FEUDALISM IN GUERNSEY. 



61 



We have no documentary evidence af these forfeitures, 

 but about the year 1168 we find that the Fief clu Comte had 

 passed from the Earls of Chester and had already been for 

 two generations in the hands of the Wakes, for at that date 

 Hugh Wake gives to the Abbey of Longues, which he had 

 recently founded in Normandy, certain lands, on his fief in 

 Guernsey, still called " Le Fief de Longues," at St. Saviour's, 

 formerly belonging to his father, Geoffrey Wake, a contem- 

 porary of Stephen. Roger, Vicomte du Cotentin, left no 

 descendants, and his vast possessions in Normandy went to 

 his niece Letitia, wife of Ralph Tesson. The viscountship of 

 the Cotentin, however, remained escheated to the Crown. 

 Letitia seems to have possessed some lands in Guernsey, pro- 

 bably those of the demesne lands of the viscounts, but she is 

 only mentioned in connection with the island in one charter 

 whereby she confirms, as overlord, the gift made by Robert 

 Le Boutillier to the Abbey of Marmoutier of certain lands 

 that he held on her fief. 



From the charters of the Norman abbeys of the twelfth 

 century, and the Extente of 1274, which mentions many of 

 the lands forfeited in the reign of King John, we get an idea 

 of the feudal holdings in Guernsey previous to the separation 

 of Normandy. We find the island was divided at the end of 

 the 12th century into a nnmber of fiefs mostly held by the 

 great Norman families of the Cotentin. The fief of the 

 Yicomtes du Bessin was divided between the Wakes, Seig- 

 neurs of Fief du Comte, and the Abbey of Mont Saint 

 Michel. These held the two largest manors in the island, 

 and of them, Roger Suhart, member of an important family 

 of the Bessin, held the Fief Suhart in the Castel and St. 

 Peter's-in-the-Wood, and Robert Legat, another large fief at 

 the Vale. The remainder of the island, representing the old 

 fief of the Vicomtes du Cotentin, was also divided into a 

 number of small manors. Of these, the Sires du Rosel held 

 the Fief Rosel at St. Peter-Port ; the Seigneurs of Anneville 

 en Saire held the Fiefs of Anneville and Foville at St. Samp- 

 son's, which had probably been in their possession for three 

 generations, as they were forfeited, in the reign of King John, 

 by two cousins, John and Sampson d' Anneville ; the Le 

 Boutilliers held manors at St. Martin's and St. Andrew's ; the 

 de Barnevilles, descendants of the Sires de Rosel, seem to 

 have held the Fief of Jerbourg, now known as Sausmarez 

 Manor, and another member of the same family, Robert 

 Mauvoisin de Rosel, held the Fief of Mauvoisin, at St. 

 Saviour's, which he gave to the Abbey of Blanchelande ; 



