Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/493

 1920 THE EARLY SHERIFFS OF NORFOLK 485 lohanni filio Robert! maneriiim de Bliccling de donainio Episcopi Nor- wicensis pro servitio j militis, quod modo tenet [c] Willelmus, frater eius. In both documents the dividing point is the death of Henry I ; in both it is now possible to identify, as early sheriffs of Norfolk, Robert Fitz Walter and his sons. This has not been done before : indeed, the Red Book index (p, 1219) merely enters the sons, under ' lohannes ', as ' filius Roberti', and 'Willelmus frater eius ' as occurring on pp. 392, 402, with no cross-reference to 'Chesneto', under which (p. 1139) the various forms of this name are grouped.^ Even the well-known local antiquary, Mr. Walter Rye of Norwich, has plunged the evidence in confusion. Although he knows that the Clares, a great baronial house, were quite distinct from the Cleres, a local Norfolk family,^ he asserts that 'in 1166 Ralph de Clere held Filby of John, son of Robert Fitz Walter, i.e. de Clare ',^ and bases a theory thereon. He again alleges, on the same evidence, that * By 1166 Robert Fitz Walter gave Filby to Ralph de Clere, who was presumably one of his own family ' (i. e. the Clares).* Yet, as we shall see, the above John died some twenty years before 1166, and was not a ' de Clare ', while Filby was given to Ralf de Clere, not by Robert Fitz Walter, but (as the carta states) by William {de Caisneto).^ Every carta drawn up in 1166 has, or ought to have, its correla- tive on the Pipe Roll of 1168 (14 Henry II), for this roll records the payments in respect of the knights' fees enumerated in the cartae. But the ' Carta Roberti filii Walteri ' has no correlative, — or rather, it has two : Gaufridus Axchidiaconus Cantuar' redd. comp. de i marca . . . pro dominio suo de Mor. In perdon' per breve Regis ipsi Archidiacono i m. Willelmus de Norwico redd. comp. de i marca . . . pro i Mil. In thesauro libera vit.^ The so-called ' Carta Roberti filii Walteri ', which I have printed above, explains how the archdeacon of Canterbury came to be holding Mor, and his position as an official explains why his The sequence in the cartae is confirmed by a charter granted to Castle Acre priory, ' pro anima [a] Roberti filii Walteri et [b] lohannis filii eius et pro anima [c] Willelmi de Chaineto ' {Oenealogist, xviii. 3). ^ See his Norfolk Families (1911), pp. 103, 104-5. ' Ibid. p. 105. He is here citing the carta printed above. ' I have found that there was a papal confirmation, in 1163, of the vill of Horsham (with Alderford mill) and of Horsford church, as well as of tithes from Filby and ' Mor ', to William's foimdation at Horsham St. Faith's (Cotton MS. Aug. ii. 136). ' Pipe Boll 14 Hen. II, p. 21.
 * General Index to Coat Armour used in Norfolk before 1563 (1918), p. 93.