DOMESDAY SURVEY 



brother Stigand in 1070. We may gather that the occasion was favour- 

 able, since we find that Arfast also obtained possession of some of the 

 'thegnland'^ of St. Benet of Holme.* The account of the bishop's lands 

 is followed by an entry of the plough-land at Taverham which belonged to 

 St. Michael's, Tombland, in Norwich. 



The other church lands are separated from those of the bishop, since we 

 can hardly reckon Bishop Osbern's fee as ecclesiastical property any more than 

 that of the bishop of Bayeux. We find them forming a little group consisting 

 of the lands of St. Edmund's, Ely, Ramsey, St. Benet of Holme, and the Con- 

 queror's foundation of St. Stephen's, Caen — the Abbaye aux Hommes. Of 

 these, as is natural, the local house of St. Benet of Holme had the largest estates. 

 These were in the eastern part of the county, grouped about Horning — the 

 * Sedes abbatie,' as Domesday tells us. The saint can have had no great favour 

 from the Conqueror, since no royal benefactions are recorded, and Bishop Arfast's 

 encroachments suggest that the abbey took the losing side in the disturbances 

 which led to Stigand's deposition.^ A similar conclusion may be drawn from 

 the fact that part of the mensal land of St. Benet's Abbey in Worstead was 

 held at the date of the survey by Robert, one of the four arblasters who were 

 tenants-in-chief, as an under-tenant of the abbey.* Another manor in the same 

 vill had fallen completely into the hands of Count Alan.^ Such land as had 

 been acquired since the Conquest seems to have come either from Edric of 

 Laxfield or from the old Earl Ralf. Edric had fallen into the hands of Wale- 

 ram, whose nephew John appears as a tenant-in-chief at the date of the survey. 

 He pledged a plough-land in Saxlingham to St. Benet for his ransom,* and the 

 pledge remained unredeemed. At the date of the survey Waleram's nephew 

 John held the land of the abbey. ^ In the same way Edric granted some land 

 at Honing to the abbey on condition that he should hold it together with an 

 equal quantity of the abbey land as a tenant.^ Earl Ralf again, who is also 

 called Ralf the Staller and must therefore be identified with the father of Ralf 

 de Waer, granted some sokemen in Coltishall and Hautbois to the abbey with 

 his wife.' This land fell into the hands of William de Warenne in exchange 

 for his possessions in Sussex. The abbey, however, retained the principal estate 

 in Hoveton and the appurtenances in Easton and Wroxham, which formed 

 part of the same gift.^" The grant was made, as we are told, by the 

 Conqueror's leave, but we do not hear that he compensated the abbey for the 

 lands which he gave to Warenne. The only other new land was a holding 

 of 30 acres in Rackheath, which had been forfeited to the king, and was 



' Cf. Round, Feud. Engl. p. 28 ; Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, p. 162. 



* Dom. Bk. f. 201. 



' The disfavour of the Conqueror is definitely accounted for by the chronicle of John de Oxenedes, which 

 alleges that the abbot undertook to guard the coast on Harold's behalf (p. 293) (J. H. R.). 



* Dom. Bk. f 219. ' Ibid. f. 148. 

 ^ ' Ut se redimeret a captione Waleranni.' 



' Dom. Bk. f. 217. Mr. Round is disinclined to identify this Edric with Edric of Laxfield, but the latter 

 certainly did hold in Saxlingham, and may have held other land there of Stigand. (See Ibid. f. 154.) The 

 proof is, of course, by no means complete. 



* Ibid. f. 2193. Cf. p. 14, note (6) above. 



' Ibid. fF. 158, 1581^. See p. 11, above. Mr. Round points out that according to John de Oxenedes 

 (pp. 291, 292), South Walsham was given by Ralf ' Stalra,' and Hoveton by ' Earl ' Ralf. Domesday surveys 

 the former immediately after the latter among the abbey's possessions, but does not mention Ralf. This, how- 

 ever, proves nothing, in his opinion, for it is similarly silent as to Thurgarton having been given by ' Edgyve 

 Swanneshals' (Ibid. p. 292), the famous ' swan-necked Edith.' 



'"Dom. Bk. fF. 2173, 218, 2 1 83. 



15 



