A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



held aj bovates in Sibthorpe which had passed to Ilbert can hardly be 

 other than the ' Pilewin ' who was one of the bishop's predecessors 

 in Elston. Across the Trent in Bassetlaw wapentake we find Fledborough 

 and Stokeham in the bishop's hands, the former certainly, and the latter in 

 all probability, as the gift of the Countess Godeva, who is given as the 

 former owner in each case, though Fledborough only is mentioned in the 

 writ by which the Conqueror confirmed her grants. One other bishop 

 appears among the tenants-in-chief in our county in the person of Odo of 

 Bayeux, the brother of the count of Mortain, and half-brother of the 

 Conqueror, but he held his lands in his lay capacity only, and in this 

 county they do not call for special remark. 



The only religious house which held land in chief of the crown in 

 Nottinghamshire was Peterborough Abbey, and its holding was restricted 

 to the two manors of Collingham and North Muskham. The former is 

 surveyed in the ' Liber Niger ' of the abbey, 1 from which we gather that its 

 population had risen in the fifty years which separates this document from 

 Domesday, its sokemen increasing from thirty-seven to fifty, and its villeins 

 from eight to twenty, while its bordars, sharing the general fate of their 

 class, vanished altogether. Domesday records two churches as existing in 

 the vill, which are still represented by the two parish churches of North 

 and South Collingham. The abbey's share of North Muskham was one of 

 the possessions which King William confirmed to Abbot Brand at the 

 very beginning of his reign. We are enabled to recover a little of its 

 early history through Hugh ' Candidus,' 2 who tells us that Abbot Brand 

 and his brothers Askill, Siward, and Siric, gave a number of lands to the 

 abbey, and at the head of his list stands ' Muskham on the other side the 

 Trent.' This explains an otherwise mysterious passage in the Lincoln- 

 shire ' clamores,' which runs : 



Scira testatur quod Aschil habebat ea die qua rex Edwardus fuit vivus et mortuus et 

 post haec tria maneria. Scotune, Scotre, et Ragenaltorp, in propria libertate de 

 rege Edwardo. Similiter habebat Muscham in Snotinghamscire. 3 



Now, on a strict reading of these passages, if Askil held Muskham on the 

 day of King Edward's death ' and afterwards,' while it was confirmed to 

 Peterborough by the Conqueror at the time (probably) of his coronation, 

 the grant must have taken place either in the reign of Harold, or during 

 the interregnum which followed the battle of Hastings. We might 

 even suggest that Askil gave the manor on the occasion of his brother 

 Brand becoming abbot of Peterborough, and this supposition is confirmed 

 by the wording of William's charter. He grants to the monastery ' at 

 the request of Abbot Brand,' ' all the lands belonging to his brothers or 

 kinsmen which they had under King Edward in hereditary right and 



1 Chron. Petroburgense (Camden Soc.), 159. 



Ed. Sparke, p. 43. Hugh states the donor of Collingham to have been one Turkill 

 ' Hoche,' who also gave the abbey its moneyer in Stamford and its land in Stamford (Baron), 

 Northamptonshire. 



3 Dom. Bk., f. 3763. 



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