Page:VCH Bedfordshire 1.djvu/264

 A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE opposite side of the county we read of Countess Judith's manors of Everton and Hatley (Cockayne), both near Potton, as follows : M[anerium]. . . Euretone. . . Hoc M[anerum~ comes Tosti tenuit et jacuit in Potone M[anerio] proprio comitissas M[anerium] ... In Hatelai. . . Hoc M[anerium Tosti comes tenuit et jacet in Potone manerio proprio comitissae (fo. 2I 7 b). Nothing could well be clearer or less ambiguous than this ; in the above cases we have ' a tract of land ' entered as ' at one and the same time both a manerium and also a part of another manerium? Again a Charlton entry is of value in this connection. Bedfordshire, Professor Maitland observed, is one of those counties in which ' the symbol M., which represents a manor,' is found in the margin of the text. From this and from the occurrence of the phrase ' tenuit pro uno manerio ' he concludes that manerium was ' an accurate term charged with legal meaning,' that ' manerium has some exact meaning,' and * that this term has a technical meaning ... we cannot doubt.' * This conclusion I have elsewhere traversed, arguing that the phrase ' pro uno manerio ' is, on the contrary, mere surplusage, and that Domes- day uses indifferently the terms manerium and terra? Now we read of Charlton, a manor assessed of ten hides, to which the symbol M. is pre- fixed : — Hoc manerium {sic) tenuit rex Edwardus et fuit Tosti comitis. Hec terra fuit Berew[ita] de Potone T.R.E. 3 ita quod nullus inde separare potuit (217b). The point of the second clause is that Charlton, though formerly an appurtenance of Potton, was now held by a different person ; but I cite it as showing the alternative use of the terms manerium and terra. A precisely similar entry is found on fo. 213b : — In Cochepol tenet Robertus de Hugone iiii hidas pro uno manerio . . . Hanc terram etc. So also on the fief of the Bishop of Coutances we read of a four-hide estate held of him by Geoffrey de ' Tralgi,' to which the symbol M. is prefixed : — Hoc Manerium tenuerunt iii soch[emann]i . . . Hanc terram tenet episcopus (210). The entry which follows it and relates to Turvey contains precisely the same formula. Lastly we read of Count Eustace's estate at Odell, to which the symbol M. is not prefixed : — In Wadelle tenet Ernulfus de Arde. . . pro uno Manerio de comite Eustachio . . . Hanc terram tenuit Alwoldus (211). The danger of crediting the Domesday scribes with a technical and exact use of terms is here further illustrated. Allegations of ' disseisin ' are not unfrequent in the survey. Ralf Tallebosc is charged with having ' disseised ' William de Caron's father 1 Domesday Book and Beyond, pp. 107-8, 120, 128. a 'The Domesday Manor' in English Historical Review, xv. 293-5. 3 The words 'Manerium Judit.x comitissae' are here interlined. 210