DOMESDAY SURVEY profits of the pleas. It should here be observed that the Worcestershire sheriff complained that he drew nothing from seven of the twelve hundreds, which diminished his revenue. In Herefordshire we meet with no such complaint, but we find that in King Edward's time the ' third penny ' of five hundreds had been annexed (as was a common arrangement) to two manors of Earl Harold's, which were held by Alvred of Marlborough in 1086, when they no longer enjoyed this privilege. The old-world due of the ' night's ferm ' is only mentioned under Linton, which had rendered a quarter of that amount under the Confessor, a render exchanged since for one in money. Of Lugwardine it is said, somewhat strangely, that its value T.R.E. cannot be given, as it ' was not then at ferm.' Although several sheriffs are mentioned in the Survey of the county, it is difficult to identify the one who held office when that Survey was made. He was, no doubt, that ' Ilbertus vicecomes ' who was then farming Archenfield, but his surname remains in doubt."' Moreover, there was at the time of the Survey another sheriff in Here- fordshire : this was Gilbert ' vicecomes,' who appears as ' farming ' CHfford and all that was there under Ralf ' de Todeni.' There is nothing to show who he was,"' but he cannot well have been the sheriff of the county at the time. Of past sheriffs the most important was Ralf de Bernai, a follower of William Fitz Osbern, who is mentioned four times. He had held land belonging to Ewyas (Harold) Castle, which was granted by the Conqueror to Alvred of Marlborough, and is accused as having abstracted one hide from Monnington Stradel."" But his shrievalty specially appears in his dealings with the lands of Leominster, to which he wrongfully added two manors 'when he was sheriff' {cum esset vicecomes). A somewhat important entry under Lugwardine informs us that of its four hides one was ' Reveland,' and that from the remaining three Ralf had transferred 50 acres ' to his own Reveland.' As the entry proceeds to speak of ' what the sheriff has to his own use,' it thus defines the " Reveland.' The term occurs again further on in an entry which, though somewhat obscure, appears to imply that the sheriff had annexed to his official holding land which had been held by a thegn and should have escheated to the k.ing.'°^ Other sheriffs mentioned are John ' Vicecomes,' who had held at Bul- lingham, and of whom nothing seems to be known, and ' Alwin Vicecomes,' ^^' who had held at Wolferlow and who is named under ' Terra Regis ' in Gloucestershire, as a former sheriff of that county, in which his lands had been granted with his widow to Richard 'juvenis' (fol. 167). It was as a sheriff of the same county that Roger de Pist[r]es is found transferring land to it from Herefordshire (fol. 181). One of the greatest difficulties presented by Herefordshire in Domesday is that its hundreds were subsequently thrown, as it were, into the melting- "' An 'Ilbertus de Hereforda ' occurs in the Inq. Com. Cant. 56, but the Domesday text gives him as ■" Ilbert ' de Hertford ' (not Hereford). There is nothing to identify the Domesday sheriff with Ilbert Fitz Turold. "' A Gilbert * vicecomes ' is mentioned under Pevensey. He was probably sheriff of its Rape. '"' For his oppression of the church of Worcester and unhappy end, see Heming's Cartul. (ed. Hearne).
- ^' ' Haec terra fuit tainland T.R.E. sed postea conversa est in Reveland. Et ideo dicunt legati regis quod
ipsa terra et census qui inde exit furtim aufertur regi,' fol. 1 8 1 . The ' legati ' are, of course, the visiting Domes- day Commissioners. '" There is nothing to prove his identity with iElfwine the sheriff, father of Turchil of Warwick. 301
