Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/481

 DOMESDAY SURVEY churches ' {ecclesiae 'villae),^^ while at Combs the ' parishioners ' [parrochiani) of the church of Stow had been transferred to Combs Church."' The rights of the parish church and the growth of daughter churches or chapels to meet the needs of increasing population are well illustrated on the royal manor of Thorney, Here four brothers, freemen, had built a chapel on their own land near the cemetery of the mother church {mater ecclesia), and had made an arrangement about fees, which is carefully recorded in the Survey."* Another chapel, which had been built at Wissett, in Blything Hundred, was under the parish church, which was served by twelve monks [monachi).^^ Of the way in which the Church acquired land there are several interesting examples in the Suffolk Survey. At Stonham 20 acres had been given to the Church by nine freemen ' for their souls.' "' St. Edmund's Abbey held land which Gernon de Peiz gave back when he became a monk.'" The married priest Edmund gave the land which he received with his wife to the abbey of Ely."^ Most of the land held by the Church was ' free land ' [libera terra), the ' freedom ' probably here referring to exemption from the geld or from military services,"* and of a large number of Church estates it is expressly stated that they were held 'in alms' {pro elemosina, in elemosina).^^ Occa- sionally, as at ' Lundale ' in Lackford Hundred, a church without land {sine terra) is recorded. The clergy could, of course, hold of lay lords and by lay tenure. In Suffolk, in addition to the tenants-in-chief, Juichell the Priest and Walter the Deacon, we may note the freeman, Godric the Priest, com- mended first to the outlawed Edric, and then the ' man ' {homo) of Norman ; Godwin the Priest, the ' man * of Harold ; Warin {Guarinus), a priest of whom Walter of Dol was seised when he made forfeiture ; Aluric the Deacon, a commended freeman ; Algar, priest and freeman ; Edwin, priest and soke- man ; and the ' half-priest ' who was ' added ' to William of Warenne's manor of Middleton. Among the freemen of Roger Bigod we also find Liuric the Deacon, a ' half-freeman,' and Ansketil the Priest, Roger Bigot's chaplain {capellanus), who held a carucate of land which had belonged to seven freemen, one of them a deacon, and two other small estates.'*^ Something has already been said of what may be called the official class, but we may note in passing that a ' beadle ' {bedel) with the English name of Brictmar held a freeman on the ' land of the vavasours,' for whom he had given pledge,"'^ while at Hemingstone, in Bosmere Hundred, Almar ' the king's reeve' {praepositus regis), also, presumably, an Englishman, had stepped into the shoes of the freeman Lewin.'*' Into the difficult and technical question of the exact meaning of ' free- dom ' in the i ith century this is not the place to enter.'** It will be enough to notice the relatively large number oi liberi homines in Suffolk,''' and to point '" Dom. Bk. 361^, 362. '" Ibid. 291^ ; VinogradofF, op. cit. 434. '" Dom. Bk. 28 13. '" Ibid. 293. "° Ibid. 438, ' pro animabus suis.' »" Ibid. 363/J. '" Ibid. 4313 ; Inq. El. (Rec. Com.), 521^, 522a. '" Dom. Bk. 3S7. 357^» 360;^, &c. ; VinogradofF, op. cit. 255, 413 ; cf. Dom. Bk. 316, 12 acres of free land in lay hands. '*" Dom. Bk. 36 13, 362^^, &c. "' Ibid. 334, 334^, 3423, 343, 3523, 353, 377, 400, 423^. Cf. 283, Weston : a church and 20 acres held by ' the King's freemen.' •"Ibid. 446. '«' Ibid. 352. •** Cf. Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond ; VinogradofF, Growth of the Manor ; Engl. Soc. in the Eleventh Cent. '^ Ellis, Introd. to Dom. ii, 489, 490. As many of the freemen are named, and the same names recur frequently, some of them may have been counted more than once, but there is great difficulty in identifying these small men. 403