DOMESDAY SURVEY 



Eliensis we learn that the five freemen held 20 acres.*' In 1086 Ulmar with 

 his estate and his freemen were held by Hervey of Bourges of the Abbot of 

 Ely, while the small manors at Raydon and Tattingstone had passed into the 

 hands of Roger Bigot, who held them of the Bishop of Bayeux. The process 

 of the growth and development of manors from the days of King Edward 

 to the days of King William can be traced with some minuteness in Little 

 Domesday from the details of pre-Conquest society given in the returns for 

 the three eastern counties. It is a process of aggregation, of the combination 

 of many small units to form larger wholes, of absorption of insignificant 

 holdings by important fiefs, of stir and movement, and varying fortunes and 

 conditions. The changes effected in these conditions by the Norman Con- 

 quest, and, more particularly, the gradual absorption of the small estates by 

 their larger neighbours, may be illustrated by the history of a few typical 

 Suffolk manors, held by freemen in the days of King Edward. At Cransford, 

 in Plomesgate Hundred, two freemen held small manors. One, Olf, had 30 

 acres and one plough-team ; the other, Cus, who was commended to Edric 

 of Laxfield, had 90 acres, with nine bordars, two ploughs on the demesne 

 and one plough belonging to the bordars, 4 acres of meadow and a few pigs, 

 sheep, and goats. This manor came to Robert Malet, Edric of Laxfield's 

 successor, who granted it to Walter his tenant, while Olf's little estate, with 

 another small manor which he held at Chillesford [Cesefortda), passed into 

 the demesne of Count Alan." A good example of a large manor held by a 

 freeman before the Conquest is found at Bungay, in Wangford Hundred,'' 

 where Aluric had a manor of 5 carucates with twenty-two villeins, twenty- 

 two bordars, three serfs, two demesne ploughs, six villein ploughs, woodland, 

 meadow, a mill, and stock. This manor was granted to Earl Hugh, and after the 

 Conquest a certain William held it, and also two little 40-acre manors in the 

 same vill, which two small freemen, Ulchetel and Somerlet, had held in the 

 days of King Edward. Here three manors had been gathered up into one 

 hand, and William had stepped into the shoes of three English or Danish 

 pre-Conquest freemen. 



Professor VinogradofF has shown that in Norfolk there was, shortly 

 before the Conquest, ' a policy tending to form estates called manors of the 

 size of some 4 or 5 carucates.' ' A normal manor,' he tells us, ' in Norfolk, 

 and perhaps in the east of England, ought,' according to this view, ' to 

 consist of about 4 or 5 carucates, and to give roughly ^10 income.' 

 Although, in Suffolk and elsewhere, ' actual manors,' as Professor Vinogradoff 

 notes, ' do not often conform to these averages,' there is certainly a tendency 

 to combine many tiny manors in larger groups, and this is done in various 

 ways, before and after the Conquest. In the first place, freemen could be 

 * added ' to manors, with their land. At Saxmundham, in Plomesgate Hundred, 

 the king's thegn Algar held 2 carucates and 40 acres for a manor, and 

 two berewicks in another hundred, one of 80 acres and one of 60 acres. 

 Seven freemen with 48 acres, who had been commended to Algar, were 

 afterwards added to this manor. This brought up the area of the manor 



** /»y. £/. (Rec. Com.), 5»7<». Dom. Bk. gives the stock on Ulmar's manor, and the value 'tunc' and 

 ' modo.' The Injuisitio omits the stock, does not call the estate a manor, and only gives the present value. 



" Dom. Bk. 296^, 297, 298. Olf, probably the same man, held a third manor at Bruisyard [Buresiart], 

 which also fell to Count Alan. 



" Ibid. 300. " Engl. Soc. in tie Ekventh Cent. 308-1 1. 



373 



86 



