Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/175

1922 exchequer official, succeeded Aiulf in Dorset before 1118 and in Somerset by 1123. During the fiscal year 1128–9 he held Wiltshire as a third county. William of Eynesford was employed for a long term which was divided between various counties. Aubrey de Vere, heir of a Domesday landholder and chamberlain, was sheriff of London and Middlesex probably before 1113 and as late as 1120; also of Essex, presumably in the years just preceding 1128. He and Robert fitz Walter were probably the only sheriffs of this group who could make pretensions to being of good family. Maenfinin Brito, sheriff of the counties of Bedford and Buckingham from 1125 to 1129, was a rising person who had probably acquired considerable possessions. Even excluding the various sheriffs of London and of Lincolnshire, the list points to the dominance of the new class of local officials who often serve for long periods. Some rule wider territories than those ever entrusted to the feudatory sheriffs, and some are professional sheriffs.

The firm entrenchment of the new order in its position is further shown by the fact that officials of this type are occasionally succeeded by near relatives. Gilbert at his death in 1125 made way in all three of his shires, as Mr. Round has shown, for Fulk his nephew. Anschetill de Bulmer, Osbert's successor, originally reeve of the North Riding and later the possessor through royal grant of some of the lands of former rebels, retained the shrievalty until his death in 1129, when it passed to his son, Bertram, the sheriff of 1130. William of Buckland for a time had two of the counties which his father had ruled, and the services of his family still find recognition in 1130 in the fact that he farms Windsor. Richard de Heriz, after an interval of some years,