AN ITINERARY THROUGH LEE. 85 
CHAPTER II. 
An ITINERARY THROUGH LEE. 
T will at this point be convenient to turn aside 
from the Lewisham High Street to make a sur- 
vey of the neighbouring Parish of Lee, which, 
with the Parish of Lewisham, makes up the 
Metropolitan Borough. The Parish of Lee is a 
very ancient one, and the manor prior to the 
Conquest was held of King Edward the Confessor by a Saxon 
named Aluuin. It was seized by the Conqueror, and with many 
others in this county conferred upon his half-brother Odo, Bishop 
of Baieux and Earl of Kent, of whom it was held by Walter de 
Douai at the time of the Domesday enquiry. It was then assessed 
at half a solin— or at one quarter that of Lewisham. In the time 
of Edward the Confessor the land under cultivation was that 
workable by four plough-teams. In 1085 (the date of the enquiry) 
this had not increased, as we are told that in the demesne 
there were two plough-teams, whilst eleven villans and two 
cottars between them had two also. There were two families of 
slaves on the demesne. There were also five acres of meadow, 
and for the use of the wood lands the tenants gave ten hogs 
yearly, z.e., the wood land was a fifth of that in Lewisham. The 
yearly value of the manor used to be £3, but in 1085 it was 
1oos. From this statement, then, we gather that, beside the 
family of Walter de Douai, there were fifteen households within 
the manor or a population say of seventy souls. 
The manor passed to Robert de Baunton, son of William 
de Douai, who endeavoured, as we have seen, to enlarge his 
possessions by seizing Lewisham and Greenwich from the Abbot 
of Ghent. His only daughter married William de Paynell, whose 
grandson, William Paynell, sold the manor in 1225 to Richard de 
Montefichet, by whom it was given as a marriage dower to his 
sister Philippa Montefichet, the wife of Hugh de Plaiz. Richard 
de Montefichet was one of the barons selected to enforce King 
John’s observance of Magna Charta. 
About this time a family named Banquel had become land- 
- owners in the district, possessing the subsidiary Manor of Shraf- 
holt (or Shroffolds) -in LLewisham—the border country so to speak 
between the~parishes of Lee, Lewisham, and Bromley. The name 
is variously spelt Bonquer, Banquel, Bankwell, and was finally 
shortened down to Bankers. Sometime during the reign of 
- Edward III the Banquels became possessed also of the Manor 
of Lee, so that when Thomas Banquel died in 1361 his possessions 
in Lee and the surrounding neighbourhood were considerable. 
From the Banquels, Lee and Shrafholt passed to Sir Richard 
