For this Byham, improbable as it may seem, was really the "Diham" of our charter, i.e. Dedham, and the two halves of the original barony are here described (as I explained above) as those of Richard and William. In a survey of Richard's portion of the fief among the inquisitions of John (circ. 1212),[1156] we find Leonia holding half a knight's fee in "Dyham" of it, and in a later inquisition we find her heir, John de Stuteville, holding the estate as "Dyhale" (Testa, p. 281 b). As early as 1185-86 Leonia was already in possession of Dedham, as will be seen by the extract below from the Rotulus de Dominabus. This entry is one of a series which have formed the subject of keen, and even hot, discussion. The fact that Dedham is spoken of here as her "inheritance" has led to the hasty inference that she was heiress, or co-heiress, to the Raimes fief. This view seems to have been started by Mr. E. Chester Waters in a communication to Notes and Queries (1872),[1157] in which, on the strength of the entries below relating to her and to Alice de Tani, he drew out a pedigree deriving them both from the "Roger de Ramis of Domesday." Writing to the Academy in 1885, he took great credit to himself for his performance in Notes and Queries, and observed, of Mr. Yeatman: "I must refer him to the Rotulus de Dominabus and to the Chartulary of Bocherville Abbey for the true co-heirs of the fief of Raimes."[1158] But the extracts which follow clearly show (when combined with the Testa entry above) that neither Leonia nor Alice were the "true co-heirs of the fief of Raimes," for they were merely under-tenants of that fief, Leonia holding one knight's fee from the tenants of the whole fief, and Alice two knights' fees from the tenants of Richard's portion.
(Lexden Hundred.)
Uxor Roberti de Stuteville est de donatione Domini Regis, et de parentela Edwardi de Salesburia ex parte patris, et ex parte matris est de progenie Rogeri de Reimes. Ipsa habet j villam que vocatur Diham que est hereditas ejus, que valet annuatim xxiiij libras. Ipsa habet j filium et ij filias, et nescitur eorum etas.
(Tendring Hundred.)
Alizia de Tany est de donatione Domini Regis; terra ejus valet vij libras, et ipsa habet v filios et ij filias, et heres ejus est xx annorum, de progenie Rogeri de Reimes.
(Hinckford.)
Alicia filia Willelmi filii Godcelini quam tradidit Dominus Rex Picoto de Tani est in donatione Domini Regis, et tenet de Domino Rege, et de feodo Ricardi de Ramis; et terra sua valet vij libras; et ipsa habet v filios et primogenitus est xx annorum, et ij filias. Picot de Tani habuit dictam terram v annis elapsis, cum autumpnus venerit.
Leonia is indeed stated to be "de progenie Rogeri de Reimes," and so is the heir of Alice (not, as alleged, Alice herself), but there is nothing to show that this was the Roger de Raimes "of Domesday." It may have been his namesake (and grandson?) of 1130-35, or even (though probably not) the Roger of 1159. Whether the allusion, in our charter (1142), to Dedham being the "rectum" of the sons of Roger de Ramis, and the fact of its being in the king's hands then and in 1166-68, had to do with a claim by Leonia or her mother, or not, it is obvious that Leonia did not claim, nor did Alice de Tani, to be, in any sense, the heir of either of the above Rogers, though she may have been, as was the case so often with under-tenants, connected with them in blood.
[1150] This instance proves that payment was sometimes made on the net amount due, after making such deduction, instead of being entered as paid in full, with a subsequent entry of deduction.
[1151] The forms "Diham," "De Hiham," and "Heham" are very confusing from the fact that Higham also is on the border of Essex and Suffolk.