THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



Gernon's in Domesday and which had nothing to do with Ardleigh. 

 A similar case is that of Burnham, where Morant believed the Hodeng 

 family to have held a considerable estate (i. 364 ; ii. 379). The place 

 however with which they had to do was not the Essex, but the Bucking- 

 hamshire Burnham, famous for its beeches. In these instances of course 

 it might be urged that the history of other counties was not so accessible 

 to Morant as it is to ourselves. But this explanation will not account 

 for the cases in which he gave as history a manorial descent which was 

 merely an erroneous guess of his own. The descent of Thorrington was 

 traced by him through three generations of the house of Anestie till it 

 passed by marriage to Montchensy (i. 450). But the house of Anestie 

 had never had anything to do with Thorrington, which was one of those 

 Essex manors which the great house of Montchensy obtained as successors 

 to its Domesday tenant, Ralf the son of Turold. Morant, knowing that 

 they had obtained some Anestie manors by marriage, merely guessed 

 that Thorrington was among them. 1 Even more extraordinary was his 

 treatment of Blunts Hall, which he asserted to have been held by the 

 great Blund family, and to have passed with their heiress to the house 

 of Valognes (ii. 108), although both statements are altogether imaginary 

 and are even disproved by his own evidence.* 



The case of Great and Little Birch is a further instance. An In- 

 quisition of May 9, 1275, taken after the death of Aveline, Countess of 

 Lancaster, and cited in two places by Morant himself, 3 proves that Little 

 Birch was one of a group of manors held of her, as one of the heirs of 

 Robert Gernon's barony, by Robert de Verley. Among these manors 

 were those of Salcot (Verley) and Gernons in Tolleshunt (Darcy), both 

 of which are entered in Domesday as held of Robert Gernon by Robert 

 de ' VerhY This group was held as four knights' fees, and was one of 

 those which are found as so held in the Montfichet carta of 1166.* 

 From this evidence we learn that the * Bricia ' entered in Domesday as 

 held by Robert Gernon was Little Birch, and that ' Robert,' its under- 

 tenant, was Robert de Verli. Yet Morant identified it as Great Birch 

 in the teeth of the evidence printed by himself. Moreover his own 

 history of the manor of ' William a Birches ' in Great Birch proves 

 clearly that it was held of the Montfort ' Honour of Haughley ' and 

 must therefore be identified with Hugh de Montfort's Domesday manor 

 of Layer (' Legra '), to which it adjoins. And yet he makes that ' Legra ' 

 to be identical with two manors in Layer de la Hay, which he could 

 not connect in any way with Hugh de Montfort (i. 41 1-2). 



The connection of Hugh de Montfort's fief with the constableship 

 of Dover is often of great assistance in helping us to trace his manors. 

 Domesday assigns to him one manor situate in Chelmsford Hundred, 

 makes it the subject of a long entry, and names it * Bedenesteda.' As 



1 Sec my paper on 'The Descent of Thorrington ' in Essex Arch, Trans, [n.s.] viii. 373-4. 

 1 See my paper on ' Trcgoz of Tolleshunt Tregoz' in Essex Arch. Trans, [n.s.] viii. 331-2. 

 1 Vol. i. 423 ; ii. 184. This particular portion of the return appears to be now lost. 

 * ReJ Book of the Exchequer, p. 349. It was probably the first on the list. 



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