DOMESDAY SURVEY assumption that ' TafFy was a thief.'" But a sharp distinction is drawn between a Welshman's offences against the property or person of his Enghsh neighbours and those against his fellow countrymen. When he slew another Welshman, the penalty was typically Welsh ; ^^ the dead man's kin were en- titled to prey upon him and his kin, and to burn their houses, until the corpse was buried about noon of the following day. And the king received a third of the plunder ! From Welsh parallels we may conjecture that the kin extended to sixth cousins of both parties.^* Again, their dues to the king were strictly limited and distinctive.^* A distinction seems to be already drawn even in 1086 between Welsh Archenfield, which retained its own customs, and certain estates which, though within its borders," had passed into Norman hands. But both dis- tricts, one hastens to add, were alike in having never been hidated ; both appear as if apart from the hundredal system of the shire ; and on both the same primitive renders of sheep and honey are found. The Domesday entries require to be compared with later evidence. In 1 2 1 2 we find the 'French' and Welsh of Archenfield entered as holding their lands of the king 'in socage' by what one is tempted to call the corporate service of paying £ig iSj. a year, and providing fifty Serjeants (i.e. soldiers) to serve the king in Wales at their own cost.^^ Yet Tregate (in Llanrothal), which was 'in Urchenefeld,' was then held by knight-service, as were Wilton and Kilpeck and Goodrich Castle, with Trewen, all of which are subsequently found to be in Archenfield.^^ Under Henry III a valuable entry carefully distin- guishes ' Urchenefeld in Wallia ' (sic) from Kilpeck (though both were in the ' Hundred of Urchenefeld') and again records the service due from the former as fifty Welshmen in time of war and suit at the hundred court. ^* Again yet another entry, temp. Henry III, records with more precision the corporate service : Tota communitas tenet de domino Rege per serjantiam scilicet quod omnes debent invenire L homines quando dominus Rex voIu[er]it ire ad exercitum, semcl in anno, in Wall[iam] pro quindecima sumptibus propriis. Et si dominus Rex velit eos plus tcmporis habere inveniet cis necessaria. Et si in Angl[iam] velit ire erunt sumptibus propriis per unicum diem et noctem. Et si plus eos volu[er]it habere inveniet ut supra. Et debent reddere domino Regi xix marcas per annum. ^' In spite of the words tota communitas^ the service due, we find, could be and was apportioned ; for this passage goes on to say that the communitas of certain places now paid their twelve pence from each of them to the bishop instead of to the king, to whom it was due. Moreover, we have " Cf. Gir. Cambr. Opera (Rolls Ser.), i, 39, ' laici et populi Walliae fures et raptores crant rerum aliarum.' According to Domesday the Archenfield Welshman even stole men and women : ' Siquis Walensium furatur homincm aut feminam.' " Cf. ibid, iv, 161. ' Vindicis animi vitio et naturae Britannicae quae vindictam appetit.' " A most interesting reference (in 1226) to this local custom of compounding a murder with the dead man's kin will be found in Bracton's Note Bk. (case 1474), where the king's bailiff and the four (neighbour- ing) townships assert ' quod talis est consuetudo in Urchinefeldia quod de tali morte licet aliquis convictus sit bene potest concordiam facerc cum parentibus.' " ' Nee dant geldum aut aliam consuetudinem nisi quod pergunt in exercitu regis si jussum eis fuerit.' " ' Hae villac vel tcrrae subscriptae sitae sunt in fine Arcenefelde.' " Testa de NevUl (Rec. Com.), 70. Out of this service the Hospitallers were liable for 10/. 6d. and one Serjeant in respect of land (in Garway) granted them by Henry II. " jj^jj_ '* 'Quinquaginta Wallens' in tempore guerre nee aliud servicium debet nisi tantum sectam hundr ' secundum consuet' de Urchenefeld.' (Ibid. 66.) 29 Ihid. 72 267
