert Grenon also claimed a manor in Samford Hundred by virtue of an exchange with Hugh de Mont- fort,"' and in Bishop's Hundred Roger Bigot had apparently received a small estate in exchange for land ceded to Isaac, the Suifolk tenant-in-chief."" In one isolated instance we find Beorn, a pre-Conquest freeman, buying 50 acres for a manor from the Abbot of Ely on the understanding {conventio) that after his death his purchase should revert to the Abbey. "^ In the Inquisitio Eliensis Beorn is entered as having held 50 acres from St. Etheldreda which he could not sell. But as the manor in question was held at the time of the Survey by Roger Bigot as a tenant of the Bishop of Bayeux, the Abbot of Ely seems to have failed to make good his claim, in spite of the witness of the hundred to its justice.^^^ Agreements of this nature are not uncommon. At Pakenham »• Dom. Bk. 398. '*' Ibid. 172 ; (Lewes) ; 163, 163^ ; (Laves, Lawes) ; 157^, 158, 159, 164, 165^, 169 ; (Laq's, Laquis). '" V.C:H. Norf. ii, IS, 18. '" Dom. Bk. 4133, 414, 415 ; 249, 251, 252^, 253* ; (Norfolk), 70, 7 13 ; (Essex). '" Ibid. 252^. ' Vivente Stigando liberatum est Baignardo pro escangio.' '" Ibid. 436 ; cf. 262^ (Norfolk). Cf. VinogradofF, op. cit. 226. "' Dom. Bk. 409^, 410^. 'Thedwastre. A freeman of Edith "dives" and his land held by Hugh de Montfort " pro escangio." ' "' Ibid. 410. ' Hoc est pro escangio de terra Sancti Augustini.' '*• Dom. Bk. 420. ' Hoc revocat Rob. pro escangio de terra Hugonis de Monteforti.* '" Ibid. 331. ' Pro escangio de terra Isac ' ; cf. 179. The king had enfeoffed Isaac with some of Earl Ralph's forfeited lands, and had given Roger Bigot lands in Norfolk by way of compensation ; V.C.H. Norf. ii, 19. For Isaac cf. Dom. Bk. 43 7^, 438. The Suffolk estate mentioned in the text had belonged to Stigand and had been held by Bishop Ailmar or Ethelmaer of Thetford after the Conquest. '" Dom. Bk. 373. ' Hanc emit ipse Beorn liber homo ab abbate, ec conventione quod post mortem snam rediret ad aecclesiam sanctae jEldredae testante hundred©.' '" Inq. El. (Rec. Com.), 521. 382