THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



their own manors and the king's. In Hertfordshire at least this was the 

 case, for Ilbert the first Norman sheriff, who had added several manors 

 to Hitch in, had also increased his own fief, which is found at the time 

 of the Domesday Survey in the hands of Geoffrey ' de Bech ' (fos. 132^, 

 133, 140). It will be seen in the text below that there were awkward 

 questions as to whether he had held certain lands as a tenant-in-chief or 

 merely as the king's officer farming them for the Crown. To the 5~hide 

 manor of Lilley his title was unchallenged, but Leofgifu, an English- 

 woman who had held that manor under Harold, also held an estate at 

 Wellbury near by, under Harold. Ilbert took advantage of being sheriff 

 to add this to Lilley, but ' after he lost the shrievalty, Peter de Valognes 

 and Ralf Talgebosc took it from him and put it in Hitchin, as the whole 

 shire bears witness, though it did not belong there or render any due 

 (there) T.R.E.' (fo. 133). Much the same incident is recorded under 

 Dinsley. This was a considerable estate which had been held of Harold 

 by 2 sokemen ' as 2 manors ' ; Ilbert held it * as i manor ' in virtue 

 of the king's writ, and was seised thereof so long as he was sheriff, but, 

 when he ceased to be sheriff, Peter and Ralf ' took the manor from him 

 and put it in Hitchin because he would not find avera for the sheriff' 

 (fo. 132^). The Domesday jurors, as to this point, returned that each 

 of the above sokemen used to supply ' ii averas et ii inward" in Hitchin 

 ' but by compulsion and unjustly,' such compulsion of course being laid 

 to Harold's charge. 



It will be observed that in this dispute the liability to render avera 

 and inward ' in Hitchin ' played an important part ; and in this connec- 

 tion there are two peculiarities deserving special notice. The first is that 

 in this county it is only at Hitchin that we hear of ' inward ' ; and the 

 other, that avera was rendered ' in Hitchin,' that is to Harold, instead of 

 to the king's officer as elsewhere in the shire. Of the two estates which 

 Ilbert retained for himself in the Hitchin half-Hundred we read that the 

 hide at Hexton had been held by a man whose ' soke belonged to 

 Hitchin and who provided there i avera,' and that seven-eighths of a 

 hide in Lilley were held by a sokeman who ' rendered i avera in 

 Hitchin' (fo. 140). The 6 sokemen who held the Offleys in the days 

 of Edward the Confessor provided averts and inwards, but it was Ilbert 

 who first * put them and their lands in Hitchin ' (fo. 133). It was he 

 also who added to Hitchin the two halves of (King's) Walden, where 

 Domesday again records the finding of avera and inward ' by compulsion 

 and unjustly ' (fo. 132^), though in this case for ' the king's service.' Of 

 Peter de Valognes, the sheriff in 1086, we read that he included in the 

 Hitchin group of manors a hide at ' Welei ' which Ilbert had given to a 

 knight of his own while he was sheriff and which ' did not belong to 

 Hitchin or render any due there in the time of king Edward ' (fo. 133). 

 From this it would seem that the liability to render avera, for instance, in 

 Hitchin provided an excuse for annexing an estate which had not really 

 ' belonged to ' Hitchin. 



The action of the king's officers at Hitchin had parallels in other 

 i 2 73 T 



