Manor and Ancient Barony of Castle Combe. 137 



had in distinguishing between the two " Combes ;" or rather 

 perhaps to their wish to favour the promoters of the search (who 

 no doubt paid the appropriate fees) by finding the record of ancient 

 demesne which was required. The proofs of the identity of the 

 " Come" of Domesday which was not " Royal Demesne," with the 

 Manor of Castle " Combe," consist partly in the accordance of the 

 physical features of the latter with the description there given, but 

 chiefly in the fact of its having at that time formed one of the 

 twenty-seven manors then possessed by Hunfridus de Insula, or 

 Humphrey de l'lsle, and which for the greater part of two cen- 

 turies afterwards were held together, as composing the Barony of 

 Castle Combe, by his direct heirs. 



Several early documents show that a certain Adeliza de Insula, 

 without doubt the daughter and heiress of Hunfridus, conveyed 

 this string of manors by marriage to her husband Reginald de 

 Dunstanville, in the reign of Henry I., and by him or by his son of 

 the same name it is probable that the Castle of Combe was built 

 about the same time, that lordship in consequence becoming, as 

 usual, the " Caput" or chief seat of the barony. The subordinate 

 manors were Broughton (B. Giffard), Stert, Wyly, two "Winter- 

 bornes (Winterborne Basset, and Ash ton Giffard), Colerne and 

 Polton, all held (with Combe) directly of the king in Capite ; 

 Compton (C. Basset), Burbeche, Cumberwell, Rushall, Wroughton, 

 Salthorp, Clive (Cliff Pipard), Somerford (S. Mautravers), Smithcot 

 (in Dauntsey Parish), Blunsdon (St. Andrew's), Groundwell (near 

 Blunsdon), Chadington (near Wootton Basset), Henton (Broad 

 Hinton), Biddestone, nartham, Sherston (S. Pinkney), and Milford 

 (near Salisbury), held of the chief lord by various subinfeudatories 

 on condition of knight service. Some obscurity, however, envelops 

 tlic descent of this barony in the first century after the Conquest. 

 It certainly belonged in chief to Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, one of 

 the natural sons of King Henry I. and half-brother to the gallant 

 Robert, Earl of Gloucester, by whose side he fought throughout 

 tlic struggle against the usurper Stephen in support of the claim to 

 tin throne of their sister, tlic Kmprcss Matilda. But as this Earl 



ginald is mentioned under the name of "De Dunstanville," 



