THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 
Bedfordshire. Of the valuable manor of Aspley Guise we read that 
Leofgifu, who had held it, was ‘commended’ to Earl Waltheof, but 
could betake herself with her land to whatever lord she would.’ It is 
possible that these words were added to explain why the manor had not 
passed to the earl’s widow and successor. ‘That the act of homage in- 
volved in ‘ commendation ’ gave the lord certain rights is shown by a 
interesting dispute between Hugh de Beauchamp and William de 
Warenne. ‘ Avigi, a ‘man’ of Anschil of Ware, Hugh’s English pre- 
decessor, had held a virgate at Easton, which is found, in 1086, in 
William’s hands, but is claimed against him by Hugh, presumably on 
the ground of the homage done to Anschil. ‘ Avigi’ had also held there 
T.R.E. five virgates, which King William allowed him to retain— 
‘granted’ them to him, Domesday puts it—‘ commending’ him to Ralf 
Tallebosc’s care for his life. But Avigi, on his death bed, had alleged him- 
self to be the ‘man’ of William de Warenne and consequently William 
was found seised of it in 1086." Another case of the king’s ‘ commend- 
ing’ an Englishman with his land to one of his officers is found in 
Wellow Hundred, where a sokeman was so ‘ commended ’ to ‘ Osiet the 
king’s bailiff’ (of the Hundred), who was to provide him with food and 
clothing for life. As Osiet is found in possession at the time of the 
survey, it looks as if he had obtained the land on condition of paying to 
its former holder a kind of life annuity, the well known ‘ corrody ’ system 
employed by religious houses. 
More distinctly entitled to rank as legal antiquities are the Domes- 
day manor, the cases of ‘disseisin,’ the mortgage, the marriage-portion, 
and the reversion after death. 
On that most perplexing question the meaning of ‘ manor’ (maner- 
ium) in Domesday the evidence of the Bedfordshire survey is of very great 
importance. For after recapitulating the theory at which he has 
arrived on the subject, Professor Maitland proceeds to make this admis- 
sion :— 
In later days we may well find a manor holden of another manor, so that a plot 
of land may be within two manors. If this usage of the term can be.traced back to 
Domesday Book as a common phenomenon, then our doctrine is in great jeopardy. 
But we have noticed no passage which clearly and unambiguously states that a tract 
of land was at one and the same time* both a manerium and also a part of another 
manerium.$ 
Now Wootton was a ‘ ten-hide vill, the whole of which was held, 
as a single manor, by Albert of Lorraine. Domesday says of it : ‘ Hoc 
M{anerium| tenuit Almar homo Tosti comitis,’ and then immediately 
proceeds to state of Albert’s three hides at Shelton (in Marston Mor- 
teyne adjoining): ‘Hoc M[anerium] fuit et est membrum de Otone 
[Wootton]; Almar tenuit homo Tosti comitis’ (fo. 216b). On the 
1 <commendata Wallef comitis et quo voluit cum terra sua recedere potuit.’ 
2 «Hic, die mortuus est, dixit se esse hominem W. de War’ et ideo Willelmus saisitus est de hac 
terra.’ 
3 The italics are the professor’s own. 
* Domesday Book and Beyond, p. 128. 
I 209 27 
