A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



exchange. 1 Now the land which formed the subject of this additional grant 

 had not been held of the bishop feudally, but by that special service in the 

 forest and at the time of the ' magna caza ' which we have already met with. 8 

 The whole transaction, then, appears as a movement toward feudalization on 

 the part of the bishop. Another case points in the same direction. We find 

 in Boldon Book that Gilbert holds Heworth for 3 marks and is quit of the 

 works and services which he used to render for it as of thegnage, for Ricknall 

 which he quit-claimed to the bishop. Here then is a case where the ancient 

 tenure of thegnage is transformed into what was no doubt fee-farm. Certainly 

 Gilbert's tenure has that appearance, and we have an instance of thegnage 

 being changed into what is specifically styled fee-farm. 8 Again, at Great 

 Haughton, there are two tenants whose fathers held in drengage, but who, at 

 the bishop's request and in consideration of 4 marks apiece which he gave 

 them, quit-claimed their patrimonies to him and took other land in exchange 

 which at the time of the Boldon survey they are holding in what looks like 

 free socage. Sheraton is another instance of the same process. The vill was 

 a drengage tenement. John had one half of it at 3 marks and is free of the 

 works and services which used to be performed for that half of the drengage 

 in consideration of the vill of Crawcrook which he has quit-claimed to the 

 bishop. Further instances of Pudsey's re-adjustment of tenures by way of 

 exchange may be seen in Boldon Book under Newton-by-Durham, Gateshead, 

 Washington, Twizell, Edderacres, Whitwell, Oxenhall, Newton-by-Thickley, 

 Cornsay, Hedley, Muggleswick, and Bradbury. The conclusion of the matter 

 is clear enough. Under the smooth feudal surface which the Normans had 

 imposed upon the bishopric there survived great disorder and diversity. 

 Tenures that were older than the Conquest, the very meaning of which had 

 perhaps been forgotten, were living on into the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 

 turies. Open Hatfield's Survey at random, you will find drengage, the special 

 tenure of the Malmanni, and the peculiar renders of the villeins all surviving, 

 and all, or almost all, compounded for money-payments. Had the bishopric 

 been included in the great inquests in the time of John and Henry III. we 

 should no doubt have been better able to illustrate the point in hand. The 

 returns from Northumberland in the Red Book and the Testa de Nevill are 

 instructive reading on this point, and there is evidence that something of the 

 same sort had been going on in Cumberland and Westmorland at an early 

 period.* Now although Durham is omitted from the Testa, we have some 

 texts that do a little toward filling that gap on this particular point. These are 

 a series of charters relating to the conversion of tenures in the vill of Wolveston 

 which came into the hands of the prior. Richard the architect or engineer, 

 whom we have already met with, granted to Ralf of Wolveston the land of 

 Aelsi, son of Arkill his grandfather, to be held as freely as Aelsi held it, 

 rendering to Richard and his heirs the drengage service which Aelsi per- 



1 The charter is printed in Boldon Bk. (Surtees Soc.), App. No. v. 



' Et sciendum est quod predictus Radulphus et heredes sui invenient nobis et successoribus nostris in 

 magna chacea nostra unum hominem cum ii leporariis, per debitum servitium de terra Nicholai de Pencher 

 quod nobis idem Nicholaus ante excambium facere solebat,' ibid., p. xliii. 



3 'Willelmusde Hettona miles juratus et requisitus . . . de piscaria de Pol dicit quod vidit Henricum de 

 Orde tenere manerium de Orde cum piscaria de Pol ad feodo-firmam . . . requisitus an tenementum Henrici 

 it drengagium dicit quod non sed thenagium sed pater Henrici liberavit illud a thenagio et fecit quod ipse et 

 heredes tenerent illud ad feudo-nrmam,' Attestaciones Testium, etc. in FeoJ., 223, 224. 



4 See drner. Hist. Rev., ix. 670. 



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