[401] Ramsey, Inqu. Cotton MSS. Galba, E. x, f. 52: 'Ecclesia ipsius ville possidet dimidiam hidam liberam et presbiter debet esse quartus eorum qui sequuntur comitatum et hundredum cum custamento suo.' Cf. 40, 54. Instead of attending separately the priest comes to be included among the four hundredors.
[402] Britton, i. 177 sqq. See Maitland's Introd. to Manorial Rolls, p. xxvii.
[403] Maitland, op. c. pp. xxix, xxx.
[404] Leg. Henrici I. c. 8.; Cf. Ely Register, Cotton MSS., Claudius, C. xi, 52, a: 'et libere tenentes sui qui tenent per socagium debent unam sectam ad frendlese hundred, scil. ad diem Sabbati proximum post festum St. Michaelis.' The expression 'friendless' is peculiar. It appears in other instances in the Ely Surveys. May it not mean, that all the free tenants, even the small ones, had to attend and could not be represented by their fellows or 'friends'?
[405] Glastonbury Cart., Wood MSS., i. f. 233, a: 'et N. et G. veniunt et defendunt vim et iniuriam et talem sectam qualem ab eis exigit et bene cognoscunt quod per attornatos suos debent ipsi facere duas sectas per annum ad duos lagedaios ... sed si aliquis latro fuerit ibi iudicandus tunc debent liberi homines sui et prepositi uel seruientes sui debent interesse ad predictum hundredum ad faciendum iudicium et non ipsi in propria persona sua.' Cf. Malmesbury Cart. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 178: 'Item recognouit sectam ad hundredum de Malmesburia per se vel per sufficientem attornatum suum. Item recognouit et concessit quod omnes liberi homines sui de Estleye sequantur de hundredo in hundredum apud Malmesburiam sicut aliquo tempore predecessorum suorum facere consueverunt.'
[406] This may possibly account for the curious fact, that in every manor there are some tenants called 'Freeman,' 'Frankleyn,' and the like. They seem to be there to keep up the necessary tradition of the free element. For instance: Eynsham Cart. MSS. of the Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, xxix. f. 4, a: 'Iohannes Freman de Shyfford tenet unam virgatam per cartam ... facit sectam ad comitatum et hundredum et hac de causa tenet tenementum suum.' Cf. Coram Rege 27 Henry III, m. 3: 'Dicunt quod non est aliquis liber homo in eodem manerio nisi Willelmus filius Radulfi qui respondet infra corpus comitatus.' The fact is well known to all those who have had anything to do with manorial records.
[407] Cf. Maitland, Suitors of the County Court, Eng. Hist. Review, July, 1888.
[408] Is it not possible to explain by the 'hundredor' the following difficult passage in Domesday, ii. 100? 'Hugo de Montfort invasit tres liberos homines ... unus ex his jacet ad feudum Sancti Petri de Westmonasterio testimonio hundredi, sed fuit liberatus Hugoni in numero suorum hundredorum (corr. hundredariorum?) ut dicunt sui homines.' It is true that the term does not occur elsewhere in Domesday, but the reading as it stands appears very clumsy, and the emendation proposed would seem the easiest way to get out of the difficulty.
[409] Y.B. 21/22 Edw. I. (ed. Horwood), pp. xix, 499.
[410] I may be excused for again referring to the Stoneleigh Reg. f. 32, d: 'Quidam tenentes eiusdem manerii tenent terras et tenementa sua in Sokemannia in feodo et hereditate de qua quidem tenura talis habetur et omne tempore habebatur consuetudo videlicet quod quando aliquis tenens eiusdem tenure terram suam alicui alienare voluerit veniat in curiam coram ipso Abbate vel eius senescallo et per vergam sursum reddat in manum domini terram sic alienandam ad opus illius qui terram illam optinebit ... Et si aliquis terram aliquam huiusmodi tenure infra manerium predictum per cartam vel sine carta absque licentia dicti Abbatis alienaverit aliter quam per sursum reddicionem in curia in forma predicta, quod terra sic extra curia alienata domino dicti manerii erit forisfacta in perpetuum.'