Page:VCH Berkshire 1.djvu/390

 A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE The allusion in question is found in what might almost be de- scribed as a classical passage on the system, introduced at the Conquest, of enfeoffing knights on the lands of religious houses to perform the military service exacted from them by William. 1 The Abingdon chronicle expressly states that foreign knights were welcomed by the abbot and quartered on the manors of the house for this purpose, and its evidence enables us in many cases to determine the holdings in respect of which the knights owed the abbey their quota of service. 2 For the topographical history of the county this evidence is of much value. One may mention, perhaps, in this place another and a very interesting piece of evidence that it affords. We learn from it that a certain Dane, who had held seven hides at (East) Hendred, had given to the Abbey the tithe of his demesne, that is four hides. 3 In Domes- day we find Cola succeeding Sawin as a thegn holding there seven hides, reduced in 1086 to seven virgates. But within ten years of Domesday the thegn was replaced by a Norman, as was sometimes the case, for Robert Marmion, with his son Helto, renewed the gift at some date before 1097.' Helto bestowed the estate on ' the monks of Caen,' but Abingdon Abbey retained the tithe." On referring to the records of St. Stephen's, Caen, we duly find that seven hides had been given to that house at (East) Hendred, 8 a notable instance of the Domesday reduction having been replaced by the pre-Domesday assess- ment. 7 We further find that, at Caen, the ' Abbaye aux Dames ' received lands in Normandy from Hawys wife (i.e. widow) of Robert Marmion, on her becoming a nun there in 1 106, with the consent of her sons Roger, Helto and Manasses. 8 The vast estates of Abingdon Abbey offered occasion for much dispute. According to the abbot it had been the practice for the monks to dispose of their patrimony as they would,' and Godric Cild, an inmate of the house, who held Sparsholt ' patrimoniali jure,' 10 had accordingly bestowed it on the abbey, for which he had King Edward's writ and seal and the attestation of all his brethren." But the men of the shire asserted that the monk had only held a life interest in the manor, and that they had never seen the King's writ and seal confirming it to the abbey. In this case the abbey retained the land, but it had to disgorge Whitchurch (Oxon) as to which a similar dispute had arisen, 11 and which was secured by Wigod of Wallingford, 13 whose successor Miles Crispin held it unquestioned at the survey." Sparsholt, though 1 Feudal England, p. 305. can be compared. 3 Vol. ii. p. 23. < Ibid. p. 33. Ibid. p. 34. Cat. of Docs. France, 156, 157, 162. Cf. p. 287 above. 8 Cal. of Docs. France, p. 142. Chron. Ab. i. 477. 10 Ibid. 11 ' Abbas vero testatur quod in T.R.E. misit ille manerium ad zcclesiam unde erat, et inde habet breve et sigillum R.E. attestantibus omnibus monachis suis ' (Dom. Bk., fo. 59). " Chron. Ab. i. 477. 13 There can be little doubt that Leofric the monk of Abingdon, who was alleged to have given Whitchurch to the abbey, was that Leofric the monk whose estate at Betterton, in Berkshire, Miles Crispin had also obtained. " Dom. Bk., fo. 159. 296
 * The lists of their holdings in the Chronicle and in the Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Ser. 305-6)