THE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE SURVEY 



west of Peterborough, and others in Cotterstock and Glapthorne. His 

 descendants took the name of Torpel, and their successors the family of 

 Camois held the fief, with Torpel as its head, by the same service of the 

 Abbey. 



When the Abbot's sixty knights were summoned forth to war, 

 there w^as needed an officer to take command, as the Abbot could not do 

 so himself. The accident of a claim being made and admitted in 1294 

 reveals the fact that Abbot John, who died in 1 1 25, bestowed this post, as 

 that of hereditary constable of the Abbey, on Ralf De la Mare and his 

 heirs. As the charter by which he did so is witnessed by Robert abbot of 

 Thorney, it cannot, in any case, be earlier than 1113.^ The office is said 

 to have been appendant to the family's holding at Maxey,* but Ralf held 

 in all 2I hides in Northamptonshire and 2| carucates in Lincolnshire, for 

 which fief he owed the service of three knights.' Hugh ' Candidus ' 

 identifies his holding in the former shire as at Maxey, Northborough, 

 and Woodcroft, and his Lincolnshire estate as at Thurlby. From the C 

 list we learn that his ' service ' was equally divided, one knight and a 

 half being due from his lands in Northamptonshire.* Geoffrey De la 

 Mare, the tenant in this last list, was succeeded by Brian, the tenant in 

 I 21 2,' and Brian's son Geoffrey® was father of Peter and grandfather of 

 Geoffrey De la Mare, the claimant in 1294.' His claim contains an 

 interesting recital of the duties appurtenant to his office. It was he 

 who had to summon the Abbot's tenants by knight-service, to ' distrain ' 

 them if they failed to appear, to lead the knights, when assembled, to 

 the King, to marshal them ' as constable ' while on service, whether on 

 guard at Rockingham Castle or elsewhere, a representative of the Abbot 

 accompanying him to pay all expenses. It was he also, he claimed, 

 who ought to guard the Abbey on the day of a new abbot's installation, 

 to serve him with his first dish, and to have, for his perquisite, all the 

 vessels of silver and gold from which the Abbot himself should, that day, 

 be served. Two robes a year he claimed as his due from the Abbot, 

 keep ' within the Abbey ' for his charger and its groom, and hospitality 

 for himself, when he came there, ' with three esquires, five horses, five 

 grooms, and two greyhounds.' * 



All these details help to illustrate the feudal side of a great abbey 

 holding its wide estates by military service of the Crown. The De la 

 Mare fief, with which we have been dealing, cannot be traced up to 

 Domesday, but that of the Watervilles of Thorp Waterville can be 

 shown to have had its origin in the days of the first William. ' Aze- 

 linus ' is found in Domesday Book holding of the Abbot at Achurch 

 and Tichmarsh, and thirty years later we find in the A list ' Ascelinus 



* It is printed in Chronicon Petroburgense, p. 130. 



' Ibid. p. 132. ' Ibid. p. 169. 



* This is confirmed by the fact that, in I 21 2, Thurlby (the Lincolnshire portion) was 

 similarly held by that of li knights {Liber Ruheus, p. 522). 



* Liber Rubeus, p. 618. " Hugh 'Candidus,' p. 54. 



' Chronicon Petroburgense, pp. 73, 132. * Ibid. pp. 1 3 1-2. 



391 



