Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/80

72 Leicestershire and Northamptonshire

At the head of the accounts for Northamptonshire and Leicestershire, Richard Basset and Aubrey de Vere are entered as jointly accounting for the current farm of the counties, while Hugo de Legecestria is entered as accounting for the farm of the year preceding. In the printed List Hugo de Legecestria is indicated as the predecessor of the joint sheriffs whose tenure of service is assigned to the year 1129–30. But hidden away among the various items that constitute the new business of the year, set apart on the roll from the old business by the heading, Nova Placita et Nove Conventiones, there appears the significant entry:

"Hugo de Warelvilla reddit compotum de .cc. m. argenti de Gersoma pro Comitatibus habendis usque ad .v. annos. In thesauro .xx. m. argenti. Et in perdona Eidem Hugoni .c. et quater .xx. m. argenti quia non tenet nisi dimidio anno."

If the sense of this passage is that Hugh had agreed to pay 200 marks of silver for a five years' lease of the counties, but is excused from paying 120 marks because he held the counties only half a year, it would seem that he should be credited with the shrievalty for that half-year. It should be noted, however, that in the roll he is not held accountable for any part of the current farm. If Hugh's term be correctly dated, then the beginning of that of the joint sheriffs, Richard Basset and Aubrey de Vere, must be postponed to Easter 1130. Lincolnshire

The accounts of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire begin, as is shown immediately above, with an entry in which Richard Basset and Aubrey de Vere jointly account for the current farm of the year 1129–30. In the entry immediately following, Hugh of Leicester accounts for a large remainder of the ' old farm ' of the year 1128–9, pays down some £52, and is still debited with more than £170. ^The next entry, the third, states that:

"Idem Hugo debet .c. et quater .xx. et .xj. l. et .xxij. d. pro separatione comitatus Linc' et pro forisfacturis Comitatuum."