A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



very obscure, but he occurs early in the history of the Conquest in 

 connexion with our county, for it was to him that the Conqueror 

 entrusted the castle which he built at Nottingham in 1068 when on his 

 way to put down the first revolt of the north. 1 William Peverel's lands 

 form a compact group in the western half of the shire, covering all the 

 roads leading from west and south to the county-town and its stronghold. 

 He held nearly the whole of Broxtow wapentake, if we except the royal 

 manors of Mansfield and Orston and some unimportant estates mostly 

 belonging to ' king's thegns,' his possessions being continued across the 

 Trent by the manor and soke of Clifton. This last is an interesting 

 estate, for two lines were devoted to it at the end of the statement of the 

 customs of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire to the effect that ' over the 

 soke which belongs to Clifton the earl ought to have the third part of all 

 customs and works.' * As there was no earl of Nottinghamshire at this 

 time, these dues must have been in the king's hand unless he had made 

 an unrecorded grant of them to anybody. Clifton had belonged to a 

 former owner of comital rank, though one unconnected with any earldom 

 in which Nottingham ever lay, in the Countess ' Code ' or Gytha who 

 had preceded William Peverel in several counties, notably Buckingham- 

 shire and Northamptonshire. She was the wife of Earl Ralf of Hereford 

 and must be carefully distinguished from her namesake Gytha, the wife 

 of Earl Godwine, and from the better known wife of Earl Leofric, the 

 Countess Godeva (Godgifu) of Mercia. 3 We may also recognize our 

 countess in the ' Code ' whose manor of Edwalton, 3 miles from 

 Clifton, had passed to Hugh de Grentemaisnil, the greatest landowner in 

 Leicestershire. Although she is mentioned there without any mark of 

 title we may be quite certain of the identification, for Edwalton is said 

 to belong to Stockerston, Leicestershire, and on turning to that place in 

 the Leicester Domesday * we find that it, like Wigston Magna, which 

 had also passed to Hugh de Grentemaisnil, had belonged to Earl Ralf. 

 Returning to the soke of Clifton we may notice that it lay along the 

 right bank of the Trent opposite Nottingham, including Wilford, West 

 Bridgford, Bassingfield, Gamston, and Adbolton with one or two 

 outliers along the wolds, and that its value must be included in the 

 figures given for Clifton itself, since 16 would be an impossible value 

 for a Nottinghamshire manor rated at 2j carucates and reported to 

 contain only five ploughlands. 



Like his rival Roger de Busli, William Peverel founded a priory 

 on his Nottinghamshire estates. Early in the reign of Henry I he 

 established a house of Cluniac monks at Lenton under the shadow of 

 Nottingham Castle. His selection of a site for his priory is rather 

 curious, for in 1086 he merely held Lenton in custodia, that is, probably, 

 on the king's behalf as his bailiff or agent. 6 He held the whole of the 



1 Ordtrkus Vit*Rt (Soc. de la Hist, dc France), iv, 184. ' Dom. Bk. f. 280*. 



^ See V. C. H. Northants, \, 289. Dom. Bk. f. 232. 



5 See for the meaning of custodia Appendix I in Round, Geoffrey de Mandevlllt, and for Peverel's 

 tenure of the royal demesne in the Peak V. C. H. Derb. \, 303. 



228 



