A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



independent existence for civil purposes later, 9 and ecclesiastically was a 

 chapelry to Ware. 



The assessment of this hundred was evidently based on a 6-hide unit. 

 This is shown clearly in the assessment of Bishop's Stortford* at 6 hides, 

 Stanstead,' Eastwick 11 and Hunsdon 12 together at 24^ hides, Westmill" 

 at 12 hides, Standon u and Thundridge ls together at 12 hides, and Ware" 

 at 24 hides. The total as it stands (counting Stanstead, Hunsdon and 

 Eastwick at 24 hides, which must have been the original number) is 

 116 hides 3 virgates 21 acres. Evidently 3 hides and 9 acres had dropped 

 out of an original assessment of 120 hides. These 3 hides and 9 acres, 

 if distributed among Sawbridgeworth, Thorley, Braughing, Wickham and 

 Eia (the only places in 1086 not corresponding with the 6-hide unit), 

 bring up the assessment of Sawbridgeworth and Thorley together to 30 hides, 

 Braughing to 6 hides, and Wickham and Eia together to 6 hides, which 

 was probably the original apportionment. 17 



The conditions of tenure before the Conquest show comparatively few 

 estates held in demesne by tenants of any importance, but a great number 

 of holdings, some of very small extent, in the hands of 'men,' sokemen, or 

 thegns of the larger landholders. 18 Thus Asgar the Staller had, besides a 

 large estate formed of Sawbridgeworth and most or Thorley, men or 

 sokemen at five different places; Earl Harold, who had no demesne lands in 

 this hundred, had tenants also in five places, and six tenants of the king held 

 land in the hundred. King Edward himself had no lands in demesne, but 

 trom the pre-Conquest tenants given in the Domesday Survey it seems 

 probable that Braughing, Westmill, Hunsdon, and Eastwick were once in 

 the king's hands, whilst the payment to the king's sheriff due from Stanstead 

 Abbots points to that also having been once royal demesne. The result of 

 the Conquest was a considerable simplification of tenure, most of the 

 divided estates of 1066 being held in 1086 by some great Norman baron 

 who had taken over, not only a pre-Conquest lord's own estate, but also 

 those of his sokemen (cf. the holding of Asgar the Staller and his men in 

 Stanstead, Sawbridgeworth, Thorley and Wickham acquired by Geoffrey de 

 Mandeville and the holding of Alwin of Godtone and his men in Stanstead 

 acquired by Ranulf). This may be compared with the tenurial conditions 

 in Odsey Hundred, where the small, divided estates of the pre-Conquest 

 period seem in many cases to have survived the changes in ownership 

 (cf. particularly Hinxworth). 1 * 



fi Its ongin.il assessment was evidently with Standon (see below), but later it was included for fiscal 

 purposes in Ware {cf. Subs. R. bdlc. I 20, no. 8 [1 Edw. II], where the lord of the manor of Thundridge 

 [Adam de Swill in gton] is assessed undtr Ware). See also Assize R. 325 (15 Edw. I), where it is called the 

 ' hamlet of Thundridge.' 



9 f.C.H. Hem. i, 308*. 10 Ibid. 326,5, 332a, 3354, 343*. XI ibid. 335^. 



■ Ibid. 344*. is Ibid. 324A 3254. 14 Ibid . uzb _ 



i5 Ibid. ;n*. le ibid. 326^. 



17 Sawbridgeworth was assessed at 2 4 £ hides (F.C.H. Her!,, i, 332*), Thorley at 4$ hides (ibid. 308*, 

 332,*). These with I hide added make up 30 hides. Braughing needs I hide added to'its 5 hides (ibid. 

 322*) to make up 6. Wickham (ibid. 308a, 332^, 33^) was assessed at 4 hides I virgate 21 acres, and 

 Eia (ibid. 3110) at \ hide. These with I hide and 9 acres added make 6 hides. These additions make up 

 the 3 hides 9 acres. is See Domesday Survey, V.C.H. Herts, i, 288. 



19 The numerous manors found in Standon and Ware in Braughing Hundred at a later date may 

 perhaps represent arrangements made before the Conquest, the tenants of that date continuing to hold, but 

 under the new Norman lord. 



290 



