THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
LIII.—THE SUBURBAN COUNTIES AND HERTFORDSHIRE :— THE LAND SINCE THE NORMAN CONQUEST.
THEprincipal landowners in Middlesex at the time of Domes- day Survey were, among ecclesiastics, the Bishop of London and the Abbey Church of St. Peter at Westminster. Among lay-
men, the principal were Geoffrey de Magnaville or Mandeville, ancestor of the Mandevilles, Earls of Essex, who also appears as under-tenant to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the same county ; Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, who led the centre of the Norman Army at the battle of Hastings, and of whom we have had already occasion to speak several times ; Robert, Earl of Moretaine and Cornwall, Montgomery's son-in- law ; Walter Fitz-Other, who had property also at Kingston, in Surrey, and was Warden of the forest of Berkshire and Castellan of Windsor, from which last place he is said to have assumed a surname ; and Walter de St. Waleri, or Waleric. Very few lands were held by the King himself in demesne in this county, but in
Hertfordshire much more. Here the great ecclesiastical pro- prietors were the Bishops of London and Bayeux, the Church at Westminster, the Church at St. Alban, and the Church of St. Paul, London. The greatest lay proprietors were Geoffrey de Mandeville ; Geoffrey de Bech, all whose laud lay within this county ; Peter de Valoines, called the Conqueror's nephew, a considerable landowner in the Eastern Counties, who held two churches and a house in the town of Hertford, which he bought from Ulwy de Hatfelde, and also had a house in Lincoln ; he married Albreda, sister of Endo Dapifer, with whom he was joint founder of Binham Priory, in Norfolk ; Hardwine de Scalers, a proprietor also in Cambridgeshire ; Whaddou, in the latter county, " the seat of the barony of Scales or D'Eschallers, continued in the male descendants of Hardwine de Scalers till the death of Sir John d'Echalers or De Scalers in 1467, and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth was in the family of Moor, his descendants in the female line ;" the Earl of Moretaine ; Eustace, Earl of Boulogne—the third of the name, who married Mary, daughter of Malcolm III., King of Scotland, and whose daughter, Maud, was the wife of King Stephen ; Alan, Earl of Brittany and Richmond, who married Constance, daughter of the Conqueror, and commanded the rear of the army in the battle of Hastings; his greatest possessions were the lands in the North Riding of Yorkshire, which had belonged to the Saxon Earl Edwin, constituting Richmondshire ; the Zouches are said to have been his descendants in the male line ; Robert Gernon, Greuo, or Grenon, a "Norman, descended from the house of Boulogne ; the head of his barony and the chief seat of his posterity was at Stansted-Montfichet, in Essex, which last name his son William assumed, from the raised mound on which his castle there was built ;" the Cavendishes would fain have this Robert Gernon as their ancestor, but without the least proof ; Endo Fitz-Hubert, or Endo Dapifer, the King's Sewer or Steward, fourth son of Hubert de Ric, " a great favourite with Duke William in Normandy," and the ambassador to Edward the Confessor through whose dexterity the alleged appointment of Duke William as successor to the Crown of England is said to have been obtained ; Endo received very large grants in England, married Rohaise, granddaughter of Gilbert, Earl of Eu, founded the Abbey of St. John at Colchester in 1096, was in favour with William Rufus, died at Preux, in Normandy, but was buried in his monastery at Colchester, February 28, 1120, —and William de Ow or Eu, son of Robert, Earl of Eu, who mar- ried a daughter of Hugh, Earl of Chester, was once a supporter of the pretensions of Robert Courthose to the English throne, but forsook him, and was himself " executed at Salisbury in 1096 with unusual cruelty, for conspiring against William Rufus ;" " Edgar Adeline," the Etheling, also figures as a smaller pro- prietor in Hertfordshire. We have, besides, a list of " King's Thanes" holding in this county, which contains the names Derman, Alward, Mwin, Baldwin, and Godmund, probably remains of the old Saxon aristocracy of the county.
