EPONYMOUS FAMILIES ofr DORSET. 123 



became frequent, and were easily obtained, as by that course the 

 Crown was doubly benefited, for, while the customary fees re- 

 plenished the King's exchequer, the power of the great vassals, 

 a constant menace to the Throne, was effectually curbed.* 



It is to this later period of modified feudalism that the 

 creation of most of the manors of Dorset are probably to be 

 attributed. When the dignity of the baronage became personal, 

 instead of territorial, dependent upon Writs of Summons to the 

 King's Parliament rather than on the possession of baronial 

 lands, there was no longer the same inducement to keep large 

 estates together, and the policy of subdivision initiated by the 

 Sovereign was readily adopted by many of the nobles for similar 

 reasons. These transfers were further facilitated by the sur- 

 render, on the part of the overlord, of his seigneurial rights 

 affecting the alienated property, of which the purchaser thus 

 became the manorial lord, and, as an independent subject, 

 acquired the baronial right of carrying his grievances to the 

 King's Courts of Law. 



ANKETELL. 



The Anketells or Ansketells, for the name is very variously 

 spelt, owned the Manor of Anketell's Place, Shaftesbury, for 

 many generations. 



The name was originally a personal one, and is said to be 

 derived from Norse Mythology. The Domesday Book names 

 nineteen holders of land bearing this Christian name, but only 

 one in Dorset, where " Anschetil fitz Ammeline " held lands in 

 Tyneham.f 



* Ibid. 



f There is a hint in Domesday that this worthy's own account of his tenure is 

 not thought quite trustworthy by the King's Commissioners, and that he is 

 suspected of trying to "do" his Sovereign out of his just claims, for it is 

 recorded that " Arcitilluss de Carisburgo has two farms, and a virgate and a half 

 in Tingeham, that he is known among the Francs as Anschitil fitz Ammeline," 

 and that he holds this from the Queen, as he says ; but upon her death he did not 

 ask the King for it." 



O Arcitilluss fitz Ammeline de Carisburgo, ethical ancestor of all jugglers with 

 their Income Tax, shirkers of the dog licence, and delayers of their promised 

 payments ; longer far longer even than thy portentous name is the list of thy 

 moral descendants ; never shall thy posterity decrease, nor thy valued example 

 lack due observance ! 



