Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/93

 1920 THE FIRM A UNIUS N0CTI8 85 to explain the boroughs of Dorset, which otherwise seem a puzzling combination of geld and ferm-customs. In Dorecestre tempore regis Edwardi erant clxxii domus. Hae pro omni servitio regis se defendebant et geldabant pro x hidis scilicet ad opus Huscarlium unam markam argenti exceptis consuetudinibus quae pertinent ad firmam noctis. . . . In Brideport tempore regis Edwardi erant cxx domus et ad omne servitium regis. defendebant se et geldabant pro v hidis, scilicet ad opus Huscarlium regis dimidiam markam argenti exceptis consuetudinibus quae pertinent ad firmam unius noctis. . . . In Warham tempore regis Edwardi erant CXLiii domus in dominio regis. Haec villa ad omne servitium regis se defendebat et geldabat pro X hidis scilicet unam markam argenti huscarlis regis exceptis con- suetudinibus quae pertinent ad firmam unius noctis. . . . In burgo Sceptesberie tempore regis Edwardi erant c et iiii domus in dominio regis. Haec villa ad omne servitium regis se defendebat et geldabat pro xx hidis scilicet duas markas argenti huscarlis regis .^ These boroughs at one time had defended themselves by doing the whole service of the king,^ including the payment of the customary dues belonging to the ferm of a night. Upon this defence another burden was laid, and according as they were assessed to Danegeld at five, ten, or twenty hides they paid a half -mark, a mark, or two marks of silver to the king in support of his mercenary bodyguards called huscarls. When they were assessed to Danegeld, however (with the apparent exception of Shaftesbury), they were relieved of the parallel tax, the defence they had made by way of the ferm-customs. They became beneficially exempt from this render just as certain other lands in the king's demesne were exempt from Danegeld when they continued the older defence, the king's ferm. These boroughs, certain manors in the king's demesne, all of King Edward's demesne in Somerset may be said to have ' defended ' them- selves ad firmam, in support of the king's ferm, which would seem, therefore, to have been assessed upon them. Thus far we have followed hints leading through Domesday to a time when the firmu unius noctis was seemingly assessed upon land and in a manner corresponding to that which came to be followed in the levy of Danegeld. Later records complement and illuminate the Domesday evidence. For a certain tax, known as the hundred-pennies, will be found, I believe, to be no other than the customs of the ferm.^ In the Hundred Rolls » D. B. 75. and at Cherchefelle, D. B. 30 (above, p. 84). The idea underlying servitium and ojma would seem to be the same, the work of the king connected with his ferm. ' See ante, xxxiii. 62-72.
 * So at Bagshot, D. B. 60 b, ' de firma regis erat et ad opus regis calumnitae sunt ' ;