Fitzharding’s dole of loaves and herrings

Smith’s manuscript Lives of the Lords of Berkeley records the doles kept at the monastery of St Augustine in Bristol for its founder, Sir Robert Fitzharding, who died on 5 February 1170. On his anniversary a hundred poor men were fed, each given a canon’s loaf called a miche and three herrings, and two bushels of peas were shared out among them. On the anniversary of his wife, Dame Eve, fifty poor men had a loaf and three herrings each and a bushel of peas between them. Brand cited the doles while tracing the old custom of giving away peas in Lent.