Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/458

 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK to put a lord in seisin of lands and men,*'* and such a writ, or a public act of ' delivery ' or ' livery ' w^ould be accepted as evidence of title in a court of zw. Roger de Candos held a carucate of land from Hugh de Montfort at Thorney, w^hich in the time of King Edward had formed part of the royal manor {fuk de dominio manerio soca regis). The ' hundred ' had 'heard tell ' that Ralph the Staller had held this plot in pledge or mortgage {in vadimonid) from the sheriff Toli, but they had not seen the writs or the ' liberator ' {sed non viderunt breves neque liber atoreni) . Ralph the Staller, however, had held on the day of King Edward's death, and after him Ralph his son. This evi- dence does not appear to have been sufficient to invalidate Hugh de Mont- fort's title, as the carucate in question is entered among his lands in Domesday Book.'" The actual ' delivery ' of lands or men, the liberatio or deliberation whereby seisin was given, was, of course, constantly appealed to as evidence of title, and the ' liberator ' could be called upon to ' warrant ' a transfer. A dispute arose in the borough of Ipswich over the church of St. Lawrence, which Turchil and Edric held, with 1 2 acres, apparently as the successors of a freewoman of the days of King Edward. Count Alan claimed this church as belonging to the fee of Earl Ralph, and called in Ivo Tailebosc as his liberator [revocat Ivonem 'Tailebosc ad liberatorem) . But Turchil and Edric vouched Roger the sheriff to warranty {revocant Rogerum vicecomitem ad gar ant'), saying that they had the church from him, and ' Roger was to them such a warrantor as any sheriff might justly be for the time of King Edward.' *'' Again, Roger de Ramis claimed the land and freemen of Wicolf, Roger Bigot's antecessor, at Coddenham and Hemingstone, in Bosmere Hundred, for he said that they had been delivered to him before Roger Bigot. The jurors of the hundred could not give a verdict, because the tenant, Warenger, held of both lords. But Warenger himself claimed to belong to Bigot's fee {revocat ad feudum Rogeri Bigot). Roger de Ramis denied this ' by all kinds of law' {hoc contradicit omnibus legibus).^^^ Of the issue of this plea we are left in doubt ; but in another case, where Roger de Ramis claimed ' by first livery ' a freeman with his land whom Roger of Poitou held, the hundred gave judgement in his favour, because the livery had been made to him first {et hundretus testatur quod sibi prius liberatum fuit.) *^° At Chilton and at 'Torstuna,' in Stow Hundred, Hugh de Montfort held in demesne, 'by livery, as he says,' sixteen sokemen with a carucate of land and seven bordars, but here the hundred testified that these men had belonged ' with all custom ' to King Edward's manor of Thorney."* Elsewhere the hundred was called on to witness that land was held without livery ; in these cases the tenant generally fell back on a second kind of title, the claim to succeed to all the rights of the previous holder, or antecessor, a claim which might even be pleaded against "* Dom. Bk. 377 ; ' Et Normannus dicit quod rex misit ei unum brevem ut saisiret Radulfum de Savigni ex omnibus liberis hominibus ex quibus Hubertus de portu saisierat episcopum ' (i.e. the Bishop of Bayeux) ; Vinogradoff, op. cit. 220-3, 427~8 ; Prof. VinogradofF cites the cases of the Abbot of St. Edmunds, Dom. Bk. 360^, and of Norman and R. de Savigny. '" Dom. Bk. 409^. On the power of the Domesday Commissioners to settle questions of title, cf. Vinogradoff, op. cit. 228 and n. i ; Round, Dom. Studies, ii, 541. '" Dom. Bk. 2903. ' Rogerus est illis talis guarant qualis aliquis vicecomes esset juste T.R.E.' '" Ibid; 3383 ; Vinogradoff, op. cit. 233-4. "" Dom. Bk. 352 ; cf. ibid. 355^ ; ' Bakessalla ': freemen and land 'liberati ' to Frodo for a manor; 374, 'Cratinga': freemen liberati ' with a manor ; 438^, ' Horan ': 'quos reclamat de liberatione.' '" Ibid. 4093. 380