he made Governor of the Castle of Norwich, he gave nine manors in Norfolk.

To William de Albini, pincerna son of Roger de Albini, whom he made his butler, he gave four manors in Norfolk, the possessions of one Edwin a Dane, besides the lands which he had in the county with Maud, the daughter of Roger Bigod, his wife, which were ten knights' fees. He held his manor of Buckenham by the service of being butler to the Kings of England at their coronation.

To Humphry de Bohun, or With the Beard, whom he made Earl of Hereford, being a kinsman of the King, and attending him in his expedition hither, he gave one lordship in Norfolk.

To Ralph de Limese one manor; to Peter de Valoines twenty lordships, and to Ralph de Tony, son of Roger de Tony, standard bearer of Normandy, nineteen lordships in Norfolk, for his eminent services.

William I. gave the lordship of Brooke, in the Hundred of Loddon, to the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund, when he first supplicated that saint's favour and protection, falling prostrate before him, and placing a small knife, wrapped up, on the altar, in the presence of many of the chief nobility.

William I. as before stated, conferred the earldom of Norfolk, on one Waher or Guader, probably a native of Bretaigne. He conspired against his benefactor, and when some of the conspirators repented and disclosed the design, he persisted in it and raised forces which were defeated and himself obliged to flee to Denmark. There he persuaded the King's son to come over with a fleet; but finding William prepared for them they landed in Flanders. He afterwards took on him the cross, and died in Jerusalem in the crusade, under Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy. He left two sons and one daughter, but his estates in this country were forfeited.

The title of Earl of Norfolk was next in the great family of Bigod or Bygod. The name comes from the German By and Gott, or the English By God! The first of this family that settled in England was Roger, who held several lordships in Norfolk at the survey and revolted against William Rufus, on behalf of his brother Robert, but adhered faithfully to Henry I. He founded Thetford Abbey, where he was buried in 1107. He was succeeded by his son William Bigod, appointed steward of the household to that King, and shipwrecked with the royal children in their passage to Normandy. His brother, Hugh Bigod, succeeded in his office, whom King Stephen for his services in advancing him to the crown of England, had before created Earl of the East Angles. He was afterwards advanced to the dignity and title of Earl of Norfolk by Henry II.,

A.D. 1166.

Roger Bigod, before mentioned, came over with the Conqueror from Normandy, and had the capital manor and lordship of Forncett, with all its royalties, &c., granted to him for his eminent services at the battle of Hastings. That lordship has ever since passed with the Earls and Dukes of Norfolk, and it is situated in the Hundred of Depwade in Norfolk.

We shall now proceed to give a more detailed account of the grants to Norman warriors in Norfolk and Suffolk. The rust of time has invaded all accounts in writing of this period. The whole is clouded in obscurity, and proves the uncertainty of all pedigrees and possessions in years before the conquest, and previous to the general survey from which Domesday Book was compiled. That is the chief authority in all our inquiries of this nature, and fortunately it has been well preserved. Without it, all we can say is that one historian is more lucky in his guess than another, or more plausible in his reasoning. Fuller, in his "Worthies" states that Edwin the Dane, Lord of Sherbourne, traversed the title of the Earl Warren to this lordship, and being a Norfolk man durst go to law with the King and question the validity of his grants. Fuller does great honour on this account to the gentlemen of Norfolk, in supposing that only a native of that county dare to contest with a King; however, the King made pretty free with the county in his divisions to his Norman favourites. To begin with the lordship of Sherbourne thus disputed. According to historians, Thoke was Lord of Sherbourne when Felix, the Bishop of the East Angles, came into West Norfolk, about 640, to convert the people to Christianity, and he built a church at that place. The heiress of this Thoke married Ingulfe, whose descendants enjoyed it till the time of Canute, with whom came Edwin the Dane into England. King Canute granted Sherbourne and Snettisham to this Edwin the Dane on his marriage with a descendant of the family of Thoke, or rather of Ingulfe. William I. had given the lands to Earl Warren, but on the appeal of Edwin ordered them to be restored to him. After this, Sir Ralph de Ibremijs, a Norman, imprisoned Edwin, who applying to Albini for relief, he sent for a daughter of his own out of Normandy and married her to the son of Edwin, which put an end to all the claims of Edwin, who by this match became satisfied, and retiring, died soon after in peace and quiet.*

