A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



abbey, a fact which is made known to us by Domesday, but of which, 

 it would seem, no trace is found either in the charters of the house or 

 in the later history of the manor. In this connexion one may mention 

 that when, on the queen's death, Bury St. Edmund's received from the 

 king a Northamptonshire manor ' for her soul,' it was again one which 

 had been Earl ^Ifgar's. Wethersfield and Great Chesterford appear to 

 have been reserved, from the first, by the Conqueror for himself. 



Great Chesterford illustrates well a peculiar feature of the Essex 

 manors which had fallen to the king's share. Lying as it does on the 

 Cambridgeshire border, it possessed in that county an outlying ' hide 

 and a half,' the locality of which is not given, but which can be clearly 

 shown to have lain in Histon just north of Cambridge. It also possessed 

 in that county an unnamed half hide, which can be recognized as ' half 

 a hide and half a virgate ' in Babraham, a few miles to its north, which, 

 like itself, was ' farmed ' by Picot the Cambridgeshire sheriff. 1 There 

 had further been appendant to this manor, in the time of Edward the 

 Confessor, a hide and a half, which, says Domesday, Hardwin ' de 

 scalariis ' held in 1086, though the Hundred knew not how. I think 

 that these lands also can be recognized in entries relating to Babraham 

 and to Histon. 2 To Newport there had been similarly appendant a 

 Cambridgeshire estate at Shelford, a little to the south of Cambridge. 

 Brightlingsea possessed a Suffolk dependency in Harkstead on the 

 northern side of the Stour, while to Hatfield (Broadoak) there had been 

 appendant three ' berewites ' in Hertfordshire, which are entered as held 

 by Ralf de Limesi in 1086. These are described as Hertford, Amwell 

 and Hoddesdon, but they appear to have been all comprised in that great 

 manor of Amwell (lying just between Hertford and Hoddesdon) which 

 Domesday enters as held by Ralf and as having been held by Harold 

 (fo. 138). With these dependencies of Essex manors in Suffolk, Cam- 

 bridgeshire and Herts it was not easy for Domesday to deal ; but its 

 primary purpose, that of a rate-book, involved their survey in the county 

 and the Hundred in which they assessed, although their rental might be 

 comprised in that of the Essex manor. In the case of Shelford details 

 are given under Newport as well as in Cambridgeshire, with the strange 

 result of proving that the surveys differ. 3 If Essex manors possessed 

 these outlying dependencies, there was an instance of the opposite kind 

 in the Kent manor of Chalk, of which Domesday records that there 

 rightly belonged to it one hide in Essex. 4 



Next, in Domesday to the king's lands are entered those belonging 

 to bishops and religious houses. Of these, as will be seen on the 

 Domesday map, the great bulk was in the hands of the Bishop of 

 London or his canons. The head of his fief was Bishop Stortford 

 (which thence derived its name) on the border of Hertfordshire and 



1 See p. 431, note I below. It is the mention of Earl JElfgar as the former holder in both these 

 Cambridgeshire entries that enables us to identify the ' Earl Edgar ' who held Great Chesterford. 



2 See p. 430 below. a See p. 410, note I below. 



* ' In Exesse est una hida quae juste ad hoc manerium pertinet ' (i. 9). Compare pp. 351, 352. 



338 



