DOMESDAY SURVEY 



interesting if it were only intelligible. Godric and Ulviet had held 

 4 bovates in Cropwell Butler which had passed to Ilbert, but when 

 Roger of Poitou, who possessed a much larger manor in the same vill, 

 received his land he appropriated Ilbert's share in addition to his own. 

 The wapentake (of Bingham) bore witness that Ilbert had received 

 seisin, and when Domesday was compiled the manor was in the king's 

 hand ' praeter terciam partem et tainum qui est caput manerii, quem 

 tenet Ilbertus.' It seems impossible to translate these last words so as to 

 make sense, for one does not see how a thegn could be a ' capital 

 messuage' (caput manerii)^ nor indeed how Ilbert could 'hold' him. 

 Doubtless there is a mistake here, unless possibly ' tainum ' is used for 

 ' tainagium,' the thegn and his thegnland being taken as equivalent ; but 

 at any rate we have an illustration of the action of the wapentake court 

 in suits as to the possession of land, and we also notice the importance 

 attached even thus early to proof of actual possession or ' seisin.' 



Small as were the Nottinghamshire possessions of Henry de Ferrers 

 and Osbern fitz Richard, the description of them involves a curious 

 topographical difficulty in each case. It is rather surprising to find 

 Osbern fitz Richard holding land so far east as Nottinghamshire, for the 

 head of his barony was at Richard's Castle in Herefordshire. In our 

 county he is assigned a manor in Granby which had formerly belonged 

 to earl ./Elfgar, together with 3^ bovates in Wiverton and 6 in Salterford. 

 But the difficulty in the case is occasioned by the statement that Osbern's 

 holding in Wiverton was ' sokeland,' and his 6 bovates in Salterford 

 formed a ' berewick ' in ' Coletone.' Now Osbern's manor in Granby 

 was held of him by Robert de Oilly, the greatest lay tenant in Oxford- 

 shire, and our difficulty arises from the fact that there seems to be no 

 evidence later than Domesday to connect Granby with the honours 

 either of Richard's Castle or Wallingford, which represent the fiefs of 

 Osbern fitz Richard and Robert de Oilly respectively ; the whole vill 

 belonging to the Aincurts. On the other hand the ' carta ' of Geoffrey 

 Ridel in 1166 shows us the Bassets holding Colston Basset, which in all 

 probability represents the ' Coletone ' above, of the honour of Walling- 

 ford, 1 and we also know that they had entered into possession there before 

 1 12 1. 3 It would seem therefore that either the account of Colston 

 Basset is altogether omitted from the survey, or else that we have its 

 description in the entry which is above attributed to Granby, the name 

 being a mistake on the part of the Domesday scribes, either alternative 

 of course implying carelessness on the part of the latter. 3 An even more 

 inexplicable case occurs on the fief of Henry de Ferrers, who held one 

 bovate in Willoughby on the Wolds, of which we read ' soca in 

 Badeleie.' The only known name in the county which can represent 

 the latter is Bathley, to the north-east of Newark, but this was merely a 



1 Red Book of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), 331. 



' See the charters relating to the priory of Laund, Leicestershire (Man. Angl. vi, 1 8 8). 

 3 An additional complication is caused by the fact that the only ' Salterford ' in the county lies 

 near Calverton north of the Trent, and is 13 miles distant from Colston Basset. 



I 2 33 30 



