Westbury, Brockham in Betchworth, and Dunsford. The migration from Sussex into Surrey thus appears to have been considerable.
There is in the south-east of Surrey some evidence of the commingling of local colonists from both Sussex and Kent in this part of the Weald forest. It can be traced in the manorial and other local customs. At Lingfield the officials called head-boroughs were appointed for all the manors within this large parish, as was the case in Sussex on the manors where borough-English prevailed. Sterborough, one of the manors of Lingfield, bears this borough name. Part of this rural borough lay in Kent, and was subject to gavelkind. The tenants of the other part of this manor held their land subject to the payment of a heriot of the best beast on the death of the tenant.[1] This custom was probably introduced into England by Scandinavians, and is commonly met with in districts settled by them.
Blechingley had some customs which bore a strong resemblance to some of those incidental to gavelkind in Kent. The tenants paid no heriots, but one penny only, and no more, for admission to their lands. They could sell or alienate their lands, as the gavelkind tenants in Kent could. They could grant leases without their lord’s license,[2] as Kentish tenants could. Part of Godstone was held of the manor of Blechingley, with presumably similar customs. At Reigate the free and customary tenants had the custom of borough-English, and held their lands and tenements in free and common socage,[3] which corresponded very closely to gavelkind in Kent. Similarly, at Limpsfield the copyholds descended to the youngest son,[4] like those held in the barony of Lewes.
In a previous chapter the development of the hundred as a division of the later English shires from the primitive districts that had their separate popular assemblies of
