Great Britain -- Economic conditions; Great Britain -- Social conditions
Of the burgesses who dwelt in Norwich 22
have gone away and dwell in Beccles, a town of the abbot of St. Edmund,
and 6 in Humbleyard hundred, and have left the borough, and in King's
Thorpe 1, and on the land of Roger Bigot 1, and under W. de Noies 1, and
Richard de Sent Cler 1. Those fleeing and the others remaining are
altogether ruined, partly owing to the forfeitures of Earl Ralph, partly
owing to a fire, partly owing to the King's geld, partly through
Waleram.
In this borough if the bishop wishes he can have one moneyer....
_Land of the Burgesses._--In the hundred of Humbleyard always 80 acres
and 14 bordiers and 1 plough and 3 acres of meadow; and they are worth
13s. 4d.
_The French of Norwich._--In the new borough are 36 burgesses and 6
Englishmen and of yearly custom each one rendered 1d. besides
forfeitures; of all this the King had two parts and the Earl the third.
Now there are 41 French burgesses on the demesne of the King and the
Earl, and Roger Bigot has 50, and Ralph de Bella Fago 14, and Hermer 8,
and Robert the crossbowman 5, and Fulcher, the abbot's man, 1, and Isac
1, and Ralph Visus Lupi 1, and in the Earl's bakehouse Robert Blund has
3, and Wimer has 1 ruined messuage.
All this land of the burgesses was on the demesne of Earl Ralph and he
granted it to the King in common to make the borough between himself and
the King, as the sheriff testifies. And all those lands as well of the
knights as of the burgesses render to the King his custom. There is also
in the new borough a church which Earl Ralph made, and he gave it to his
chaplains. Now a priest of the sheriff, by name Wala, holds it of the
King's gift, and it is worth 60s. And so long as Robert Blund held the
county, he had therefrom each year 1 ounce of gold.
[Footnote 37: _i.e._, Rights of jurisdiction.]
[Footnote 38: _i.e._, Feudal lordship.]
5. THE BOROUGH OF WALLINGFORD [_Domesday Book, I_, 56], 1086.
In the borough of Wallingford King Edward had 8 virgates of land, and in
these there were 276 haws[39] rendering 11l. of rent (_gablo_), and
those who dwelt there did service for the King with horses or by water
as far as Blewbury, Reading, Sutton, Bensington, and to those doing this
service the reeve gave hire or corrody not from the king's revenue
(_censu_) but from his own.
Now there are in the borough all customs as there were before. But of
the haws there are thirteen less; for the castle eight have been
destroyed, and the moneyer has one quit so long as he makes money. Saulf
of Oxford has one, the son of Alsi of Farringdon one, which the King
gave him, as he says. Humphrey Visdelew has one, for which he claims the
King to warranty. Nigel holds one of Henry by inheritance from Soarding,
but the burgesses testify that the latter never had it. From these
thirteen the King has no custom; and further William de Warenne has one
haw from which the King has no custom. Moreover there are 22 messuages
of Frenchmen rendering 6s. 5d.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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