Now Florence of Worcester under the same date tells us that this officer was “regis praepositus,” that is, a king’s reeve: and Henry of Huntingdon improves him into a sheriff[[433]], “praepositus regis illius provinciae:” Æðelweard however, who is obviously much better acquainted with the details of the story than his Norman successors, records that this officer’s name was Beadoheard, and that he was the royal burggrave in Dorchester[[434]].
In 897 again we hear of the death of Lucemon, in battle against the Danes: the Chronicle calls him “ðæs cyninges geréfa:” but Henry of Huntingdon, “praepositus regalis exercitus[[435]],” which may merely mean the officer appointed to lead the royal force, that is a king’s reeve in the sense which I have attempted to establish on a preceding page. Other king’s reeves mentioned, are Ælfweard, (Chron. Sax. an. 1011), and Ælfgár (Cod. Dipl. No. 693).
It may admit of doubt whether in the parts of England which were subject to Danish rule, and only re-annexed to the Westsaxon crown by conquest, the same institutions prevailed as in the rest of the country. In the laws of Æðelred[[437]] we hear of a king’s reeve in the Wapentake and in the community of the Five Burgs. These are not sheriffs; the former rather resembling the Hundred-man; the latter a Burhgeréfa, but with extended powers, perhaps approaching those of a sheriff, or the Northumbrian heáhgeréfa already alluded to in this chapter.
THE BURHGERÉFA.—In a fortified town, which I take to be the strict meaning of burh, there was an officer under this title. We know but little of his peculiar powers; but there is every reason to conclude that they were similar to those of other geréfan, according to the circumstances in which he was placed. If the town were free, it is possible that he may have been the popular officer, a sort of sheriff where the town is itself a county. But this is improbable, and it is much more likely that the burhgeréfa was essentially a royal officer, charged with the maintenance and defence of a fortress. Such a one I take Badoheard to have been in Dorchester; similarly we hear of Godwine, praepositus civitatis Oxnafordi[[438]], Æðelwig praepositus in Bucingaham[[439]], and Wynsige also praepositus in Oxnaforda[[439]], Osulf and Ylcærðon both praepositi in Padstow[[440]]; and finally Ælfred, the reeve of Bath[[441]]. It was this officer’s duty to preside in the burhgemót, which was appointed to be held thrice in the year[[442]], and he was most likely the representative of the towns-people, so far as these were unfree, in the higher courts. It is also probable that he was their military leader, and that he was expected to be present at sales and exchanges in order to be able to warrant transactions, if impeached. Lastly he was to see that tithes were duly rendered from his fellow-citizens[[443]]. From a very interesting document just now cited[[444]], it may be inferred that he possessed considerable power in his district, and that persons of rank and wealth were clothed with the office. We there find the reeves of Buckingham and Oxford granting the rites of Christian burial to some Saxon gentlemen who had perished in a brawl brought on by an attempt at theft; and the intervention of the king himself seems to have been necessary to prevent the execution of their decree. The burhgeréfa may perhaps be said to have had some of the rights of the Aedile and Praetor urbanus under the old, or those of the duumvir under the later, provincial constitution of Rome. Still he seems to have been in some degree subject to the supervision of the ealdorman. I have sometimes thought that he might be compared in part with the Burggraf, in part with the Vogt of the German towns under the Empire; but unfortunately we know too little of our ancient municipal constitution to enable us to carry out this enquiry. We have no means now of ascertaining the duration of his office, the nature of his appointment, or the actual extent of his powers.
PORTGERÉFA.—The Portgeréfa is in many respects similar to the Burhgeréfa: but as it appears that Port is applied rather to a commercial than a fortified town, there are differences between the two offices. In some degree these will have depended upon the comparative power, freedom and organization of the citizens themselves, and I can readily believe that the portreeves of London were much more important personages than the burhreeves of Oxford or Bath. In the smaller towns, it is probable that the court of the portreeve was a sort of pie-powder court; but in the larger, it must have had cognizance of offences against the customs laws, the laws affecting the mint, and the general police of the district. As a general rule I imagine the portgeréfa to have been an elective officer: perhaps in the large and important towns he required at least the assent of the king. In London he holds the place of the sheriff, and the king’s writs are directed to the earl, the bishop and the portreeve[[445]]. There are two cities in which we hear of portreeves, viz. London and Canterbury: in the former we have Swétman[[446]], Ælfsige[[447]], Ulf[[448]], Leófstán[[449]], and the great officer of the royal household, Esgár the steallere[[450]], which alone would be sufficient evidence of the importance attached to the post. In Canterbury we read of Æðelred[[451]], Leofstán[[452]], and Gódric[[453]], occupying the same station. Again we have Ælfsige portgeréfa in Bodmin[[454]], and Leófcild portgeréfa in Bath[[455]]. It is worthy of remark that the two, Ælfsige and Leófstán, served the office together in London, and that Ulf also occurs as sheriff of Middlesex. In the smaller towns especially it must have been a principal part of the portreeve’s duty to witness all transactions by bargain and sale[[456]]. A portion of his subsistence at least was probably derived from the proceeds of tolls, and fines levied within his district.
