THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



Fitz Godebold, about the time of Henry I., to the priory he founded at 

 Little Horkesley, and the two manors were subsequently held by the 

 family which took its name from Horkesley. We have then to look for 

 Asheldham among the manors in this Hundred held by Suain of Essex. 

 One of these was at Iltney j 1 the other was ' Haintuna ' or ' Hainctuna.' * 

 We are thus forced to the conclusion that ' Haintuna ' and Asheldham 

 were identical, an identity supported by the fact that Domesday assigns 

 to the former some acres of meadow, meadow being rarely met with 

 in the Hundred ; for Asheldham is watered by ' Asheldham brook.' 

 The name of ' Haintuna ' appears to be lost, but we can recognize it in 

 that ' Aintune' which occurs in a fine of 9 Richard I. (1197-8), to 

 which the wife of Walter ' de Aledhorn ' [Althorne] is a party. 8 



But perhaps the most unexpected and most interesting discovery in 

 the Hundred is that of the identity, in Domesday, of what is now Stow 

 Maries. Of one grave error we may dispose decisively and at once. 

 The rich manor of ' Eistanes,' held by Walter the Deacon, is placed, no 

 doubt, by Domesday, in Dengie Hundred between two entries relating 

 to Purleigh. It was identified by Morant with the manor of Stow 

 Maries, his grounds being thus stated : 



What makes me conclude that this is the place called in Domesday Book 

 ' Eistanes ' is first because Walter the Deacon held it, who had manors in the neigh- 

 bouring Purley ; next that a manor here was called Hayes, which had an alternate in 

 presenting to the living. I would therefore suppose the ancient name [of Stow Maries] 

 to have been 'East Hayes' (i. 350). 



Mr. Chisenhale-Marsh, who accepted this conclusion with hesitation, 

 pointed out that Morant had, in this, followed Salmon. The real iden- 

 tity of ' Eistanes ' is not a subject for doubt ; it is the manor of Little 

 Easton, far away in Dunmow Hundred, the head of Walter's barony. 

 Its extensive woodland, mentioned in Domesday, is now represented by 

 Easton Park. Morant, having thus deprived himself of its chief Domes- 

 day equivalent, boldly supplied its place by William de Warenne's 

 * Estanes ' (ii. 430), although his own evidence proves that this was the 

 manor of Blamsters in Great Easton (ii. 434). 



As for the manor of Hayes in the parish of Stow Maries, Morant 

 found it in the ' Haintuna ' of Domesday, which I have identified with 

 Asheldham, while Mr. Chisenhale-Marsh suggested that it might lurk in 

 the Domesday ' Halesduna.' But the latter appears as a true place-name 

 in a charter which suggests that it should be looked for somewhere in 

 Mundon.* And, to prove that there was a manor called ' East Whyten- 

 ham,' Morant cites a fine of 1 342 for the manor of that name ' and 



1 It reappears as ' Eltenhey,' held of the Honour of Rayleigh, in 1303 and 1428 (sec F eudal Aids, 

 i. 133, 217, where however it is not identified). 



8 I have suggested that the entries under these names are duplicates (see p. 410 below). 



8 Feet of fines for Essex, i. 12. 



* Warner son of Richard Petitsirc granted to the Abbot of Colchester (who was lord of Mundon), 

 ' et hominibus suis de Hailisdune,' right of way on the street running from west to east to the land of 

 Geoffrey de Hauckestune, ' a transversu illius vie tjue venit de Wiggebruge versus Mcldonam ' (Cokhester 

 Cartulary, p. 623). 



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