A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



forfeited lands of Count Robert of Mortain provided the means of ex- 

 tending widely that 'Leicester' fief in the county of which the nucleus 

 was that which Hugh de Grantmesnil had held in 1086, and which 

 eventually, inherited by two co-heirs, became the Honours of ' Win- 

 chester ' and of 'Leicester.' The lavish grants to which it owed its 

 extension were doubtless bestowed on the count of Meulan, the father 

 of the first earl of Leicester, and himself the great and trusted minister 

 of William Rufus and Henry I. 



Among the members of that official class whom Henry I. is, with 

 some exaggeration, said by Ordericus Vitalis to have ' raised, as it were, 

 from the dust,' the most typical layman, perhaps, was the great justiciar, 

 Ralph Basset. The Leicestershire Survey, spoken of above, proves that 

 he obtained in that county the escheated fief of Robert de Buci, and this 

 was the case also in Northamptonshire, where he gave name to Sutton 

 Basset and founded what became the baronial house of ' Basset of 

 Weldon.' Strangely enough the fellow officer with whom he and his 

 son were chiefly associated was the bearer of that most lordly of names, 

 Aubrey de Vere. Although among the greater tenants-in-chief, Aubrey 

 was ready to improve his fortunes by acting as an officer of the Crown ; 

 and in this county he had his reward from the forfeited fief of the bishop 

 of Coutances. Addington Magna was bestowed on him, as was also 

 Drayton, which well-known estate thus makes its first appearance in 

 this Survey. 



As in Leicestershire, so in Northamptonshire, the escheated fief of 

 Geoffrey de la Guerche (' de Wirce ') formed the provision for Nigel 

 d'Aubigny (' de Albini '), a steadfast supporter, with his brother William, 

 of Henry I.^ William's heir, the earl of Arundel, had only Towcester 

 in this county,^ but Nigel's son, Roger de Mowbray, occurs frequently 

 in our Survey, and Nigel himself once. It is by an even worse con- 

 fusion that the manors composing the Courci fief are sometimes spoken 

 of in our Survey as held by William de Courci, and sometimes as held 

 by (his maternal grandfather) William Meschin, on whom doubtless 

 they were all bestowed, in the first instance, by Henry I. For it can 

 be shown that in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire escheated manors were 

 bestowed on this William Meschin, a younger son of the Vicomte of the 

 Bessin and a brother of Randolf earl of Chester. It is tolerably clear 

 that, in some cases, additions were made to the Domesday fiefs. When 

 that of Countess Judith is found in the hands, as below, of ' king David,' 

 it has been increased by lands at Wadenhoe, Harrowden, Edgcott, and 

 Clipston, all which had formed part of the fief of the bishop of 

 Coutances, as well as by some that had been held by Odo bishop of 

 Bayeux, and by the Crown manor of Hardingstone. This may have 

 been due to the fact that David enjoyed the favour of Henry I. Barnwell 



* He must not be confused, as he is by Dugdale, with the Nigel d'Aubigny (' de Albingi') 

 of the previous generation, whose fief lay in the adjacent counties of Beds, Bucks, Warwick, 

 and Leicester, and who founded the Bedfordshire house of ' Albini of Cainho.' 



* See also p. 365 below. 



360 



