49 
the very centre of hundredal organization, and gave first life and 
name to the hundred. No doubt, at no long time anterior to 
Domesday, every hundred was in the hand of the King. The 
hundred court was the centre of civil and criminal jurisdiction, 
and a source of considerable revenue to the King. 
What hundreds were in the King’s hand in 1086 may be 
doubtful. Certainly Ilchester, Milborne Port, Bruton, Langport, 
Axbridge, Frome, were ; for (107b) the Sheriff rented the King’s 
share of them for £8 rss. a year. In the days of Hen. II. 
the Sheriff farmed the King’s county revenue for £360; deducting 
_ various payments, and allowances for lands the King had sold or 
given, including Meleburn, Bedminster, Witham, Baggworthy, 
Langport and Curi with hundred, and parts of Northcuri, Cun- 
gresberi, Cedresford, Norton, reducing the net income to £155 
in the 4th year. 
The Church Barons were rapidly getting the control of the 
hundred courts of their own lands, and exemptions from the 
King’s courts are largely referred to in the Hundred Rolls of 
2nd Ed. I. Manors thus acquiring courts of their own with full 
criminal jurisdiction were called liberties, free manors, and even 
hundreds ; the Episcopal hundred, and the hundred of Whitley 
are newly constituted records of full liberty to the Bishop of 
Wells, and the Abbot of Glastonbury. Apparently the Sheriff had 
the control of the hundreds of Cutcombe, Minehead, and Sheriff’s 
Brompton. 
After the King’s demesne the Comital lands follow which had 
escheated to the King; these are all hidated, because they had 
been in the hands of subjects. Wher: the King’s part of the 
hundred of Miluertona (103) was afterwards paid is not recorded, 
his part in some other hundreds (1o3b) was added to the Manor 
of Cliua. Besides these, two distinct kinds of additions were 
made to manors. (1) Thegn lands which T.R.E. had been held 
pariter, #.¢., the thegn owners had held directly of the King 
according to their peerage or rank. Some of these had either 
D 
