A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



This latter identification can be proved by the manorial descent. For 

 though Bridges could not actually connect the ' Luddington,' which the 

 Cromwells and Fitz Hughs shared under Henry IV. with the later 

 ' Lutton,' it is clear that Gregory Lord Dacre, who sold his moiety of 

 ' Lutton ' under Elizabeth, was senior co-heir of the Fitz-Hughs, while 

 Tateshall College, which the Cromwells endowed from their moiety 

 under Henry VI., is found holding lands in ' Lutton ' under Henry VIIL 



As Luddington and Lutton have been confused, so have Duddington 

 and Denton. ' Dodintone ' is entered five times in the county Domes- 

 day, and two of these entries undoubtedly refer to Duddington (or 

 Doddington), on the Welland, in the extreme north of the county. 

 Bridges referred the other three to Denton, in Wymersley Hundred, 

 near Northampton ; and he was clearly right. For the first (fo. 222) 

 places it, with Whiston and Brayfield, in Wymersley Hundred ; the 

 second (fo. 228/^) places it in that Hundred, next to Grendon and 

 Whiston ; while the third (fo. 229), though the Hundred heading is 

 wrong, places it between Bozeat and Brayfield. Mr. Stuart Moore, 

 however, assigns all five entries to ' Doddington,' and, stranger still, Mr. 

 Kirk in his index to the Ramsey Cartulary ' identifies Denton (where 

 Ramsey had a manor) as Doddington, although that Cartulary actually 

 includes it in an 'extent' of Whiston. Lastly, one has to allow for 

 amazing eccentricities of spelling on the part of the Domesday scribe. 

 Little Billing is found, in entries close together, as ' Belinge ' and as 

 ' Bellica ' (fo. 223), Blakesley as ' Blacheslewe,' and as ' Baculveslea,' 

 Braybrook as ' Bradebroc ' and ' Baiebroc,' Croughton as ' Creveltone ' 

 and ' Cliwetone,' and so forth. Stranger still, he sometimes gave the 

 wrong initial letter. Draughton, for instance, occurs both as ' Drac- 

 tone ' and ' Bracstone ' ; Clopton as ' Clotone ' and as ' Dotone.^ There 

 is a parallel to this last mistake in the Domesday of Sussex, where the 

 scribe has similarly confused ' cl ' and ' d ' in the MS. from which he 

 copied. When we add to these peculiarities the fact that the 'Hundred' 

 headings cannot be relied upon in Northamptonshire, unless they im- 

 mediately precede an entry, it may be understood how difficult, and 

 how, at times, uncertain is the process of identifying the places to which 

 the Domesday entries refer. 



The chief object of the Domesday Survey, that of securing an exact 

 record of the liability to ' geld,' better knov/n as Danegeld, has been 

 dealt with above, at some length, in the section devoted to assessment. 



There was, however, another subject on which the king needed 

 information, namely, the dues payable to the Crown in what may be 

 termed its seigneurial capacity as distinct from the special tax styled the 

 ' geld.' This revenue was of two kinds : there were rents to be re- 

 Huntingdonshire. This proves Mr. Kirk's identification of the Ramsey Abbey manor to be 

 erroneous. 



1 Cartularium de Rameseia (Rolls Series), vol. III. (1893), p. 397. 

 - Both these errors were detected by Bridges (II. 28, 421). 



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