A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



the 'profits of justice' arising from all other crimes or offences com- 

 mitted on that land. 



The cases of commendation in the Berkshire survey were discussed 

 at length by Mr. Freeman. 1 They are those of an Englishman in 

 Wantage Hundred who had commended himself for his protection* to 

 the bishop of Salisbury as his father had done before him to the 

 bishop's predecessor, and according to him of Azor, whose land 

 Robert d'Ouilly had contrived to subordinate to himself. But Domes- 

 day says nothing, in this case, of commendation. A clear case, unnoticed 

 by Mr. Freeman, is that of the English tenants of Abingdon Abbey at 

 Lyford, who had commended themselves to Walter Giffard, which they 

 had no power to do without the abbot's leave. 3 



We have a curious case of disputed title at Hampstead Marshall, 

 where ' the (men of the) shire ' allege that ' Ebrige ' had not belonged 

 to the holder's predecessor, through whom he claimed, while his own 

 men refused to offer any explanation, and he himself had ' transported ' 

 the hall, houses, and stock into another manor ! Under Buckland we 

 seem to see a distinct case of the Domesday commissioners sitting in 

 judgment on a holder's claim, that of bishop Osbern in right of his see, 

 and declining to pronounce a decision, referring the matter to the King.* 



There is little more to note in the Berkshire survey. On the 

 system of farming the Crown revenues we learn nothing in this county : 

 incidentally we read that ' Robert ' was ' farming ' some land at Bet- 

 terton with Wantage, though it used not to be appurtenant thereto, 

 and that he was doing the same at Sutton (Courtenay) 6 ; but who 

 Robert was we are left to guess. Probably he was no other than the 

 redoubtable Robert d'Ouilly, but we do not know that this was so, 

 or indeed who was the sheriff at the time of the survey. A previous 

 sheriff, Froger by name, occurs under Sparsholt and Pangbourne. At 

 the former place he had acquired in what capacity we are not told 

 three manors held by Englishmen, and had made them into one ; at 

 Pangbourne he had violently (absque placito et lege) restored to the royal 

 demesne the manor, which had been separated therefrom. Of this 

 Froger the monks of Abingdon relate that his cruel exactions were 

 avenged by his own downfall and reduction to want. Lastly, we find 

 as an under-tenant of the bishop of Salisbury at Winterbourne one 

 whose name was soon to become widely execrated, the notorious Ranulf 

 Flambard. 



Unlike Oxfordshire, in which not a few manors are surveyed by 

 Domesday under other counties, Berkshire had all its manors surveyed 



1 Norman Conquest, iv. 43-5. 



3 ' pro sua defensione se commisit.' 



3 ' nee poterant alias ire absque licentia, et tamen commendaverunt se Walterio sine abbatis pre- 

 cepto.' The sequel is seen in the abbey's Chronicle (ii. 133-4), where we read that under Henry I the 

 younger Walter was at length prevailed upon to become the abbot's ' man ' and to do him the service 

 of one knight for the manor. 



4 ' Unde judicium non dixerunt, set ante regem, ut judicet, dimiserunt.' 



In each case the half virgate of a free Englishwoman had been added to the royal manor. 



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