142 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



in parage. Another good example is found at Lavendon, 1 

 where eight thegns held the manor, and one of them " Alii, a 

 man of King Edward, was the elder. All could sell their 

 land." The Dorset Domesday contains a list, some two and a 

 half columns long, of thegns holding in parage in 1066, and at 

 the end of this list is a note : " All the thegns who held these 

 lands T. R. E. could go to what lord they would." 2 Often 

 we find only one man recorded as holding in parage. Pro- 

 fessor Maitland suggests that he was regarded as the senior 

 the man, like Alii, who was responsible for the duties of the 

 holding. 8 But in other cases, where the number of joint- 

 owners was stated in the returns of the hundreds, the numbers 

 were inserted in the Exchequer Domesday. 



The pre-Conquest landowners enumerated in the separate 

 description of the Isle of Wight, whose tenures are recorded, 

 are equally divided between tenants in parage and allodarii. 

 Thirty-nine persons held thirty properties, assessed at 32 \ 

 hides, in parage ; and forty-six persons held thirty-one estates, 

 assessed at 32^ hides, in allodium ; and there were also four 

 allodarii who held hide in parage. But it must be noticed 

 that in four columns 4 there are none but tenants in parage, 

 except the first entry in column 53 b I, while in two columns 

 there are none but allodarii. Mr. Round further points out 

 that " it can hardly be a coincidence that among the English 

 thegns in Hampshire 5 there are twenty-seven cases of their 

 predecessors holding in allodium, and not one of a holding 

 in parage, till we come to the Forest hundred of Rodbridge, 

 in which, with the Forest section which follows it, 6 there are 

 thirty-three holdings in parage, and not one in allodium." 7 

 Again, it would appear that different scribes gave different 

 names to the same tenure, and we may therefore accept Mr. 

 Nichol's suggestion, 8 and consider tenure in parage as a 

 species of allodiary tenure. 



1 D. B., I. 145 b i. 2 Id., 84 a i. 3 D. B. and B., 145. 



4 D. B., 52 a 2, and b I and 2, 53 b i. 5 Fols. 50 to 50 b. 



6 Fols. 50 b to 51 b. 7 V. C. H. t Hants, I. 441. 8 16. 



