Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/497

 1920 THE EARLY SHERIFFS OF NORFOLK 489 the point at issue was raised by Ording, abbot of St. Edmunda (1146-56), who claimed for his own court, against the Norfolk authorities, jurisdiction over two of his knights. My reason for doing so is that the Pipe Roll of 1156 (2 Henry II) shows us Norfolk and Suffolk under separate sheriffs, of whom William de Fraxineto {alias ' de Fraisn' ' or ' de Fraisnei ' ) was the Suffolk sheriff,^ as he had been also for part of the previous exchequer year.^ One can, therefore, hardly doubt that he was the William ' de Frechnei ' of Blomefield's narrative.^ RetLtrning to William ' de Caisneto ' (or ' Chaisneto ' or ' Caisnei ' *) he appears to have become sheriff for both the counties (which had previously been separate) at Easter 1157.^ Thenceforth he held office till Michaelmas 1163, when he was succeeded by Oger ' dapifer '.^ He was then crippled by accumu- lated debt, owing £319 95. 8d. blanch, from his arrears of the county' s^rma, and £150 for three years' increment (crementum) on the old firma. He was also indebted to the Crown for £200 ' de misericordia ' from the seventh year (1161). In the eleventh year (1165) we find, appended to his debt, a memorandum : ' sed fuit attornatus inde Isaac ludeo per Rotulum Camere et per Rotulum archidiaconi.' In the twelfth year he paid off 20 marcs out of his £200 fine (p. 20), and in the next year (1167) he had a reprieve, because he was one of those who escorted the king's daughter to Saxony for her marriage.' On the same roll (p. 32) we find an important equation : the ' homines Willelmi de Caisn' ' of the Pipe Roll are found on the chancellor's roll as ' Homines Willelmi de Norwich *. In the Colchester cartulary ® he is styled WiUiam ' de Chaineto ' and William ' Vicecomes de Norwico '.^ I have shown above ^^ that he is found on the roll of the fourteenth year (p. 21) paying, as William ' de Norwico', one marc for the knight's fee which he held as ' William ' simply. On this same roll (p. 222) this identification enables us to 1 Pipe. Eolls 2-4 Hen. TI, pp. 8, 75, 126. ^ Ibid. p. 8. gathering in the bishop's garden. that the name of ' de Fraisnei ' (latinized as de Fraxineto) must have been derived from the French frinaie (an aeh-grove) and that of ' de Caisnei ' (latinized as de Caisneto, &c.) from the French cMnaie — which implies an earlier form chesnaie — (an oak-grove). Fresnai, La Frenaye, Fresney, Fresnaye, &c., are place-names in Normandy, and so are Quesnay and Cesney (Calvados). ' Filius Willelmi de Fraxineto' occurs as a knightly tenant of Earl Hugh Bigod in 1166 (Red Book, p. 395). ^ Pipe Roll 3 Hen. II, p. 76. He is there found accounting ' de firma dimidii anni ', of the two counties jointly, at Michaelmas 1 157. Part of the roll for this year is missing. ° Oger held office till the inquest of sheriffs in 1170. ' ' sunt in respectu quia vadit cum filia Regis in Saxoniam ' : p. 18 ; cf. p. 19. ' There is no index of personal names to this cartulary.
 * Mr. Hewlett gives, in a foot-note, the reasons for assigning to ' about 1150 ' the
 * Pipe Rolls 2-4 Hen. II (Record Commission). It is a most curious coincidence
 * Genealogist, xviii, 10. " p. 485.