A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



have had precisely its present boundaries, a statement which is worth 

 making in view of the general belief that Nottinghamshire was com- 

 bined with Rutland in Domesday, and that its frontier accordingly 

 requires rectification. 1 Now the south of Rutland was actually included 

 in the Domesday account of Northamptonshire, and several manors in north 

 Rutland are duplicated in the Lincolnshire Domesday, but the connexion 

 between Rutland and Nottinghamshire in 1086 was purely fiscal. The 

 district which is called Rutland in Domesday consisted of the wapentakes 

 of ' Alfnodestou ' and ' Martinsley,' representing the three modern hun- 

 dreds of Alstoe, Martinsley, and Oakham soke. At the beginning of the 

 survey of this district these two wapentakes are named with the state- 

 ment that they belong to the sherifdom of Nottingham with reference 

 to the king's geld (ad geldum regis), and in particular we are told that 

 Alstoe is ' half in Thurgarton and half in Broxtow wapentake.' Perhaps 

 the simplest possible explanation of this very difficult phrase would be 

 that the proceeds of the Alstoe court were divided between Thurgarton 

 and Broxtow wapentakes in the sense of being added in equal propor- 

 tions to the perquisites drawn by the sheriff of Nottingham from each of 

 the latter. We certainly cannot suppose that half the peasantry of Alstoe 

 wapentake were expected to travel forty miles each month to attend the 

 court at Thurgarton. The essence of the connexion doubtless was that 

 the sheriff of Nottingham was answerable for the Rutland Danegeld, and 

 it was nearly a century after Domesday before the latter became a fiscally 

 independent shire. We get a glimpse of this association in another 

 quarter, for when the Conqueror granted the churches of Uppingham 

 and Wardley in Rutland to Westminster Abbey he addressed his writ to 

 Bishop Remigius, Hugh de Port, and 'all his servants and lieges (jidelibus) 

 of Nottinghamshire.' s 



We may now pass on to certain matters which are suggested by the 

 Nottinghamshire survey as a whole. If the survey is read with special 

 attention to its statements of manorial values it will be noticed that while 

 the great majority of values are expressed in simple multiples or fractions 

 of a pound a considerable number are more complex. Thus the first 

 four manors entered on the land of the king's thegns are valued respec- 

 tively at ioj., 5-r. 4</., loj. 8</., and 2. Now this sum of 5^. ^d. with 

 its fractions and multiples occurs in many entries in Nottinghamshire, 

 and is found, though somewhat less frequently, in the Derbyshire 

 Domesday also. The instances of its occurrence in the latter county are 

 collected in the Victoria History of Derbyshire^ where it is suggested 

 that these figures are based upon the ' ora,' or ounce of silver, of 1 6 pence, 

 a currency unit which we know to have prevailed in that district. 8 On 



1 DomesJay Book and Beyond, 408. 



1 Man. i, 301. Remigius is doubtless included as the bishop of the diocese in which these churches 

 were situated, but it is difficult to explain the fact that Hugh de Port occupies in this charter (1081- 

 1087) the place of a sheriff of Notts. We have no statement elsewhere to the effect that he ever held 

 that office, and he held no land in this county in 1 08 6. 



* This is proved by the fact that the Burton Chartulary uses 'ora 'and ' 1 6 pence' interchangeably. 

 See Mr. Round in Eng. Hist. Rev. April, 1905 ; and feudal England. 



240 



