Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/354

 A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE for Bushley, though within the Hundred of Oswaldslow, being in the King's hands at the time of the Domesday Survey. The church of Worcester gives its version on fo. 173, and that of the Crown is found on fo. i8o/^. It was alleged on behalf of the latter that the great Tewkesbury thegn, Brihtric son of iElfgar, had ' bought it of Lyfing bishop of Worcester for three marcs of gold {£1^), together with a house in the city of Worcester paying a marc of silver (13J. 4^.) yearly, . . . all which he so bought and held undisturbed that he did no service for it to any man.' ^ The church of Worcester, on the other hand, alleged that Brihtric used to pay an annual ' ferm ' to the Bishop. It would certainly appear that Lyfing, ' the patriot bishop of Worcester,'* had no right to alienate the land in perpetuity ; but the fact that he had to recover his see, in 1 041, 'at the price, we are told, of money paid to the King'^ (to be held ' in plurality'), suggests that he may have needed money. The Crown, in any case, retained the manor, as its subsequent history proves. The only point remaining to be dealt with is the important entry at the very end of the survey of the county stating that the lands at Feckenham and Holloway ' scripts sunt in brevi de Hereford,' and that those at Martley and Suckley, although in Dodingtree Hundred for purposes of jurisdiction and taxation, render their ferm at Hereford, ' et sunt scriptse in breve regis.' The ' breve ' here spoken of needs to be carefully distinguished from the ordinary King's writ ('breve regis') placing a man in possession. It was explained by me in Feudal England (pp. 135-6) that 'though the word Breve in Domesday Book normally means the King's writ, there are passages which seem to have been over- looked, and in which it bears another and very suggestive meaning.' Foremost among these is the passage above, in which the word is used ' of a return, not of a writ.' A similar usage is found in Huntingdon- shire (fo. 203), where we read of geld being paid 'secundum hidas in brevi scriptas.' The best parallel, however, is in Cambridgeshire, where we read, ' In Saham habet rex W. vi hidas et xl acras in breve suo ' (fo. 1 89*^), while a parallel record states, under Kingston, that the King has there i| hides 'in brevi suo.'* The above Worcestershire passage refers us to the Domesday return of the manor of Hereford, then in the King's hands, in which we accordingly find the surveys of these Worcester- shire lands. Their addition to the Worcestershire text, as in the translation below, renders the Domesday Survey of the shire complete. ' nulli inde aliquid servitium nisi regi faciens ' (Heming, I. 263). ^ So styled by Mr. Freeman {l<Iorm. Conq., II. 81), because he was a friend of God wine. 3 I hid. I. 509. 280
 * <ut inde non serviret cuiquam homini.' Compare Brihtwine's tenure of Hadsor,
 * Inquisitlo comitatus Cantahrtgiensh, p. 85.