"Andreas bucca uncta reddit compotum de lxiiij libris et vii solidis et viiij denariis pro xx libratis terre de terra Rogeri nepotis Huberti."
"Johannes filius Radulfi filii Ebrardi et Robertus frater suus reddunt Compotum de dcccc et ij marcis argenti iiij denarios minus de debitis Gervasii filii Rogeri pro totâ terrâ patris sui exceptis xx libratis terræ quas rex retinuit ad opus Andr' bucca uncta.... Et Idem debent iij marcas auri pro concessione terrarum quas Gervasius eis dedit."
"Ingenolda uxor Rogeri Nepotis Huberti debet ij marcas auri ut habeat maritagium et dotem et res suas."
"Gervasius filius Rogeri nepotis Huberti debet vj libras et xii solidos et vj denarios de debitis patris sui."
"Robertus filius Radufi et Johannes frater ejus reddunt Compotum de iij marcis auri ut rex concederet eis vadimonium et terras quas Gervasius eis concessit."[884]
These entries are explained by the charter subjoined, which shows how John and Robert came to have charge of the estate:—
"H. rex Angl[orum] Vic' Lund' et omnibus Baronibus et Vicecomitibus in quorum Bailiis Gervasius filius Rogeri terram habet salutem. Precipio quod Gervasius filius Rogeri sit saisitus et tenens de omnibus terris et rebus patris sui sicut pater ejus erat die quo movit ire ad Jerosolimam.... Et ipse et tota terra sua interim sint in custodia et saisina Johannis et Roberti filiorum Radulfi.... T. Comite Gloecestrie. Apud West'."[885]
John fitz Ralph (fitz Ebrard) was another London magnate, who was more or less connected with Gervase throughout his career. He is found with him at St. Albans, late in Stephen's reign, witnessing a charter of the king;[886] and the two men, as "Gervase and John," were joint sheriffs of London in 2 Hen. II. He is also the first witness to one of Gervase's charters after his brother Alan.[887]
We further find Gervase fitz Roger excused (in the Pipe-Roll of 1130) the payment of two shillings "de veteri Danegeldo" (? 1127-28) in Middlesex, and seven shillings "de preterito Danegeldo" (1128-29) because his land is "waste."[888] The inference to be drawn from all these passages is that Gervase had then (1130) recently succeeded his father, a man of unusual wealth and considerable property in land. We should therefore expect to find him, in his turn, a man of some importance, as was our own Gervase the Justiciar (alias Gervase de Cornhill), the only Gervase who meets us as a man of any consequence. Fortunately, however, we are not dependent on mere inference. The manor of Chalk was granted by the Crown to Roger "nepos Huberti;"[889] it was subsequently regranted to Gervase de Cornhill,[890] whom I identify with Gervase his son. Moreover, the adoption by Gervase of the surname "de Cornhill" can, as it happens, be accounted for. Among the records of the duchy of Lancaster is a grant by William, Archbishop of Canterbury (1123-1136), of land at "Eadintune" to Gervase and Agnes his wife, Agnes being described as daughter of "Godeleve."[891] By the aid of another document relating to the same property,[892] we identify this "Godeleve" as the wife of Edward de Cornhill. To the eye of a trained genealogist all is thus made clear.
But we now find ourselves in the midst of a most interesting family connection. For these same records carry us back to the father of this "Godeleve," namely, Edward of Southwark.[893] It is true that here he figures merely as a "æ. desudwerc," but we have only to turn to another quarter, and there we find "Edwardo de Suthwerke et Willelmo filio ejus" among the leading witnesses to the invaluable document recording the surrender by the English Cnihtengild of their soke to the priory of Christchurch (1125).[894] I need scarcely lay stress on the interest and importance of everything bearing on that remarkable and as yet mysterious institution. We find ourselves now brought into actual contact with the gild. For in one of its members, as named in that document, "Edwardus Hupcornhill," we recognize no other than that "Edward of Cornhill" who was son-in-law to "Edward of Southwark."[895] Following up our man in yet another quarter, we find him witnessing a London deed (temp. William the Dean),[896] and another one of about the middle of the reign of Henry I.,[897] though wrongly assigned in the (Hist. MSS.) Report to "about 1127."[898] Lastly, turning to still another quarter, we find his name among those of the witnesses to an agreement between Ramsey Abbey and the priory of Christchurch soon after 1125.[899]