In perusing the Memoirs of Philip de Comines, I found the following passage. "I was," he said, "invited by Monsieur de Vancler, to dine with him when I was at Calais; where I found him well attended, with a Ragged Staff of gold upon his bonnet, which was the device of the Earl of Warwick; the rest of the guests had the same device of Ragged Staffs; but they who could not have them of gold, had them of cloth." It was told me at dinner, " that within a quarter of an hour after the messenger was arrived from England with the news, that the whole town had got into his badge." See p. 162. the English edition. It is not improbable, therefore, that the sign of the Ragged Staff derived its origin from the arms of the Earl of Warwick, who was eternized in the dispute of the houses of York and Lancaster. The bear prefixed to it is doubtless of the same kind of origin; but as I have no book of heraldry immediately at hand to turn to for the application of a device to any of the Earl's followers, I shall leave this investigation for the attention of any other curious correspondent in these kind of researches. 1789, March. Yours, &c. J. D. CXIV. A Passage in Domesday illustrated. MR. URBAN, As the following article is not inconsistent with the plan of your Monthly Collection, and may be matter of curiosity at least, if not of use, to some of your antiquarian correspondents, you may communicate it to them, if you think proper, in your next Magazine. It is noted in Domesday Book, under the article of Kingston upon Thames, that "Humfrid the chamberlain (tenant to the Queen's fee at Cumbe in that parish) had one of the King's villains of that manor under his direction, causa coadunandi lanam Reginæ." In another ancient record*, we find that King Henry I. gave Cumbe to the family of Postel, who held it by the same tenure, viz. " per serjentiam colligendi lanam Reginæ." And lastly, that, in 39 Henry III. Peter Baldwin held it† ; *Testa de Nevil. + Plac. Coron. 39 Hen. III. ret. 31. 66 whose son Peter also died seised of it in 27 Edward I.* having both holden it in like manner, per serjentiam colligendi lanam Regine ;" to which is added, in the former of these two, 66 per alba*** " Blount, in his Ancient Tenures, p. 79, in order to supply this blank in a place where he confesses that the record was illegible, and that he only does it by guess, puts in the word spinus, and then gives this account of the tenure, viz. that the Queen's tenant here held this little manor by the service of "going a wool-gathering for the Queen among the thorns and briers." And the author of a treatise lately published, called, "Domesday Book illustrated," p. 175, follows Blount, without any other explanation of him, than by translating the words coadunandi lanam Regina, "winding, or mixing, or working up the Queen's wool with other wool, or, gathering wool for the Queen." Now, the truth is, that "the original revenue of our ancient queens, before and soon after the Conquest, consisted in certain reservations or rents out of the demesne lands of the crown, which were expressly appropriated to her Majesty, distinct from the King. It is frequent, in Domesday Book, after specifying the rent due to the crown, to add likewise the quantity of gold, or other renders, reserved to the queen. These were frequently appropriated to particular purposes; to buy wool for her majesty's use, to purchase oil for her lamps, or to furnish her attire from head to foot+." This manor of Cumbe then was plainly one of those "reservations or rents out of the demesne lands of the crown,' spoken of by Blackstone, as "expressly appropriated to the queen's use; and, in the present instance, for the first of the purposes there mentioned, viz. "for buying wool for her majesty's use." Humfrid the chamberlain, who farmed this manor of the queen, by the service of co-adunating, i. e. getting together this wool, might possibly pay it in kind, collecting their respective portions of the several under-tenants. In succeeding times, however, particularly when Postel, and afterwards Baldwin, farmed this manor, the wool-rent was compounded for by the payment of 20s. a year in silver at the Exchequer; and a rent paid in silver was always called alba firma. The blank, therefore, in the abovementioned record of 39 Henry III. is undoubtedly to *Esch. 27. E. I. n. 27. + Blackstone's Comment. vol. I, p. 221. and the authorities there cited, among which is the very article în question, not " be filled up with the word firmam, whereby the whole will be rendered perfectly intelligible, viz. that Peter Baldwin held the serjeantry in Cumbe by collecting the queen's wool, per albas spinas," off the thorns and briers of the manor, but "per albam firmam," i. e. by compositions in silver, to be paid by the respective under-tenants, to the amount of 20s. a year-or, whether he did or not, should at least pay that sum annually himself for the same at the Treasury. 1789, March. PALEOPHILUS SURR. CXV. Meretrices-An ancient Tenure investigated and explained. MR. URBAN, IN the Gentleman's Magazine for 1773, it is said that, 66 among other strange customs in England, there is one, that, whenever the King comes to Lothesley manor, near Guildford, the Lord is to present his Majesty with three WHORES." 