271 



1. Thi8 Nigel is m-entioned in the Exon Domesday as Nigel de Gumaio. 

 Nigel was the name of the King's physician. 



2. The Bishop from whom the lands were held was Geofirey de Montbray^ 

 Bishop of Coutance in Normandy. He was Chief Justiciary of England, and 

 presided at the great trial, hold at Pinenden, between Lanfranc and Odo. 

 He had acted as William's lieutenant-general after the battle of Hastings. 

 He was possessed of no less than 280 manors. He joined in favour of Duke 

 Robert in 1088 against William Rufus, and died 1093. In the Gloucester 

 Domesday Book (fol. 165) he is called Episcopus de Sancto Laudo, which is 

 explained as " St. Lo, a viU in Normandy," and among the witnesses to King 

 WUliam's Charter to the Monastery of St. Augustine at Canterbury we have 



" Episcopo Golfrydo de Seynt Loth."* 



Does it not seem probable that Newton St. Loe, of which manor 

 he was possessed, took its name from this circumstance 1 



3. Thanes were Anglo Saxon nobles of various orders. 



4. The King Edward alluded to is of course Edward the Confessor. 



5. Geld was originally the Danegeld levied in Ethelred's reign on each hide 

 of ground. Several kinds of land were free from this tax. 



6. A hide was an amount of land sufficient for the support of one family ; 

 hence a variable quantity. 



7. A carucate, from Norman, carrue, a plough, was as much arable land aa 

 could be managed with one plough, and the meadow necessary for its tillage. 

 Thus the hide took into account all the land in a manor, while the carucate 

 only that which might be ploughed. 



8. Demesne land was that held by the Dominus, which he kept in his own 

 hands or let out only for a term. 



9. Se7-fs were the lowest class. 



10. Villans, the principal of the subordinate tenants of land, who held it 

 according to the custom of the vill. 



11. Bordars derived their name from paying their rent in kind, supplying 

 their lord's board. 



12. This Goiffrid is in the Exon Doomsday spoken of as Gosfrid Malreward 

 (see page 272). Alured, as a dapifer or steward. 



13. Edid or Edith was the Queen of Edward the Confessor, and held her 

 possessions as such till her death in 1070, when they went to the Crown. So 

 that Twerton was a Royal ville. 



In the Exon Domesday Book on the two manors are mentioned 

 1 6 head of cattle, 35 pigs, and 400 sheep. 



* Jones' Wiltshire Domesday Book, p. 26n, 27n. Ellis' Introd. to 

 Domesday Book, i. , 400. 



