A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



alleged to be Chisfield (in Graveley) which is undoubtedly an ancient 

 manor, and the manorial history of which would harmonize with this 

 identity. But in Domesday the name ' Chisfield ' would be represented 

 by ' Cisfelle,' which differs very widely from the three forms above. 1 

 They would be represented now by some such name as ' Shelve,' and in 

 Worcestershire the ' Scelves' of Domesday has finally become ' Shell.' It 

 would seem therefore that the nearest equivalent is the manor of Chells 

 (with Boxbury) in Stevenage where ' Sheaf Green ' appears also to 

 represent the name. 



In Hertfordshire the Domesday Hundreds are nine in number, 

 ' Albanestou,' ' Brachinges,' ' Bradewatre,' ' Danais ' (or ' Deneis '), 

 ' Edwinestreu,' * Herford,' ' Hiz,' ' Odesei,' and ' Treung.' But of these 

 ' Hiz' (Hitchin) is styled a 'half Hundred; and Broadwater, we learn 

 further from the Inquisitio Eliensis? was a ' double ' Hundred, a statement 

 confirmed by its Domesday jurors being sixteen in number instead of 

 eight. Of these Hundreds ' Albanestou ' is now represented by Cashio, 

 ' Brachinges ' by Braughing, ' Bradewatre ' by Broadwater,' ' Danais ' by 

 Dacorum (which early absorbed the Hundred of ' Treung ' or Tring), and 

 ' Hiz ' by Hitchin. Edwinstree, Hertford and Odsey are easily recog- 

 nisable. It is of interest to note that of the Domesday Hundreds, Hert- 

 ford, Hitchin, Tring, and Braughing took their names from well-known 

 places ; the Broadwater and Odsey, which gave to two others their 

 names, have also been identified, and Mr. Page has discovered on an 

 assize roll of 1278 mention of an ' Edwynestree ' as the actual spot on 

 which the Hundred court was held. ' Albanestou ' was, of course, the 

 district subject to St. Alban's abbey ; ' Daneis ' remains unexplained. 

 The ' roll of Mathew Mantel,' an early document, contains valuable 

 information on the profits obtained by the sheriff from the Hertfordshire 

 Hundreds. On it they are entered as ' Daneis,' ' Bradewatre,' ' Hiche,' 

 'Edwinestre,' 'Odeseye,' and ' Hertford and Brakinghe' (farmed jointly) ; 

 Tring has disappeared and Cashio is omitted as exempt. 8 



As it is to William the Conqueror himself that we owe the priceless 

 record of Domesday, that great survey which his English subjects 

 resented bitterly at the time, one may close with two glimpses which its 

 Hertfordshire portion affords of the better side of his nature. Three 

 priests were allowed to remain undisturbed on the small estates they had 

 held under Edward the Confessor (fo. 142), and 'a most remarkable 

 story,' as Mr. Freeman termed it, shows us the grim Conqueror restoring 

 to an English thegn his substantial manor at Tewin ' for the soul of 

 Richard his son ' (fo. 141^). This was the King's ' second son Richard, a 

 lad of great promise, not yet girded with the belt of knighthood, who was 

 cut off in the New Forest by a sudden and mysterious stroke while the 

 wearied stag was fleeing for its life before him.' * Less merciful than his 



1 There is reason, moreover, to believe that 'Chisfield' was originally a longer name. In Feudal 

 Aids its earliest form is given as ' Chenesfeld ' or ' Chinesfeld,' while the above Index to British 

 Museum Charters gives their earliest forms as ' Cheuesfeld ' or ' Chiuesfeld.' 



8 See p. 264 above. s See Red Book of the Exchequer, p. 775. 



4 History of the Norman Conquest (1871), iv. 613. 



298 



