Page:VCH Hertfordshire 1.djvu/317

 THE DOMESDAY SURVEY different Hundreds, we obtain the names of the jurors for each. 1 We have eight jurors apiece for the Hundreds of Edwinstree and Odsey, and sixteen for the double Hundred of Broadwater. I have elsewhere shown that the number named was eight for each Hundred, of whom four were evidently natives and four were new settlers. 8 In these three Hertfordshire Hundreds one can identify several of the jurors, and it is interesting to find the Normans and the English making their return jointly. In one case an actual tenant-in-chief, namely Goisbert de Beauvais, is found among the sworn men ; and in the same Hundred, that of Broadwater, two of Robert Gernon's tenants, William of Latch- worth (a Norman) and .^Elfward of Mardley (an Englishman), are found as jurors together. Two tenants of Geoffrey de Mandeville can be recog- nized among the names namely Thorkill, a native, who is named, from his holding only, ' of Digswell,' which estate he had held before the Conquest of Geoffrey's predecessor ; and Germund, who held of him two estates in Broadwater Hundred, but retains his Norman name as Germund de St. Ouen. This mention of his surname, which is not found in Domesday, is an interesting piece of information, for earl Geoffrey de Mandeville's return in 1166 records that a ' Germund de St. Ouen ' had held of him four knights' fees. 3 The English jurors are harder to identify, being probably of lower status, at least in Norman eyes. But of one of these we shall hear again, for Godwine 'de Hore- mere' was the English tenant who held at Hormead of no less a man than Eadgar the ^Etheling himself. Returning now to Domesday Book, we may say that its Hertford- shire portion presents three features of special interest. Of these the first is the occurrence under Edward the Confessor of the class of small holders known as sochemanni, and its almost total disappearance under William the Conqueror. The second is the peculiar, if not unique, development of the great manor of Hitchin. And the third is found in the personality of the chief landowners, English and Norman, and the devolution of their lands. In addition to these leading features, the rela- tion of assessment to value, the state of cultivation in the county, and its density of population will all deserve attention ; and there are as usual many entries of miscellaneous interest. It is frequently stated that the Norman Conquest affected only the English thegns the 'landed gentry' as we should now say by the con- fiscations it involved ; but Professor Maitland's researches have shown that, at least in the east of England, it involved the sharp depression of that class of socbemanni, whom he speaks of as 'very small people with very little land. . . peasants, at best yeomen.' 4 The occurrence of this interesting class is geographical in character ; it is virtually restricted to a certain district. Roughly speaking, we find sochemanni spreading like a fan, of which the handle is the Wash, and penetrating south into Hert- 1 Domesday Book (as above), iii. 498 ; and Hamilton's Injuisitio, p. 100. 265
 * feudal England, -pp. 118-23. * Red Book of the Exchequer, p. 345.
 * Domesday Book and Beyond, p. 64.