A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



the unit of assessment for the geld.*" A similar use of two systems of reckoning 

 side by side is found in the present day in the 1 6-oz. pound avoirdupois and 

 the 20-0Z. pound Troy. 



The primitive trade of the i ith century w^as carried on to a great extent 

 at markets and fairs. In Suffolk there were markets at Thorney, Kelsale, 

 Beccles, Hoxne, Eye, Clare, and Haverhill, and at Aspall, in Hartismere Hun- 

 dred, there was ' the third part of a fair.'"* If we only see boroughs where 

 we find burgesses, we cannot allow the title to more than six Suffolk towns, 

 Ipswich, Dunwich, Eye, Beccles, Clare, and Sudbury, though St. Edmundsbury 

 was rapidly qualifying for burghal rank. Of these, Ipswich,**^ which gave its 

 name to a half-hundred, was the most important, though it had apparently 

 suffered greatly since the Conquest : where under King Edward there had 

 been 538 burgesses rendering customary dues, there were iio in 1086, 

 with 100 'poor burgesses,' too impoverished to pay more than their ' head- 

 pennies ' to the king's geld. There were also 328 waste houses (mansiones) 

 within the borough which were unable to contribute to the geld. It was 

 doubtless owing to this depression that Roger the Sheriff was forced to remit 

 j(^3 of the ^\o farm of the town. The mint at Ipswich and the numerous 

 churches and the comparatively dense population may have given it something 

 of an urban character, but here and in the other Suffolk towns the rural 

 element was still very strong, and there was a ' smack of the farmyard ' even 

 about the burgus.**^ This is specially seen at Ipswich in the two ' granges ' 

 with their land and tenants, which had belonged to Queen Edith and to Earl 

 Gurth before the Conquest, and were apparently connected with the frma 

 burgi of which the queen had two-thirds and Gurth one-third, the ' Earl's 

 third penny.' After the Conquest the queen's share came to King William, 

 and Gurth's third penny, with the third penny of two hundreds, the grange 

 and its farm, were granted to Count Alan.**^ Without discussing the question 

 of ' contributory ' tenements and the garrison service of burgesses, we may 

 indicate the connexion between the towns and the great country estates, and 

 the claims made by the county magnates to burgesses, churches, land, and 

 homesteads {mansuras) in the borough.*^" At Dunwich, which had been held 

 by Edric of Laxfield before the Conquest, and had passed to his successor 

 Robert Malet, the burgesses had increased from 120 to 2 3 6, and there were 24 

 franci rendering customs, and 178 ' poor men ' ; but it is spoken of as a manor, 

 and the ' exchanger ' [cambitor) seems to have been established at Blythburgh, 

 where also corporal punishment was inflicted on the thief who had been 

 caught and tried at Dunwich. The property of such thieves went to the lord 

 of Dunwich, but the king had the fines, paid in oras, of the selected men who 

 refused to attend the hundred court after due warning.*" At Eye, in like 



*" Dom. Bk. zidb, Hacheston ; 312, Dunwich ; cf. 360, Cornard ; 290^, Ipswich (mint) ; V.C.H. Norf. 

 ii, 35. Round in Engl. Hist. Rev. Apr. 1908 ; VinogradofF, Fill, in Engl. 441 (merchet) ; cf. ante, p. 361. 



"'Dom. Bk. 281^, 330^, 369^, 370, 379, 389^, 418, 428, Haverhill ; the third part of a market 

 worth 13;. 4a'. "' Ibid. 290, z()ob. 



*" Cf. Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 172 et seq. ; Township and Bon. 68-9, Index, 'Boroughs'; 

 VinogradofF, op. cit. 393, 398, 402 ; Ballard, Dom. Boro. 



"' Dom. Bk. 290, 2C)ob, 294, 2943 ; VinogradofF, op. cit. 364 et seq. 



"° Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 179 et seq. ; Ballard, Dom. Boro. ; Vinogradoff, op. cit. 401 ; Dom. 

 Bk. 3043, Ipswich; 314^, Playford ; 392^, 393, Ipswich (burgesses dwelling on land of *heir own and 

 rendering customs within the borough) ; 41 lb, \zib, 425, 427, 438 (Ipswich). 



*" Dom. Bk. 311*, 312, 312^, Dunwich ; 313*, 'Bringas'; 333^, Thorpe; 385^, ' Alnet'ne' ; Mait- 

 land, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, Index, ' Dunwich.' 



410 



