A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 
it has been found anywhere else in England". Under the name of 
noutgeld, as the vernacular equivalent, it is peculiar to Cumberland and 
Westmorland. But as an institution it was known in Normandy in the 
eleventh century. In 1099 Richard de Aquila granted to the abbey of 
St. Evroul the church and vill of Laigle with quittance of cornage. 
The liberties of the same abbey were afterwards confirmed about 1176 
by a member of that family, especially in the matter of what is 
commonly called cornage (guod vulgo cornagium dicitur*). Ducange 
mentions several instances between 1248 and 1348, the most striking 
of which occurs among the liberties of the vill of Moneto in 1269, 
where the grantor speaks of his knights rendering cornage or other donum 
in bestiis of his land.* In the fourteenth century it was spoken of as 
a tallage on horned cattle, which exactly corresponded with its definition, 
Tailage de chescune beste cornue, at the English Exchequer.* With these 
examples in view it would be futile to suggest that cornage was 
indigenous to the Border counties. It is more probable that it was the 
survival of some archaic original, like the ‘cumal of cows’ in the 
Brehon Laws, or the ‘cane of animals’ in Celtic Scotland, and was 
utilized by the Norman conquerors for their own purposes.” 
Before we attempt any explanation of tenure by cornage, or the 
payment of noutgeld, we must collect a few instances of its occurrence 
in local charters and official documents. It is stated in the ‘Testa de 
Nevill,’ as well in the inquisition of the sheriff as in the feodaries which 
make up that compilation, that all cornage tenants were obliged, at the 
king’s precept, to go with the army of Scotland, serving in the van- 
guard in going and in the rearguard in returning. This liability seems 
to have been originally imposed on all the land of Cumberland, not 
excepting the barony of Coupland, which was held at least in part as a 
military fee, for the owner was also obliged to go with the army of 
Wales and Scotland. In 1238 the service of attending the king’s army 
through Cumberland was reckoned a grand serjeanty, by which Odard de 
Wigton held his barony in addition to his payment of cornage.* The 
barony had been granted to Odard’s ancestor by Henry I. at an annual 
cornage rent of 26s. 4d. No doubt the serjeanty was inherent in the 
tenure. The same principle applies to the baronies created by Ranulf 
Meschin at an earlier date. It was found in 1247 that Johanna de 
Morvill held Burgh by Sands by paying cornage, and if the king passed 
1 It is doubtful whether the thing was known in the Border counties of Scotland, though we meet 
often enough with the legal formula of freedom, ‘ ab geldis, assisis, scutagiis, cornagiis, et ab omni 
servicio’ (Liber de Maitros, i. 108, 109, 1563; ii. 588). 
® Calendar of Decuments preserved in France, Nos. 622, 643, ed. J. H. Round. 
3 Ducange, Ghssarium, s. v. Cornagium. 
4 Liber Rubeus de Scaccario, ii. p. ccxlii. ed. H. Hall. 
5 Vallancey, Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, i. 657-8; Skene, Celtic Scotland, iii. 227-31. = It 
has been suggested that the origin of cornage must be sought for at some period when the four northern 
counties were under one government, previous to the dismemberment of the kingdom of Northumber- 
land in the ninth century (Hodgson’s Northumberland, pt. i. p. 259), but from its primitive character- 
istics and its existence outside the Border counties, it would be hazardous to ascribe any limit to its 
antiquity. 
8 Bracton’s Note Book, No. 1270, ed. F. W. Maitland. 
318 * 
