DOMESDAY SURVEY 



as throughout England, the theory was that the land had, on one pretext or 

 another, fallen into the Conqueror's hands, and had by him been granted out 

 afresh, it might be to the previous holders, it might be to new tenants. An 

 agreement is even dated from the time 'when the English redeemed their 

 lands,' ^'' and King William is said to have ' restored ' {reddidit) three manors 

 to their pre-Conquest lord.*'' Royal grant was thus the chief title to land 

 after 1066, but the king's confirmation of possession might be conveyed in 

 various ways, by gift, by ' writ and seal,' or by ' livery and seisin.' A dis- 

 pute arose over an estate at ' Wineberga ' in Bishop's Hundred, which 

 Roger Bigot claimed by the king's gift [hoc reclamat de dono regis), but the 

 Abbot of Ely questioned his right, and apparently the affair was compromised 

 by Roger consenting to hold of the abbot, ' by respite ' {per respectum) }^* 

 The outward sign of the gift might be a royal writ (breve) under the king's 

 seal, a charter, or the record of a formal act of ' livery and seisin.' The 

 writ occurs less often in Suffolk than livery, but it is found sufficiently often 

 to prove that by it rights could be given over land, men, and soke. Roger 

 Bigot had received a freeman with a small estate, but the hundred had seen 

 neither writ nor ' liberator,' and evidently doubted the validity of the 

 transfer. The Abbot of St. Edmunds had sac and soke and commendation 

 in the days of King Edward over a number of freemen in the hundred of 

 Stow, as writs and seal {brevia et sigillum) showed. King William had recog- 

 nized the gift {Postea concessit Willelmus Rex). But the king's reeve had 

 received payment for the soke of one of these men, and the case came up 

 before the hundred, which testified that it did not know if St. Edmund had 

 been disseised after King Edward's grant. In this interesting case King 

 Edward's writ had been confirmed by King William ; but elsewhere we find 

 the hundred testifying that Abbot Baldwin of St. Edmunds had a writ of 

 King Edward giving him sac and soke over the Saint's lands and men, and 

 this right he apparently claimed as still valid in 1086, without further con- 

 firmation. At Poslingford, too, on Ralph Baynard's fee, St. Edmund had 

 the commendation of a freeman in King Edward's time, and ' the king 

 granted him the land,' and the hundred-jurors had seen the writ. At Clare, 

 on the contrary. King William is seen disregarding the grants of his prede- 

 cessors. Aluric son of Wisgar had given this important manor to St. John, 

 and had committed it by charter {carta) to the guardianship of Levestan the 

 abbot and of his own son Wisgar, with the provision that the clerks should 

 not give or forfeit it away from St. John. But after King William came he 

 took it into his own hands, and at the time of the Survey it was held by 

 Richard Fitz Gilbert.*" A writ could be issued to the sheriff to order him 



'" Dom. Bk. 3603, ' Hanc terrain habuit Abbas in vadimonio . . . concessu Engelrici quando re- 

 dimebant anglid terras suas.' The word ' redimere * in itself implies forfeiture ; cf. Inquisitio Eliensis (Rec. 

 Com.), 520 ; four freemen forfeited (' foris fecerunt') their land to the abbot ; later the hundred did not see 

 that they redeemed it (' postea non vidit hundredus ut earn redimerent '). 



'"Dom. Bk. 338^, Saxmondeham. Cf Vinogradoff, op. cit. 219-20; Ballard, op. cit. 5 ; Freeman, 

 fiorman Conquesty iv, 723 ; Angl.-Sax. Chron. sub anno 1066 ; 'And menn guidon him [King William] gyld, 

 and gislas sealdon, and sySSan heora land bohtan.' 



'" Inq. El. (Rec. Com.), 523/^, 524, ' Et mode Rogerus bigot tenet per respectum de Abbate' ; Dom. 

 Bk. 3851J; cf ibid. Sahara [Soham] : R. Malet held of the king a freeman with I carucate ; the Abbot 

 claimed and Robert now held of him ; ibid. 411 : G. de Mandeville holds a manor 'ex dono regis' ; ibid. 

 447 : Juchel or Juichell the priest ' reclamat de dono regis.' 



*" Dom. Bk. 3^6. 360^, 379, 41 3*, ' Rex concessit ei terram : ex hoc vidimus brevem'; 389^. 



379 



