A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



A mer points in the survey of Wallingford which must not be 

 centun over are, first, the mention of the burgesses on the King's 

 are Aesne being bound to do him service with their horses or their boats 

 rup river to Sutton Courtenay, or down stream to Reading, inland to 

 Blewbury, or across the water to Bensington. This suggests the avera 

 or carrying service found in other parts of the country. Secondly, the 

 mention of a moneyer (implying a mint), who holds his house rent- 

 free in virtue of his office. Thirdly, the very mysterious mention of 

 fifteen acres * on which the house-carls used to dwell.' Fourthly, the 

 entry, of which the form is also somewhat mysterious, that certain 

 * thegns (taint) of Oxfordshire had land in Wallingford.' I read it that 

 this land had been appurtenant to certain manors which these thegns 

 had held and which, at the time of the survey, were in the hands of 

 their successors the Normans whose names follow. Fifthly, the 

 mention of smiths (fabri}, with five houses valued at tenpence (rent) 

 between them, including forges, as we see from a similar entry under 

 Hereford. 1 Lastly, the annual payment from the town requires to be 

 carefully noted ; for the sharp rise in the sum exacted is a frequent and 

 striking feature in the Domesday accounts of boroughs. Wallingford, 

 we read, was worth 3 under Edward, and 4 afterwards. At the 

 time of the survey its annual value to the Crown was reckoned (probably 

 by the jurors) at 60, and yet it was farmed out at 80 to some one 

 unnamed, who must have harried the burgesses to make his profit. 



Reading stands foremost among the other towns of the shire. 

 Domesday distinctly calls it a borough, and surveys it, though among 

 the King's manors, yet apart from the manor of Reading, which has 

 the usual rural features. The whole of it stood on the King's demesne 

 except Battle Abbey's interesting estate, a gift from the Conqueror. 

 This estate is entered as having been held by Leofgifu the abbess, and 

 appears to have had a * church ' or religious house for its centre. It 

 has been supposed that this represented the former abbey of Reading 

 destroyed by the Danes. To this rural property, as it seems to have been, 

 though described as * in Reading,' there belonged twenty-nine ' masuras ' 

 (in the borough), worth nearly as many shillings. The King, on the 

 other hand, had twenty-four * hagae ' in the borough, worth eighty- 

 three shillings ' pro omnibus consuetudinibus.' The average value is 

 so high that it must have included more than rent, as indeed the Latin 

 words suggest. As at Wallingford, exaction was at work, the eighty- 

 three shillings' worth of revenue being * farmed ' for a hundred. In 

 the case of Reading, however, the matter is complicated by the state- 

 ment under Finchampstead that it * renders (its) farm in Reading,' 

 which ought to mean that its 8 of rent was included in that of Reading. 

 This, however, it will be seen, cannot be the meaning. 8 The origin of 



1 Where there were six smiths, each of whom paid a penny a year for his forge, and was quit of 

 all other payment in consideration of forging the King's iron. 



2 Space does not allow of discussing the case of the house appurtenant to Earley or of that which 

 Henry de Ferrers held as successor to Godric the sheriff, whose official quarters it probably had been. 



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