[206] We should perhaps read this as explaining the composition of the centuriatus, viz.: 'the priests, the reeves, and six villeins from each Vill'.
[207] Of this conflict there is a good instance, almost at the outset of the Cambridgeshire survey (p. 3): 'Hanc terram posuit Orgarus in vadimonio ... ut homines Goisfridi dicunt. Sed homines de hundredo neque breve aliquid neque legat' R.E. inde viderunt, neque testimonium perhibent.'
[208] Whittlesford omitted, because in this Hundred no lands were held or claimed by the Abbey.
[209] Compare Wilkins, 125 (quoted by Palgrave, English Commonwealth, i. 464) on English and 'Welsh' in Devon: 'Disputes arising between the plaintiffs and defendants of the two nations were to be decided by a court of twelve "lawmen"—six English and six Welsh—the representatives of the respective communities. And it may be observed that the principle which suggested this dimidiated tribunal was generally adopted in our border law.'
[210] Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. 339.
[211] Palgrave's Commonwealth, ii. 183.
[212] This seems of great importance as a very early instance of the quatuor villatæ system, on which see Gross's 'The Early History and Influence of the Office of Coroner' (Political Science Quarterly, vol. vii, No. 4), where the researches of Prof Maitland and others are summarized.
[213] Only four, however, of the fourteen actually swore: 'reliquos vero decem quietavit Willelmus abbas, qui parati erant jurare'.
[214] The number eight perhaps, is unusual for the jury of a Hundred but we have an instance in 1222, of a 'jurata per octo legales cives Lincolniæ et præterea per octo legales homines de visneto Lincolnie' (Bracton's Note-book, ii. 121); and see [Addenda].
[215] His surname is there omitted, but his identity is proved by Humphrey 'de Anslevilla' occurring elsewhere as an under-tenant of Eudo.