A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



the fact that Domesday shows them holding a hide in Hoddesdon of the 

 count seems to imply that there also Ingelric had been his predecessor. 

 We can trace more clearly than usual the sources from which had been 

 formed the count's Hertfordshire fief, for at Reed, Anstey, Corney(bury), 

 Barkesdon (Green) and Wakeley, all in the north-east of the county, he 

 had obtained the lands of ./Elfward, a 'man ' of Harold, 10 hides in all, 

 while at Layston, Widdial and Hoddesdon he had secured those of 

 ' Godid,' a ' man ' of Ansgar the staller, to the extent of 3! hides. It 

 should be observed that the lands of this ' Godid ' were divided, for 

 Ansgar's recognized successor, Geoffrey de Mandeville, obtained her 4 

 hides at Thorley (the title to which was disputed) 1 and one of the 2 

 hides she had held in Hoddesdon (fos. 139^, i4o). 2 



Passing to the other tenants-in-chief, Robert Gernon was an Essex 

 baron, whose chief seat was at Stanstead on the Hertfordshire border, 

 which became known from Robert's successors as Stanstead Montfichet. 

 Ralf ' de Todeni,' whose exact relationship to Robert ' de Todeni,' the 

 lord of Belvoir, is uncertain, is of interest in more ways than one. Of 

 exceptionally noble Norman birth, he was hereditary standard bearer of 

 the duchy and lord of Thosny (' Toeni ') and Conches. The great 

 estates he held in England were scattered in a strange fashion, the bulk 

 of them lying in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire (where he held 

 Clifford Castle) and in Norfolk. His two Hertfordshire estates, Flamstead 

 and Westmill, were of no great extent, but it was at Flamstead that he 

 seems to have fixed his chief residence ; and there his descendants in 

 the male line flourished for more than two centuries after the date of 

 Domesday. Ralf de Limesi, whose fief, similarly, was scattered over 

 several counties, held some 25 hides in Hertfordshire, divided between 

 the south and the extreme north of the county. He is chiefly of interest 

 as a benefactor to St. Alban's Abbey, a cell of which he founded at Hert- 

 ford. Another considerable tenant-in-chief was William de Ow, who 

 had obtained the lands, as explained above (p. 277), of ' Alestan de 

 Boscumbe.' His Hertfordshire estates were reckoned at some 26 hides. 

 The two preceding fiefs however were far exceeded by that of Geoffrey 

 de Mandeville, the recognized successor of Ansgar the staller, whose 

 estates, which mainly lay along the eastern and southern borders, 

 amounted to about 65 hides. 3 Geoffrey de Bech, the successor, as I 

 have shown, of Ilbert, a former sheriff of the county, held over 40 

 hides. Peter de Valognes, the sheriff in 1086, deserves longer notice 

 than the other Hertfordshire barons, because although his barony 

 extended over six counties in the east of England it appears as a Hert- 

 fordshire barony in 1 1 66, when his heir, Robert de Valognes, made 

 return of its knights. 4 His Domesday holding in this county was rather 

 over 40 hides, some half of which were in or about Bennington and 



1 See p. 277 above. * Compare p. 276 above for such division. 



3 The holding of count Eustace, the greatest lay tenant, only exceeded that of Geoffrey by ij 

 hides. Tring alone accounted for considerably more than half of it (i.e. 39 hides). 



4 Red Book of the Exchequer, pp. 360-2. 



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