Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/457

 DOMESDAY SURVEY as throughout England, the theory was that the land had, on one pretext or another, fallen into the Conqueror's hands, and had by him been granted out afresh, it might be to the previous holders, it might be to new tenants. An agreement is even dated from the time 'when the English redeemed their lands,' ^ and King William is said to have ' restored ' {reddidit) three manors to their pre-Conquest lord.* Royal grant was thus the chief title to land after 1066, but the king's confirmation of possession might be conveyed in various ways, by gift, by ' writ and seal,' or by ' livery and seisin.' A dis- pute arose over an estate at ' Wineberga ' in Bishop's Hundred, which Roger Bigot claimed by the king's gift [hoc reclamat de dono regis), but the Abbot of Ely questioned his right, and apparently the affair was compromised by Roger consenting to hold of the abbot, ' by respite ' {per respectum) }^* The outward sign of the gift might be a royal writ (breve) under the king's seal, a charter, or the record of a formal act of ' livery and seisin.' The writ occurs less often in Suffolk than livery, but it is found sufficiently often to prove that by it rights could be given over land, men, and soke. Roger Bigot had received a freeman with a small estate, but the hundred had seen neither writ nor ' liberator,' and evidently doubted the validity of the transfer. The Abbot of St. Edmunds had sac and soke and commendation in the days of King Edward over a number of freemen in the hundred of Stow, as writs and seal {brevia et sigillum) showed. King William had recog- nized the gift {Postea concessit Willelmus Rex). But the king's reeve had received payment for the soke of one of these men, and the case came up before the hundred, which testified that it did not know if St. Edmund had been disseised after King Edward's grant. In this interesting case King Edward's writ had been confirmed by King William ; but elsewhere we find the hundred testifying that Abbot Baldwin of St. Edmunds had a writ of King Edward giving him sac and soke over the Saint's lands and men, and this right he apparently claimed as still valid in 1086, without further con- firmation. At Poslingford, too, on Ralph Baynard's fee, St. Edmund had the commendation of a freeman in King Edward's time, and ' the king granted him the land,' and the hundred-jurors had seen the writ. At Clare, on the contrary. King William is seen disregarding the grants of his prede- cessors. Aluric son of Wisgar had given this important manor to St. John, and had committed it by charter {carta) to the guardianship of Levestan the abbot and of his own son Wisgar, with the provision that the clerks should not give or forfeit it away from St. John. But after King William came he took it into his own hands, and at the time of the Survey it was held by Richard Fitz Gilbert.*" A writ could be issued to the sheriff to order him '" Dom. Bk. 3603, ' Hanc terrain habuit Abbas in vadimonio . . . concessu Engelrici quando re- dimebant anglid terras suas.' The word ' redimere * in itself implies forfeiture ; cf. Inquisitio Eliensis (Rec. Com.), 520 ; four freemen forfeited (' foris fecerunt') their land to the abbot ; later the hundred did not see that they redeemed it (' postea non vidit hundredus ut earn redimerent '). '"Dom. Bk. 338^, Saxmondeham. Cf Vinogradoff, op. cit. 219-20; Ballard, op. cit. 5 ; Freeman, fiorman Conquesty iv, 723 ; Angl.-Sax. Chron. sub anno 1066 ; 'And menn guidon him [King William] gyld, and gislas sealdon, and sySSan heora land bohtan.' '" Inq. El. (Rec. Com.), 523/^, 524, ' Et mode Rogerus bigot tenet per respectum de Abbate' ; Dom. Bk. 3851J; cf ibid. Sahara [Soham] : R. Malet held of the king a freeman with I carucate ; the Abbot claimed and Robert now held of him ; ibid. 411 : G. de Mandeville holds a manor 'ex dono regis' ; ibid. 447 : Juchel or Juichell the priest ' reclamat de dono regis.' 379
 * " Dom. Bk. 3^6. 360^, 379, 41 3*, ' Rex concessit ei terram : ex hoc vidimus brevem'; 389^.