WÍCGERÉFA.—The Wícgeréfa was a similar officer, in villages, or in such towns as had grown out of villages without losing the name of a village. I presume that he was not concerned with the freemen, but was a kind of steward of the manor, and that his dignity varied with the rank of his employer and the extent of his jurisdiction. However there is so much difficulty in making a clear distinction between Port and Wíc, that we find wícgeréfa applied to officers who ruled in large and royal cities. Thus the Saxon Chronicle mentions Beornwulf under the title of Wícgeréfa in Winchester[[457]], whom Florence in the same year calls Praepositus Wintoniensium. And in the laws of Hloðhere and Eádríc[[458]], the same title is given to the king’s officer in London, Cyninges wícgeréfa. In general I should be disposed to construe the word strictly as a village-reeve, and especially in any case where the village was not royal, but ducal or episcopal property. Many places may indeed have once been called by the name of Wíc which afterwards assumed a much more dignified appellation, together with a much more important social condition.
TÚNGERÉFA.—The Túngeréfa is literally the reeve of a tún, enclosure, farm, vill or manor: and his authority also must have fluctuated with that of his lord. He is the villicus or bailiff of the estate, and on the royal farms was bound to superintend the cultivation, and keep the peace among the cultivators. In London he appears to have been subordinate to the portgeréfa, and was probably his officer[[459]]; it was his business to see that the tolls were paid. Ælfred commands, in case a man is committed to prison in the king’s tún, that the reeve shall feed him, if necessary[[460]]. This I suppose to be the túngeréfa, the officer on the spot who would be responsible for his security. So Eádgár forbids his reeves to do any wrong to the other men of the tún, in respect to the tracking of strange cattle[[461]]. Here the túngeréfa represents the king, among the class that would in earlier times have formed a court of free markmen. That the túngeréfa was the manager of a royal estate appears plainly from an ordinance of Æðelstán, respecting the doles or charities which were to issue from the various farms’ domain[[462]]. “I Æðelstán, with the consent of Wulfhelm my archbishop, and all my other bishops and God’s servants, command all you my reeves, within my realm, for the forgiveness of my sins, that ye entirely feed one poor Englishman, if ye have him, or that ye find another. From every two of my farms, be there given him monthly one amber of meal, and one shank of bacon, or a ram worth four pence, and clothing for twelve months every year. And ye shall redeem one wíteþeów: and let all this be done for the Lord’s mercy, and for my sake, under witness of the bishop in whose diocese it may be. And if the reeve neglect this, let him make compensation with thirty shillings, and let the money be distributed to the poor in the tún where this remains unfulfilled, by witness of the bishop.”
Lastly, in the law of Æðelred[[463]] I find the Tungravius, decimates homines, and presbyter charged with the care of seeing certain alms bestowed and fasts observed; which seems to denote a special authority exercised by the Túngeréfa together with the heads of the tithings. The geréfa in a royal vill may easily have been a person of consideration: if the Æðelnóð who in 830 was reeve at Eastry in Kent[[464]], were such a one, we find from his will that he had no mean amount of property to dispose of.
SWÁNGERÉFA.—The Swángeréfa, as his name denotes, was reeve of that forest-court which till a late period was known in England as the swainmoot. It was his business to superintend the swánas or swains, the herdsmen and foresters, to watch over the rights of pasture, and regulate the use which might be made of the forests. It is probably one of the oldest constitutional offices, and may have existed by the same name at a time when the organization in Marks was common all over England. From a trial which took place in 825, we find that he had the supervision of the pastures in the shirewood or public forest[[465]], and from this also it appears that he was under the immediate superintendence and control of the ealdorman. The extended organization which the swána gemót attained under Cnut, may be seen in that prince’s Constitutions de Foresta[[466]]. It is probable that there were Holtgeréfan and Wudugeréfan, holtreeves and woodreeves among the Saxons, having similar duties to those of the Swángeréfa, but I have not yet met with these names. They are, I believe, by no means extinct in many parts of England, any more than the Landreeve, a designation still current in Devonshire, and probably elsewhere.
WEALHGERÉFA.—The last officer whom I shall treat of particularly is the Wealhgeréfa or Welsh-reeve. This singular title occurs in an entry of the Saxon Chronicle, anno 897. “The same year died Wulfríc, the king’s horse-thane, who was also Wealhgeréfa.” There can be no dispute as to the meaning of the word, but the functions of the officer designated by it are far from clear. It denotes a reeve who had the superintendence of the Welsh; but the question where this superintendence was exercised is a very important one. If in the king’s palace, Wulfríc was set over a certain number of unfree Britons, laeti or even serfs, as their judge and regulator: or he may have had the superintendence of property belonging to Ælfred in Wales, which is somewhat less probable: or lastly he may have been a margrave, whose mission it was to watch the Welsh border, and defend the Saxon frontier against sudden incursions. This I think the least probable of all, inasmuch as I find no traces of margraves (mearcgeréfan) in Anglosaxon history. On the contrary the marches in this country seem to have been always committed to the care of a duke or ealdorman, not a geréfa. Wulfríc’s rank however, which was that of a mariscalcus or marshal, is not inconsistent with so great and distant a command. On the whole therefore I am disposed to believe that he was a royal reeve to whose care Ælfred’s Welsh serfs were committed, and who exercised a superintendence over them in some one or in all of the royal domains.