DOMESDAY SURVEY 



enters Leverton as having been held by Blacheman in fee and Chilton 

 as held by him ' in alod ' of Harold ; in neither case is the abbey 

 recognized as in previous possession. 



Another religious house appears to have lost a Berkshire manor ; 

 this was the Old Minster of Winchester (i.e. the cathedral church). 

 Domesday records that abbot ' Elsi ' had held Burghfield ' of the Old 

 Minster ' in King Edward's time and afterwards until he was outlawed, 

 according to the witness of the shire, though Ralf de Mortemer is 

 found in possession at the time of the survey. Mr. Freeman devoted 

 great attention to this remarkable abbot, whose ' whole life is wrapped 

 in confusions and contradictions,' and whose ' real history is well nigh as 

 marvellous as anything that legend could invent.' ' He duly mentioned 

 the Burghfield entry, but missed the point of the abbot's tenure owing 

 to his erroneous conclusion that the prelate's name was jfEthelsige. It 

 was, on the contrary, ./Elfsige, and as such he appears in Domesday 

 twice as abbot ' Elsi ' and once as abbot ' Alsi ' (Domesday equating 

 these forms). We can thus discover him in that abbot 'Alsi' who in 

 Hampshire had similarly held Barton in Bransbury of ' Stigand and the 

 monks' of the Old Minster. 2 Originally a monk of the New Minster, 

 he had been chosen abbot of St. Augustine's and had consented to 

 receive benediction from Stigand at Windsor, 26 May 1061. He 

 would thus be on excellent terms with Stigand, who dealt as seemed to 

 him good with the manors of his monastery. It was thus that ^Elfsige 

 would obtain the manors of Barton and Burghfield. From Edward 

 the Confessor he afterwards obtained the abbey of Ramsey, and, as its 

 abbot (or former abbot) appears in Domesday as a witness for the Old 

 Minster in its dispute about Hayling Island. Mr. Freeman assigned 

 his ' outlawry ' to the year 1 070. That Ralf de Mortemer should secure 

 Burghfield is in harmony with what we find in Hampshire where we 

 read of him holding manors which his predecessor had only held under 

 the Old Minster. 



The substantially endowed churches on the King's demesne manors 

 are a well-marked feature of Domesday. In this county the village 

 priest had a glebe of a hide and a half at Windsor, and the two clerks 

 of Thatcham church had twice that amount. So rich were the endow- 

 ments on the great manor of Cholsey, that two village priests were 

 drawing 4 a year from the church and tithes, although the abbey of 

 Mont St. Michel had been there given a church worth, with its glebe, 

 3 a year. Basildon had two churches and priests, who held a hide 

 between them ; at Shrivenham the priest held no less than five hides 

 worth 4 ; and the glebe of Lambourn was one hide, and those of 

 Little Coxwell and Bucklebury half a hide each. The holders of these 

 livings are sometimes named, and among them we find as elsewhere 

 foreign favourites. In accordance with a later practice bishop Osmund 

 (of Salisbury) held Faringdon church, of which the hide of glebe was 

 worth 2, while at Wantage William the deacon doubtless identical 



See Norman Conquest, vols. ii., iii., iv. Domesday, 41$. 



299 



