A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



(rlpa et crana) existed. 108 The growth of the quay 

 can be traced from the town books. 



Leland and Speed in the sixteenth century speak 

 of the two quays as large, fair, and stately. In the 

 time of Charles II their dimensions are thus given 

 officially : 109 Water Gate Quay was 223 ft. in length, 

 with a breadth at the gate and wall of 1 90 ft., and 

 at the head of the quay 63 ft. It had three pairs of 

 stone stairs, one at the head and two on the east side. 

 West Quay was 225 ft. in projection, its width by the 

 gate and wall 58 ft., and at the end 37 ft. Water Gate 

 Quay was therefore by this time the more important 

 structure. 



The development of these quays, no longer of 

 offence or defence, belongs to comparatively recent 

 times, and its result must be given later. We now 

 turn to the history of the borough. 



Southampton was in all probability the home of 

 Saxon invader* of the late fifth and early sixth cen- 

 tury, the first of whom were Cerdic and Cynric his 

 son in 495." As soon as the raiders began to have 

 a hold on the land the site of the later town un- 

 doubtedly became a basis from which new conquests 

 were made, securing as it did a hold on the river and 

 a key to the upper country. 111 Although the town 

 does not appear by name until the ninth century, it 

 was of importance at an earlier date than Winchester, 

 since it gave its name to the shire as early as the 

 eighth century, when in 755 Sigebryht remained 

 under-king of Hamtunscire, though deprived of the rest 

 of the kingdom by Cynewulf and the West Saxon 

 Witan." 1 



The earliest remarkable mention of Southampton 

 by name is as the landing-place of the Danes in 837 

 and again in 86o. m The next notice is of more 

 peaceful character. In the year of Athelstan's acces- 

 sion, 925, the town is mentioned as having two mints 

 among burns which had a mint or mints assigned to 

 them in the constitutions of the synod of Greatley, 

 which gave the earliest English laws about coinage. 

 The mints were appointed as follows : At Canterbury, 

 seven minters or coiners, four for the king, two for 

 the bishop, and one for the abbot ; at Rochester, 

 three, two for the bishop, and one for the abbot ; 

 London, eight; Winchester, six; Lewes, two; Hamp- 

 ton, two ; Wareham, Exeter, Shaftesbury, each two ; 

 Hastings and Chichester, each "one; and 'other burhs' 

 one. 114 This list affords some notion of the relative 

 position taken by the town at this time. The name 

 of Southampton occurs on coinage from the reign of 

 Eadmund in 940 to that of Stephen, under the forms 

 of H., Ha., Ham., Amtd., Han., Hamt., Hantv., 

 Hamtun, after which period it occurs no more. 116 



In 980 and 981 the town was ravaged by the 

 Danes, 116 and in 994 was made the head quarters of 



the Danish and Norwegian forces under Sweyn and 

 Olaf. Canute was at Southampton in loi6, 117 and 

 tradition has placed here the well-known story of his 

 rebuke to his courtiers. 118 At least there is little 

 doubt but that the town revived under his strong 

 rule. On the death of Canute, Edward (afterwards 

 the Confessor), the son of Ethelred by Emma, hastened 

 over from Barfleur to Southampton with forty ships 

 as a competitor for the crown ; and in his disap- 

 pointment is said to have returned whence he came 

 not without plunder. 119 After this there is little to 

 record of Southampton for many years. 180 



There can be little doubt that the Norman 

 Conquest brought prosperity and enlargement to 

 Southampton. At the time of the Domesday Sur- 

 vey m the king had in the borough seventy-six men 

 in demesne who paid their tax as under the Con- 

 fessor ; these were no doubt the original burgesses, 

 the resident burgage holders fulfilling their duties in 

 scot and lot, taxation and service, probably supple- 

 mented by the ninety-six French and English men- 

 tioned below, whose location in the town became 

 known as French Street. Besides these were eight 

 who held land or houses free of claims by grant of 

 King Edward, and who, no doubt, so continued to 

 hold with certain specified exceptions. Thus Cheping, 

 a wealthy holder of old days, formerly had three 

 houses free, which were now held by Ralph de 

 Mortimer, a relative of King William on the 

 mother's side, and one of his commanders ; and 

 Godwin, another ousted proprietor, formerly had 

 four houses in which he had been succeeded by 

 Bernard Pancevolt. Three of these houses are re- 

 ferred to in the entry about Chilworth, 1 " where they 

 are called ' hayes in Hantune,' showing that there 

 was inclosed ground around them. There were also 

 sixty-five French and thirty-one English born settled 

 here by King William. And a list is given of certain 

 who received the custom of their houses by grant of 

 King William. They were mostly great landowners, 

 and the houses they held, 1 " forty-eight in all, were 

 presumably inhabited by the burgesses, the resident 

 trading population, who subsequently obtained supreme 

 authority and government in the towns owing to their 

 enrolment in strong trading gilds, and who when 

 they had purchased the ferm of their towns passed in 

 due time by an almost natural process into the more 

 modern 'corporations.' 



None but the most general inference can be drawn 

 from the Domesday entry as to the size and popula- 

 tion of Southampton. Besides the forty-eight there 

 were many houses, if such they might be called, of 

 the poorer classes of which no account could be taken, 

 whose occupiers enjoyed few or no privileges. Still, 

 though the borough may compare disadvantageously 



l8 Pat. 12 Hen. IV, m. 12. 



10 * Guide to Merchants, &c. (1730), 105. 



110 Angl.-Sax. Cbron. (Rolls Sen), tub 

 anno f Guest, Early Engl, Settlements in S, 

 Brit. 1 80 ; Green, Making of Engl. 87. 



111 Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), sub 

 anno. Probably it was from Southampton 

 that the conquest of the Isle of Wight 

 was undertaken in 530 j ibid, sub anno, 



" Ibid. 



118 Angl.-Sax. Cbron. (Rolls Ser.), sub 

 annis. 



" Wilkins, Leges Angl.-Sax. 59. It will 

 be observed that the burhs mentioned are 

 all south of the Thames, in the Wcssex 

 of the tenth century. 



116 Ruding, Ann. of Coinage, i, 251 ; 



' 35- 



116 Angl. Sax. Cbron. (Rolls Ser.), sub 

 annis j see also Will, of Malmesb. De 

 Gestit Regum, ii, cap. 10. 



u ' Flor. Wigorn. Chron. (Engl. Hist. 

 Soc.), i, 173 ; Sim. Dunelm, Of era (sub 

 1016), (ed. Twysden), col. 173. 



118 Henry of Huntingdon, who died in 

 the middle of the twelfth century, puts the 

 story under 1036 (Canute died n Nov. 

 1035), but does not venture on any lo- 

 cality for the occurrence ; Henry of Hunt. 

 Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 189. 



u ' See Lingard, Hist, of Engl, i, 319, 

 and refs. 



504 



190 ADanish vessel,i3oft. long, clinker- 

 built, with timbers of large size and flank- 

 ing of three thicknesses, existed in the 

 Hamble mud above Bursledon Bridge till 

 blown to pieces now many years ago. A 

 vessel also found at Southampton in 1848 

 seems to have been of similar character. 

 See Davies, op. cit. 25. 



121 A full translation of the entry is 

 given in f.C.H. Hants, i, 516. 



128 Ibid. 494*. 



138 Ibid.5i6; Merewether and Stephens, 

 Hist, of Boroughs, i, 201, 207, 221 ; Mor- 

 gan, Engl, under the Norman Occupation^ 



159. 



