A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 
and in his land of Cumberland.’! From the renewal of the grant to the 
grandson of Brus some thirty years later by William the Lion, the 
privileges bestowed on the grandfather were amply confirmed, except the 
custody of his castles of which the king had given him discharge.” The 
castle of Carlisle was a mighty factor in the early defence of the district, 
of which it was the centre and rallying point. The work of the Norman 
in rearing this fortress on a spot so rich in natural advantages has been 
already noticed. That its ward had been committed to Ranulf Meschin 
we have every reason to believe from a comparison of the Brus charters. 
When Ranulf left the district, the custody of the castle was the duty of 
the sheriff; a large manor in socage was its appanage ; castlework® was 
an allodial obligation incumbent on the county; payments were con- 
tinually made for ‘operations’ on the castle* and the precincts ; the city, 
which grew round it and was of ancient demesne, was surrounded by a 
wall, with three gates, the strength and durability of which were guaran- 
teed by serjeanties allotted to maintain them ;° the relations between the 
city and the castle were close and not always determinate ; it was the 
county castle of the county town; the sheriff was the king’s receiver 
and had his exchequer therein, where all rents and services due to the 
Crown were paid. These things speak for themselves. If in addition 
we consider that the sheriff, as the king’s officer, was the military 
governor of the county and responsible for its safe custody, and that the 
cornage tenants were exempt from service outside their own borders in 
consideration of their defensive duty at home, the association of the 
freeholders for the ward of the castle and county follows as a matter of 
course. The division of Cumberland into wards, which has existed from 
a remote date, can only be explained on this supposition, for later history 
unquestionably proves that their origin, like that of the ‘wapentakes’ of 
some other shires, was connected with defensive organization.° 
The earliest territorial division of the county we meet with, after 
its several parcels had been bonded together into one fiscal area, was five- 
fold, Carlisle, Lyth, Eskdale, Allerdale, and Coupland bearing almost the 
same names by which they have been known in modern times.". With 
1 British Museum, Cotton Charters, xviii. 45 ; National Manuscripts of Scotland, i. No. 19 ; Acts Parl. 
Scot. i. 92. 
® National Manuscripts of Scotland, i. No. 39; Duchy of Lancaster Charters, Box. ‘A,’ No. 116; Bain, 
Calendar, i. 105. 
3 Reg. of Holmcultram, MS. ff. 34, 35, 159. 
4 Pipe Rolls, 14, 19 Hen. II. et passim. 
5 «In operationibus iij. portarum Civitatis Carleol. et j. Granarii, 19s. 6d. per breve Cancellarii et per 
visum Widonis propositi et Rannulfi Bruni’ (Pipe Roll, 2 Ric.1.). Albert son of Bernard held one caru- 
cate of land by the serjeanty of making the gates of the city, and another serjeanty was held in the suburb 
of Carlisle for finding the iron ‘ad portas de Cardelio’ (Testa de Nevill). It is probable that there was 
but one serjeanty, that of Albert. In that case the second, mentioned in the feodary, was the same 
serjeanty inherited by co-heiresses. 
® Mr. Geo. Neilson has investigated, with his usual ability, the various features of knight’s service in 
Scotland, his remarks on castle ward and forinsec service being specially valuable. The wards, into which 
several of the southern counties were divided, resemble the rural areas of the same name in Cumberland, 
in that they appear to have been associated with ‘constabularies’ as administrative districts connected with 
royal castles (Furidical Review, xi. 71-86). 
* Cumberland Assize Rolls, 6 Edw. I. No. 132, m. 32d; 20 Edw. I. No. 135, m. 174. 
328 
