A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



hides 'under' the abbot of St. Alban's (fo. 135^). His own estate 

 appears to have lain in Stanstead (Abbots), where he had ii| hides 

 (fo. 138^), and Hoddesdon (fo. 142^), but ' men ' of his had small hold- 

 ings at Sawbridgeworth and Ayot. In his case we can trace his influence 

 at Sawbridgeworth to the estate he held in Stanstead, and his lordship of 

 a 'man' at Ayot to the fact that he held of St. Alban's Abbey at Codicote 

 adjoining. Looking then at the whole of the evidence we are led to 

 infer that the relation of an English lord to his ' men ' was distinctly less 

 close than that between a Norman baron and his under-tenants. The 

 former relation was one of considerably varying character and was very 

 largely at least the result of small landowners voluntarily seeking some 

 influential man as their lord. The latter was rigid and well defined, 

 resulting as it did from the action of the lord, who enfeoffed his under- 

 tenant on his own terms. 



This brings us to the division among the Norman conquerors of 

 the lands which had been held in Hertfordshire by the English lords and 

 their ' men.' It is a striking fact that Edward the Confessor had held 

 nothing in the county outside Hertford until the forfeiture of earl Tostig 

 towards the close of his reign brought him the manor of Bayford(bury), 

 in which Essendon, which is not mentioned in Domedsay, was then, I 

 believe, included. 1 Even the great house of Godwine held but little in 

 Hertfordshire, although its vast territorial possessions constitute ' one of 

 the best marked features of Domesday Book.' 2 Beyond Hitchin and its 

 appurtenant manors, which the Conqueror reserved for himself, Harold 

 had only held Amwell, which was given to Ralf de Limesi ; 8 and of his 

 brothers, Leofwine had but a small manor at Puttenham, adjoining 

 Bucks where his estates were large, while Tostig, we have seen, had 

 Bayford. The lands of the Church, although considerable, were by no 

 means of exorbitant extent. St. Alban's naturally led the way with an 

 assessment under the Confessor of nearly 140 hides. This was almost 

 as large as that of all the other religious houses put together. Ely had 49, 

 Westminster 41^, the canons of St. Paul's 38, and Ramsey, Waltham, 

 Chatteris and ' the old minster ' of Winchester some 28 between them. 

 The total hidage of the county under Edward the Confessor was, accord- 

 ing to Prof. Maitland, 1,050 hides, 4 and in 1 130 it was reckoned as high 

 as i,ioo. 8 The Church's proportion of this total some 290 hides 

 was by no means extravagant in those days. 



We have still however to consider the lands of the bishop of London 

 in Hertfordshire, which must be reckoned as at least 45 hides. The 

 Domesday entries on these lands require to be carefully studied, for it is 

 only of 7! hides at Hadham that we read : ' This manor was and is (the 



1 A similar phenomenon is found in the adjoining county of Essex, where Edward the Confessor 

 appears to have held nothing at his death, King William's estates in that county having mainly belonged 

 to Harold. The peculiar character of the great manors held by the latter in Essex convinces me that they 

 had been Crown demesne, which points to the conclusion that Hitchin had previously been so also. 

 This would explain the appearance of the royal avera at Hitchin (see p. 273 above), 



2 Domesday Book and Beyond, p. 168. s But compare p. 299 below. 

 * Domesday Book and Beyond, p. 464. 



6 Pipe Roll, 31 Hen. I., p. 62. Mr. Ragg makes it nearly noo in 1086 



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