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 five-hide unit which lies at the root of my theory is found ever
to the front, turn where we will. In Oxon[122] we find entered in
succession the Bishop of Lincoln's Manors 90, 60, 40, 50, 50 hides,
while if we work through the southern extremity of the county (lying
south of Ewelme), following the bend of the Thames, we find the
assessments are as follows: Preston Crowmarsh, 5; Crowmarsh Gifford,
10; Newnham Murren, 10; Mongewell, 10; Ipsden, 5; North and South
Stoke, 20-1/4; Checkenden, 5; Goring, 20; Gethampton, 6-1/2;
Whitchurch, 10; Mapledurham, 10; Caversham, 20; Dunsden, 20; Bolney
(8) and Lashbrook (12) 20; Harpsden, 5; Rotherfield, 10; Badgemoor, 5;
Bix 5. So too on the western border we have in succession Churchill,
20; Kingham, 10; Foxcote (1) and Tilbury (14), 15; Lyneham, 10;
Fyfield, 5; Tainton, 10; Upton, 5; Burford (8) and Widford (2), 10;
Westwell, 5.[123]
Berkshire undoubtedly offers a fruitful sphere of study. On the one
hand, we have so large a proportion of Manors assessed at 5, 10, 15,
20 hides, and so forth as to strike the reader at once without special
research; on the other, we find these archaic assessments reduced
under the Conqueror in the most sweeping manner, and the old system
thus effaced. Fortunately for us in this case its existence is
recorded in the Domesday entries of the previous assessments. What is
here, as elsewhere, wanted is a thorough local analysis of the hidage,
Hundred by Hundred. For no county is such an analysis more urgently
needed.
In Bucks the Primate's three Manors are of 40, 5, 30 hides, while nine
Manors of Walter Giffard follow one another with these assessments:
20, 10, 10, 20, 3-1/2, 10, 5, 5, 10; and in Gloucestershire we are met
on every side by Manors of 5, 10, 15, 20 hides, and so on. In Surrey,
the Primate's six Manors are assessed at 30, 20, 80, 5, 20, 14 hides.
As a proof that this feature is in no way of my own creation, I will
take the Wiltshire Manors selected by Mr Pell for his tables. Seven
out of the eleven selected by him are five-hide assessments, being 5,
10, 20, 40, 20, 5, 10. The marvel is that any one can have failed to
observe the general occurrence of the fact.
In Middlesex the five-hide unit is peculiarly prominent. We have only
to glance at the pages of Domesday to be struck by such assessments
as Harrow (100 hides), Fulham (50 hides[124]), Isleworth (70 hides),
Harmondsworth (30 hides), while on folios 129B-130, we have seven
Manors in succession of which the assessments are 15, 35, 30, 30,
7-1/2, 15, 10, representing 3, 7, 6, 6, 1-1/2, 3, 2, multiples of the
five-hide unit. But, here again, conspicuous as is this unit even in
the case of Manors, its prevalence would be still more apparent, if
we could reconstruct the Vills. Thus, for instance, in the Hundred of
Spelthorne we find these assessments:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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