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
{ Ickworth 7-1/2
V.{ Chevington 6-1/2
{ Hargrave 7
------
21 0 1 9
{ Brockley 7
VI.{ Rede 7
{ Manston 6
------
20 0 1 8
VII. Whepstead 20 0 1 8
VIII.{ Hawstead 13-1/2
{ Newton 6-1/2
------
20 0 1 8
IX. Horningsheath 20 0 1 8
X., XI., XII. Sudbury 60 0 5 0
----------
£1 0 0-1/2
The two records--Domesday and the Inquest--thus confirm one another,
and their concurrent testimony establishes the fact not only that the
Suffolk Hundred was divided into blocks of equal assessment, but that
these blocks were known by the name of 'leets'.
Now Professor Maitland, in his Dissertation on the 'History of the
Word Leet',[185] pronounces this 'the earliest occurrence of the word'
that he has seen. But I can carry it back to Domesday itself. Though
not entered in the _Index Rerum_, we find it in such instances as
these:
'H[undredum] de Grenehou de xiv. letis' (ii. 119_b_).
'Hund[redum] et dim[idium] de Clakelosa de x. leitis' (ii.
212_b_).
I think it probable that in these cases the entry happened to stand
first on the original return for the Hundred, and so--as in the I.E.,
where it is derived from the original returns--the general heading
crept in. Though Professor Maitland has to leave the origin of the
word unexplained, it seems to me impossible to overlook the analogy
between the Danish _lægd_, described by Dr Skeat as a division of
the country (in Denmark) for military conscription,[186] and the
East Anglian _leet_, a division of the country (as we have seen) for
purposes of taxation.
Sudbury, it will be observed, was _a quarter_ of the Hundred of
Thingoe,[187] just as Huntingdon was a quarter of a Hundred,[188] and
Wisbech a quarter of a Hundred.[189]
Having thus obtained from the Hundred of Thingoe the clue to this
peculiar system, we can advance to more difficult types. The Hundred
of Thedwastre, for instance, was divided not into twelve blocks, each
paying twenty pence in the pound, but into nine blocks, each paying
twenty-seven. This assessment allowed a margin of 3d for every pound
(i.e. £1 0s 3d); but in the case of Thedwastre the total excess
was only 1-1/2d on the pound (i.e. £1 0s 1-1/2d). I group the Vills
_tentatively_, thus:
_d_
I. Barton 27
II. {Fornham 6-1/2} 26-1/2
{Rougham 20 }
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