250 The Statural Hifiory 



kind of Fortification ; but at this time it feems it was fo confider- 

 able, that it had the reputation of a Burg ; for King Edward com- 

 ing againft it the fame year, his Army is faid to have befieged the 

 Burg and taken it, andto have flain the Vanifi King, EarlTo 5 io r ; 

 and Earl CDannan Kisfin, his brother, and all others whatever with- 

 in the Town c . And again, An. 1010. when the Danes over-ran 

 moft of this part of England, we find this Town amongft others 

 to have fuffered much by them d . 



120. Qhippingnorton, anciently Ceapan-neptunc, was alfo moft 

 certainly a Town of note in the Saxons days, as one may gather 

 from its name, it being fo called from Ceapan Emere, to buy or 

 cheapen, fo that it implies as much as Mercat Norton, or Norton 

 where the people ufually cheapened Wares. And Whitney, now 

 Witney, feems to have been a Town of good repute before the 

 Conquesl, it being given about the year 1040. to the Church of 

 St. Swithins Winton : with eight other Manors, by Alwinm then 

 Biflhop of that See, who for his over-familiarity with Emma Mo- 

 ther to K. Edward 'the Confefor, was caufelefly fufpected of Adul- 

 tery with her : Of which fufpition Queen Emma purging herfelf 

 and him by the Fire Ordeal, of walking bare-foot over nine red- 

 hot plough -Jbares without hurt; in thankfulnefs ('tis faid) they 

 each gave nine Manors to the Church of Winchester, which are all 

 named by Mr. I>ugdale, Witney being one of thofe given by Al- 



winu6 e . 



121. And the neighboring Town of Bampton,zncknt\y Bemcune, 

 feems to be of much about the fame antiquity, yet neither can I 

 find any higher Record of it, than of Leofric Chaplain to King 

 Edward thsConfeffor, who ^#.1046. upon the union of the Bi- 

 fhopricks of Criditon and Cornwal, and both of them tranflated to 

 Exeter, whereof he was made the firft Bifeop, quickly after gave 

 to this his new Church his lan& aes Bemcune f 9 to which it belongs to 

 this very day. 



122. Which is all I could meet with of the Towns of Oxford- 

 shire before the Conquejl (for after long fearch I could find no- 

 thing of Deddington, till about the Reign of King Edw. 2. where- 

 of when I come to fpeak of the Caslle there) concerning which 

 I could have added much more, and brought their Hifiory down 



1 ChronologiaSaxonica, in An- 92 1. d Joh.Bromton Abb/jornal'tn An.citat. c Monafiici AgUcani, 

 VtL 1 . inter Addenda,pag. 980. t E Cod. vet. MS- in Bib. Bodfol. Med. 120. inprincip. 



to 



