Page:VCH Berkshire 1.djvu/383

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DOMESDAY SURVEY sors here, as in other districts, Bondig (the Staller) and Siward (Barn). 1 By combining the information in Domesday on Henry's Berkshire manors with that which it affords on Derbyshire, the chief seat of his power, the history of each county may be made to throw light on that of the other. The tenants of this mighty baron are of special interest because the fulness of his successor's return of knights (carta) eighty years later tempts us to trace their identity. A charter in the British Museum ' relating to Compton and ' Aissendene ' enables us to identify the Ralf who held ' Assedene ' (probably including part of Compton) and Kingston (Bagpuize) of Henry as Ralf de Bagpuize (i.e. Bachepuis), who was also the ' Ralf holding Barton (Bagpuize) and Alkmonton (in Longford) Derbyshire, of Henry, as his heir Robert de Bakepuz did in 1 1 66." We again connect the two counties by identifying the Roger who held Frilsham and (East) Ilsley, Berks, with the Roger who held Boylstone, Derbyshire; for these manors descended together from an early date through Peche to Ridware. Moreover, an early charter of an earl Ferrers relating to the two Berkshire manors gives us, I believe, in Roger ' Venator ' the Domesday tenant himself (with his son and successor Ralf), which would harmonize with the fact that Boylstone's lord had a hunting tenure.* But perhaps the most important of the Ferrers tenants in Berkshire is Hubert, who held of him at (West) Lockinge, for this was the predecessor of ' Giralmus de Curzun ' 5 and of Stephen de Curson, tenants under Ferrers of West Lockinge. He was also clearly the predecessor of that Hubert de Curcun who held three fees of Ferrers under Henry I, so that with the help of the Abingdon Chronicle (p. 32) we can safely say that the Domesday Hubert was himself a Hubert de Curcun. 7 Another distant baron, the lord of Dudley, William son of Ansculf (de Picquigny), was a considerable holder in Berkshire, his predecessor in some places being ' Baldwin,' as in Bucks. His father's brother, Ghilo, also received lands in this county. William Peverel (of Notting- ham) is credited with a single manor, formerly Earl Ralt's (of Hereford), to the lands of whose countess he is elsewhere found succeeding, and .^Elfstan (of Boscombe), a Wiltshire thegn, is here as usual succeeded by William of Eu. To the lot of Walter Giffard there fell, here, as in Bucks, a manor of Harold's brother, earl Tostig. William, the son of Corbucion, held chiefly in Warwickshire. Another distant baron with one manor in Berkshire was Robert de Stafford, whose tenant, Lawrence, held of him also at Willbrighton in Staffordshire. 1 See 7.C.H. Warwickshire, i. 282, 283. " Add. Chart, 21,172. 3 The Ancestor, xii. 154. Cf. Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Ser.), 337 ; Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 121.

  • See The Rydeware Cartulary (ed. Wrottesley), pp. 257-8, 283-4.

1 Chron. Abingdon (Rolls Ser.), ii. 203. 6 Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 121. 7 His three sons are recorded in the Abingdon Chronicle, but unfortunately this identification does not establish the origin of the Curzons of Kedleston. I 289 37