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 A HISTORY OF ESSEX men, and the rashness of concluding that the liber homo was a smaller man than the thegn. Another such illustration is afforded by the facts which follow. The historic name of Ingwar was borne by an Essex thegn whom it doubtless proclaims to be of Danish blood. 1 His lands at Roydon, Southchurch, Birdbrook, St. Lawrence, and one of the ' Ings,' though widely scattered, passed to Ranulf brother of Ilger, which enables us to identify him also with that ' Ingewar,' otherwise ' Inguare a thegn of King Edward/ of whose lands in Huntingdonshire and at Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire Ranulf became the possessor. 2 This identification is chiefly of importance because Ingwar is in Essex styled a free man (liber homo) and in Cambridgeshire a ' thegn of King Edward,' which is one of several instances of these terms being used indifferently, and enables us further to detect him in that ' Ingar a thegn ' whose great manor at Burstead had passed to the Bishop of Bayeux. So famous are the ' house-carls ' in the tale of the Norman Con- quest that the mention of one of them in Domesday is always worth noting. The ' Sexi ' who, at one of the Layers, had been succeeded by Ralf de Todeni was clearly the ' Sexi housecarl of King Edward,' whom Ralf had also -succeeded at Westmill, Herts. Of more interest however is the case of ' Scalpinus,' of whom we read under Great Lees that Harold, receiving that manor from Ansgar, had given it to ' a certain housecarl of his, Scalpinus by name,' who had settled it on his wife in dower, 8 etc. I have no hesitation in identifying this ' Scalpinus ' as the ' Scalpius ' or ' Scapius ' who had held, as ' a thegn of Harold,' the manors of Chars- ford and Stutton in Suffolk, in which he had been succeeded by Robert Gernon. Returning to Essex, we find on Robert Gernon's fief a manor in Ardleigh, of which we read that it had been held by Scapius, and was attached to (jacet) a certain manor in Suffolk. William, its under- tenant, was doubtless the William d'Aunay who held the above Suffolk manors of Robert. Here then we have a ' house-carl ' holding a landed estate, nor was his case exceptional. Here is another illustration of the need for studying adjoining counties together. A curious story in the Suffolk Domesday throws light on the devolution of an Essex thegn's estates. In the south- eastern extremity of the former county we read under Falkenham (fos. 423^, 424) that ' Brictmar,' who held land there, had several estates (plures terras)^ of which a part was given by the king to Ingelric, another to Ranulf brother of Ilger, and a third to Ralf Pinel. This is followed by several entries, in which Ranulf had obtained the lands of men commended to Brihtmar or his mother ' Quengeuet.' Of the two small estates in Suffolk that Ralf Pinel 1 An Ingwar was one of the three leaders who had landed in East Anglia, at the head of a Danish host, in 866. 2 He must also however have been the ' Ingwar ' whose manor at Creshall, with that at Duxford, Cambs, not far off (the 'Ingara' of the latter entry is omitted by Ellis), were obtained by Count Eustace. 8 See p. 507 below. 352