DOMESDAY SURVEY 



record shows that he was in possession. Some writers have stated that Roger 

 temporarily lost his English fief in 1077, during one of the quarrels between 

 William I. and his eldest son Robert Curthose, when Robert of Belesme, 

 eldest brother of Roger, was one of the duke's strongest supporters, 1 and Roger 

 a probable associate. But the reference to manors in Yorkshire being ' now ' 

 in the hands, honour, or castelry of Roger, appears to preclude the supposition 

 of a temporary forfeiture so far back as the year 1077. In the absence of any 

 reference in the chronicles to this event it does not appear at all certain that 

 any such forfeiture occurred, and a possible explanation is to be found in a 

 voluntary surrender or exchange of these estates. The evidence that Lonsdale 

 formed part of Roger's fief lies mainly in the fact that within this region he 

 gave the church of Lancaster, the manors of Aldcliffe and Newton, the churches 

 of Melling, Bolton-le-sands, and Heysham, and tithes of Middleton, Overton, 

 Skerton, Slyne, Bare, and Stapelterne to the church of St. Martin of Sees in the 

 year 1 094.* He also made gifts of churches and tithes within his demesnes 

 in Amounderness, Leyland, Salford, and West Derby. No places in Cartmel 

 or Furness are mentioned in any of his charters, an omission which 

 possibly indicates that these two regions with part of Kendal were the king's 

 land, and had not been included in Roger's fief, although they had formed 

 part of Tostig's pre-conquest estate within these regions. At the same time 

 it is possible that Furness, if not also Cartmel and part of Kendal, was 

 included in Roger's fief before 1086, and that it was resigned by Roger 

 with other manors in or before 1086, preparatory to an exchange of lands ; 

 for in a charter of John, count of Mortain, restoring Furness Fells to the 

 monks of Furness, these ' Montana Furnessii ' were granted * per omnes 

 divisas quas Rogerus Pictavensis vel Comes Stephanus .... plenius et 

 integrius tenuerunt.' 8 



To identify the knights who held of Roger of Poitou at the time of the 

 survey is by no means an easy task. If we are right in supposing that 

 ' Geoffrey,' the knight who held two hides and half a carucate in the hundred 

 of West Derby in 1086, was the predecessor of Godfrey, the sheriff, we can 

 trace the greater portion of this fee by his successor's gifts to Shrewsbury 

 Abbey in 1093-4 of the church of Walton-on-the-hill with the lands be- 

 longing to it, and the vill of Garston, which had formed part of the royal 

 demesne in this hundred before the conquest. 4 In Amounderness he gave the 

 church of Kirkham, and in 1094 he gave to St. Martin of Sees tithes of 

 Bispham and houses, an orchard and lands in Lancaster, and the land which 

 he had in ' Little ' Lancaster. 6 His chief lord also gave to Shrewsbury Abbey 

 the vills of Woolston and Poulton, in the parish of Warrington, with the 

 moiety of a fishery in Mersey, tithes of his demesne of Newton-in-Maker- 

 field, and in Amounderness the chapel of Bispham. 6 In the extra half-carucate 

 of Geoffrey's fee we seem to trace the glebe of Walton church. This fee 

 reverted to the chief lord at or before Count Roger's banishment in 1102. 

 In the person of ' Roger' holding a hide and a half in West Derby hundred 

 and 2 carucates in Leyland hundred we seem to recognise Roger de 



1 Ordertcus Vitalis, book v., ch. x. 



* Reg. of the Abbey ofStes, f. 103^ ; Reg. of Lane. Priory (Chetham Soc., N. S. vol. 26), pp. 8-10. 

 s Catcher of Furness (Chetham Soc. N.S. vol. ix.), p. 63 ; vol. xi. 419. 



* Reg. of Salop Abbey, No. 371. 6 Reg _ O f the A f, bey f Sl(Sj { JO - 

 6 Reg. of Mop Abbey, Nos. 35, 36 and 337. 



279 



