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 A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE the fact that Domesday shows them holding a hide in Hoddesdon of the count seems to imply that there also Ingelric had been his predecessor. We can trace more clearly than usual the sources from which had been formed the count's Hertfordshire fief, for at Reed, Anstey, Corney(bury), Barkesdon (Green) and Wakeley, all in the north-east of the county, he had obtained the lands of ./Elfward, a 'man ' of Harold, 10 hides in all, while at Layston, Widdial and Hoddesdon he had secured those of ' Godid,' a ' man ' of Ansgar the staller, to the extent of 3! hides. It should be observed that the lands of this ' Godid ' were divided, for Ansgar's recognized successor, Geoffrey de Mandeville, obtained her 4 hides at Thorley (the title to which was disputed) 1 and one of the 2 hides she had held in Hoddesdon (fos. 139^, i4o). 2 Passing to the other tenants-in-chief, Robert Gernon was an Essex baron, whose chief seat was at Stanstead on the Hertfordshire border, which became known from Robert's successors as Stanstead Montfichet. Ralf ' de Todeni,' whose exact relationship to Robert ' de Todeni,' the lord of Belvoir, is uncertain, is of interest in more ways than one. Of exceptionally noble Norman birth, he was hereditary standard bearer of the duchy and lord of Thosny (' Toeni ') and Conches. The great estates he held in England were scattered in a strange fashion, the bulk of them lying in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire (where he held Clifford Castle) and in Norfolk. His two Hertfordshire estates, Flamstead and Westmill, were of no great extent, but it was at Flamstead that he seems to have fixed his chief residence ; and there his descendants in the male line flourished for more than two centuries after the date of Domesday. Ralf de Limesi, whose fief, similarly, was scattered over several counties, held some 25 hides in Hertfordshire, divided between the south and the extreme north of the county. He is chiefly of interest as a benefactor to St. Alban's Abbey, a cell of which he founded at Hert- ford. Another considerable tenant-in-chief was William de Ow, who had obtained the lands, as explained above (p. 277), of ' Alestan de Boscumbe.' His Hertfordshire estates were reckoned at some 26 hides. The two preceding fiefs however were far exceeded by that of Geoffrey de Mandeville, the recognized successor of Ansgar the staller, whose estates, which mainly lay along the eastern and southern borders, amounted to about 65 hides. 3 Geoffrey de Bech, the successor, as I have shown, of Ilbert, a former sheriff of the county, held over 40 hides. Peter de Valognes, the sheriff in 1086, deserves longer notice than the other Hertfordshire barons, because although his barony extended over six counties in the east of England it appears as a Hert- fordshire barony in 1 1 66, when his heir, Robert de Valognes, made return of its knights. 4 His Domesday holding in this county was rather over 40 hides, some half of which were in or about Bennington and 1 See p. 277 above. * Compare p. 276 above for such division. 3 The holding of count Eustace, the greatest lay tenant, only exceeded that of Geoffrey by ij hides. Tring alone accounted for considerably more than half of it (i.e. 39 hides). 4 Red Book of the Exchequer, pp. 360-2. 282