Page:VCH Essex 1.djvu/458

 A HISTORY OF ESSEX Colchester. The urban portion of Maldon seems to have been wholly the king's, but Count Eustace, Ranulf Peverel, and Suain of Essex all had rural estates in ' Maldon,' the largest and most valuable being that (fo. 73) in which Ranulf had succeeded Siward (' of Maldon ') and which was oddly omitted by Morant. The most interesting, however, is that of Suain, for it is entered as sharing with the other ' burgesses ' (although agricultural) the duty of rinding a horse (caballum) in the host and of providing (faciendam) a ship. The latter part of the service thus incidentally mentioned is explained by the charter of Henry II., known only through a note in Morant's work (i. 331). The king therein limits the ' forinsec ' service of the burgesses to the provision of one ship in the fleet (in exercitu) for forty days at their own cost when they are specially summoned by his letters to provide it. A few miscellaneous matters may here be grouped together. The frequent allegation of ' exchange ' should be observed ; it would seem that, when a holder could not produce a satisfactory title to his land, this was the plea usually advanced to account for its possession. A somewhat unusual dispute is referred to under Geoffrey de Mandeville's fief. There are entered together 3 manors, of which we read that the king directed Hugh de Berners to hold them of Geoffrey, if Geoffrey could prove them to belong to his fief (fo. 61). Hugh was involved in another dispute, which is entered among the ' Invasiones ' (fo. ioo<), and of which the record is interesting but obscure. The practice of assigning on manors where a Norman baron was seated ' small holdings ' to Norman retainers is illustrated at Hatfield Peverel, where ' Serlo, Ernulf and Richard' are named (fo. 72), at (Castle) Hedingham, where 90 ' acres ' are held in varying amounts by four named tenants (fo. 76^), and at Belchamp Walter (which appears to have been another seat of Aubrey de Vere), where three such tenants are named (fo. 77). Of political events Harold's victory at Stamford Bridge, on the eve of the Conquest, owes its incidental mention to the fact that an Essex thegn from Paglesham took part in his march to the north (fo. 15) ; and a mysterious ' naval battle against King William ' is referred to under Kelvedon Hatch, the lord of which had taken part in it (fo. 14^). A small point connected with the currency should not be overlooked. An Englishwoman, who was the holder of 1 8 acres, paid to the manor of Stan way 32 pence (nommos) a year. The word nummus (or nommus) is rare in Domesday, but the point to observe is that this sum of 32 pence represents two ounces of silver * and illustrates the practice of making payments based on the ounce of sixteen, not of twenty pence. The remaining portion of this introduction will deal with three important subjects : (i) The identification of Domesday manors in Essex ; (2) the administrative division of the county as seen in the Domesday Hundreds ; (3) the construction of the text in Domesday Book from the lost original returns for each Hundred. Morant, the historian of Essex, having given great prominence to 1 Compare Inquisitie comitatus Cantabrigiensis, p. 41, and pp. 378 above, i(.zo, 43Z below. 386