DOMESDAY SURVEY Necton was the only considerable estate belonging to Harold which King William granted out, though he seems to have bestowed Blickling and Marsham, formerly part of Harold's estate at Cawston, upon the bishops of Thetford. Of Gurth's estates the king only retained Ormesby. Aylsham, with its members Shipden (or Cromer) and Brundall, appears among the lands farmed by Godric, but we do not hear whether Earl Ralf ever held it. Costessy with Bawburgh was bestowed on Count Alan of Brittany, Sedgeford on the bishop. Brooke was given to St. Edmund's on the king's first visit to the abbey, ^ when the monks claimed his alms. The soke which Gurth had usurped over certain freemen was also granted to the abbey. Eight freemen in Burgh in Flegg became directly dependent on the king. Next to the lands which the king held directly come the lands which were farmed by Godric ' dapifer.' Like the lands in Suffolk and Essex which he also farmed, most of these, if not all, had at some time belonged to Earl Ralf, either as ' comital ' manors or by inheritance from his father,** the old Earl Ralf, or by the grants made by King William out of the lands forfeited by those who had taken part in the battle of Hastings. The bulk of Earl Ralf's lands remained in the king's hands under the charge successively of Robert Blund ' and Godric,* but a few of them fell into other hands. Thus Belaugh, Hickling, and Ingham fell to Count Alan, and the neighbouring manor of Sutton to Roger Bigod. The bishop became a tenant-in-chief at Eccles, which he and his two predecessors had held of the earl, while a manor in Filby was given to Rabel the engineer. The other group of lands fell into the king's hands a little earlier, upon the deposition of Stigand from the archbishopric of Canterbury in 1070.^ They were farmed successively by Richard Pugniant * and William de Noyers, who seems to have had a certain Siward as his bailiff.^ Some of the property was, however, granted out. The bishop of Bayeux obtained the valuable manor of Snettisham, with its berewicks of Harpley, Flitcham, West Newton, and Rising, and the manor of Grimston.^ Well Hall, in Gayton, was granted to St. Stephen's, Caen,' and Wroxham to Ralf de Beaufou or Bella-Fago, a near kinsman of Bishop William of Thetford, who also received some of Stigand's under-tenants in the villages south of Norwich. The bishop held Hemsby, which Stigand had taken from Alwi of Thetford, who bought it of Earl Algar, and had bestowed on his brother Aylmer, his own successor in the bishopric of Elmham. The land at Taverham, which Stigand had held of St. Michael's, Norwich, returned to the church. Many of the under-tenants in the south of the county fell to Roger Bigod. The lands remaining in the king's hands were Hunstanton, which had probably been detached from Snettisham, Methwold and Weeting, Croxton, Mileham with Litcham, Great Dunham and Horstead, Wymondham and Tacolneston, ' Dom. Bk. f. 210 ; cf. Dugdale, Moti. iii, 138, 'Prima vice qua ejus requisiverunt sufFragium.' ' Ibid. f. 194. ' Or ' Blancar,' Dom. Bk. f. 243*. * Dom. Bk. f. 2 7 7/5.
- The great extent of Stigand's possessions in Norfolk should be observed. Beyond the fact that he had
held, before his brother .^thclmasr, the old East Anglian bishopric, there seems to be nothing to account for them or for those in Suffolk, which were similarly farmed in 1086 by William de Noyers. The point is of some historical importance, owing to the part played by Stigand. His tenure of St. Michael's estate at Taverham gives a hint of his dealings with church lands, which is well seen across the Suffolk border, at Mildenhall, which he held of St. Edmund's Abbey, but which passed with his other lands to the crown (J. H. R.). ' Dom. Bk. f 138. He held in chief in several counties. ' Ibid. ff. 135*, 137. * Ibid, f 142. ' Ibid. f. 221^. 13
