[585] "Inga" in Dugdale's transcript, and rightly so, for we find this same Hugh, as "Hugo de Ging'," a witness to a charter on behalf of Earl Aubrey, about this time (infra, p. 190). There were several places in Essex named "Ging" alias "Ing."
[586] Compare the famous Lewes charter of William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, said (if genuine) to be the earliest allusion to a peerage creation. There the earl speaks of William Rufus, "qui me Surreæ comitem fecit."
[587] Abingdon Cartulary, ii. 179.
[588] It should, however, be observed that in this same charter she refers to Earl Gilbert (of Pembroke) and Earl Hugh (of Norfolk) by their comital style, though, so far as we know, they were earls of Stephen's creation alone. But such a reference as this is very different from the style formally given in a charter of creation.
[589] Archæologia, vol. xxxi.
[590] "Its date is subsequent to the 25th of July, 1141, when the Empress created Milo de Gloucester Earl of Hereford at Oxford, who has this title in the charter, and, from its having been given at Oxford, there can be little doubt that it was contemporaneous with that creation, and certainly prior to the siege of Winchester in the month of August following" (ibid., pp. 231, 232).
[591] Of these witnesses "ex parte comitis," Geoffrey de Ver held half a knight's fee of him, Robert fitz Humfrey held one, Robert fitz "Ailric" one, Ralph fitz Adam a quarter, Ralph de Guisnes one, Geoffrey Arsic two, Robert de Cocefeld three, Ralph Carbonel one and a half. Hugh de Ging' was the "Hugo de Inga" who acted as proxy (vide supra) at Henry's confirmation of his mother's charter. This charter has an independent value for its bearing on knights' fees. See also Addenda.
[592] At the same time, we must remember that he held a considerable fief in Cambridgeshire (see Domesday), which, if he could not have Essex, might lead him to select that county.
[593] Norm. Conq., ii. 559.
[594] Ibid.