A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



bought by one of the monks from the king's reeve, Alwi of Colchester, for 

 half a mark of gold (about ;C3) without the royal licence. We shall find, 

 however, on reference to a charter of Edward the Confessor,^ that some of 

 the most important of these acquisitions to which Domesday bears witness, 

 Hoveton and Honing, were actually granted to the abbey before the Conquest. 



We have seen how St. Edmund's had been enriched by the Conqueror 

 out of the possessions of Earl Gurth. Its estates lay, as might be expected, 

 mainly in the southern portions of the county. It had at one time possessed 

 Langham and Swanton Novers,* the gift of Bishop Aylmer, but the former 

 seems to have fallen into Gurth's hands, and both had returned to the see at 

 the date of Domesday.* The earlier benefactions of Bishop iElfric,* Hun- 

 stanton and Docking, seem to have passed out of the hands of the abbey even 

 before the death of Edward the Confessor. 



The possessions of Ely have a special interest from the opportunity which 

 they afford of comparing the statements of Domesday with those of the 

 Inquisitio Eliensis. In Norfolk we find a close correspondence between the two 

 documents, but the compiler of the Inquisitio has included among the posses- 

 sions of Ely a number of holdings which Domesday ascribes to other tenants. 

 Thus, Earl Ralf had got possession of Westfield and of some sokemen in 

 Yaxham ; these fell to Count Alan.' William de Warenne had a number of 

 sokemen and freemen in Feltwell, Methwold, Northwold, Mundford, 

 Weeting, and Cranwich.* He obtained these in exchange for the honour of 

 Lewes, and it seems probable that they, or some of them, had been in Stigand's 

 hands before 1070. He also obtained a number of sokemen in Midford 

 hundred ^ in the same fashion. Alpington, which Ely claimed in exchange 

 for Burgh Apton, was in the hands of Godric Dapifer.® Ralf de Beaufeu had 

 the freemen in Mattishall whom his predecessor, Eudo son of Clamahoc, had 

 seized.' Hugh de Montfort had exchanged some of his land for 24 sokemen 

 in Marham,^" and his predecessor Gudmund, had held a sokeman in Gar- 

 boldisham.^^ John, nephew of Waleran, had a freeman of Ely in Bretten- 

 ham." Ely itself had, however, profited at Stigand's expense in Lynn, and at 

 that of Ramsey in Fordham." 



The majority of these strayed possessions were claimed by Ely in the suit 

 before Bishop Geoffrey of Coutances, between 1072—1075,^* but none of 

 them seem to have been recovered. Even the towns which Stigand had held 

 of the abbey at a food rent, Methwold and Croxton, remained like the rest 

 of Stigand's property in the hands of William de Noyers." Ely does seem to 

 have recovered its property in Bexwell," though this is scarcely clear, and we 

 are expressly told that it recovered 14 sokemen in Yaxham against Roger Bigod 

 ' coram episcopo Constantiensi.' " 



The great Huntingdonshire abbey of Ramsey held land in the low- 

 lying western portions of the county. The most important of its possessions 



' Dugdale, Afos. iii, 83. ' Ibid, iii, 140. 



' Dom. Bk. fF. 192, 194. * Mon. Angl. iii, 140. 

 ' Dom. Bk. f. 1453 ; Inq. Com. Cantab, p. 140. 



« Ibid. fF. 162-163 ; I.C.C. pp. 138, 139. ' Ibid. f. i663,- I.C.C. p. 140. 



' Ibid. f. 203 ; I.C.C. p. 141. ' Ibid. f. 228 ; I.C.C. p. 195. 



'" Ibid. f. 238 ; I.C.C. p. 137. " Ibid. f. 2383. 



" Ibid. f. 266 ; I.C.C. p. 140. " Ibid. f. 276 ; I.C.C. pp. 131, 137. 



" Round, Feudal England, p. 457. " Dom. Bk. f. 136 ; I.C.C. pp. 137, 195. 



'^ Ibid. f. 212*. " Inq. Com. Cantab, p. 135. 



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