DOMESDAY SURVEY 



suggests that Chichester and Lewes were then rivals for the headship of 

 the county. Mr. Ballard has, however, shown that this peculiarity was 

 not confined, in Sussex, to Lewes and Chichester ; twenty burgesses are 

 mentioned as appurtenant to the abbey of Trcport's manor of ' Bolintun,* 

 and must clearly have been in Hastings, where also the abbey of Fecamp 

 had four burgesses.' Arundel had seventeen houses — belonging, as he 

 holds, to seven estates in the neighbourhood — and Pevensey fifty be- 

 longing to sixteen manors.'' Here then we have circumstantial evidence of 

 the quasi-independent character of the rapes, each of them with a local 

 capital, as each had a sheriff. 



It only remains for us to deal with the castles of Sussex mentioned 

 in Domesday Book. It has often been asserted that Arundel castle was 

 of Saxon foundation, and was already standing when the Normans came, 

 this idea being based on the statement of Domesday : 'Castrum Harundel 

 reddebat . . . T.R.E.' ; but Mr. Round has shown ' that this should 

 be translated not ' the castle of Arundel ' but ' Castle Arundel,' a place- 

 name analogous to Newcastle or Castle Acre. Again, the castle 

 mounds at Lewes have often been claimed as Saxon, but modern research 

 shows this class of mound to be typically Norman, and very rarely, if 

 ever, English. Lewes castle itself is not mentioned in the survey of 

 Sussex, but in connection with some of William de Warenne's manors in 

 Norfolk we find mention of the ' castellatio ' of ' Lawes,' ' de Laquis ' in 

 its semi-Latinized shape, and finally by a bold piece of translation on the 

 scribe's part ' castellatio Aquarum.' To Hastings castle also the only 

 reference is under Bexhill, when the grant to the Count of Eu of the 

 ' castelry of Hastings ' is mentioned. Of the castle erected within the 

 still strong Roman walls of Pevensey no direct mention is made, but 

 under Eastbourne and Firle ' the warders of the Castle ' occur as holding 

 land, and it is clear that these are the ' vigiles de Pevensel ' and ' de 

 Monte Acuto,' who occur on the Pipe Rolls of Henry II. That part of 

 this land was the fee in Southeye and Eastbourne subsequently held by 

 Henry de Palerne and the family of Brade by service of guarding the 

 outer gate of Pevensey castle seems probable, and there is an obvious 

 connection with the ' vigiles de Monte Acuto ' who occur on the Pipe 

 Rolls for Somerset during the same period, and who are the successors 

 of the 'duo portitores de Montegud' of the Somerset Domesday. Finally, 

 we may refer to Bramber castle, which is spoken of as being situated on 

 one hide of the manor of Washington. 



Thus we conclude our study of the Sussex survey ; some of the 

 questions raised by it may be claimed as answered, on some light has 

 been thrown, but to others we can at present only say, as the compilers 

 of Domesday said about an estate at Hankham, ' Inde nullum 

 responsum.' 



' Fecamp had also in their manor of ' Rameslie ' a ' new borough ' with sixty-four burgesses ; from 

 other instances of the use of this term ' new borough ' in Domesday — e.g. Norwich and Nottingham — 

 it seems probable that this refers to a French settlement in Hastings, unless it was VVinchelsea. 



2 Ibid. pp. 21-2, 39, 40. 



3 Archceologia Iviii. 342. 



I 385 49 



