Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/203

 1920 BARONY AND THANAQE 195 conclusion can we come to than that a court in which pleas of inf ang- thef were held, a court baron, in short, was the essence of barony ? ^ To go through the southern counties as we have gone through the northern ones is as unnecessary as it would be tedious ; for the acknowledged authorities on barony, whatever their differ- ences, have always agreed in regarding Northumberland as affording ' notable evidence on the use of the word " barony " ' for the whole country.^ In truth, the only difference between the northern and the southern baronies arose from the fact that the frankpledge system, non-existent in the north, ^ was universal in the south, and in consequence the southern barons had the view of frankpledge as well as infangthef. Sometimes, indeed, there were also local differences, as in Kent, where archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and barons had utfangthef as well as infangthef in their lands ; but they had this of special grace, and from the case of the barons of the Cinque Ports it appears that there as elsewhere infangthef alone was enough to constitute barony.* In general, the southern barons claimed only to have infangthef and the pleas of the sheriff's tourn, as in Shropshire,^ or infangthef and the view of frankpledge, as in Cambridgeshire,^ or view of frankpledge and gallows, as in Hertfordshire.' Among them was the baron of Burford,* whose title, in common with those of the barons of Greystoke, Kinderton, Hilton, and Stafford, has long puzzled all interested in barony. Can we doubt that these are but surviving instances of a once general use of * baro ' to designate the holder of an office identical with that of a ' thane ' and comparable with that of an ' earl ' or a ' sheriff ' ? Trent in Nottinghamshire in which the court gave this decision. Domesday Book has instances of several thanes holding one manor in common ' cum saca et soca ' ; e. g. i. 227 b. if this definition of barony be correct there must have been hundreds of barons in England, we can cite Scotland, a far smaller and less populous country, where, never- theless, there were in the fourteenth century over 300 baronies, besides thanagea (Nelson, op. cit. p. 181). " Round in Magna Carta Commemoration Essays, p. 61, ' Morris, The Frankpledge System, p. 48. eecca et tol et team et infangthef ', received also of special grace a grant that they should have utfangthef in their lands within the said ports, as archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and barons had in their manors in Kent ' (Col. Charter Rolls, ii, no. 344). This statement is fully borne out by the Plac. de Quo Warr. pp. 321 ff. ; e. g. in Lord Badlesmere's barony of Chilham (p. 321). ii. 598). ' e. g. William de Say in the barony of Maundeville {ibid. p. 288). p. 119), and Kinderton (Ormerod, iii. 189) certainly, and the barons of Hilton and Stafford probably, had infangthef. The title as well as the lands, &c., descended to women ; for in 15 Edward II Stretton was said to be held of Thomas de Pipe and Margaret his wife, baroness of Stafford {Col. of Inq. vi, no. 330). O 2
 * Should any student of the Plac. de Quo Warr. and the Rot. Hundr. protest that
 * 12 February 1290, the barons of the Cinque Ports, having already ' socca et
 * e. g. Peter Corbet in the barony of Caws (ihid. p. 686).
 * e. g. the Earl Marshal in the barony of Ducksworth {ibid. p. 102 ; Testa deNeviU,
 * The barons of Burford {Rot. Hundr. ii. 74, 103), Greystoke {Plac. de Quo Warr.