DOMESDAY SURVEY a royal gift or grant. Hugh de Montfort, whose path of aggression seems to have been beset with difficulties, met the witness of the hundred by calling on his own men to prove his title.^" So, too, Walter the Deacon held land in Stow Hundred which his antecessor, his brother Theoderic, had
- without a liberator' {sine liber atore)}^^ Delivery to an antecessor is recorded
in Thedwastre Hundred, where Robert of Mortain had succeeded to the estates of Count Brien of Brittany.*'* At Combs (Camias), in Stow Hundred, also in the Mortain fief, Hugh de Montfort claimed livery of half a mill, as belonging to his antecessor's fee, {reclamat liberatorem ad feudum antecessoris), but the hundred disallowed the claim."' In a similar dispute over a freeman in the same vill, where Frodo had been in seisin and claimed by right of livery, the hundred knew nothing of the matter. In Blything Hundred^ also, Robert Malet is found claiming land because the tenant Aluric had been the man {homo) of Edric of Laxfield, the antecessor of Robert's father, William Malet,"' In cases of ' invasion ' or encroachment upon rights of possession or property, the antecessor s seisin could be pleaded as conferring a legal title. In Babergh Hundred, where Roger de Orbec held land which he had ' invaded ' or seized under {sub) Richard Fitz Gilbert, Richard's men ' vouched to the fee ' {revocant ad feudum) of Richard's antecessor Wisgar, though apparently the land in question had never belonged to his estates."' Recognition of a lord as a means of proving title "* is only twice men- tioned in the Suffolk. Survey. At Lakenheath and at Brandon, in Lackford Hundred, six sokemen had been ' delivered ' {liberati) to ' Lisia,' the antecessor of Eudo ' Dapifer,' for 2 carucates of land. Lisia afterwards ' recognized ' St. Etheldreda. Although in 1086 these six men were held, with soke and sac, land and ploughs and bordars, by Eudo Dapifer, the Inquisitio Eliensis records the claim of the abbey, based on Lisia's ' recognition ' {post recognovit Lysia de Sancta Mdeldreda), and adds regretfully, for the estate had risen in value from 30J. to 70X., ' but now Eudo the Steward holds.' "' At Thorpe, too, in Bradmere Hundred, among the liberi homines ' in the king's hand,' one freeman with 36 acres was held by Robert Blund, who supposed that he belonged to the fief of St. Edmund, as he himself asserted. The Abbot, however, would not be his ' warrantor ' {ex hoc non est sibi ivarant). Now at length Robert ' recognized ' that he was not of the Abbot's fee, and gave him into the king's hand {dimisit eum in manu regis) }^ Land might, further, be acquired by exchange or by purchase, and it could be held on lease, or under the terms of a specific agreement. In Suffolk, as in Norfolk, we hear of the * Lewes Exchange,' by which William "' Dom. Bk. 4073. The hundred witnessed that Walter de Doai (Douai) was seised on the day of his forfeiture, then Hugh the Earl, and that Hugh de Montfort now held, but not ' per liberationem.' The 'homines Hugonis de mut.' (Monteforti) say that W(alter) held of Hugh (de Montfort). The forfeiture, therefore, of Walter would not have affected de Montfort's seisin ; cf. Vinogradoff, op. cit. 220, 223, et seq. '» Dom. Bk. 427. "* Ibid. 291, 291 ^. 'Hoc totum fuit liberatum comiti Brieno antec. Rotberti com. pro ii. caret xl. ac. terrae.' Freeman, T^orm. Conq. iv, 243, n. 3. '" Dom. Bk. 291. 'Teste hundreto nunquam pertinuit.' "• Ibid. 291. ' Sed hundredus nescit.' "^ Ibid. 447*. ' Grotena'; cf. 448. "• Vinogradoff, op. cit. 242-4 ; Dom. Bk. ii, 1763. '" Dom. Bk. 403 ; /»f. El. (Rec. Com.), 517^. 'Lisia' is Lisois de Moustiers; Round, /"mi/. Engl. 32. "• Dom. Bk. 447. 381
