THE DOMESDAY SURVEY thegns of his, whose names are given, and of whom a remarkable formula records that they could not withdraw themselves from ' the lord of the manor.' Feckenham also, with its lo hides, was held of him by five thegns, who, on the contrary, ' could betake themselves with (their) land whither they would,' ^ and of whom is made the remarkable state- ment that they ' had under them four knights {niilites) as free as they were themselves' (fo. i8o(^). Another of his thegns, 'Simon,' is found on fo. 176^, and in my notes on the text I have shown his identity with the ' Simund ' who held Crowle, and who, though Domesday does not say so, we know from Heming's Cartulary to have been a Danish thegn of earl Leofric. Two thegns of earl Ni- gar are mentioned on fo. 176. Some English holders are styled ' thegns of king Edward,' as was the case with Bricsmar, who had held Hadsor (fo. 177). A story told in Heming's Cartulary throws a valuable light on the nature of this tenure. We read that Hadsor had been held by Brihtwine, a wealthy man, ' who possessed it by inheritance freely, having, that is, the power of giving it or selling it to whom he would,^ as (being) his paternal inheritance, for which he owed service to no one but the King.' This Brihtwine, we learn, was succeeded by his son Brihtmar, the ' Bricsmar ' of Domesday, Although Worcestershire lay within the sphere, not of the house of Godwine, but of the house of Leofric, earl Godwine had held there the valuable manor of Wichbold. When we turn from earls to ordinary thegns, it becomes extremely difficult to ascertain their identity, except where a story in Heming's Cartulary comes to our help. In a solitary case, however, Domesday shows us an Englishman, Sawold, holding freely T.R.E. two Worcestershire estates, which had passed in 1086 to Ralph de Mortimer, but on one of which Sawold's son was then farm- ing the land as Ralph's tenant. It is probable also that the Wulfmar who occurs at the end of the survey as holding, at Hilhampton, a wretched little waste virgate, was the man of that name who had pre- ceded Ralf de Todeni and Drogo Fitz Ponz in certain other manors in the same part of the shire. Something may here be said of the English sheriff of the shire, Urse's predecessor, Kineward. He was a principal witness at the great plea between Worcester and Evesham, when he deposed to the practice in Oswaldslow under Edward the Confessor.' His home was at Lawern, which the monks of Worcester asserted he had held of them, and had restored to them at his death, having been undisturbed there. But they had not held it long, they said, when Urse's brother, Robert the Despencer, took it from them wrongfully with other lands.* Domesday only shows us Robert as his successor
- That is to say, they could commend themselves to what lord they would.
^ ' possidebat liberaliter, habens videlicet potestatem donandi sive vendendi earn cuicumque vellet' (I. 263). Compare, at the end of the Worcestershire Survey, abbot ^ffithelwig's purchase of a manor, 'a quodam taino qui terram suam recte poterat vendere cui vellet' (fo. 177^). ^ Heming's Cartulary, I. 82. * Ihid. I. 253. 267