After the conquest, Alan, Earl of Richmond, surnamed Rufus from his red hair, had grants of no less than 166 lordships in Yorkshire, sixty-three in Cambridgeshire, eight in Essex, 101 in Lincolnshire, and eighty-one in Norfolk, of all which the manor of Cossey or Costessey was the largest in Norfolk, as appears from Domesday Book, folios 62 and 63. This Alan was the son of Eudo, Earl of Bretaigne in France, and coming over the

* MSS. of the family of the Sharnbourns.

seas with William, Duke of Normandy, into England, he commanded the rear of his army in the memorable battle of Hastings, where he behaved so bravely that he was immediately advanced to the earldom of Richmond, displacing Edwin, Earl of Mercia.

The Norman Earl of Richmond built a strong castle at his capital mansion of Gilling, in Yorkshire, and named it Richmount, for the better safeguard of himself and tenants against the dispossessed natives, whom he treated with humanity. He restored the great Abbey of St. Mary, at York, but did nothing that we read of in Norfolk. He married Constance, a daughter of the Conqueror, and dying without issue, he was buried in the Abbey of St. Edmund's Bury, at the south door, before the altar of St. Nicholas. His brother Alan Niger, or Alan the Black, succeeded him, and died also without issue, and was buried at Bury St. Edmund's.

William I. granted to one of his Norman warriors, William, Earl of Warrenne and afterwards Earl of Surrey, 146 lordships in Norfolk and Suffolk. As may be supposed he exercised great power in both counties and he became a very formidable nobleman. He built a great castle at Castleacre in West Norfolk, and it was long the baronial seat of his descendants. He also built a beautiful priory at Castleacre and extensive ruins yet remain. On the death of John the last Earl Warrenne in 1347 the estate passed into the hands of the female branch of the family who intermarried with the Arundels, the ancestors of the Dukes of Norfolk.

William I. granted the town of Kenninghall in Norfolk to William de Albini or Albany and his heirs, together with the lordship of Bokenham, to be held by the service of being chief butler to the Kings of England on the days of their coronation, upon which account he was called afterwards pincerna regis. This manor always went with Bokenham or Buckenham till the division of the Albany's estate, between the four sisters and co-heirs of Hugh de Albini, who died without issue leaving this manor in dower to his wife Isabel, who, in 1243 had it assigned to her by the King's license. The aforesaid William de Albini founded Wymondham Abbey, where he was buried before the high altar by Maud his wife, daughter of Roger Bigod Earl of Norfolk, with whom he had ten knights' fees in Norfolk, the gift of Earl Roger. He was the son of Roger de Albini by Amy de Mowbray his wife, and brother to that famous Niger de Albini whose descendants assumed the name of Mowbray from that of his mother.

William de Albini before-mentioned had a grant of the fee of Old Buckenham, and he was succeeded by his son William with the strong hand, so called from his having killed a lion by thrusting his arm down its throat, according to the legends of chivalry.

Rainald was a Norman baron who attended William I. in his invasion of England, and on the conquest was rewarded for his services with nine lordships in the Hundred of Clackclose, three in Freebridge Hundred, one in Grimshoe, four in South Greenhoe, three in Wayland, one in Launditch, one in Mitford, one in Gallow, one in Brothercross, one in Holt, three in North Greenhoe, one in Loddon, four in Eynsford, one in Taverham, five in South Erpingham, one in Tunstead Hundred, all in Norfolk.

William I. made one of his warriors, William Gifford, Earl of Buckingham, and rewarded him for his services at the conquest, with the following lordships in Norfolk:-In the Hundred of Eynesford with Bintry, Guestwick, Norton, Dalling, Swannington, Helmingham, and Ringland ; in Taverham Hundred with Attlebridge and Felthorpe; in South Erpingham with Stratton, Guincham, Reppetuna, Ermingland; in South Greehoe with Fuldon; in Grimshoe with Linford and Ickburgh; in Holt Hundred with Letheringsett, Bayfield, Glanford, Snitherby, Bodham, and Hanworth; in North Greenhoe with Warham; in North Erpingham with Barningham; in Henstead with Shottesham, Saxlingham, and Stoke. He had also grants of three lordships in Suffolk, nine in Bedfordshire, forty-eight in Buckinghamshire, three in Oxfordshire, five in Cambridgeshire, one in Huntingdonshire, one in Somersetshire, one in Wiltshire, and two in Berkshire. At the time of the survey he was sent with Remigius, Bishop of Lincolnshire, and some others to make that

survey.

