20 BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM. 
charters giving grants of land to religious houses. In the present 
case there seems no reason to consider the charter a forgery. As 
we shall see, the Abbey of Ghent had great difficulty in retaining 
its hold on Lewisham, and if there had been any suspicion that the 
charter was spurious, full use would have been made of the doubt. 
Of Elfrida we know but little. Her husband, Baldwin the 
Second, died on 2nd January, 918, and on the 6th September of 
that year she, with the consent of her two sons, Arnulf and Adolf, 
gave ‘‘her inheritance, Lieuesham, Grenewic and Uulwich, with 
the meadows, pastures and woods”’ to the Abbey of St. Peter, at 
Ghent, for the welfare of the souls of her husband, her sons and 
herself. She died in June, 929, and was buried with her husband 
in the Chapel of St. Lawrence in the Church of St. Peter, where 
their sons were also interred, and on her tomb was an epitaph, in 
which she is distinctly called the daughter of the noble-minded 
King Alfred :—- 
“ Clara fui Elfridi generosi filia Regis 
Elstrudis proprio nomine dicta meo.” 
The Abbey at Ghent was a house of Benedictine Monks, which 
was founded about the year A.D. 608, by St. Amand, who 
destroyed the Idol of Mercury and built a church which, after 
suffering at the hands of the heathen, was rebuilt and dedicated in 
honour of St. Peter. Twice in the 9th century was it destroyed, 
but rebuilt by the monks, and Elfrida’s son, Count Arnulf, appears 
to have added to it in 937. In A.D. 956, King Edwy became 
involved in a dispute with Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury, who 
fled from the Kingdom and took refuge at the Abbey of Ghent. 
Two years later the northern part of England rose in revolt and 
proclaimed Edgar, the brother of Edwy, king. The rebellion 
spread, Dunstan returned and took the part of Edgar, who had 
also the help of Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury. Edwy was forced 
to submit, and either died by violence or of a broken heart, and 
thus Edgar succeeded to the throne. ; 
One of his first acts was to appoint Dunstan to the Archbishopric 
rendered vacant by Odo’s death. The Archbishop did not forget 
the monks of Ghent who had sheltered him in his exile, and in 
A.D. 964 he besought Edgar to confirm the gift of Elfrida to the 
Abbey. King Edgar’s charter is worded as a deed of gift from 
himself, which may indicate that the foreign abbey had already 
experienced difficulty in making good its hold :— 
‘‘T, Edgar, King and Chief of the English, by divine assistance, 
renouncing every low and transitory thing as dross, make known. 
to all that I have granted to God and St. Peter, and to the Society 
of the Church of Gand, a certain extent of land in a place which the 
rustics from ancient custom have denominated Lieuesham, with all 
its appurtenances, viz., Greenwich, Woolwich, Mottingham and 
Coomb.”’ 
The monks of Ghent looked upon St. Dunstan as one of their 
benefactors, and treasured his gold ring amongst their jewels. - 
