A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE class, to the so-called free peasantry and the serfs. Here, again, the position of our county, lying on the very verge of Wales, must have exercised a certain influence, although it is difficult to discern its actual extent from the record. The occurrence of some Welshmen as tenants and of some peculiar renders is all that is obvious. But the variety of classes and occupations is consider- able and interesting. For these, in default of special research, we are depend- ent on the useful lists in Ellis's Introduction to Domesday^ but apart from V^no usual, if small, causes of error,"^ Ellis's system exposed him, in the case of this county, to two special and more important ones. On the one hand, he included in his reckoning the group of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire manors entered under Herefordshire ; on the other, he left out of account the manors in North Herefordshire entered under Shropshire. His figures, there- fore, need to be here received with caution. Apart from the small ' burgess ' class, which will be dealt with below, Domesday shows us in rural life a dominant element represented by the knights {milites). Frenchmen [francigenae) , and Serjeants {servientes), mainly, if not wholly, of foreign extraction. Next to these we may class the native holders of land, ' Radchenistres,' ' Radmanni,' free men {Jiberi homines), or simply ' men,' to whom may be added a single ' thegn.' ^" The first two designa- tions, as is well known, are distinctive of Herefordshire and the counties surrounding it,"^ and a valuable proof of their identity is affiDrded in Here- fordshire itself. Under the royal manor of Marden we read that the land belonging to it which had been secured by William Fitz Norman was held T.R.E., by three ' Radchenist[res] ;' and under William's own fief^'° we learn that it consisted of two portions, of which one had been held by Steinulf and the other by two ' Radmans.' In these three holders, therefore, we recognize the three ' Radchenist[res].'"*' We can probably go further and recognize both names as virtually identical with that of ' free man ' [liber homo) ; for under Deerhurst, in Gloucestershire, where their holdings were important, we read of 'Radchen' idest liberi homines' (Dom. Bk. i, i66), and, under Berkeley we meet with ' xix liberi homines Radchenist' habentes xlviii car. cum suis hominibus ' (i, 163). These last figures may serve to remind us that this was a substantial class, as is also shown by the Tewkesbury entries. It is probable, however, that their tenures varied, and that some owed but a money rent, while others performed certain service. We read of one Herefordshire manor with three of them that they ' do service to the lord ' as they did before the Conquest."^ Next in order, perhaps, should come the chaplains, clerks, and priests who held land in their personal capacity or as glebe. It is usual to find valuable livings on the great crown manors in Domesday, and these were often in the hands of royal favourites. But as these had been intercepted by William Fitz Osbern, who had given ' church and priest' to his abbey of '" One was his misapprehension of the formula ' inter servos et ancillas,' and the other was due to dupli- cate' entries. '" ' Godricus quidam tainus.' "' Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Gloucestershire. Three or four stray instances occur in Hants and Berks. 139 «Xerram W. filii Norman tenuerunt m Radchenist,' nee poterant de hoc Manerio separari.' ""So also the ' viii Radchenist[res] ' of Leominster, T.R.E., were represented by 'vi Radmans' T.R.W. '" ' Ibi fuerunt et sunt iii radchen' cum m car. et serviunt domino.' In Gloucestershire some are entered as performing the usual agricultural services, but Domesday seems to treat their case as exceptional. 286
