A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



hamlet of North Muskham, and was chiefly in the hands of the chapter 

 of Southwell. In connexion with Henry de Ferrers we may safely 

 identify the Siward who preceded him at East and West Leake and 

 Bonnington with the Siward 'barn,' who in 1070 joined Hereward and 

 his fellow malcontents in the Isle of Ely. 1 



The last two folios of the Nottinghamshire survey are devoted to 

 those Englishmen who had survived the Conquest and form the class of 

 ' king's thegns.' They are interesting people, for they seem to be 

 holding their lands in 1086 on conditions of tenure very similar to those 

 which had prevailed generally over the county in the time of King 

 Edward, and in Nottinghamshire their number is unusually great. On 

 analysis, however, it turns out to be not quite so great as might be 

 supposed at first sight, for two or three thegns stand out prominently 

 above their fellows. By far the most interesting of this class was one 

 Alden or Healfdene, who held as much land of the king in Nottingham- 

 shire as did Roger of Poitou or Ralf fitz Hubert. As a king's thegn he 

 held manors in Cromwell, Carlton upon Trent, Knapthorpe, Lambley, 

 Woodborough, Trowell, Awsworth, Lambcote, Kelham, and Widmer- 

 pool, and he was probably the Alden who held part of Normanton upon 

 Soar of the count of Mortain. But his peculiar importance arises from 

 the fact that he was the ancestor of the mediaeval lords Cromwell, who 

 without attaining the highest regions of statesmanship played a creditable 

 part in English history before the extinction of their male line in the 

 time of Henry VI. If it should be found possible to connect the great 

 Protector with this family, the interest attaching to our ' Aldene ' as his 

 earliest recorded ancestor would of course be greatly increased. It is 

 worth noting that in eight of his manors ' Aldene ' had been preceded 

 by an Englishman styled in different entries Ulchel, Ulchet, and Ulchete. 



Eight manors, Normanton upon Trent, Elkesley, Clarborough, Ordsall, 

 Chilwell, Trowell, Gonalston, and Misson, were held by a certain Ernui, 

 sometimes, but it seems indifferently, styled ' presbiter ' in an interlinea- 

 tion. 2 Unlike Aldene, he had held land in this shire before the Conquest, 

 and he appears prominently in the Domesday account of Lincoln, where 

 he held a messuage which had belonged to Earl Morcar. He also held 

 ij bovates in Flintham of Roger de Busli. 3 It is curious that at some 

 period after 1070 the county had possessed a sheriff of this name, for an 

 Earnwi or Earnwig is addressed as such in two of the Conqueror's writs 

 relating to Nottinghamshire affairs.* 



A third thegn, holding a smaller but more compact estate, was the 

 ' Sawin ' who possessed part of Gotham, Kingston and Barton in Fabis 

 with the whole of Ratcliffe upon Soar. It will be evident that the 

 subtraction of these three estates from the total possessions of the king's 

 thegns in Nottinghamshire will materially reduce the number of the 



. i, 282. 



' For a notice of Ernui the priest see V. C. H. Lanes. \, 275. 

 * Man. Angl. iii, 20. 



4 Writs, in Anglo-Saxon, in the Eynsham Chartulary, shortly to be published by the Oxford 

 Hist. Soc. 



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