of Oxfordshire.[1] Of the three leading chamberlains who are sheriffs, only one, Aubrey de Vere, belongs to the hereditary class. The Norman, Geoffrey de Clinton, who has Warwickshire, has risen by long service at the curia,[2] and has been treasurer[3] as well as chamberlain, and also itinerant justice in many counties. William of Pont de l'Arche, lately married to the daughter of William Mauduit, is now paying a large sum for his ministerium curiae,[4] and a little later will apparently be treasurer.[5] William d'Aubigny the Breton, a staunch supporter of the king in 1106,[6] now the husband of a daughter of Roger Bigod[7] and sheriff of Rutlandshire, has been the king's justice in Lincolnshire.[8] Bertram de Bulmer as well as Warin appears to have a post at the exchequer, and Osbert Silvanus has apparently sat at the king's pleas.[9] Excluding from consideration the sheriffs of London, who this year number four, and the unknown sheriff of Somerset, a county apparently lost from the Pipe Roll of 1130, there are only seven sheriffs of English counties[10] who seem to hold no position at the curia, and of these two are otherwise known to have had the king's special confidence.[11]
This year shows the highest centralization in local government since the period following Tinchebrai. The situation was now very exceptional, inasmuch as two curials, Aubrey de Vere and Richard Basset, jointly held eleven shires. This famous arrangement is known to have been a sudden creation.[12] It was formed in the main at Michaelmas 1129, when Robert fitz Walter and Maenfinin each surrendered his two shires, and Fulk the three which had been
- ↑ The sheriff of 1130 owes 26 gold marks 'de debito patris sui pro pecunia Widonis de Oilly' (Pipe Roll, pp. 1–2). Robert d'Oilly is represented (Dict, of Nat. Biog., s.n. 'Robert d'Oilgi') as 'civitatis Oxnefordiae sub rege preceptor', and he and his wife Edith, in legend at least, as resident in the castle here (Monasticon, vi. 251) when they founded the abbey of Osney. He was the founder of the church of St. George within the castle of Oxford (Farrer, Itinerary, no. 603). I believe that he first links this shrievalty with the custodianship of the castle which had still earlier been in his family.
- ↑ For his appearance at the curia about 1110 see Ramsey Chartul. i. 241–2; ii. 83. Mr. Round (The Ancestor, xi. 156-7) traces his origin to the neighbourhood of St. Lô, where he had a castle.
- ↑ Monasticon, vi. 220, 221.
- ↑ Pipe Roll, p. 37.
- ↑ So accepted by the editors of the Oxford edition of the Dialogue (pp. 20–1), and apparently by Mr. Round (ante, xiv. 423).
- ↑ Dict. of Nat. Biog., s.n. 'Albini, William de'.
- ↑ Red Book of the Exchequer, i. 397; Farrer, Early Yorkshire Charters, i. 461. As to his shrievalty, see Pipe Roll, pp. 133, 134.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 115.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 35.
- ↑ Odard in Northumberland; Hugh fitz Baldric, Northamptonshire; Geoffrey de Furnell, Cornwall and Devon; Ruallo de Valognes, Kent; Hildret, Carlisle; Reiner of Bath, Lincolnshire; and a Vernon in Westmorland.
- ↑ Odard and Reiner, the latter classed by Ordericus along with Ralph Basset and Hugh of Buckland among the persons raised by the king from the dust.
- ↑ Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, p. 298.
