482 THE EARLY SHERIFFS OF NORFOLK October throw fresh light on a passage in the Oesta Stephani and on two of the cartae returned in 1166, which are left unexplained in the Red Book of the Exchequer. The name of ' Robert Fitz Walter ' is so familiar to our ears as that of the leader of the barons in the struggle for the Great Charter, that the above-mentioned sheriff of East Anglia, as bearing the same name — and perhaps as connected with the same region — has been confused by some with the * Marshal of the Army of God' in 1215, or at least assumed to have been a member of his great baronial house. ^ As a matter of fact, the latter Robert died about a century later than the sheriff of East Anglia. The elder Robert was styled ' Fitz Walter ' as being the son of Walter de Caen {de Cadomo),^ a considerable tenant, temp. Domesday, on the great fief of William Malet, which was forfeited by Henry I and was thenceforth known as the honour of Eye (Suffolk). Dr. Jessopp observed of this Walter : In the next generation his son Robert appears to have been known as Robert of Caen, and this name, spelt in the charters of the twelfth century phonetically, assumes quite surprising varieties of form from de Kayni to Caxineto and even more unrecognizable contortions. In the Pipe Rolls of Henry II, from 1158 to 1169, the name is variously spelt de Caineto, de Caisnei, and de Caisne, &c., &c.^ There is often confusion, in early records, between the names of this family and of that which took its name from Cahagnes * (Calvados) ; but I have not found it anywhere else confused with the name of Caen {de Cadomo). On the early Pipe Rolls of Henry II we find the forms de Caisneio, de Chaisneto, de Caisnei, &c., which represent, according to Stapleton, the French du Quesnai.^ Dr. Jessopp's error was the more unfortunate because it threw the family history into utter confusion. The surname of ' Du Quesnai ^ ' was not that of the above Robert Fitz Walter, ' For instance, the Robert Fitz Walter who occurs on p. 402 of the Red Book of the Exchequer is the earlier Robert, but is grouped in its index as identical with the later one (p. 1280). So too Mr. Walter Rye speaks of the earlier Robert {Red Book, p. 402) as ' Robert Fitz Walter, i. e. de Clare ' {Norfolk Families, p. 105), by which he means a member of the Fitz Walter family, who were cadets of the Clares. He further con- fuses here that great baronial house with the Norfolk family of Clere (p. 104), as he also does on p. 93 of his General Index to Coat Armour xised in Norfolk before 1563 (1918), where he states that ' Robert Fitz Walter gave Filby ... to Ralph de Clere, who was presumably one of his own family '.
- This is not absolutely proved, but is practically certain. * Op. cit. p. xxxiii.
- This was anglicized as ' Kejmes ', e. g. Horsted Keynes, Tarrant Kejmston,
Somerford Kejmes, &c. ' Rot. Scacc. Norm, u, cxvii. The other name was latinized on them as de Cahaignia.
- If that is its correct form. Stapleton observed that ' Le Quesnai, near St. Saens,
was apparently the fief from which this family had name '. One must hesitate to differ, on such points, from Stapleton, but no such place is shown on a modern map or on his own He gives its form there as ' terra de Quesneto ', which is not its form in English records.
