THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



Ansgar, held a manor at Thorley, 2 hides at Hoddesdon, two-thirds of 

 a hide in Layston, and 2 hides close by at Beauchamps in Widiall. 

 Moreover ' Edzi, a man of Coded,' held half a hide in Thorley, and at 

 Wickham a sokeman with 8 acres was ' a man of Godid.' What 

 became of all this land ? Geoffrey de Mandeville obtained the manor at 

 Thorley, one of the hides at Hoddesdon and the land at Wickham ; 

 count Eustace of Boulogne secured the estate in Layston and Widiall, 

 with one of the hides at Hoddesdon ; and the bishop of London is found 

 in possession of what ' Edzi ' had held at Thorley. The other instance 

 is that of Wulfward, who was likewise a ' man ' of Ansgar. He had 

 held a manor at Hormead and another at Wormley ; the former went to 

 count Eustace, and the latter had passed apparently by sale, ' after the 

 coming of king William,' to ./Elfwine Dodesone, an Englishman. 

 Geoffrey de Mandeville had nothing. By way of contrast with Ansgar's 

 ' fief we will take that of ^Elfstan ' of Boscumbe.' In Hertfordshire as 

 in Bedfordshire all the lands held by ^Ifstan himself or by his ' men ' 

 had passed to William de Ow. It may cause some surprise to learn that 

 Boscombe, the seat of this great thegn, was far away near Amesbury in 

 Wiltshire, but the fact illustrates the scattered character of the greater 

 Anglo-Saxon estates. The point however to be here insisted on is that 

 the lands of ^Elfstan's ' men ' passed with his own to William, his recog- 

 nized Norman successor. 



We have mention of a few other lords whose ' men ' held manors. 

 At Pelham the bishop of London had secured three estates which had 

 been held by ' men ' or ' thegns ' of Godwine ' de Benefelle,' while two 

 others which his ' men ' had held passed to Robert Gernon. No such 

 man as Godwine de Benefelle is to be found in Domesday, but the fact 

 that in one Hertfordshire entry he occurs as ' de Benedfelle ' convinces 

 me that he was the nameless freeman (liber homo] who had held, on 

 Robert Gernon's fief, Bendfieldbury ('Benedfelda') in Stansted Montfichet, 

 just across the Essex border and close to Pelham. But one does not see 

 what can have led Hertfordshire men to seek him for lord. A greater 

 man was Oswulf, otherwise Oswulf son of Frane, whom the Hertfordshire 

 Domesday expressly styles the predecessor of Robert ' de Todeni.' But 

 although Robert succeeded to his manors here, as in Beds, Bucks and 

 Northants, 2 of his 6 ' men ' with their lands passed to the count of 

 Mortain and 2 to Robert d'Ouilly, while the other 2 were annexed 

 by Engelric, the predecessor of count Eustace. This case is the more 

 remarkable as their lands lay in and about Oswulf's chief manor. 1 Some- 

 thing should also be said of yElfwine of ' Godtone,' who had held 3 



1 Not many miles from this manor of Miswell was Studham (the ' Estodham ' of Domesday) on the 

 borders of Herts and Beds, a considerable manor held by this same Oswulf (Domesday, fo. 215). I 

 entertain no doubt that he was the Oswulf who, with ./Ethelitha his wife gave their land at ' Stodham ' 

 to St. Alban's in the time of abbot Leofstan and Edward the Confessor. The gift (which the Normans 

 seem to have ignored) is Kemble's No. 945 {Codex Diphmatictu, iv. 280-1) and is witnessed by 

 Wulfwig bishop of Dorchester, Bondig the staller, Burhed (a great landowner) with Eadwine his son 

 and successor (see the Victoria History of Northamptonshire), and Leofwine of Caddington Csee p. 281 

 below). 



277 



