Page:VCH Hertfordshire 1.djvu/350

 A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE alleged to be Chisfield (in Graveley) which is undoubtedly an ancient manor, and the manorial history of which would harmonize with this identity. But in Domesday the name ' Chisfield ' would be represented by ' Cisfelle,' which differs very widely from the three forms above. 1 They would be represented now by some such name as ' Shelve,' and in Worcestershire the ' Scelves' of Domesday has finally become ' Shell.' It would seem therefore that the nearest equivalent is the manor of Chells (with Boxbury) in Stevenage where ' Sheaf Green ' appears also to represent the name. In Hertfordshire the Domesday Hundreds are nine in number, ' Albanestou,' ' Brachinges,' ' Bradewatre,' ' Danais ' (or ' Deneis '), ' Edwinestreu,' * Herford,' ' Hiz,' ' Odesei,' and ' Treung.' But of these ' Hiz' (Hitchin) is styled a 'half Hundred; and Broadwater, we learn further from the Inquisitio Eliensis? was a ' double ' Hundred, a statement confirmed by its Domesday jurors being sixteen in number instead of eight. Of these Hundreds ' Albanestou ' is now represented by Cashio, ' Brachinges ' by Braughing, ' Bradewatre ' by Broadwater,' ' Danais ' by Dacorum (which early absorbed the Hundred of ' Treung ' or Tring), and ' Hiz ' by Hitchin. Edwinstree, Hertford and Odsey are easily recog- nisable. It is of interest to note that of the Domesday Hundreds, Hert- ford, Hitchin, Tring, and Braughing took their names from well-known places ; the Broadwater and Odsey, which gave to two others their names, have also been identified, and Mr. Page has discovered on an assize roll of 1278 mention of an ' Edwynestree ' as the actual spot on which the Hundred court was held. ' Albanestou ' was, of course, the district subject to St. Alban's abbey ; ' Daneis ' remains unexplained. The ' roll of Mathew Mantel,' an early document, contains valuable information on the profits obtained by the sheriff from the Hertfordshire Hundreds. On it they are entered as ' Daneis,' ' Bradewatre,' ' Hiche,' 'Edwinestre,' 'Odeseye,' and ' Hertford and Brakinghe' (farmed jointly) ; Tring has disappeared and Cashio is omitted as exempt. 8 As it is to William the Conqueror himself that we owe the priceless record of Domesday, that great survey which his English subjects resented bitterly at the time, one may close with two glimpses which its Hertfordshire portion affords of the better side of his nature. Three priests were allowed to remain undisturbed on the small estates they had held under Edward the Confessor (fo. 142), and 'a most remarkable story,' as Mr. Freeman termed it, shows us the grim Conqueror restoring to an English thegn his substantial manor at Tewin ' for the soul of Richard his son ' (fo. 141^). This was the King's ' second son Richard, a lad of great promise, not yet girded with the belt of knighthood, who was cut off in the New Forest by a sudden and mysterious stroke while the wearied stag was fleeing for its life before him.' * Less merciful than his 1 There is reason, moreover, to believe that 'Chisfield' was originally a longer name. In Feudal Aids its earliest form is given as ' Chenesfeld ' or ' Chinesfeld,' while the above Index to British Museum Charters gives their earliest forms as ' Cheuesfeld ' or ' Chiuesfeld.' 8 See p. 264 above. s See Red Book of the Exchequer, p. 775. 4 History of the Norman Conquest (1871), iv. 613. 298