By Agnes his wife, daughter of Gerard Flutell, sister to William, Bishop of Eureux, in Normandy, he had Walter his son. When he (the father) died, on July 15th, 1102, in England, his body was carried into France, and buried at the Abbey Church of Longueville in Normandy, which he had founded in the chapel of the cloister. Walter, his son and heir, Earl of Bucks, in the twelfth year of Henry II., on an aid for marriage of that King's daughter, certified that he held ninety-four and a-half knights' fees, de veteri feoffumento, and one and a-half de novo. In the time of Richard I., Richard de Clere, Earl of Hertford, descended from Rohais, sister of this Sir Walter, was lord. Rohais was wife of Richard FitzGilbert, ancestor of the Earls of Clere.

William de Scohies, or Escois, received a large share of the Conqueror's favours in Norfolk, lordships in Islington, Clenchwarton, Middleton, Runcton, Gayton, and Massingham in Freebridge Hundred; Bircham in Docking Hundred and Ringstead in Smithdon Hundred; Banham, Kenninghall, and Harling in Guiltcross Hundred; Letton in Mitford Hundred; Creake in Brothercross Hundred; Sherringham, Barningham, Repps, Beeston Regis, and Runton in North Erpingham Hundred;

Salthouse in Holt Hundred; Limpenhoe, Burlingham, Plumstead, and Southwood in Blofield Hundred; Winterton and Ashby in West Flegg, Witchingham and Weston in Eynsford Hundred; Attlebridge in Taverham Hundred; Corpusty in South Erpingham, Paston in Tunstead, Stokesby in East Flegg, Colney in Humbleyard, Tasburgh in Depwade, and Thirton in Clavering Hundred; Bircham Magna in Smithdon Hundred. He sold the lordship of Bircham Magna, with many others, in the reign of Henry I., to Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham, who was succeeded by a son of his own name, and he, dying without issue, his great inheritance was divided amongst his sisters and co-heirs.

William I. granted many lordships in Norfolk to Godric, his steward, and he held the following at the survey in 1086-In South Greenhoe Hundred, Gooderstone, Oxburgh, and Southacre; in Forehoe Hundred, Wramplingham and Tokethorpe; in Walsham Hundred, Walsham and Opeton; in Henstead Hundred, Stoke, Poringland, Framlingham, Ulverstone, Holveston, Rockland, Bramerton, South Burlingham, Kirby, and Appleton; in Loddon Hundred, Hellington, Ashby, Claxton, Norton, Carleton, Weasingford, Sisland, and Alemunton; in Eynsford Hundred, Sparham and Bintry; in Taverham Hundred, Beeston; in Humbleyard Hundred, Melton Magna and Parva, Hethersett, Colney, Dunston, Swardeston, Flordon, Swainsthorpe, Keswick, and Kenningham; in Clavering Hundred, Heckingham, Hales, Southwood.

Jervis, Earl of Harcourt in France, who came into England with the Conqueror, was the ancestor of the Hare family in Clackclose, Norfolk. Sir John Hare, son of the earl, married Ann, daughter of Eustace Crew, baron of the Monte Alto. They had lands at Stow Bardolph, in Clackclose, and their descendants inherited those lands to the end of the eighteenth century. Some members of the family were highly distinguished. Sir Nicholas Hare was twice chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in the reign of Henry VIII., Master of the Rolls, and Chief Justice of Chester. William, Lord Baynard, had from the Conqueror grants of many lordships in Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, including eleven manors in the Hundred of Clackclose, in Norfolk. The principal manors were at Barton Bendish, Bixwell, Fincham, West Dereham, Merton, &c. This Lord Baynard, by Juga, his wife, had Jeffrey, his son and heir, who lived in 1106, succeeded by William Baynard, who taking part with Elias, Earl of Mayne, in France, against Henry I., lost his barony of Baynard's Castle in London, which was given by the King to Robert, a younger son of Richard FitzGilbert, ancestor of the Earls of Clare.

William I. granted the manors of Bexwell, in the Hundred of Clackclose, and Merton, in Wayland Hundred, to Ralph Baynard, one of his principal Norman warriors, who came over with him to England. The