24 BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM. 
There are, however, at least nine mills named in the 13th Century, 
and even to-day there are, or were until recently, six within the 
parish of Lewisham. The profits from them were valuable, 
amounting, with the gafol, or rent of the country folk, to £8 12s., 
since all corn had to be ground at one of the mills pertaining to the 
Manor. 
The outgoings of the ‘‘ haven” are given as 4os., from which 
we are led to assume that Lewisham was held to stretch as far as 
the mouth of the Ravensbourne at Deptford Creek. . 
The whole Manor is stated to have been worth £16 in King 
Edward’s days, afterwards £12, and in A.D. 1085, 430. 
Such is the brief outline given us in Domesday Book, and we 
have to fill in the details as best we may. It will be observed that 
no church is mentioned. The Commissioners were given no 
instructions to include the churches ; they often did so, but the 
absence of any statement cannot be taken as implying that no 
church existed ; indeed, the Charter of the Confessor includes the 
churches of Lewisham and Greenwich in the list of belongings. 
Moreover it is unlikely that a religious community, such as the 
monks of Ghent, would have neglected to erect some building for 
public worship. 
It is clear that from the time of William the Conqueror, the 
property of the Abbot of Ghent consisted only of Lewisham and 
Greenwich, and that he dropped any claim he might have had 
under the older charters to Woolwich, Mottingham and Combe. 
Possibly the whole of Greenwich was secured to him in place of the 
last three named places, but there are no documents to show that 
any formal arrangement was made. William Rufus confirmed 
the Abbot’s possession of ‘fLiefesham and Grenuich,” and a 
similar charter of confirmation was obtained from each succeeding 
king. 
How necessary this was may be seen from the claimants who 
endeavoured to wrest the property from the monks. In the reign 
of Henry I, one Gervaise de Cornouailles (or Cornhill), apparently 
a Londoner, asserted a claim—on what grounds we are not told, 
and amongst the archives of East Flanders are three deeds by 
which he renounced his pretensions. The Charter given by Henry I, 
possibly in consequence of the above claim, enlarged the previous 
gifts by granting the Abbot the sole right of hunting—Free Warren, 
as it was called—on his lands, and further gave authority for the 
establishment of a market at Greenwich. 
But another and more powerful claimant appeared in the 
person of Robert de Baunton, son of Walter de Douai, who was 
Lord of the Manor of Lee. It is an instructive example of the 
turbulent spirit of the time, that in spite of Royal Charters and the 
curses of the church on all who broke them, claims such as those 
of Robert de Baunton should have been set up and for years 
successfully pleaded. .No doubt the Norman, Walter de Douai, 
seated at his place in Lee, looked with jealous eyes on the Abbot’s 
