Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/467

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DOMESDAY SURVEY First on the list of Suffolk landholders stands the name of King William himself, Willielmus) Rex ang/orum, a style which only occurs here and in the list of landholders prefixed to the Essex Survey.'" The description of the Terra Regis fills a much smaller relative space of the Survey in Suffolk than in Norfolk/^* and is somewhat differently arranged. The first section treats of the king's demesne, c/e regione^^^ then come the forfeited estates of ' Ralph the Earl,' then Harold's Harkstead estate, a berewick of Brightlingsea in Essex, then the borough of Sudbury with other lands of ' the mother of Morcar the Earl,' Harold's manor and ' soke ' of Bergholt, and the forfeited estates of Archbishop Stigand. These are followed by two more demesne manors, under the heading of terrae regis de regno, and at the end of all stands the account of the borough of Ipswich. This borough, with the mass of the king's demesne lands, had been placed in the charge of Roger Bigot, and each of the other sections had its special keeper or custos^^* It seems probable that Roger Bigot was Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk at the time of the Survey,"" and even that he was in his second term of office. This may be gathered from a passage in the Suffolk Domesday, which distinctly implies that Robert Malet held the shrievalty after Roger Bigot,** and from a number of references to ' Rogerus vicecomes,' which suggest that he was actually sheriff in 1086.^" The king's demesne lands {de regione), which Roger ' kept,' "° were in the centre and north of the county, and included King Edward's manors of Thorney, Bramford, and Blythburgh, with Earl Gurth's manors and commended freemen in the hundred of Lothing and the half-hundred of Lothingland. The Confessor's Norfolk manor of Diss is for some reason surveyed here, under the hundred of Hartis- mere, with Gillingham, in Norfolk, where a small estate of 30 acres was appurtenant to Gurth's manor of Gorleston in the half-hundred of Lothingland, to which also belonged twenty-four Yarmouth fishermen."' Some incidental light is thrown on the sheriffs and reeves and their doings by this section of the Survey. We see Roger Bigot removing the sokemen from Thorney Manor, and distributing them among the tenants-in-chief. We see Thorney rising in value, and Blythburgh deteriorating under his charge.'^" We hear of villeins added to Blythburgh Manor ' in Robert Malet's time,' that is, probably, during his shrievalty, and we find ' Aluric

  • " Dom. Bk. ii, 1 ; ' W. Rex anglorum,' cf. 1 09, Norf. ' Willelmus Rex.'

•" V.C.H. Norf. ii, 9-14. "' Mr. Round, in Feud. Engl. 140, treats the use of the word ' regie ' as a blunder, and would substitute

  • regno.' But it occurs elsewhere; in Norfolk (Dom. Bk. 144) and in Suffolk (ibid. 408^), and Professor

Maitland thinks that it may well stand for 'kingship' ; Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 167, n. 2, cf. Ballard, The Dom. Inf. 88 ; Vinogradoff, op. cit. 326 et seq. ; Maitland, op. cit. 213. "* On the technical distinction between ' vicecomites ' and ' custodes ' cf. Round, Geoffrey de MandeviUe, 107-8, App. i, 297. '" Dom. Bk. 179, 179*, 185^ ; V.C.H. Norf. ii, 19, 37. "* Dom. Bk. 2873. ' Quando Rogerus Bigot prius habuit vicecomitatum statuerunt ministri sui quod redderent xv lib. per annum. . . . Et quando Robertus Malet habuit vicecomitatum, sui ministri creverunt «os ad XX lib. Et quando Rogerus Bigot eos rehabuit dederunt similiter xx lib.' Does ' rehabuit ' refer to Roger's second tenure of the shrievalty? The freemen in question were under Aluric Wanz in 1086, but he is always called reeve, ' praepositus,' not sheriff; cf Vinogradoff, op. cit. 379. 'Rogerus vicecomes' is mentioned in connexion with Suffolk in the Ely 'placitum' of 1072-5 ; Inq. Com. Camb. (ed. Hamilton), 194. '" Dom. Bk. 179, 1793, 185^; (Norfolk), 282, 290^ (twice), 445^, 'Vicecomes Rogerus habuit de patre suo herretum,' 446 (twice). The second case, ' Haminghelanda,' refers to the same incident as 282. "' ' Servat.' Of Ipswich the phrase 'custodit ... in manu regis' is used ; Dom. Bk. 28 li, 290. "» Dom. Bk. 282, 283, 283^ ; V.C.H. Norf. ii, 5. "» Dom. Bk. 2813, 282. 389

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