THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



earl. There are interesting allusions to her tenure among the Kenil- 

 worth Priory charters, from which we learn that she consented to its 

 being granted to the priory after she had proved her right to it in the 

 court of Henry I. 1 But a charter of that king speaks of his having him- 

 self established, as against the Earl of Warwick, that the manor was held 

 of him in ' almoin,' Domesday's own expression.* 



Of the other Warwickshire tenants-in-chief, Earl Roger (of Shrews- 

 bury) had for his under-tenant in three five-hide manors Rainald (de 

 Bailleul) whose holding, here as elsewhere, is afterwards found in the hands 

 of the Fitz-Alans ; and Earl Hugh (of Chester), who had for his prede- 

 cessor King Edward's Norman chamberlain Hugh, bestowed some land 

 at Pillerton on the monks from St. Evroul whom Hugh de Grentmesnil 

 had endowed there. Of this last Hugh, the seat of whose power was in 

 Leicestershire, the fief passed with his other possessions to the Earls of 

 Leicester, while that of Henry de Ferrers descended to his heirs the Earls 

 of Derby. The next two tenants-in-chief, Roger de Ivry and Robert 

 d'Oily, 3 are of interest for their alleged sworn brotherhood ; they cer- 

 tainly appear at times in conjunction, as, for instance, at Stow, Bucks, 

 which manor they held jointly of the Bishop of Lincoln. The question 

 implied by Domesday as to Roger's tenure of Cubbington in this county 

 should be compared with the entry on his Gloucestershire manor of 

 Hasledon, which had similarly, we read (fo. 268), been held of the Bishop 

 of Bayeux. Robert d'Ouilly was constable of Oxford and a great man 

 in that county, but, although in Warwickshire he held in chief one 

 manor only, he was, I think, its sheriff and the ' Robert ' who is alluded 

 to as farming the king's manor of ' Cotes,' as a sheriff would. For the 

 king's charter confirming the gift of Turchil of Arden to Abingdon 

 Abbey is addressed to him in a way that implies he was sheriff of the 

 county. 4 



Robert de Stafford had in Staffordshire itself a fief so large that it 

 dwarfed even his great estate in Warwickshire. Three tenants with 

 Breton names, Brien, 6 Hervey, and Urfer, held of him in both counties, 

 and to these we may add in Warwickshire Ludichel and Iwein. Robert 

 Despenser, brother of Urse d'Abetot, is chiefly remarkable, in this county, 

 for having at some period obtained possession of Tamworth. 8 Robert 

 de Veci's possession of land in Warwickshire, as in Leicestershire and 

 Northamptonshire, is accounted for by his having been given the fief 

 of a Lincolnshire thegn, ./Ethelric the son of Meriet, who appears to 



1 ' concessione et assensu Luithe monialis que idem manerium per judicium curie Regis Henrici 

 recuperavit' (Harl. MS. 3650, fo. i8d). 



a ' quod fuit Livithe monialis, quod ego deracionavi adversum Rogeri comitem de Warewic fuisse de 

 elemosina mea quodque ipse Gaufridus (de Clintona) de eodem comite tenuit' (ibid. fo. 143). 



* They derived their names from Ivry-la-Bataille (Eure) and Ouilly (Calvados). 

 4 Abingdon Chronicle, ii. 8. 



He was the tenant of Ditchford. General Wrottesley says he was the ancestor of the family of 

 de Standon, the most important of the tenants of the Barony of Stafford, holding seven knight's fees of 

 Robert de Stafford in Staffordshire, Lincolnshire and Warwickshire (Hittoty of the Family of Wnttesley, 

 p. 7). In 1 1 66 Ditchford appears to have been held of his heir by Roger de ' Dicford ' (Red Book of 

 the Exchequer, p. 265) as two-thirds of a knight's fee. 



Geoffrey de Mandevllle, p. 314. 



279 



