1919.] EARLY CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 177 



in J. H. Round's " Calendar of Documents in France " {l) - 

 Mr. John Metivier, who also copied it, thought that Herclin- 

 roche might be identified with La Roque Roquelin in the 

 Castel parish, near Le Preel. It was certainly originally on 

 fief du Comte, for Baldwin Wac, the lord of the fief, confirms 

 the gift as overlord, but the land was also on the fief of Peter 

 Vivier and held of him as he also confirms as overlord in 1179. 

 We find from the pleadings of a suit tried at the Assizes held 

 in Guernsey in 1299, that the du Viviers held the manor of 

 Le Groignet, on which we learn Robert du Vivier had given 

 his daughter, Guillemote, a rente of eight quarters of wheat 

 as her marriage portion, and in 1299 her husband, William 

 Le Gay, sues him for it and for payment of arrears. < 2) It is 

 quite possible that the du Viviers were already in possession 

 of Le Groignet in 1179, and that the land at Herclinroche 

 was originally on this manor. It was a dependancy of fief du 

 Comte, and this would exactly fit in with the double confirma- 

 tion of Godfrey du Vivier's gift by Baldwin Wac and Peter 

 Vivier. The du Viviers were an ancient Norman family, one 

 of whom, Godfrey du Vivier, witnessed a charter of Robert, 

 son of Robert de Courcy, in favour of the Abbey of 

 Marmoutier in 1105.< 3 > Their name appears frequently in 

 Guernsey documents of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. 

 At the time of the Assizes in 1309 John du Vivier, son of 

 Robert, Seigneur du Groignet, Avas summoned to show by 

 what right he claimed to have a court for his tenants and the 

 right of chase throughout the island. (4) 



The facts narrated in Peter Vivier's charter give us a 

 rather interesting instance of subinfeudations in Guernsey ; 

 they show us, between William de la Rue, the actual owner of 

 the land, and the King the supreme lord, no less than three 

 mesne lords, Baldwin Wac, Peter Vivier and Godfrey Vivier. 



Baldwin Wac, Seigneur of fief du Comte, who 

 confirms Godfrey Vivier's gift, was the head of a 

 great Norman family, lords of Negreville in the 

 Cotentin and of many other fees. Baldwin was also lord of 

 Bourne in Lincolnshire, and curiously as late as 1280 half a 

 knight's fee in the island of Guernsey still figured among the 

 knight's fees belonging to the honour of Bourne. Baldwin's 

 father, Hugh Wac, was the founder of the abbey of Longues 

 in Normandy, and among the lands he endowed it with, in 



(1) Cal : Doc. in F., p. 273, No. 749. 



(2) Assize Roll, Channel Islands, 1157, M. 7, Record Office, London. 



(3) Calendar of Documents in France, J. H. Round, p. 432. 



(4) Assize Roll 1309, p. 106. 



