Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/471

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DOMESDAY SURVEY Malet and by his son Robert after him,'" and three manors had belonged to Earl Ralph,*" but most of them seem to have come straight to the bishop, and to have been granted out by him to Roger Bigot,'" who retained some of them in his own hands and enfeoffed Ralph de Savigny with others,'" Warenger, a tenant of Roger Bigot on his own fief,'" here also held some of the bishop's freemen under him, while Tehel de Herion, Ralph de Curbespine, and William de Boeville held directly of Odo himself" The whole process shows very clearly the sweeping up of the commended freemen of many lords into a compact tenurial group. The lands of the Bishop of Thetford are divided, as is also the case in Norfolk,'" into the Terrae Episcopi, the ancient estates of the see in Bishop's Hundred and in the hundred of Wangford, and the Feudum Episcopi^ the estates acquired since the Conquest, by Bishop Mihclrnxv or Aylmer, who shared his brother Stigand's disgrace in 1070, and was succeeded by Herfast or Arfast. William, who was bishop at the time of the Survey, was only conse- crated in 1086.'" The manor of Hoxne, Hoxa Episcopi, where there was 'a church which was the seat [sedes) of the bishopric of Suffolk in the time of King Edward,' '°* was kept by Aylmer in his own hands, and here he held a weekly market on Saturdays, until William Malet established a rival Saturday market in his new castle at Eye, and forced the bishop to change his market day to Friday.'" In Wangford Hundred the bishop held the manor of Homersfield, with soke and sac over the ferting of Elmham.'" The lands of the ' Fee ' {Feudum) consisted of the estates of freemen who had been commended as a rule to Aylmer or to Stigand. Of one carucate in Mendham we are told that ' Ulf the thegn ' held it in the days of King Edward, ' after- wards Aylmer and Arfast.' These lands, which, with the exception of 20 acres at Framlingham, were in the hundreds of Hartismere, Bishop's, and Wangford, were held from the bishop by William de Noyers, the ' farmer ' of Archbishop Stigand's forfeited estates.'" The manor of Freckenham, which had been formerly held by one of Harold's thegns, had been awarded to the bishopric of Rochester by Lanfranc 'by the king's command' {jussu regis). Earl Ralph had 'added' four free- men whom he had appropriated [quos invasit) to this manor, and though the bishop had the soke over the manor, the Abbot of St. Edmunds kept the soke over these freemen.'" The Bishop of Evreux, who here makes his only appearance as a tenant- in-chief of the English Crown, held two manors and a few freemen in the »" Dom. Bk. mb ; ' Cerresfella,' 374^ ; ' Stanham,' 376^ ; ' Ulvestuna.' '" Ibid. 373. "' Ibid. 373, 373-5, 374, 374^, 375*, 376^, 377, 377^, 378, 378*. "* Ibid. 377 ; ' Asfelda.' Here we see the freemen of whom Hubert de Port had seised Bishop Odo, who were afterwards under Ralph de Savigny ; above, p. 386. "'Ibid. 374, Z7b, 375, 377^, 338, 338^. For the dispute between Roger Bigod and Roger 'de Ramis,' in which Warenger was involved, cf. VinogradofF, op. cit. 233 ; above, p. 385. '®' Dom. Bic. 373, 373^, 374. Ralph de Curbespine held the freemen and manor of ' Brantestona,' which the mother of Earl Morcar had held T.R.E. »' F.C.H. Norf. ii, 13, 17 ; V.C.H. Essex, , 339.

  • " F.C.H. Norf. ii, 14, n. 8. Mr. Round points out that ' the fact that William was bishop at the time

of the Survey gives us an important note of date.' •^ Dom. Bk. 379, above p. 358. This statement is interesting, both on account of the controversy about the seat of the ancient bishopric of Elmham or of the East Angles (cf. F.C.H. Suff. ii, 4, n. 8) and from the peculiar territorial title given to the bishopric. *" Dom. Bk. 379. "* Above, pp. 358, 387. •^ Dom. Bk. 3803. Stigand was bishop of the East Angles before Aylmer; c£ Dom Bk. 380. •Stigandi episcopi.' "' Ibid. 381. I 393 50