DOMESDAY SURVEY 



First on the list of Suffolk landholders stands the name of King William 

 himself, Willielmus) Rex ang/orum, a style which only occurs here and in the 

 list of landholders prefixed to the Essex Survey.'" The description of the 

 Terra Regis fills a much smaller relative space of the Survey in Suffolk than 

 in Norfolk/^* and is somewhat differently arranged. The first section treats 

 of the king's demesne, c/e regione^^^ then come the forfeited estates of ' Ralph 

 the Earl,' then Harold's Harkstead estate, a berewick of Brightlingsea in 

 Essex, then the borough of Sudbury with other lands of ' the mother of 

 Morcar the Earl,' Harold's manor and ' soke ' of Bergholt, and the forfeited 

 estates of Archbishop Stigand. These are followed by two more demesne 

 manors, under the heading of terrae regis de regno, and at the end of all stands 

 the account of the borough of Ipswich. This borough, with the mass of 

 the king's demesne lands, had been placed in the charge of Roger Bigot, 

 and each of the other sections had its special keeper or custos^^* It seems 

 probable that Roger Bigot was Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk at the time of 

 the Survey,"" and even that he was in his second term of office. This may 

 be gathered from a passage in the Suffolk Domesday, which distinctly 

 implies that Robert Malet held the shrievalty after Roger Bigot,**'' and from 

 a number of references to ' Rogerus vicecomes,' which suggest that he was 

 actually sheriff in 1086.^" The king's demesne lands {de regione), which 

 Roger ' kept,' "° were in the centre and north of the county, and included 

 King Edward's manors of Thorney, Bramford, and Blythburgh, with Earl 

 Gurth's manors and commended freemen in the hundred of Lothing 

 and the half-hundred of Lothingland. The Confessor's Norfolk manor 

 of Diss is for some reason surveyed here, under the hundred of Hartis- 

 mere, with Gillingham, in Norfolk, where a small estate of 30 acres was 

 appurtenant to Gurth's manor of Gorleston in the half-hundred of 

 Lothingland, to which also belonged twenty-four Yarmouth fishermen."' 

 Some incidental light is thrown on the sheriffs and reeves and their doings 

 by this section of the Survey. We see Roger Bigot removing the sokemen 

 from Thorney Manor, and distributing them among the tenants-in-chief. 

 We see Thorney rising in value, and Blythburgh deteriorating under his 

 charge.'^" We hear of villeins added to Blythburgh Manor ' in Robert 

 Malet's time,' that is, probably, during his shrievalty, and we find ' Aluric 



*" Dom. Bk. ii, 1 ; ' W. Rex anglorum,' cf. 1 09, Norf. ' Willelmus Rex.' 



•" V.C.H. Norf. ii, 9-14. 



"' Mr. Round, in Feud. Engl. 140, treats the use of the word ' regie ' as a blunder, and would substitute 

 * regno.' But it occurs elsewhere; in Norfolk (Dom. Bk. 144) and in Suffolk (ibid. 408^), and Professor 

 Maitland thinks that it may well stand for 'kingship' ; Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 167, n. 2, cf. Ballard, The 

 Dom. Inf. 88 ; Vinogradoff, op. cit. 326 et seq. ; Maitland, op. cit. 213. 



"* On the technical distinction between ' vicecomites ' and ' custodes ' cf. Round, Geoffrey de MandeviUe, 

 107-8, App. i, 297. 



'" Dom. Bk. 179, 179*, 185^ ; V.C.H. Norf. ii, 19, 37. 



"* Dom. Bk. 2873. ' Quando Rogerus Bigot prius habuit vicecomitatum statuerunt ministri sui quod 

 redderent xv lib. per annum. . . . Et quando Robertus Malet habuit vicecomitatum, sui ministri creverunt 

 «os ad XX lib. Et quando Rogerus Bigot eos rehabuit dederunt similiter xx lib.' Does ' rehabuit ' refer to 

 Roger's second tenure of the shrievalty? The freemen in question were under Aluric Wanz in 1086, but 

 he is always called reeve, ' praepositus,' not sheriff; cf Vinogradoff, op. cit. 379. 'Rogerus vicecomes' is 

 mentioned in connexion with Suffolk in the Ely 'placitum' of 1072-5 ; Inq. Com. Camb. (ed. Hamilton), 194. 



'" Dom. Bk. 179, 1793, 185^; (Norfolk), 282, 290^ (twice), 445^, 'Vicecomes Rogerus habuit de patre 

 suo herretum,' 446 (twice). The second case, ' Haminghelanda,' refers to the same incident as 282. 



"' ' Servat.' Of Ipswich the phrase 'custodit ... in manu regis' is used ; Dom. Bk. 28 li, 290. 



"» Dom. Bk. 282, 283, 283^ ; V.C.H. Norf. ii, 5. 



"» Dom. Bk. 2813, 282. 



389 



