DOMESDAY SURVEY Godric or to the charge against Godric in the books at the Treasury. We cannot, however, deny the Hkeness of this passage to that in a well-known writ of William Rufus,^ which tells us of certain land in Winterton and Burgh in Flegg, ' ista terra inbreviata fuit in meis brevibus ad opus Sancti Benedicti que sunt in thesauro meo Wintonie.' As the land in question duly appears in Domesday,* though not quite in the same form as in the writ, we ought probably to refer both passages to the Rotuli Wintonie, from which Domesday seems to have been compiled, much as the T'esta de Nevill was drawn up at a later date ; though, on the whole, with more care than those puzzling volumes. We may gather from Domesday Book that another question arose of which we read nothing in the instructions quoted above, namely, how each owner came by his tenement. In very many cases Domesday supplies us with an answer, and it is likely that these facts are derived from the comparison of the owner's statements with the verdicts of the hundreds. In most cases the title to the property falls under one of three heads. Either the owner has stepped (by inheritance or otherwise) into the shoes of one or more pre-Conquest tenants, his antecessor or antecessores, or he has received the estate by livery from the king {liberatio), or he has exchanged other land in England against what he holds in Norfolk [escangium). The necessity for obtaining the king's permission — which had presumably to be purchased — for any transfer of land is, here as elsewhere, illustrated. A freeman, for instance, had forfeited his land, and a monk of St. Benet of Holme had given the king's reeves half a mark of gold to discharge the forfeiture, thus acquiring the land for the abbey. But Domesday notes that this was done ' absque licentia regis.' On the other hand we read, a few lines further on, that when Ralf the Staller gave some land to the abbey it was ' concessione regis. ' ' Wihenoc the Breton, however, the former holder of a fief, had added thereto the land of his English wife without receiving it as a gift from the king, Domesday, with a solitary touch of romance, recording that Wihenoc had loved and married her,* which accounted for her land being found in the possession of his successor Rainald.' A few cases of actual purchase are recorded. Five sokemen of Saham Toney holding 25 acres in Breckles were sold by the reeve of Saham to Earl Ralf by livery of a bit [per unum frenum), and thus became appurtenant to Great Ellingham." But in most cases the lawful acquisition of property took place in one of the three ways described. The unlawful acquisition of property (invasio) was, however, very common. Time after time we read that free- men have been seized and joined to some manor ; that is, made to render dues to which their lord had no claim. Besides the chapter of Invasiones at the end of the account of Norfolk, scattered instances will be found right through the text. In one case we hear how this change was effected. At Foston, in Clackclose hundred (Fotestorp), there were six freemen com- mended to the predecessor of Hermer de Ferrieres. He succeeded in making them pay 5J. a year custom by driving their beasts off the pasture of the ' Dugdale, Mo». iii, 86. ' Cf. Round, Feudal England, p. 215. ' Dom. Bk. ff. 217^, 2 1 8.
- ' Sed unus homo, Wihenoc, amavit quandam feminam in ilia terra et duxit earn, et postea tenuit
ille istam terram ad fedum W., sine dono regis et sine liberatione, et successoribus suis ' (f. 232). ' This passage on the king's permission is by Mr. Round. ° Dom. Bk. f. I ob. 3
