DOMESDAY SURVEY 



her in two manors, which she held as ' Eddeda de regina Eddeva,' and 

 as ' Eddeva uxor Vlwardi,' and also succeeding in one her husband 

 ' Vlwardus homo Eddid reginas,' the assessment of these three manors 

 being 23! hides. Lastly, we find the above ' Alsi ' holding three estates, 

 all of which he seems to have received with Wulfward's daughter from 

 Queen Edith. As these were assessed at 10 hides, we have now con- 

 nected Wulfward and his wife with more than 60 hides in this county 



alone. 1 



The only other Englishman who contrived to retain after the Con- 

 quest a good estate was Leofwine ' of Nuneham ' (de NeiveAam), whose 

 lands, in five places, were assessed at 1 6 hides, and for whose history we 

 must turn to the cartulary of Abingdon Abbey. We there read that 

 this Leofwine sold his inheritance at Nuneham (Courtenay), Oxfordshire, 

 to the abbot of Abingdon, 2 the necessary leave for this transfer being 

 obtained from the Bishop of Bayeux, then regent, as the king was ab- 

 sent in Normandy. William, according to the abbey's story, repudiated 

 this transaction when Odo fell into disgrace, and, seizing the land, be- 

 stowed it on one of his followers. Of all this, however, Domesday tells 

 us nothing ; it merely records that Nuneham was held by Richard de 

 Curci at the time of the Survey and had been held by 'Hacon.' 



The group of thegns with whose lands the survey of the county 

 closes calls for no special notice. Of their estates the only one of some 

 value was that which had been Queen Edith's and which Godric 'cratel' 

 had secured. A few of these Englishmen had retained the small hold- 

 ings, which were theirs before the Conquest, fragments which enable us 

 to grasp the wholesale spoliation of their countrymen. Others again 

 retained them indeed, but only as oppressed tenants of a grasping Nor- 

 man lord. Such was ^Ethelric who, at Marsh Gibbon, held his manor 

 at farm, * graviter et miserabiliter ' ; it is one of the most graphic 

 touches that the Survey contains. 



Domesday is somewhat careless of the names of those who were 

 great landowners when Edward sat upon the throne, and even when 

 they are rightly given, they do not tell us much. Here and there, 

 however, we can identify a magnate either by his peculiar name or by 

 some distinctive suffix. Borret, Borgret, or Burgered was a great 

 Northamptonshire thegn, father of Eadwine, whose lands, here as else- 

 where, were obtained by the Bishop of Coutances. ' Alnod ' of Kent 

 (cbentiscus), as he is styled in Buckinghamshire he was, in Northants, 

 of ' Canterbury ' had preceded the Bishop of Bayeux at Chetwode and 

 Tingewick, and was probably the Alnod ' cilt ' who had preceded him 

 at Westbury, for the * Alnod ' who had been so great a man in Kent 

 and at Canterbury itself was ' Alnod cilt ' (or ' cild '). Of Edmar ' atule ' 



1 A curious entry under Buckingham itself records that the Bishop of Coutances had there three 

 burgesses which ' Wlwardus filius (sic) Eddeve ' had held. It is clear that this was Wulfward White, 

 but whether ' filius Eddeve ' is correct or an error of the Domesday scribe it is difficult to say. 



" ' alius nobilium, Leowinus, quandam villam, Niweham, de suo patrimonio trans flumen Tamisiae 

 e regione monasterii Abbendoniae sitam ipsi abbati, pretio accepto, distraxit ' (Chron. Monasterii de 

 Abingdon [Rolls Series] ii. 9). Nuneham lies almost opposite Abingdon on the Thames. 



I 217 28 



