Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth CenturiesRound, John Horace
History
Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
Round, John Horace
Domesday book; Feudalism -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- History -- Norman period, 1066-1154; Normans -- Great Britain
The elaborate fine made at Leicester, June 31, 1176,[57] has an
important bearing on the Bassets' Leicestershire possessions. Not only
does it specify the lands they held at Swinford (with Walcote), Ashby,
and Fleckney, but it mentions their fee of Madeley, Staffordshire. Now
the descent of this Staffordshire fee can be traced by charters on the
same roll.[58] One of these (No. 12) is a confirmation, by Robert
de Stafford, of Madeley to Geoffrey Ridel, to be held as his
'antecessores' had held it. This was Geoffrey, son of Richard Basset,
by Maud Ridel, as is shown by the fact that the first witness to the
charter is Hervey de Stretton, who held two knights' fees of Stafford
in 1166,[59] and that another is Robert Bagot, who held a quarter of
a fee,[60] while Geoffrey Ridel himself then held one, namely,
Madeley.[61] But the enrolling scribe confused him with his (maternal)
grandfather and namesake (d. 1120), and thus wrongly assigned this
charter to the reign of Henry I, and threw the whole descent into
utter confusion. The right clue is found in a charter of Robert 'de
Toni' (_i.e._ de Stafford), 'conceding' Madeley to Robert 'de Busa'
(_alias_ 'de Busci'), 'per servitium unius militis'.[62] This fee,
therefore, must have come to the Bassets with the rest of the Buci
estates; and we thus learn that this must have been late in the reign
of Henry I, for the names of the witnesses to this charter prove that
it must be subsequent to 1122.[63]
As Robert de Buci was then in possession, it cannot have been, here at
least, till later that Basset succeeded him.
Among the points to be observed in the descent of the above fiefs are
Edward of Salisbury's succession to that of Ralf fitz Hubert,[64]
the appearance of Henry de Albini, founder of the Cainho line, as
successor to Nigel, and the portions of the great Belvoir fief, held
in Domesday by Robert de Todeni, now owned by Robert de L'Isle and
William de Albini 'Brito'. In the midst of great but vanished names,
it is pleasant to meet with one, at least, still surviving in the male
line: William de Gresley, holder of Linton (a Derbyshire hamlet close
to Gresley), had succeeded, there and at 'Widesers', Nigel, a tenant
of Henry de Ferrers in 1086 (D.B., i. 233_b_).[65] In this 'Nigel',
therefore, it would seem, we have Nigel de Stafford, Lord of Drakelow
(D.B., i. 278).
I will close with the names of those who had succeeded the Domesday
tenants-in-chief.
HEIRS
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