STRAY NOTES, PREHISTORIC, SAXON, AND NORMAN. 243
enjoy all the privileges to which the possession of such land gave
him a title. So a freeman could hire land originally assigned to a
serf, but he must descend to the obligation required from a serf in
connection with that land. To illustrate my point, let me put it to
you in this way. A serf, as a serf, hires the land originally assigned
to a freeman, yet he cannot leave the manor without permission of
his lord or the payment of havedsot. A freeman, as a freeman, who
requires no such leave, yet having the land originally assigned to a
serf, requires for that land the same permission as a serf to absent
himself. This he would meet by payment of havedsot.
There is frequent mention of the clergy in connection with
Navestock. Next to the two Bishops, Edwin and Aldwin, Walter
Niger, Vicar, is the first to be mentioned by name. To him
apparently Jordanus succeeded. He is distinctly referred to as the
Vikere in 1222. He is reported to have held a small meadow at the
rent of two plough shares, a curtilage for 1d., a half acre of meadow
in Brademead, a field the name of which survives in the Broad
Mead, opposite Rose Hall, for 1d., a purpresture in the wood for 1d.,
half a virgate for praedial services as a nativus a principio, or a
villein by blood, and the payment in money of havedsot and malt
silver, and in kind, of one egg at Easter and Christmas, etc., etc.
He also held a second half virgate at a similar rent. Beside Jordan
the Vikere, in 1222, there must have been the private chaplain of
William de Breante, who was evidently the Richard Clericus of S.
P. Domesday. He was nephew of Jordan, the Vikere, and held six
acres of old assarted land for 3s., and paid havedsot. He also held
a virgate for the usual praedial services.
But beyond these the same Survey refers to Gilbert the Presbiter
as a late tenant, as also to Ralph the Presbiter, whose wife and
daughter are both mentioned. Editha after his death is spoken of
as his relict. Walter is described both as the son of Henry the
Presbiter and Henry the Clerk, and we also see an entry concerning
the relict of the Sacerdos. From these entries we gather that other
free tenants beside de Breante in all probability employed private
chaplains, and that celibacy was not so strictly imposed on the
clergy in those days as is generally imagined.
Thus, within the compass of this Survey of the Manors of St.
Paul only, we find reference made to 1 Bishop with a son, 1 Sacerdos
with 4 sons, 1 Sacerdos with a relict, 4 Clerks with sons, 1 Clerk
with a relict, 1 Presbiter with a relict, 1 Presbiter with a daughter,