LEICESTERSHIRE SURVEY 



on the Nottinghamshire border. The total of 77 1 carucates which is thus 

 obtained for Gosecote wapentake is suggestively near to the 775 carucates 

 assigned to that of Guthlaxton, and indeed suggests that a symmetrical scheme 

 of distribution may have been applied to the assessments of the four 

 wapentakes in the county. It seems distinctly probable that the assessments 

 of the two northern wapentakes of Gosecote and Framland were intended 

 respectively to equal the assessments of the two southern wapentakes of 

 Guthlaxton and Gartree. If this were the case the total assessment of the 

 county must have been something very near 2,664 carucates ; a sum which 

 would represent 148 of those i8-carucate units which are described as 

 ' hides ' in the present survey and in Domesday. It is impossible to attain 

 certainty in regard to matters of this kind, but the evidence of the document 

 we arc considering, combined with that of Domesday, undoubtedly suggests 

 that some scheme, such as that indicated here, really underlay the distribution 

 of the Leicestershire assessment. 



The changes in the distribution of land in the county which are revealed 

 by the Leicestershire Survey were worked out in detail by Mr. Round upon 

 his publication of the record in Feudal England. They are indeed suffi- 

 ciently far-reaching. The royal demesne had been granted away wholesale, 

 the chief grantees being the earl of Chester, the count of Mortain, Norman 

 de Verdon, and Richard Basset. The latter, a favourite official of Henry I, 

 had received, probably only a few years before the date of our survey, almost 

 the entire Domesday fief of Robert de Buci, from which he endowed the 

 priory of Launde, the documents relating to this house enabling us to trace 

 his succession to. Robert de Buci in parts of Leicestershire which lie outside 

 the scope of the Leicestershire Survey as we possess it. 13 Probably the 

 largest fief in the county at this time was that of the young earl of Leicester, 

 whose father had become possessed of the lands held in 1086 by Hugh de 

 Grentemaisnil after the manner described in the Domesday Introduction. 

 The bulk of the Countess Judith's lands had passed to her son-in-law, David 

 king of Scots. At least three important Domesday fiefs had been divided by 

 the date of the survey : Robert de Todeni's lands were held by William de 

 Albini 1 * 1 and Robert ' de Insula,' the fief of Robert ' Dispensator' had passed 

 to his heirs Robert Marmion and Walter de Beauchamp, and of Roger de 

 Busli's estate the important vill of Saltby had been given to William Peverel, 

 the remainder apparently being held by the king as part of the forfeited 

 Honour of Blyth. On the other hand the Domesday fief of Henry de 

 Ferrers had more than maintained its integrity in the hands of his son 

 Robert, although certain lands which had been held of the former by 

 Nigel de Stafford were now held in chief of the crown by the latter's son 

 William. 16 Roger de Mowbray appears in possession of the entire fief of 

 Geoffrey de Wirce, upon the most important manor of which he was to 

 confer his surname ; William Meschin, the brother of Earl Randulf of 

 Chester, had received part of the land of William Loveth and had also 



" feudal England, 210-12. 



13 Ralf Basset the justiciar held land in Great Dalby which had formerly belonged to Robert de Buci. 



14 Robert, count of Meulan, had died in n 18, leaving two sons, both minors at the time. 



14a Cf. Mr. Round's remarks on this succession in his report on the Belvoir charters; Belvoir MSS. (Hist. 

 MSS. Com. Rep.), iv. 



15 For Nigel de Stafford, the founder of the Derbyshire family of Gresley, see y.C.H. Derby, i, 306. 



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