FEUDALISM IN GUERNSEY. 



71) 



du Bessin, the other half being in the possession of the Abbey 

 of Mont St. Michel, so it would seem that the entire fief 

 of the Vicomtes was reckoned as a knight's fee. In 1253, 

 Baldwin de Vere, grandson of the above mentioned Baldwin, 

 sold his fief to Sir William de Chesney. Sir William did not 

 long enjoy peaceful possession, as in 1260, the Abbot of 

 Mont St. Michel claimed the whole fie I: as overlord, pleading 

 the original gift of Duke Robert II., 1028-1032. He died 

 shortly afterwards, leaving his widow, Felicia, to continue the 

 lawsuit. In 1268 the Abbot promised the Governor, Hugh 

 de Trubleville, " his dear friend," for his counsel and advice, 

 half the revenue of the market of " Les Landes du Marche " 

 which he also claimed, and should he win his cause, half of the 

 Fief du Comte to hold of him by homage. In other words, 

 the Abbot tried to bribe the judge to rob the widow.* He 

 was, however, unsuccessful, and the king confirmed the de 

 Chesneys in the possession of their lands. 



At the Assizes of 1299 and 1309, the de Chesneys were 

 called upon to show by what right they claimed one-fourth of 

 the wreck of the sea throughout the whole island, also the 

 right of court for their tenants, and of chase on the King's 

 Fief. Their reply was the first of the legends which grew up 

 around this fief, — namely, that Robert, Count of Mortain, had 

 given it to his servant, Baldwin de Vere, whose son and heir 

 had sold it to Sir William de Chesney, and that Sir William 

 Baldwin and the Earl had all enjoyed these privileges. In 

 face of documentary evidence still in existence, it is incom- 

 prehensible how such a statement could have been made. 



Fief du Comte was sold by Lord Willoughby de Broke, 

 in 1509, with the rest of his manors, to Nicholas Fouaschin. 

 It remained in the possession of the latter's descendants for 

 upwards of a century, when it was sold in 1630 by George 

 Fashion to Peter Priaulx. It was sold in 1722 by the Priaulxs 

 to the Le Marchants, and at the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century it passed by marriage from the latter to the Hutches- 

 sons. The present seigneur, Mr. T.. Hutchesson, has a splendid 

 collection of manuscripts relating to the fief. The Plea Rolls 

 of the Manor Court and the 44 Extentes " or Surveys of the 

 manor commence in the middle of the fifteenth century. 

 Other earlier documents referring to Fief du Comte are now 

 at Warwick Castle. They came into the possession of the 

 ancestors of the Earl of Warwick through the marriage of 

 Sir Fulke Greville with the heiress of the Willoughbys, in 

 the sixteenth century. 



* Tupper. History of Guernsey, 2nd Ed., p. 73. 