66 manor was A correspondent in some measure rectifies the mistake, by informing us that, "instead of Lothesley, it was the manor of Catteshill that was meant ;" and that this holden by the service of being marshal of the MERETRICES when the King came that way; that it is well known that MERETRIX, in later Latin writers, is equivalent to lavatrix, or lotric; and, therefore, that these twelve young women (for such, as he observes, they are called, and such is their number said to have been by Blount, in his account of Ancient Tenures, p. 80), were to follow the court in the capacity of laundresses, to be furnished by the Lord of the manor of Catteshill." Another correspondent carries the custom back again to Lothesley, which, he tells us, "was holden in grand serjeantry by the master of the King's MERETRICES, i. e. (says he) laundresses." Perhaps a more full and accurate account of this matter may not be unacceptable. You are to understand then, Mr. Urban, that, from the accession of King Henry II. our kings had a mansion house and park at Guildford, where they occasionally resided and kept their court; during which tine, certain of the inferior offices of the household were supplied by the tenants of two different estates holden of the crown in this neighbourhood. I. One of these was what is now called the manor of Poyle, in Guildford; which had been given, in earlier times, to the family of Testard. During the minority of William, a heir of this family, in the time of Henry II. the wardship of him and his estate was given to one Ranulph de Broc, from whom it descended to Edeline his daughter, who held it per serjantiam mareschalli in curia domini regis*. Stephen de Turnham, who married her, succeeded to the trust, and held it by the same servicet. To this William, who died in 14 Henry III. anno 1230, succeeded Robert, his son, whọ is described as holding it, in 19 Henry III. 1235, per serjan tiam custodiendi MERETRICES in curia domini regist. Thomas succeeded to the inheritance; and, after him, Richard, his brother; in the account of whose serjeantry it is set forth, as a part of his office of mareschal, that he was servare LOTRICES curiæ domini regis§. About this time Richard sold this estate to Thomas de la Puille, or Poyle (from whom it took its present name, and) who held it by the same service: and in his family it continued till 9 Henry V. But this whimsical tenure having, before this, been converted into knight's service, we hear no more of it after 11 Edward II. or thereabouts. 2. The other estate, holden by this tenure, was the manor of CATTESHILL in Godelming, distant about four miles. from the court of Guildford. Ranulph de Broc, already spoken of as guardian of the heir of Testard, had a grant of this manor from King Henry II. to hold by the service of ostiarius in camera domini regis. Edeline, his daughter, and Stephen de Turnham, her husband, held it by the same service**. Robert de Gatton, who married a granddaughter and co-heir of Stephen's, is called mareschallus custodiendo MERETRICES de curia domini regis††; and mareschallus duodecim PUELLARUM que sequuntur curiam domini regist. Hamo de Gatton, his son and heir, mareschallus MERETRICUM cum dominus rex venerit in illis partibus§§; and ostiarius camera regis. Hamo, the younger, mareschallus de COMMUNIBUS FŒMINIS sequentibus hospitium domini regis*. Robert de Northwode, who married Elizabeth, daughter and heir of the last Hamo, and died seised of this manor in 34 Edward III. anno 1360, is stiled ostiarius in camera regis↑. Joan and Agnes, daughters, and, at length heirs of Robert, on a partition made between them in 37 Edward III. are said to have holden by the service of mareschallus in hospitio regist. After which we hear no more of it, except that Nicholas Hering, who married Agnes, claimed, in her right, the office of usher (ostiarius) of the King's chamber at the coronation of Richard II. but the consideration thereof was postponed. What we collect from all this is, that the office of marshal of the King's household, as often as the court resides at Guildford, was executed by the Lords of the manors of Poyle and Catteshill, who held their lands by this tenure; and that, though they are respectively stiled, in different records, marshal of the King's court, marshal of the King's household, and ostiarius, or usher, of the King's chamber, their office was one and the same; it being part of the office of marshal, by himself or deputy, to keep the door of the King's chambers. We learn, moreover, that it was part of their duty (as often as the King came into these parts, not otherwise therefore) to provide women-servants for the meaner offices of the household; and that these women-servants were, on different occasions, called by different names, and, amongst the rest, by that of MERETRICES; which last hath given occasion, it seems, to ludicrous reflections on the court of that time, as if the grants of the Prince had been made subservient to his pleasures. Whereas, in truth, the word MERETRICES was here used in an indifferent sense; and, agreeably to the known import of the word mereo or mereor, from which it is derived, as a general description of such women as served for hire, and who, in the present instance, are accordingly called, in the different records, puella, communes fœminæ, and lotrices: the service here spoken of being, after all, no other than this, viz. that, whereas the court, in those days, was frequently removed to Guildford, certain persons, who held immediately of the King in that neighbourhood, were obliged, by the terms of their respective grants, to provide, as often as this should happen, a * Esch. 29 E. I. n. 58. + Esch. 34 E. III. n. 72. Rot. Commun. Spelm. Gloss. Madox, Excheq. c. 2. § 5. |