THE 



WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. 



"MULTOKTJM MANIBUS GRANDE LEVATUB ONUS." — Ovid. 



Instnrtj nf tjje IBiltejito JHattra mtliflrMtwte tn 

 tjjj Starrnn} nf Castle Cnmke. 



By G. Poxjlett Scbope, Esq., M.P. 



In the Domesday Survey a certain Hunfridus de Insula, or 

 Humphrey de l'lsle, is represented as holding of the king in Capite 

 or honour, a Seignory consisting of twenty-seven vills or manors in 

 Wiltshire. He was, no doubt, one of the Norman followers of the 

 Conqueror, probably the Liele of the Battle Abbey Roll, and re- 

 warded for his aid in subduing the Saxon, by this portion of the 

 booty. Of these twenty-seven manors, Hunfridus himself held of the 

 king, in Capite or in his own hand, ten — viz., Broctone, Sterte, 

 Will, Wilrenone, Colerne, Wintreburne, Polton, Hardicote, 

 Fistesberie, and Come; while the remaining seventeen were held of 

 him, as their feudal lord, by various mesne lords or sub-tenants. 

 These were Contone, Burbetc, Cumbrewelle, Rusteselle, Wer- 

 ■ji \e, Salteharpe, Cltve, Sum'reford, Smitecote, Bluntesdon, 

 Grendewelle, Schetone, Hantone, Bedestone, Heortham, Sore- 

 si one, and Meleford. The entire seignory descended, by marriage 

 of Adeliza, heiress of De Insula, to the Dunstanvilles, powerful 

 barons for several generations throughout the twelfth and thirteenth 

 << iituries; one of whom, in or about the reign of Henry I., having 

 built a Castle at Come, or Combe, this became, as was the custom 

 of the time, 1 "Caput Honoris, sive Baronia," the head scat of the 



1 Miulox Baronia An^lia. 



VOL. II. — NO. VI. 2 \l 



