A HISTORY OF WARWICKSHIRE 



close to the borough, with seven ; Tysoe, far to the south, with 

 three ; and Atherstone-on-Stour, Billesley, Coughton, and Bearley, in 

 the west of the county, with one apiece. Pillerton in the south and 

 Wolverton near Warwick had also a house apiece. Four of these houses 

 were valued at eightpence a year each and some at fourpence, but 

 Ralf de Limesi's averaged a shilling each. Fourpence is markedly 

 common in Domesday as a unit of rent for houses in towns. 



From the ' barons ' the record turns to those humbler folk, the ' bur- 

 gesses,' nineteen of whom, it tells us, had houses ' with sac and soc and all 

 customary dues and so held them in King Edward's time.' This, in Pro- 

 fessor Maitland's opinion, is a ' difficult ' passage, and he suggests that 'we 

 are likely to see here a relic of the ancient " house-peace," ' and of the due 

 payable to its owner for breaking it. 1 Only four houses are entered as 

 having been pulled down to make room for the castle (propter situm 

 castelli), but the fact that any had to be destroyed supports the view that 

 William founded, 1 rather than repaired, the stronghold. 



The service by land and sea to which the burgesses of Warwick 

 were liable was represented, as in other cases, by a fixed commutation. 

 When the king went forth to war by land, ten burgesses joined him on be- 

 half of the whole body, and the man who was summoned and failed to go 

 had to pay five pounds, clearly thzfyrd-wite. When the king sailed against 

 his foes by sea, the burgesses could send him four ' bat-sueins ' or four 

 pounds in money. The liability of a town so far inland as Warwick to 

 provide mariners has been deemed a difficulty 3 ; but we have to 

 remember that at that period rivers were larger and vessels smaller. 

 In the adjoining county of Worcestershire we meet with Turchil, 

 'King Edward's steersman' (stirman, fo. 174-b), and Eadric, 'who 

 was in King Edward's time steersman (stermannus) of the Bishop (of 

 Worcester)^ ship and leader of his men in the King's service.' 4 We read 

 of William employing ships and ' buthsecarlas ' in his siege of the Isle of 

 Ely, and the Domesday entry on Malmesbury is worth comparing with 

 the Warwick one, for we read there (fo. 64b) of the town sending the 

 king twenty shillings ' ad pascendos suos buzecarl' ' or of one man going 

 thence in person. The Warwick ' batsueins,' in short, would serve as 

 mariners in the fleet, and the doings of the dreaded Danes had proved 

 that their long galleys could penetrate far up the English rivers. 



With the king's dues from the borough I have already dealt, 5 but 

 Earl Eadwine's dues annexed to his manor of ' Cotes' present a point of 

 difficulty. For ' the borough ' is spoken of as if the earl received all its 

 dues." This he cannot have done, as the opposite column shows. I 



1 Domesday Book and Beyond, pp. 989. 



See p. 277, note i, above. 



> Mr. Benjamin Walker in his ' Notes ' on the Domesday Survey of Warwickshire (pp. 4-5) 

 observes that boatswain, by which we understand a steersman or some sort of petty officer on board 

 a ship, would be very far from a correct translation of " batsuein " in the present case. . . . they 

 furnished his navy with four " Boat-servants," without implying that they possessed any knowledge 

 of navigation, which, indeed, could not be expected in inhabitants of such an inland town as Warwick.' 



Heming's Cartulary, p. 82. See p. 271. 



' Hec terra cum burgo de Warwic,' etc., etc. 



290 



