may be assigned. With reference to our Sir John d'Aubernon: at the death of his father, Gilbert, in 1236, he was a minor, but not far from his majority. In 1264, he was sheriff of Surrey and Sussex, so that you see there was a union in early times between Surrey and other counties. In 1266 he was sheriff again of the two counties, and after that period he is not mentioned in any public document. The son, however, appears, and is known in 1278, because in" that year he was summoned to pay a fine on entering on his property; consequently, therefore, the inference is, that his father died previous to that period. Hence we assign to the brass the date of 1277. I have said the state of society is well illustrated by an inquiry into the circumstances connected with the career of this individual. There is preserved an account of the remarkable suit instituted against Sir John, the sheriff of Sussex and Surrey, in the year 1269, the 49th of Henry III. It appears that in 1265 William Hod, of Normandy, shipped to Portsmouth ten hogsheads of woad. These were seized, immediately on their landing, by robbers who infested the neighbourhood of Portsmouth in those days, and carried them off to Guildford; William Hod, of Normandy, overtook the robbers, regained his property, and lodged it for safe keeping in the castle. Then one Nicholas Picard and others from Normandy appear, and demand the property, that it should be given up to them in the name of one Stephen Buckerel and others. If there were any demur, he threatened to destroy by fire the whole town of Guildford, with its church, chapel, and neighbourhood, on the morrow. Nicholas, the under-sheriff, who appears to have resided there, and had property, and what he esteemed more than his property, his wife and family
