Leedes. Leedes. Pena. Leedes. Leedes. Pena. Leedes. Curia cum turno ibidem tenta viijvo die Maij, anno regni Regine Marie primo. Inquisitio per sacramentum Roberti Harrison et aliorum iiijd. qui dicunt super sacramentum suum quod Thomas Fawking iiijd. ham, armiger, Thomas Hungate, et alii debent sectam huic curie et non venerunt, ideo in misericordia. Curia cum turno tenta ibidem xvijmo die Novembris, anno regni Henrici vjti, vjto. Item, dicunt quod Alexander Nevell et Willielmus Leedes, armiger, non purgaverunt fossatos suos apud Orgreves, ideo pena ijs. utriusque eorum. Curia cum turno tenta ibidem nono die Junij, anno regni Henrici vjti, vjto. Item, dicunt quod Willielmus Leedes, armiger, non purgaverit fossatos suos ibidem prout in pena ijs. ei inde assessata, ideo preceptum est levare penam predictam. Curia cum turno tenta ibidem xxijdo die Aprilis, anno xjmo Henrici vjti. Item, dicunt quod Radulphus Pigott et Alexander Nevell non purgaverunt fossatos suos apud Orgreve et Northallfelds ex utraque parte vie que destruxerunt altam viam ibidem, ideo pena de vs. utrique eorum assessata quod purgent. Curia cum turno tenta ibidem die Veneris proximum ante festum Sancti Michaelis, anno xijmo, Henrici Sexti. Item, pena de vs. que assessata est Radulpho Pigot et Alexandro Nevell ad purgandum fossatos suos apud Orgreve et Northallfeld respicitur usque proximum curiam. Examinatur cum recordis et rotulis curie ac concordatur, per Franciscum Samwell. [Endorsed:] Inter Elizabetham Lindley viduam querentem et Folkingham, defendentem, with a plan anno regni Regine Elizabethe 2°. Asolf or Essolf, A YORKSHIRE MINOR LORD OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY. BY RICHARD HOLMES. T would appear as if when at any time during the early Norman domination, either of the great lords of Yorkshire being dispossessed, his estates were in the King's hands, there was a systematic attempt on the part of the Crown to break up the large property, at least to some extent, as a proved danger to order, that is to the autocracy of the sovereign, and to create a group of owners of a lower grade than the seigniorial, holding independently of the King alone, and without more than the formal intervention of the mesne lord. In the neighbourhood of Pontefract, such seems to have been the course adopted after the forfeiture of Earl Edwin in 1069, after that of Robert de Lascy in 1106, and again in 1122; after the death of Hugh de Laval in 1131, and before the grant to William de Maltravers; and again after the disappearance of Ilbert the second in 1141, the reason for which, though unexplained by contemporary evidence, was doubtless well understood by his contemporaries themselves. The method of effecting this process will be perceived by a collation of the list of King's tenants in the Domesday Survey with other portions of that record; and the result is that when manorial history virtually opens in the eleventh and twelfth centuries there were scattered throughout the district as King's tenants, and to a great extent with a certain fixity of tenure independent of their mesne superiors, a series of minor lords, such as Ailric the father of Swein, and Swein himself, in Staincross and Osgoldcross; somewhat later another Ailric (at Ledston), with his sons Jordan, Reginald, Roger, and Walter, and one Lesing in Barkston and the southern part of Skyrack; still later Saxe in Agbrigg and Morley; and last and latest, though by no means least, Asulf or Essolf and his numerous family in Barkston-Ash, Osgoldcross, Morley, and Agbrigg. I say last, though I bear in remembrance, that in the Thornhill pedigree given in Flower's Visitation of 1563 (Harleian Society, xvi., 317), Essolf, described as Enfulsus,-Thoresby is nearer the mark when (Leo. Duc., i., 113) he calls him Askolphus, -is said to be as early as the time of the Conquest, while with the usual playfulness of the Elizabethan pedigree-maker when dealing with such remote ancestors, Essolf's supposed grandson of the same name is allocated to the time of Richard I., a generation at least being lost on the face of the pedigree itself. Of the four groups I have named, and I think I have named them in order of time, only Ailric and Swain, of Staincross and Osgoldcross, were of Domesday date; and, appearing in the Survey not only as large holders in the pre-Norman time, but also as King's tenants to William I., are generally known; but Ailric and Lesing of BarkstonAsh, who belong to the next generation, and have not the advantage of mention in the great record, bear names unfamiliar to most, though a good deal may be learnt of them, especially from some of the chartularies. Leland, for instance, had some idea of Ailric, though he knew nothing of his four sons whom I have named, of Jordan and his three brothers, but confusing him with the far more important Ailric of Staincross, he thought him to be lord of Pontefract. In the third generation, however, in the reign of Henry I., and early in that of Stephen, there were two very large grantees in the Lascy and Warren fees, Asolf or Essolf, and Saxe, each of whom though a very important man, and the progenitor of important families, escaped the notice of Dugdale, and therefore of those innumerable followers of that topographer who directly or indirectly made him their fount of inspiration. The lands of Asolf or Essolf and those of Saxe met at Flockton, Shitlington, and Liversedge, of each of which each possessed a moiety; and although much may be said of Saxe, I confine myself at present to Assolf, following the various branches of the descent from him, putting upon record what I have ascertained concerning each, and stating frankly where I have found myself unable to complete the chain. Asolf emerges in possession of much that had belonged to many in wide-spread districts; and as he could not have been heir to all, the probability is that he held most of their possessions as a grantee by purchase or favour. He might have been of original Danish descent, but it is the more likely that he was a new man in the |