THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



He then tells the ' famous tale ' of Ealdred, archbishop of York and 

 protector of the see of Worcester, examining the site and denouncing 

 Urse in the grim English lines : 



Hightest thou Urse, 

 Have thou God's curse.* 



Urse derived the surname which Worcestershire still preserves in 

 Croome d'Abitot and Redmarley d'Abitot from St. Jean d'Abbetot 

 some tw^elve miles to the east of Havre. In one instance, it is interesting 

 to observe, Domesday gives him the alternative name of Urse ' de 

 Wirecestre ' (fo. i6()b), an illustration of the practice by which sheriffs, 

 in the Norman period, were assigned the names of the capitals of their 

 shires. This is particularly well seen in the case of the sheriffs of 

 Gloucestershire, who held the office by hereditary right, and who, from 

 the Conqueror's reign, took their name from Gloucester till raised to an 

 earldom by the empress Maud in 1 141. There can be no question that 

 the shrievalty of Worcestershire also was hereditary, and that Urse was 

 succeeded in it by his son Roger.^ On the fief passing to Urse's son-in- 

 law, Walter de Beauchamp, he obtained the shrievalty also, and was 

 succeeded in it, as I have elsewhere shown, by his son William.^ 



It seemed desirable to explain this point at some length, because it 

 is asserted by Professor Freeman that Urse was sheriff of Gloucestershire 

 as well as Worcestershire.^ The statement has been copied by a local 

 writer, but it is without foundation. Durand (de Pitres), sheriff of 

 Gloucestershire at the time of Domesday, is there styled ' Durandus vice- 

 comes,'^ and his fief is headed 'Terra Durandi de Glowecestria.' The 

 interest of Urse in that county was limited to the one hide he held, as a 

 tenant-in-chief, at Seisincote ; Worcestershire alone was the scene of 

 his remarkable proceedings.^ The traces they left upon that county 

 were deep and of long duration. For the acquisition of his wide 

 possessions by his son-in-law, Walter de Beauchamp, founded a great 

 territorial house long mighty in Worcestershire and famous in our feudal 

 history. Although in Worcestershire he held of the Crown a fief at 

 least as large as that of any other lay tenant,' his real power, as a land- 



' The authority for this story is William of Malmesbury's Gesta Pontificum, and its date, 

 as Mr. Freeman points out, must be anterior to Ealdred's death in Sept. 1069. 



^ The charter of Henry I. in favour of the prior of Worcester and his monks is 

 addressed ' Waltero vicecomiti Gloucest[rie] et Rogero vicecomiti de Wirecestria ' (Hale's 

 Registrum Prioratus Beata Maria Wigorniemis^ p. 30). 



^ In her charter to William (1141 ?) the Empress says : ' Dedi ei et reddidi vicecomitatum 

 Wigorn[ie] ... in feodo et hereditarie per eandem firmam quam pater eius Walterus de 

 Bellocampo inde reddebat' (Geoffrey de Mandeville, p. 313). 



* ' We find that the two shires were put under a single sheriff, Urse of Abetot, who stands 

 conspicuous amongst the most oppressive of his class, and whose hand seems to have fallen 

 heavily on clerks and laymen alike' {Norman Conquest [1871], IV. 174). ' Urse, Ursus, Urso 

 of Abetot, appears in Domesday as sheriff of both Worcestershire and Gloucestershire ; and 

 we hear much of his evil deeds in both shires' {Ibid. [1876], V. 760). 



^ fo. 168^, et passim. 



® He had also, as a tenant-in-chief, holdings of no great consequence in Herefordshire 

 and Warwickshire. ' About 40 hides. 



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