Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/300

 242 NOTES AND QUERIES. In Charter B, the subject of our immediate interest, the manors mentioned are Berue and Ingliscumbe, which are the modern Englishcombe joining manors and Barrow Gurnay, near Bath, to ad- the south, in the Hundred of Keynsham. It is evident from the charter that these two manors, held of the Honour of Berkeley though situated in Co. Somerset, were within the regard of the royal forest of Keynsham, which was appurtenant to the castle of Bristol as we learn from the Patent Roll of 8 Hen. III., 1224 (p. 429, R.O.) wherein P[andulf], Bishop of Norwich and Constable of Bristol Castle, is ordered to deliver to Reginald de Hurle and John Little, the King's Castle of Bristol cum bertona et foresta et chacia de Keinesham et omnibus aliis ad castum illud pertinentibus to be held of the Bang at pleasure. This castle and borough Henry II. had conferred on his son John, but not absolutely, as we find the issues duly accounted for to the Exchequer in 1 Ric. I., though in the absence of his brother on Crusade John appears to have witheld them later on, at any rate until his return, when it was again taken into the King's hands. John, as is well known, assumed regal airs in view of Richard's departure for Palestine, never possibly to return. And this charter lends colour to that fact, so evident from other circumstances, because by the terms of it he confirms to Robert son of Robert FitzHarding, in consideration no doubt of money much beyond the 60 marks men- tioned in Charter C, no^ only enclosed parks but also deer-leaps. A deer-leap consisted of a portion of a paling so con- structed that deer could pass from forest or from chase into a park but could not get out again, and this was a concession utterly forbidden, being contrary to forest law. True the charter is only a 'confirmation of a royal charter of older date, yet it is for that reason a confirmation which the King alone was competent to grant. It is in- teresting, in passing, to note that the men- tion of deer-leaps, warren, and dogs hints at the possible origin early in the twelfth century of the Berkeley Hunt, so famous still. For its actual origin we must go beyond the Berkeley FitzHardings to the original Berkeleys. Smyth tells us (vol. i., p. 32) that King Stephen confirmed to Roger de Berkeley iii. his existing grant of free warren in all his demesne lands of Berkeley. A fair suggestion might suggest that the said warren was first granted to his father, Roger de Berkeley ii., the founder of an Augustinian Priory at Stanley St. Leonards, when Henry I., accompanied by his newly married wife Adeliza of Loraine, kept his Easter of 1121 at Berkeley. Of the witnesses in the test -clause : STEPHEN RIDEL was John's Chancellor. He is so designated in ' Gesta Ricardi,' as well as in a Bristol charter of approxi- mately the same date (Corrv's * Bristol,' p. 208). In the Pipe Roll of 1 Ric. I. (p. 18), we find the Sheriff of Co. Lancaster accounting for moneys amounting to 29 14s. 6d., "to be repaid into the Ex- chequer by Stephen Ridel for Count John who had them." Lancaster was one of John's many strong castles conferred on him by his too generous brother early in 1189. Stephen Ridel was perhaps a son of Jordan Ridel, Lord of Cossington, Co. Somerset, temp. Hen. II. (Collinson's 'Somerset,' p. 434), and doubtless a cadet of the family of Geoffrey Ridel, Justiciar of Hen. I., who perished on the White Ship, and related also to Geoffrey Ridel, Bishop of Ely, who died in 1189. HAMON DE VALONIIS, a member of the Kentish branch (Pipe Roll, 33 Hen. II.) of a once-famous baronial family who originally came from the coast of the Cotentin (Eyton's 'Itinerary of Hen. II.'), and therefore a relative of Philip, grandson of Peter de Valoignes, a companion of the Conqueror. He appears about this time to have been Constable, perhaps Lieutenant, of John's castle of Bristol, as in the Pipe Roll of 1 Ric. I. we find Hugh Bardolf (Sheriff in 1189)* accounting for 73 4s., for 80 measures of corn "delivered toHamon de Valoigniis," ?ossibly for the victualling of the Castle. n 3 John he was Sheriff of Cos. Cambridge the Deputy In 1196 he was ^Justiciar in Ireland. He was succeeded and Hants (3rd Report of Keeper of Public Records). by a son Hamon the Younger ( ' Testa de Nevil'). RALF MOBIN occurs frequently in the Pipe Rolls of the time. Thus, in 33 Hen. II. 1186-7, he accounts to the Exchequer for 17 10s. of Winchester money (of the Royal Treasury) which had been lodged in the castle (in turre) of Northampton and lost through ill custody. He was in fact, or had been, Sheriff or Under-Sheriff of Co. the last year of Hen. II., 11 88- 1 1 89.
 * The Pipe Roll of 1 Ric. I. chiefly concerns