80 THE FIRMA UNIUS NOCTIS January As Maitland says, ' Perhaps it is a one-night's ferm } And it may be that in this record we are brought face to face with a time when the ferm was regularly levied upon the kingdom, upon every ten hides of land. This, at any rate, is the question at issue : Was the ferm of a night a tax upon England in and before the time of Edward the Confessor or was it merely a rent- charge upon the royal demesne ? ^ The ferm of a night, though recorded more frequently in southern and eastern counties than elsewhere in Domesday, occurs also in Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Cam- bridgeshire, and Bedfordshire, so that it was confined to no one part of the country. A glance at the demesne manors of King Edward in Somerset ^ shows that they were grouped together to give the ferm of a night. Rex tenet Summertone. Rex Edwardus tenuit. Nunquara geldavit neque scitur quot hidae sint ibi . . . Reddit per annum 791. 10s. Id. de viginti in ora. . . Rex tenet Cedre. Rex Edwardus tenuit. Nunquam geldavit nee scitur quot hidae sint ibi . . . Reddit per annum 21Z. 2d. oh. de viginti in ora. Haec duo maneria Summertone et Cedre cum appendiciis suis redde- bant firmam unius noctis tempore regis Edwardi. Rex tenet Nortperet. Rex Edwardus tenuit. Nunquam geldavit uec scitur quot hidae sint ibi . . . Reddit hoc manerium 42?. 8s. id. de XX in ora. Rex tenet Sudperet. Rex Edwardus tenuit. Nunquam geldavit nee scitur quot hidae sint ibi . . . Reddit 42i. QOd. ( = 8s. id.) de xx in ora. . . . Rex tenet Churi. Rex Edwardus tenuit. Nunquam geldavit nee scitur quot hidae sint ibi . . . Reddit 211. Uid. (= i of 4l21. lOOrf.) de XX in ora, Haec tria maneria . . . reddebant firmam unius noctis cum consuetu- dinibus suis. Rex tenet Willetone et Candetone et Carentone. Rex Edwardus tenuit. Nunquam geldaverunt necque scitur quot hidae ibi sint . . . Reddunt lOOZ. 116s. &d. oh. de xx in ora. Tempore regis Edwardi reddebant firmam unius noctis. . . Rex tenet Beiminstre. Rex Edwardus tenuit. Nunquam geldavit nee scitur quot hidae sint ibi . . . Reddit 2l. 2d. oh. de xx in ora. Rex tenet Frome. Rex Edwardus tenuit. Nunquam geldavit nee scitur quot hidae sint ibi . . . Reddit 63Z. bd. de xx in ora. . . . Rex tenet Brumetone. Rex Edwardus tenuit. Nunquam geldavit nee scitur quot hidae sint ibi . . . Reddit 53i. bd. de xx in ora.
- Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, p. 237 ; cf. Seebohm, Tribal Custom, pp.
431-2 ; Chadwick, Anglo-Saxon Institutions, p. 100 n. « Cf. Maitland, 239 n. : Round, Feudal England, p. 114. » D. B. 86, 86 b.
