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 A HISTORY OF ESSEX relating to it is of very great importance as bearing on the actual con- struction by the Normans of moated mounds for their castles. 1 Both Suain and his father appear to have made additions to their estates by seizing on small holdings in their private capacity or as sheriffs. Owing to the number of his manors in the south-east of the county, Suain, lord of the marshland, was the greatest sheepmaster in Essex. It was reckoned that his marshes would carry over four thousand sheep. The fief of Hugh de Montfort is chiefly of interest for his suc- cession to ' Gudmund,' who had been his predecessor at Kelvedon, Pur- leigh, Latchingdon, Rayne, Markshall and Sandon (?). Gudmund was a brother of Wulfric, who had been abbot of Ely and had taken advan- tage of that position to lease to him certain manors in order to enable him to marry well. The only Essex manor of the abbey so parted with was 'Bedenestede' (Sandon?), 2 and in the Domesday entry relating to it the claims, of the monks are mentioned. Another ' Honour ' formed from an Essex Domesday fief was that of ' Peverel of London,' which is also, in at least one instance, styled the Honour of Hatfield Peverel. 3 These honours are identical, not distinct, 4 but must be carefully distinguished from the Honour of ' Peverel of Nottingham,' which was only represented in Essex by the two manors of William Peverel. Morant confused the latter with the above great fief of Ranulf Peverel, of which the descent was entirely distinct, for it escheated to the Crown under Henry I., and placed at the disposal of Stephen the means of rewarding his followers handsomely in this county." Rannulfs fief was virtually restricted to the eastern counties, and his English predecessors can be traced in more than one of them. ' Ketel,' for instance, who had held Prating was probably the/ ' Ketel ' who had preceded him in a Suffolk manor and at Walsinghftm, Melton (Con- stable) and Ketteringham in Norfolk. We may observe, perhaps, in the Essex survey that Ranulf had frequently succeeded a man named Siward', but it is only when we turn to that of Suffolk that we find him identified as ' Seward of Maldon ( ' de Meldona ' ) a thegn,' who had held the great manors of Acton and Assington with another at Icklingham. In Essex, besides his estate at Maldon itself, he had possessed very valuable manors at Debden, Amberden and Stebbing, and others at Hazeleigh, Woodham Mortimer, Willingale Doe, Bradwell-by-Sea, Stangate-in- Steeple, Rettendon, Tolleshunt Darcy and St. Osyth. Rannulfs fief is immediately preceded, in Domesday, by that of Ralf Bainard, which, like his own, was associated with London through Ralf 's tenure of ' Castle Baynard,' to which we subsequently find some of his Essex manors rendering castle-ward. Ralf, who had acted as sheriff of the county, appears to have fixed on Little Dunmow as his 1 ' In hoc manerio fecit Suenus suum castellum ' (compare p. 300 above). So late as 1 1 69 Rayleigh (with its port) appears to have been still alternatively known as 'castellum Suein ' (Fife Roll, 1 5 Hen. II. p. 1 34). 2 Liber Ellensis (Anglia Christiana Society), i. 218-9. See, for its identity, p. 390 below. 3 Red Book of the Exchequer, p. 740. 4 They are indexed as if they were distinct in Red Book of the Exchequer, pp. 1194, 1234. 5 See my Geoffrey de Mandevtlle. 346