A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



in his lordship of Watton, a manor which possesses a special interest, 

 being found under John in the hands of the first mayor of London, who 

 held it by serjeanty. 1 



The small native landowners as a body shared the fate of the richer 

 thegns, but here and there, as in other counties, one finds a stray sur- 

 vivor. 'Turchil,' a 'man' of Ansgar the staller, had held a manor in 

 Bengeo, with power to sell it ; but he lost it to Geoffrey de Mandeville, 

 the successor of his lord Ansgar. He was however almost certainly 

 identical with that 'Torchil,' a 'man' of Ansgar the staller, who is 

 entered on the same page as holding under Geoffrey de Mandeville 2 

 hides at Digswell, which he had held, with power to sell, in the days of 

 Edward the Confessor (fo. 139^). Another Englishman, ^Elfward 'of 

 Merdelai,' held of king William, as one of his thegns, the small estate in 

 'Rodenehangre' which he had similarly held of king Edward (fo. 142^) ; 

 but the hide he had held at Mardleybury itself, with power to sell, he 

 had now to hold as an under-tenant of Robert Gernon the Norman (fo. 

 137^). A third case is that of a Godwine who had held some land at 

 ' Sela,' with power to sell, in the days of Edward the Confessor, and is 

 found, in 1086, holding it as an under-tenant of Geoffrey de Bech 

 (fo. 140^) ; he was very possibly identical with the ' Godwine the 

 thegn ' of the next entry who had lost the small estate that he had 

 similarly held at Roxford. 



We must now turn to a different subject, the 'hidation' or assess- 

 ment of the county. This is of less institutional importance in Hert- 

 fordshire than in some other districts, but its fundamental principle is 

 well illustrated within the county. This principle is known as that 

 of 'the 5-hide unit,' and was undoubtedly of great antiquity. When 

 the 'hide' meets us in Domesday Book it is a mere fiscal term, and de- 

 notes no definite area or value. This is best shown by the fact that we 

 find the vills arbitrarily assessed in terms of the 5-hide unit, that is, as 

 taxed for the Danegeld at 5 or i o hides or some other multiple of five. 

 Let us take some instances in point. Hertingfordbury, Little Berk- 

 hampstead and Wormley were assessed at 5 hides each, Sandon, Aston, 

 Bayford(bury) and Hertford itself at 10 hides each, Rickmansworth at 15, 

 Cheshunt at 20, and Bengeo at 25. This last is so instructive an instance 

 that its state under the Confessor deserves to be set forth in detail, with 

 the preliminary explanation that, for assessment purposes, a hide consisted 

 of 4 virgates and a virgate of 30 acres. By none of these measures was 

 an actual area denoted. 



1 It may further be worth noting, as the fact seems to be unknown, that the cartulary of St. John's, 

 Colchester (fo. iz [p. 28]), contains an interesting writ of William Rufus directing that Eudo Dapifer 

 should be given seisin 'de manerio Deremanni,' in which Deorman had been succeeded by his brother 

 Leofstan. The manor unfortunately is not named ; but I feel confident that it was Walkern (although 

 no county is named), and that this accounts for Eudo being able to bestow tithes from Walkern on St. 

 John's Abbey, and for the manor being found in the hands of his successors, Hamo de St. Clare and the 

 house of Lanvalei. But this conclusion would suggest that the Hertfordshire Derman was not ' Derman 

 of London.' 



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