THE DOMESDAY BOOK 
with the disposition of this feudal obligation. Such terms as ‘ saving the 
king’s forinsec’ ; ‘saving the king’s forinsec service’; ‘by doing the 
forinsec service belonging to that land’; ‘free of all service except 
forinsec service’ ; ‘and the whole forinsec service I have given and quit- 
claimed for me and my heirs’; ‘at the annual rent of 2s., but the 
shall do forinsec service, and if it happen in any case that they have 
quittance of forinsec service they shall give us yearly 3s.’ might be 
multiplied to any extent.. Whatever meaning may have been attached 
to the obligation elsewhere, in Cumberland at least it was represented by 
defensive duty on the Border.” The local application of the service is 
amply illustrated in a singularly relevant charter,’ wherein it is explained 
1 ‘Salvo domini Regis forinseco’—Reg. of Fountains, MS. (Tiberius, c. xii.), f. 76. ‘Salvo 
forinseco servicio domini Regis’—Reg. of St. Bees (Harleian MS. 434), L. xiii. 13. ‘ Forinsecum 
faciendo servicium quod ad predictam terram pertinet ’—Reg. of Wetherbal, p. 113, ed. J. E. Prescott. 
‘Libere et quiete ab omni servicio et consuetudine et exactione, salvo forinseco servicio’—Reg. of 
Holmcultram, MS. f. 61. ‘Et totum forinsecum servicium dedi et quietum clamavi de me et heredibus 
meis ’—Reg. of St. Bees, MS. L. i. 13. ‘ Facient autem forinsecum servicium, et si aliquo casu con- 
tingat quod habeant adquietacionem forinseci servicii extunc dabunt nobis singulis annis tres solidos’ 
—Ibid. L. xiii. 3. ‘Et ego et heredes mei acquietabimus predictam terram de omni farensi servicio’— 
Reg. of Holmcultram, MS. f. 150. It should be distinctly understood that the phrase ‘ foreign service,’ 
so often employed in this introduction, is used as the equivalent of the service variously called ‘ forinse- 
cum,’ ‘foraneum,’ ‘forense’ and ‘forain’ in Cumberland documents. It is an ambiguous phrase, but 
no better alternative has been suggested. 
2 We must not enter into the analogous term of ‘utware,’ so well known in the neighbouring 
county of Northumberland, in its relation to forinsec service. Nothing that we have seen traverses 
the evidence supplied by documentary materials in Cumberland. But we may mention the interesting 
case of the manors of Halton, Whittington and Claverworth, for which John de Halton obtained a 
charter from Henry III., granting him and his heirs the three manors at double the old rent of three 
marks which had been paid by his ancestors, with the condition that they should continue to do the 
king’s forinsec service of cornage and suit of the county—‘Forinsecum servicium nostrum cornagii et 
sectam comitatus sicut ipse et antecessores sui facere solebant pro omni servicio consuetudine servitute et 
demanda’ (Charter Roll, 31 Hen. III. m. 6). The peculiar history of the tenure of these manors 1s 
ably discussed in Archeohgia Athana, xiv. 312-4, by Mr. C. J. Bates. The tenurial customs of the 
Welsh frontier bear intimate relations with those on the Scottish border, and should not be neglected in 
a general review of cornage as a frontier institution. The analogy in many features is very striking. 
Professor Maitland has pointed out the ancient obligation of men on the Welsh march, as noted in 
Domesday (i. 179), to occupy the post of honour in the vanguard or in the rearguard, as the army 
marched into Wales or out of Wales (English Hist. Review, v. 629). The lieges of Cumberland and 
Westmorland recognized this obligation as a principal part of their tenure. Aelred abbot of Rie- 
vaulx tells us that the Galloway men pleaded their privilege of fighting in the vanguard at the battle of 
the Standard in 1138 to animate by their bravery the rest of the Scottish army (Twysden, Erhelredus 
Abbas, p. 342). Bower (Scotichronicon, ii. 243) tells a strange story in explanation of this privilege of 
fighting in vangardia, which is a groundless slander on Border courage. He says suspects were placed 
in that position for fear of their turning traitors! On the other hand, in 1385 two-thirds of the 
northern lords’ force in Richard II.’s army for Scotland were zot allowed to be march men (Bain, 
Calendar of Documents, iv. 340). 
3 “Sciant omnes tam presentes quam futuri quod ego Willelmus de Lancastra cum consilio et con- 
sensu et concessione Willelmi filii et heredis mei dedi et concessi et hac presenti carta mea confirmavi 
Cospatricio filio Orme et heredibus suis tenendam de me et de heredibus meis in feodo et hereditate 
totam terram suam de Cauplandia quam de me tenet sicut ius suum [et] hereditatem suam, scilicet, 
villam de Wirkington cum pertinenciis suis et villam de Lamplogh cum pertenenciis suis quam dedi in 
excambio pro villa de Medilton in Lonesdale ; hanc totam predictam terram dedi predicto Cospatricio 
et heredibus suis tenendam de me et de heredibus meis pro homagio suo libere et quiete et honorifice in 
bosco, in plano, in parcis, in pascuis, in viis, in semitis, in aquis, in molendinis, cum omnibus libertatibus 
et liberis consuetudinibus, sicut aliquis miles liberius et quietius et honorificencius in tota terra mea 
tenet, redendo michi annuatim nova calcaria ad aurum vel sex denarios ad Nundinas Carliolii et faciendo 
michi forense servicium apud castellum de Egermundia. Hiis testibus Ketello filio Ulfe et aliis.’ 
By the courteous permission of Mr. A. D, Curwen this charter has been inspected and transcribed 
from the copy which remains among the muniments of Workington Hall. It is written on a skin of 
parchment with a charter of Alice de Rumeli granting the vill of Tornthayt to Patric son of Thomas, 
one of Mr, Curwen’s ancestors. ‘The copies, made perhaps in the sixteenth century, are far from being 
323 
