A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



men, and the rashness of concluding that the liber homo was a smaller 

 man than the thegn. 



Another such illustration is afforded by the facts which follow. 

 The historic name of Ingwar was borne by an Essex thegn whom it 

 doubtless proclaims to be of Danish blood. 1 His lands at Roydon, 

 Southchurch, Birdbrook, St. Lawrence, and one of the ' Ings,' though 

 widely scattered, passed to Ranulf brother of Ilger, which enables us to 

 identify him also with that ' Ingewar,' otherwise ' Inguare a thegn of 

 King Edward/ of whose lands in Huntingdonshire and at Gamlingay in 

 Cambridgeshire Ranulf became the possessor. 2 This identification is 

 chiefly of importance because Ingwar is in Essex styled a free man (liber 

 homo) and in Cambridgeshire a ' thegn of King Edward,' which is one 

 of several instances of these terms being used indifferently, and enables 

 us further to detect him in that ' Ingar a thegn ' whose great manor at 

 Burstead had passed to the Bishop of Bayeux. 



So famous are the ' house-carls ' in the tale of the Norman Con- 

 quest that the mention of one of them in Domesday is always worth 

 noting. The ' Sexi ' who, at one of the Layers, had been succeeded by 

 Ralf de Todeni was clearly the ' Sexi housecarl of King Edward,' whom 

 Ralf had also -succeeded at Westmill, Herts. Of more interest however 

 is the case of ' Scalpinus,' of whom we read under Great Lees that Harold, 

 receiving that manor from Ansgar, had given it to ' a certain housecarl 

 of his, Scalpinus by name,' who had settled it on his wife in dower, 8 etc. 

 I have no hesitation in identifying this ' Scalpinus ' as the ' Scalpius ' or 

 ' Scapius ' who had held, as ' a thegn of Harold,' the manors of Chars- 

 ford and Stutton in Suffolk, in which he had been succeeded by Robert 

 Gernon. Returning to Essex, we find on Robert Gernon's fief a manor 

 in Ardleigh, of which we read that it had been held by Scapius, and was 

 attached to (jacet) a certain manor in Suffolk. William, its under- 

 tenant, was doubtless the William d'Aunay who held the above Suffolk 

 manors of Robert. Here then we have a ' house-carl ' holding a landed 

 estate, nor was his case exceptional. 



Here is another illustration of the need for studying adjoining 

 counties together. A curious story in the Suffolk Domesday throws 

 light on the devolution of an Essex thegn's estates. In the south- 

 eastern extremity of the former county we read under Falkenham 

 (fos. 423^, 424) that ' Brictmar,' who held land there, had several 

 estates (plures terras)^ of which a part was given by the king to 

 Ingelric, another to Ranulf brother of Ilger, and a third to Ralf 

 Pinel. This is followed by several entries, in which Ranulf had 

 obtained the lands of men commended to Brihtmar or his mother 

 ' Quengeuet.' Of the two small estates in Suffolk that Ralf Pinel 



1 An Ingwar was one of the three leaders who had landed in East Anglia, at the head of a Danish 

 host, in 866. 



2 He must also however have been the ' Ingwar ' whose manor at Creshall, with that at Duxford, 

 Cambs, not far off (the 'Ingara' of the latter entry is omitted by Ellis), were obtained by Count 

 Eustace. 



8 See p. 507 below. 



352 



