250 Potterne. 



which, like Worton, was originally Uver-tun, meaning the upper 

 town or village. Overton is another form of the same word. 



Potterne, there can be no doubt, was amongst the earliest endow- 

 ments of the Bishops of Wiltshire. The entries in Domesday Book 

 imply that it belonged to that bishopric in the days of the Confessor, 

 that is, while its see was at Ramsbury,^ for the Bishops did not 

 remove to Old Sarum till A.D. 1075. If a conjecture might be 

 hazarded, in the absence of any known charters or documents giving 

 information, I should be much inclined to believe that both Cannings 

 and Potterne were endowments of the see when it was first founded 

 in 909 in the time of Edward the Elder. In the Hundred Rolls ^ 

 of Henry III. (c. 1225), Cannings is said to have belonged to the 

 Bishop of Sarum from an ancient grant {ex antlquo feoff am ento or 

 " per antiquum usum"), but the jurors could give no more definite 

 information. Though Potterne is not mentioned in that document, 

 yet it is always so intimately joined with Cannings that I can 

 hardly doubt that the same statements might be made respecting it. 

 We meet with the earliest detailed notice of this manor in the 

 Domesday Record. There are the following entries respecting it. 

 It will be seen in a foot-note that of two of the entries we have, in 

 another part of the record, accounts more in detail of what had 

 been included as subordinate manors in the general statement. 



" The Bishop of Sarum holds Poteene. In the time of King Edward it paid 

 geld for 52 hides. Of this land TO hides are in demesne, and there are 

 6 carucates, and 4 serfs, and 5 coliberts. There are 29 villans and 40 

 bordars with 30 carucates. There are fi mills paying 43 shillings and 4 

 pence, and 40 acres of meadow. The pasture is 2 miles-and-a-half 

 long, and 1 mile and 3 furlongs broad. The wood is 1 mile long and 10 

 furlongs broad. The demesne of the Bishop is and was worth £60. 



1 Kamsbury is in the north-east of Wilts. The original name was " Hraefenes- 

 byrig" {■=Rave.ns-h\i.vy), and its Bishops are usually styled " Episcopi Corvi- 

 nenns Ecelesise." The Diocese would seem to have included Berks as well as 

 nearly the whole of Wilts. Florence of Worcester calls these early Bishops 

 " Episcopi Sunnungenses ; " they had an estate at Sunning in Berks, as had 

 also their successors, the Bishops of Sarum, till a comparatively recent period. 

 See Jones' " Early Annals of the Episcopate in Wilts, &o." p. 25. 



2 Hund. Rolls (Henry III), u., 231. 



