A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Navenby, and Boothby, had belonged to the king at the time of Domesday, 

 the church of Wellingore then belonging to the church of St. Peter in 

 Lincoln. 1 We have therefore good evidence that Roger's Domesday fief 

 had been augmented by additions from the royal demesne between 1086 and 

 1094.* All the places named in this important charter afterwards belonged 

 to the honour of Lancaster, 8 except Weekley in Northamptonshire, and that 

 also appears to have passed to Stephen of Blois, but as a member of the 

 honour of Mortain and not of Lancaster. 4 As regards this county it cannot 

 be doubted that the whole was in Roger's possession in 1102 and passed in 

 its entirety to Stephen. If doubt exists as to every region of the county 

 having been in Roger's possession, it would be in reference to Furness ; but 

 even this uncertainty is set at rest by a charter of John of Mortain which 

 refers to Furness Fells as having been held by Roger of Poitou, and after- 

 wards by Count Stephen. 6 Four great manors of Leicestershire which were 

 crown lands in Domesday 6 belonged to the count of Mortain when the 

 Leicestershire survey of r 1 24-9 was made. 7 It is impossible to say whether 

 these were given to Roger of Poitou by Rufus or to Stephen of Blois by 

 Henry I. ; nor is there any certainty when Thorp Constantine in Stafford- 

 shire, Kirkby in Kesteven and some other Lincolnshire manors, Anston in 

 Yorkshire, and Drakelow in Derbyshire, were added to the honour. 8 The 

 same uncertainty exists as to the exact period when Roger's three Essex 

 manors, some part of his Suffolk possessions, Willoughby in Nottingham- 

 shire, Lound and * Blanghesbi ' in Derbyshire, passed from his honour. 



Two facts which may possibly have some bearing upon the early history 

 of the honour call for notice here: (i) Towards the end of Stephen's reign 

 Ranulf Gernons, earl of Chester, confirmed Howick, in the parish of 

 Penwortham, to the monks of Evesham, to enjoy it as fully as they had held 

 it ' tempore comitis Rogeri Pictavensis et tempore Rannulfi comitis patris 

 mei.' 9 This assertion that Ranulf Meschin had held the land between Ribble 

 and Mersey at some period between 1102 and 1118, in the absence of any 

 confirmatory evidence, should be received with caution. (2) In 1176 the 

 sheriff of Lancaster accounted for the farm of half the manor of Marton in 

 Amounderness as an escheat of the fee of Peverel. 10 In 1199 the sheriff 

 claimed allowance, when accounting for the farm of the honour, 'for 10 

 which he was wont to receive yearly by the hand of the sheriff of Notting- 

 ham towards the farm of the county of Lancaster,' this sum representing the 

 third penny of the counties of Notts and Derby which John had given to 

 William Ferrers when creating him earl of Derby. 11 The inclusion of the 



1 Dom. Bit. i. wjb. 



9 The Lindsey Survey shows that Stephen of Mortain also held in Lincolnshire 1 1 bovates in Wadding- 

 ham which had been crown land and land of the king's thegns in 1086, 4 bovates in Clisby and 4 bovates in 

 Howsham, which had been crown land in 1 086. 



8 Testa de Nevil! (Rec. Com.), 325^, 326. * V. C. H. Northants, i. 387. 



6 Coticher of Furness, Chetham Soc. (New Ser.), vols. 9 and II, pp. 63, 419. 



* Dom. Bk. i. 230. 7 Round, Feudal England, 202-3. 



8 For details of other manors which were members of this honour not held by Roger of Poitou 

 cf. Lane, and Ches. Rec. Soc. vol. 48, pp. 99-114. 



9 Chartul.of Evesham, Cott. MSS. Vesp. B. xxiv. fol. 7 56 ; Farrer, Lanes. Pipe .319. The monks had 

 received Howick from Roger of Poitou. Harl. MSS. No. 3,763, fol. 58. 



10 Farrer, Lanes. Fife R. 3 1 . ' The vills of Ashton (near Preston) and the two Marions (in Amounder- 

 ness) are escheats of the king of the honour of Peverel. The earl of Ferrers holds them. The same Earl 

 William holds Blackrod of the same honour.' Exch. K. R. Kts. fees, \, m. 4. 



11 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe R. 104-5, 108 ; Tait, Medieval Manchester, 179 . 



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