7 6 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



was thegnland was afterwards converted into reeveland. Hence 

 the King's legates say that that land and the income from it 

 were by theft taken away from the King." 1 Evidently the 

 sheriff, by converting it into reeveland, had appropriated for 

 himself profits which should have gone to the King. Henry 

 of Ferrars claimed certain land at Sparsholt, because it had 

 belonged to Godric, his predecessor in the shrievalty of Berks, a 

 an entry which shows that the sheriff was ex-officio entitled to 

 certain lands. 



There are three other terms used in Domesday for 

 districts intermediate between the shire and the hundred. 

 Yorkshire and Lincolnshire were divided into ridings, i.e. 

 " thrithings," three parts, and the testimony of the riding is 

 invoked in the same way as the testimony of the shire. 3 Kent 

 was divided into six lathes ; and Sussex into five rapes, 

 each of which was in the possession of a single lord. Later 

 there were six rapes Chichester, Arundel, Bramber, Lewes, 

 Pevensey, and Hastings ; but Domesday Book amalgamates 

 the rapes of Chichester and Arundel into the single rape of 

 Earl Roger. But both Kent and Sussex were originally 

 independent kingdoms, and it is not improbable that the rapes 

 of Sussex corresponded to the Midland shires. All the vills 

 that had houses in Chichester lay within the rape of Earl 

 Roger, and the owners of all the houses recorded in Arundel 

 had lands within the same rape. With but three exceptions, 

 all the vills having houses in Lewes lay within the rape of 

 Lewes ; and, as at Arundel, so all the owners (but one) of 

 houses in Pevensey were landowners in the rape of Pevensey. 

 Another feature of the resemblance between the rapes of 

 Sussex and the Midland shires is the fact, first noticed by Mr. 

 Round, that some of the rapes had sheriffs of their own. The 

 sheriffs of the honours of Hastings, Pevensey, Lewes, and 

 Arundel, and possibly of Bramber, are found mentioned in 

 certain documents of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. 



1 D. B., I. 181 a 2. - Id., I. 60 b i. 3 /</., I. 375 a. 



