Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/494

 486 THE EARLY SHERIFFS OF NORFOLK October quota was remitted.^ More important is the name of William (de Caisneto ^), the William of the two cartae. His knight's fee was at ' Blieburc ' (Bljrthburgh, SufEolk), from which he drew, as William * de Caisneto ', £13 numero a year,^ and which had been given him, as a knight's fee, by Henry 11.^ Filby, the remaining manor mentioned in the carta, is yearly entered on the Pipe Rolls as accomited for by the sheriff,^ having been resumed by the Crown, as is stated by the caria. But who compiled the carta as that of Robert Fitz Walter ? And how did the exchequer know that its * William ' was William time, the editor of the Red Book was ignorant of both these identities, and has consequently failed to help the student, as he might have done, in his index. I must return, however, to John, William's elder brother. Succeeding his father, as both the cartae show, when interpreted, he figures, as sheriff of Norfolk, in St. William of Norwich, from 1143 to 1146 (?).^ His name, however, raises a chronological difficulty. Some time back I noted a document among the duke of Norfolk's muniments,' in which WiUiam, bishop of Norwich, grants ' that portion of the church of Stoches ® which pertains to the fee of Hugh de Polested '. This grant is dated by Mr. Rigg, its editor, as * 1239-40*, but the whole character of the deed suggests a distinctly earlier date. Among its witnesses are the prior of Bricett,* the parish priests of Caven- dish, Athlington (?), and Newton, and two knights — * Ebrardo milite de Bocsteda ; Fulcone milite de Geddinges '. Of these the former is identified a^ connected, not with the Suffolk Boxtead (as indei^^ed), but with the Essex Boxted ; for the Colchester cartulary ^^ contains charters relating to Boxted church, from which we learn that Everard de Boxted married Alice, sister of Hugh de Polsted, and became a monk at ' He is, at this period, a well-known witness to the king's charters. • This form is found on pp. 14, 17, &c., of the roll. • p. 14. The Pipe Roll of 4 Hen. II (p. 125) shows that he had held it from Christmas 1 157. • See the carta, as above, in Bed Book, p. 402, and the Testa de NeviU, p. 294 b : ' Bliburgh fait dominicum domini Regis H. .. . et dominus Rex Henricus dedit manerium illud Willelmo de Kesnet [«jc] pro servicio unius mUitis et modo tenet Robertus filias Rogeri ', etc. (return of 1212). Robert, we shall see, was William's son-in-law. ' On the Pipe Roll of 1165 (11 Hen. II), the sheriff accounts for 47«. from FUby (p. 10), and thenceforth for £5 yearly. • See the index under ' Caineto ' ««id the ' Chronological Table ' on p. Ixzxix. ' Beport on Manuscripts in Various Collections, vii 229. ' This was not, as indexed, ' Stoke ' (Norfolk), but Stoke by Nayland, adjoining Polstead (Suffolk). • For Bricett Priory, Suffolk, see my Ancient Charters (Pipe Roll Soc.), pp. 67-9. «• pp. 150-2.
 * de Norwico ' ; for this was no other than William du Quesnai
 * de Caisneto ' alias William de Norwich ? Even in our own