A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE IN THE TWO HUNDREDS OF IN BRADEWATRE HUNDRET BRADEWATRE The abbot of Ely holds HETFELLE. It is The abbot of Ely holds HATFELD. It is. a ! sessed at / hides ' There is land for 3 and was T.R.E., assessed at 40 hides. There P lou g hs - In the demesne are 20 hides, and is land for 30 ploughs. There are 2 ploughs there are 2 P Iou g hs on lt > and there could and 20 hides in demesne, and there could be be 3 more - A P nest ther e and 18 villeins 3 (ploughs) more. (There are) 20 ploughs of and l8 bordars have 2O P lou g h s between the men, and there could be 5 more. (There them > and there could be 5 more. There are) 18 villeins, each of i virgate, and a priest are 12 cottars and 6 serfs > and 4 mills worth (who has) half a hide, and 4 men of 4 hides 47 shlllln g s and 4 pence. Meadow is there (in all). And Adam son of Robert son of sufficient for IO P lou g h team s ; pasture suffi- William (has) 2 hides under the abbot. clent for the live stock ; wood to feed 2 > oo (There are) 12 bordars of half abide (in w ' n e ; and i o shillings are the dues from wood all), and 6 other bordars of half a hide (in and P^ 1 " 6 - Altogether Us value is, and all), 12 cottars, 6 serfs ; 4 mills worth (de) was > 25 P unds ; T - R - E -> 3 Punds. This 46 shillings and 4 pence. Meadow for 10 manor belon g ed > and stl11 belongs, to the plough teams ; pasture (sufficient) for the demesne of e church of E1 7 (Domesday). live stock of the vill ; woodland for 2,000 swine. From wood (bosco) and pasture (come) IO shillings. (There are) 26 cattle (animalia odosd), 360 sheep, (and) 60 swine. Altogether it is worth 25 pounds ; when received, 25 pounds ; T.R.E., 30 pounds. This manor belonged, and belongs, to the church of Ely in demesne (Ing. Eliensis). It will be seen at once that Domesday Book here omitted two departments of information found in the returns. One was the classifi- cations of the villagers according to the extent of the holding ; the other was the amount of livestock apart from the plough oxen (whose teams were comprehended in the word ' plough'). The fact that the original returns did comprise the livestock is of value as confirming the statement of our native chronicler that there was not ' so much as it is shame to tell, and he thought it no shame to do an ox nor a cow nor a swine that was not set in his writ.' Moreover in Essex, to the east of our county, Domesday Book retained this item of information throughout. The other item, which is of some importance, was preserved by it in Mid- dlesex, to the south, and will therefore be most fitly discussed when dealing with the survey of that county. Here it need only be observed that on the three Hertfordshire manors the villeins are all returned as holding a virgate or half a virgate, while the priest at Hatfield has half a hide, or twice as much as any villein. It should however be noticed that, as will be seen below (p. 3 32), Domesday itself, in the solitary case of the great manor of Sawbridgeworth, records the classification found in the original return. From the priest with his ' hide,' and the reeve with his half ' hide,' the scale ranges down through the villeins with their virgates and half virgates, to the bordars with their 8 acres apiece and the cottars with one or none. But the instructive inclusion of these items is not all that is done for us by the Inquisitio Eliensis. It further records the names of the sworn men of the Hundreds ; and, as the abbot of Ely's manors lay in three 264
