Fulquius vicecomes nepos Gisleberti de Surreia concedit Hugoni filio Ulgeri et heredibus suis conventiones de terra de Alfladewicha et de Hischentuna sicut convencio est inter Bernardum filium Rumoldi et Hugonem filium Ulgeri et sicut cirographum quod factum est inter eos testatur per iiij marcas argenti quas dedit mihi Hugo. Et hoc est requisitione Milonis de Gloecestria et Fulcredi camerarii Lund[onie] et Osberti VIII denarii et Andree Buccuinte et Anschetilli. Et istud concessum fuit factum ante Willelmum abbatem de Certesia, et Ricardum Basset, et Albericum de Ver, et Meinfeninum Britonem, et Robertum de Talewurda, et Rodbertum dapiferum abbatis de Certesia, et Walterum clericum, et Radulfum Bloie.[304]
We may safely recognise in the grantor that “Fulcoius qui fuit vicecomes” of the 1130 Pipe Roll[305] (p. 44), who had, in 1129, preceded Richard Basset and Aubrey de Ver as sheriff of Surrey, Cambridgeshire, and Hunts. A church was quitclaimed to the abbot of Colchester before him as “Fulcquio vicecomite de Surreia,” not later, it would seem, than 1126.[306] It is probable that the “de Surreia” of the above clumsily-drawn charter refers to his sheriffwick rather than to Gilbert, of whom, we here learn, he was the ‘nepos.’ This statement enables us to connect him directly with Gilbert, a previous sheriff of Hunts, and, it seems, of Surrey. For a charter witnessed by this Gilbert, as sheriff, is also witnessed by “Fulcuinus nepos vicecomitis.”[307] Fulkoin must have been sheriff of Hunts in 1127, for a charter of May 22, in that year, is witnessed by him.[308] He further witnessed, as ‘Fulcoinus vicecomes,’ a transaction of which the date seems not quite certain.[309] Gilbert, his uncle, was sheriff as early as 1110,[310] and in 1114 (or 1116),[311] and occurs as “Gilbertus vicecomes de Suthereia” in a charter of 1114–1119.[312]
From this it would seem that he was sheriff, like his nephew, of Surrey as well as Hunts (including, doubtless, Cambridgeshire). He was also no other than the founder of Merton Priory, whose Austin canons were the teachers of Becket.
Having reached this conclusion, I turned to the curious narrative of the foundation of Merton Priory, which exists in MS. at the College of Arms.[313] Here we find the striking passage:
Erat autem [Gilbertus] vicecomes trium comitatuum, Suthereie, scilicet, Cantebrigie, et Huntendonie. In qua videlicet Huntendona per aliquot jam annos in ecclesia gloriosissime genetricis Dei Marie canonicorum regularium ordo floruerit et exemplis bonorum operum odorem sue noticie circumquoque diffuderit (fo. 1 d).
Incidentally, we have here evidence that the Austin Priory of St. Mary’s, Huntingdon, had been in existence some years before the date of which the writer was speaking, namely, 1114. But the really important point is that Gilbert is here asserted to have held the shrievalty of precisely those three counties, which, from other evidence, I had concluded to have been subject to his rule. We may, therefore, safely assert that these three counties, under Henry I., had, for some twenty years, a single sheriff; first the above Gilbert, and then his nephew Fulcoin. This is a welcome gleam of light on the administrative system of Henry I.
But further, the independent confirmation, in this particular, of the above narrative raises its authority and value. I have seen enough of it to say that it certainly deserves printing. Apart from its history of the actual foundation and the early abandonment of the original site (a point hitherto unknown), it has a long and curious story in connection with a great council at Winchester in 1121, and, above all, a precious glimpse of the sheriffs before the Exchequer about the middle, we may fairly say, of the reign of Henry I.
Ad scacarium autem cum de tota Anglia vicecomites generaliter coadunarentur universi pro pavore maximo concuterantur, iste solus interepidis (sic) et hillaris adveniebat atque confestim a receptoribus advocatus pecuniarum inter illos sese mittebat sic que cum illis q[ui] unus ex illis securus et alacer simul sedebat (fo. 10 d).
Of the persons named in the above charter, “Meinfeninus Brito” was clearly the “Maenfininus” who, in 1129, had preceded similarly the same two officers as sheriffs of Bucks and Beds.[314] Miles of Gloucester was another active royal officer, sheriff in 1129 and 1130 of Staffordshire and Gloucestershire;[315] so that we have here sheriffs presiding over seven English counties in 1129. Andrew Buccuinte and Osbert ‘Huitdeniers’ were successively, as shown in this paper, Justiciars of London; and Fulcred is of interest as a chamberlain of London, not mentioned, at least as such, in the Roll of 1130, and only incidentally named in the MSS. of St. Paul’s.[316] He occurs, however, under the same style in a Ramsey charter of February 2, 1131 (if it is not 1130),[317] and was doubtless the Fulcred whose ‘nepos’ Eustace appears, in 1137, next to Hugh the son of Wulfgar.[318]