A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



In most counties the compilers of the survey, after describing the 

 king's land, pass at once to the estates of the ecclesiastical tenants- 

 in-chief within the shire, but here this rule of precedence is not 

 observed. Two folios are devoted to the king's land, after which a folio 

 is left blank, and then the survey deals with the three lay tenants of 

 comital rank within the county Earl Hugh of Chester, and Counts Alan 

 of Richmond and Robert of Mortain. The survey of Count Alan's land 

 is thrown together somewhat carelessly. His manors of Sibthorpe, 

 Sutton upon Trent, Ruddington, Kneeton, and Treswell follow each other 

 in column, his holdings in Syerston, Carlton upon Trent, and South 

 Leverton (' Cledretone ') being described in the margin. The account 

 of the latter place runs : 



In Cledretone habuerunt Godric & Ulmar vii bovatas terrae et quintam partem 



unius bovatae ad geldum. 

 Hanc terram tenuerunt Alanus comes et Rogerus de Busli usque nunc. Terra ii carucis. 



Valet xx solidos. 



Now on f. 287 Roger de Busli is credited with an estate at ' Cledretone' 

 rated at 3! bovates, 1 valued at los. and reputed to contain i 'plough-land,' 

 details representing exactly half of this place as it is described under 

 Count Alan's fief. On the Busli estate ' half a church ' is entered and 

 also a certain amount of woodland and meadow which probably belonged 

 to the vill as a whole, for we are told ' hujus silvae et prati medietatem 

 habet Rogerus.' Here then we have a duplicate entry of somewhat 

 unusual form, and the explanation is probably to be found in the descrip- 

 tion of the neighbouring vill of Treswell, which also was divided between 

 the same two tenants-in-chief in approximately equal proportions. 

 Count Alan's share had belonged to a certain Ulmar, and Roger de 

 Busli's to one Godric. Now ' Cledretone ' as described on Count Alan's 

 land is said to have belonged to Godric and Ulmar, and it would doubt- 

 less be the latter's portion only which passed to Count Alan, although the 

 details of assessment and value given as referring to his land refer to both 

 shares. In the Robert de Mosters who held Treswell of the count we have 

 one of the earliest recorded bearers of a surname well known in Notting- 

 hamshire history, whose descendants continued to hold land in that vill of 

 the honour of Richmond down to the reign of Edward III. He was 

 doubtless the Robert de Musters who granted land to Count Alan's new 

 foundation of St. Mary's abbey, York. 2 Another of the count's tenants 

 deserving mention is the Hervey (a characteristically Breton name) who 

 held Sutton upon Trent, for the name reappears in connexion with Sutton 

 under Henry II. 3 



In contrast to the string of undistinguished men who had preceded 

 Count Alan, all Earl Hugh's manors in this county had belonged to a 

 certain Harold in whom, though he is mentioned in our survey without any 

 note of rank, we must recognize no less a person than the former earl of 



1 'iii bov 1 - terrae et dim" 1 et medietatem quintae partis unius bovate.' 



1 Men. Angl. iii, 532. * Vide Pipe Roll, 22 Henry II (Pipe Roll Sac.), 95. 



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