DOMESDAY SURVEY 



than this. In addition to this estate at Liver, he held four hides at 

 Faringdon (from which he derived his name) and two more at Little- 

 worth adjoining, both being portions of manors in which William had 

 succeeded Harold. In Oxfordshire we find him as ' Alsi de ferend' ' 

 ' farming ' for the King Langford and Shipton, 1 both which manors 

 had belonged to Harold, and he is thus proved to have acted as one of 

 the King's reeves. Moreover, in the same county he occurs among the 

 King's thegns, for he must be the Alsi who held two hides at Shipton,* 

 formerly Harold's, and who also held at ' Rocote ' in that county. 3 

 Lastly, as * Elsi de ferendone,' he heads the King's thegns in Gloucester- 

 shire, holding 3^ hides at Windrush (some seven miles N.W. of 

 Langford), and farming for the King, as Harold's successor, the 

 adjoining manor of Great Harrington. 4 Returning to Berkshire, we 

 note that he had held even before the Conquest his Littleworth 

 land, which implies that he had probably enjoyed Harold's favour. 

 He must have been an elderly man in 1086, for Domesday names 

 his son as holding a house at Wallingford, ' which he said the King had 

 given him.' 



Turning now to the victims of the Conquest, the most interesting 

 Englishman of whom we hear under Berkshire is Godric its former 

 sheriff. That, according (apparently) to the Abingdon cartulary, he fell 

 at the battle of Hastings would alone invest him with interest, but his 

 dealing with the crown lands is of more real importance. The entries 

 concerning him are found partly under the fief of Henry de Ferrers, 

 who had clearly received a grant of his lands, and partly under the 

 King's land, of which he is alleged to have filched portions, which were 

 claimed by Henry as his successor. There is reason to believe that in 

 other counties no less than in Berkshire there was apt to be confusion 

 between the sheriffs land and that which he ' farmed ' for the Crown ; 

 but the Berkshire evidence is instructive. At Woolhampton for instance 

 Godric had been given certain land by King Edward, whose seal ' the 

 men of the county ' had seen attached to the writ ; but he had also 

 ' received ' further land ' de firma regis,' as to which they had seen no 

 grant. At Bagshot, close to Shalbourn, Henry was holding two hides 

 which were ' de firma regis ' and which were claimed as the King's. 

 Turning to the ' terra regis' we read, under Shalbourn, that certain land 5 

 belonging to that manor had been separated from it (forts missa) ' in 

 the time of sheriff Godric ' and was now in the hands of Henry de 

 Ferrers. 8 Then there was a hide in Hendred, which was formerly ' de 

 firma regis.' Godric had held it and ./Elfric of Thatcham asserted that 

 he had seen King William's writ granting it to Godric's widow in con- 



1 Langford lay some five miles N.W. of Farringdon. 



2 Which, together with the eight retained by the King, account for a ten-hide manor of Harold's. 



3 This was probably Radcot, on the border of Berkshire. 



4 This manor had been held by one of Harold's house-carls. 

 The details do not quite agree, but the locality is clear. 



6 Of the other two hides here in dispute, one is described as ' de Reve Land,' that is, probably, part 

 of the official endowment of the Sheriff (Shire Reeve). 



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