DOMESDAY SURVEY 



Bristric, son of Camme, or Cammesons, had a virgate of land which T.R.E. 

 had become independent of the king's manor called Braunton, but 'William de 

 Walvil restored it to Braunton in King William's time.' The other passage 

 is on fol. 85^, where it is stated in reference to Diptford, 'To this manor 

 another manor called Farley was added in the time of William de Walvil.' 



Excepting churches, which had to show that they were in possession of 

 the estates claimed by them on the day on which King Edward was alive 

 and dead, all claimants to property were required to establish their title either 

 by naming the person who had put them in possession {liberator), sucli 

 as the sheriff, or appealing to some other person as voucher {advocatus) who 

 had the king's authority, or else by producing the king's writ [breve)} But 

 there were two ways by which it was attempted to circumvent this require- 

 ment ; the first was by entering upon (pccupare) and claiming as appurtenant to 

 some manor of which the claimant was in lawful possession an estate which 

 in King Edward's time had been held independently [pariter or in paragio) . 

 The oft-recurring phrase used of land that it was held pariter, which is occa- 

 sionally equated with pro manerio or libere, means no more than that the land 

 to which it applies was not village or peasants' land subject to services, but an 

 independent holding or bookland. Whenever by usurpation an independent 

 bookland had been entered upon and made dependent on some other estate, it 

 figures in Domesday as 'an estate entered upon' {terra occupata). Besides 

 noting the fact in the body of the text, the Exeter Domesday gives a complete 

 separate list of ' estates entered upon.' The right to these was no doubt 

 specially reserved for the king to settle, and was usually a matter of pay- 

 ment. 



The other method — which, as Dr. Round has stated," was resorted to, to 

 conceal a defective title — was the allegation of exchange. Some exchanges 

 were no doubt quite genuine transactions, such as the acquisition by the 

 crown of Ermington and Blackawton (fol. 8 ^b) by exchange with Walter de 

 Dowai forBampton (fol. 345^), or the acquisition by the count of Mortain 

 of the castle of Cornwall (fol. 108) from- the bishop of Exeter in exchange 

 for Haxon and Benton, though in this case the exchange may not have been 

 altogether voluntary. But when Ruald Adobed is stated to hold West Panson 

 (fol. 343) by exchange, one may suspect that possibly Ralf de Pomeray made 

 the exchange because his title was not flawless.* And when of two of the 

 king's principal officials it is stated that Nicholas the crossbowman has 

 acquired Greenslinch (fol. 469^) and Bramleigh (fol. 473) by exchange, and 

 William the usher has acquired Cocktree and Crook Burnel (fol. 475), 

 Cadeleigh, East Raddon, Blackborough Boty, Bolham, Ilesham, and Sutton 

 Lucy (fol. 475 seq.) all by exchange, we may well ask whether all these 

 exchanges were genuine, or not set up to conceal irregular possession by force. 

 Was not Raddon, for instance, filched from a church tenant ? * 



Passing from general remarks to particular points, the first to deserve 

 attention is the position of the hundreds in this shire. With one exception 



' Freeman, Norman Conquest, v, 758. In Exeter Domesday, fol. 346, Walscin calls the king to vouch for 

 his holding Diptford of the queen. 



' F.C.H. Essex, i, 386. 



' Exeter Domesday, fol. 497, Ralf de Pomeria entered upon a manor called Panson, and gave it to Ruald 

 in exchange for ' Brochelande ' and ' Radiz.' 



* It was held T.R.E. by Edward the priest. 



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