In Essex (the " Excaesa " of Domesday) the lands specially retained by the King are considerable. The ecclesiastical proprie- tors are the Bishop of London—a large one—the Canons of St. Paul, London ; the Church of St. Peter, Westminster ; the Canons of Waltham, the Bishops of Durham, Hereford, Bayeux, and several others. Earl Eustace is a very large lay proprietor. Earl Alan holds considerably less. One of the largest proprietors
is Svein de Essex, the name of whose father, Robert Fitz-Wimarc, also occurs in Domesday. " His castle was at Rageneia, now Raylegh, in the hundred of Rockford." Henry de Essex, probably his grandson, succeeded him in his possessions, but being Hereditary Standardbearer to Henry II., deserted his standard, and caused the King's defeat in an expedition against the Welsh about the year 1163. Being charged with treason by Robert de Montfort, and vanquished in single combat, his life was spared, but he was shorn a monk in the Abbey of Reading, and his house of Raylegh became forfeited to the Crown. The family were probably descendants of one of the Danish settlers in Essex. As holding somewhat leas, but still very large possessions in that county, we have the name of Richard, son of Earl Gilbert, who assumed the name of Richard de Tonebrige, from his castle of Tun- bridge, in Kent. He was son of Gislebert or Gilbert, Earl of Brion, in Normandy, who is said to have been a son of a natural son of Richard I., Duke of Normandy. He will be better remembered as the founder of the great family of Clare—so closely associated with the most important events of our Anglo-Norman history. Another considerable proprietor in Essex was William de Warren, Earl of Warren, in Normandy, who was joined with Richard de Tonebrige, in the administration of justice throughout England. William Rufus made him Earl of Surrey, and his wife, Gundreda, seems to have been a daughter of the Conqueror. Other great proprietors are Endo Dapifer, Hugh de Montefort (son of Thurstan de Basten- burgh, a Norman), commonly called " Hugh with the Beard," who was at the battle of Hastings, was joined with Fitz-Osborne and the Bishop of Bayeux in the administration of justice throughout the kingdom, and lost his life in a duel with Walcheline de Ferrer'; Hano Dapifer, or Hamo the Sheriff, who was one of the judges in the County Court when the great cause was tried between Archbishop Lanfranc and Bishop Odo, and died in the reign of Henry I. without issue, his lands going to his brother, Robert Fitz-Hanon ; Geoffrey de Mandeville (whose possessions in Essex are very large), as are also those of Robert Gernon ; Ralph Baignard (the chief seat of whose barony is said to have been Baynard's Castle, in London) ; Rannlf " Piperellus," who, Dugdale says, is Ranulf Peverell, the reputed progenitor of the families of that name, who married a mistress of William the Conqueror, and had 35 lordships in Essex, 19 in Suffolk, 6 in Norfolk, and 4 in Shropshire. The Con- queror's son by Ranulf's wife, William, who took the name of Piper- ellus or Peverell, also held some laud in Essex. Alberic de Ver, ancestor of the great house of De Vere, Earls of Oxford, has also some property in Essex, and we may add the names of Peter de Valoines ; Ranulf, brother of Ilger, a considerable landowner in the Eastern Counties, who appears from an entry in Domesday Book to have married a niece of Ralph Taillgebosc, one of the great family of Tailebois ; Tihell or Tehell Brit° ; Roger de Ramis or Eames, also an Eastern Counties proprietor ; as is also Robert Fitz-Corbutio or Corpechun, one of whose family, Walter Corpechun, gave the manor of Leyton or Leyton Grange, included in Robert Fitz-Corpechun's estate, to the abbot and convent of Stratford Langthorne about the year 1200. The name of Roger Bigot—i.e., probably Roger the Visigoth—also appears as a holder of land in Essex as well as in Norfolk and Suffolk. Some Saxon or Danish names follow the Norman proprietors, such as Ansger, Gondwin, Ulveva wife of Plan, Grim, Edward, Stanard the free man (probably the same with Stanard, son of Alwi, a holder in Suffolk), who " held and holds of the King," Godwin and Turchil. The Domesday Survey for Essex closes with a list of Invasiones, i.e., such
lands as were possessed without a title from the Conqueror, the holders having " neither been put in possession by the Sheriff with authority from the King, nor by his legal or special commissioner, nor by his writ or brief," and were, therefore, called " Intruders." In this list very many of the names are
" Saxon " or Scandinavian, evidently the remains of the old Saxon or Norse aristocracy of Essex, who still kept possession by right of the strong arm ; and they are headed by a Godwin G udh en .
The list of Sheriffs for Essex and Hertfordshire—for these counties were long united in this local administration—supplies us with a few more family names prominent during the Plantagenet period :—De Tirefer, Decams (Deacon), Mantel, Fitz-William, Fitz-Peter, De Nevill, De Montfichet, De Culword, De Tany, Fitz-Regiud, De la Mare, Sathrich, De Selo, De Sutton, De Broderham, De la Le, Ward de Hoo, De Perers, De Coggeshall, Bauld or Baud, Fitz-Simonds, Bateman, Tirrel, Durward, Langham, Darcy, Writell, Sturgeon, Fortescue, Broket, Went- worth, and Planner. The Tudor period gives us Litton or Lytton, of Knebworth, Capell, Mildmay, Lucas, Peter (Petre)
—we are now dealing with the Essex names alone, for in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign the counties were separated in administration,—Barrington (also a Plantagenet family), Hud- dleston, Wiseman, Harris, and Maynard. The Stuarts give us for Essex, Soames, Grimston, Lacking, Everard, and many others, whose names we have no space to record particu- larly. Nor must we forget the old Plantagenet family of Gorham, of Gorhambury, in Hertfordshire. During the reign of Elizabeth we find in the list of Sheriffs for Hertfordshire alone the names of Penruddock, Horsey, Lewenthorp, Bash, Dockwray, Coningsby, Cutts, and Sadler ; and the Stuart period supplies us with Hide (Hyde), Boteler, Dacres, Pemberton, Jennings, Leaman, and Gerrard or Garrard. The leading families in Hertfordshire are now the Cecils (Marquises of Salisbury, who took root there in the reign of Elizabeth), Cowpers, Brands (Lords Deere), and Lyttons. In Essex the Capels (Earls of Essex), Tyrrels, Petres, Lennards, Abdys, and Westerns. But there is a great dearth of great land- owners in Essex, the land being chiefly in the hands of a small squirearchy ; while in Hertfordshire and Middlesex the proximity to the metropolis has to a great degree eaten out the older land- owners, and supplied their place with a suburban gentry. But a few old names still recall the days when Hertfordshire had a rural as well as a suburban character.
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