A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE 



shire, as wholly the result of chance, and the probability that they mean 

 something is increased when we find that incidental sources of manorial 

 revenue, such, for instance, as mills, 1 are frequently expressed in terms of 

 the same unit. The only denomination, in fact, to which it can be 

 brought to refer is the ' ore,' which is not mentioned by name in the 

 Domesdays of Derbyshire or Notts. In several counties we are distinctly 

 told by Domesday that the ' ore ' (or ounce of silver) equalled 20 pence, 

 but, on the other hand, we have good evidence that a counter-reckoning 

 of 1 6 pence to the ' ore ' was known, 2 and as the Survey is silent on the 

 point in one county, there is nothing to hinder the belief* that the latter 

 equation prevailed there. If this were so, then we can better understand 

 the very important statement which occurs in the list of local customs 

 relating to Notts and Derbyshire to the effect that for certain breaches of 

 the peace a fine was paid by eighteen ' hundreds,' each hundred paying 

 8. This has been connected by Mr. Round with the statement in the 

 York Liber Albus^ that the peace of that church was safeguarded by a 

 system of fines graduated according to ' hundreds,' and that ' in a hundred 

 there are contained 8.' 4 If 16 pence went to the ore in this part of 

 England, we can understand the latter statement, for 8 would contain 

 just 1 20 ores, which, according to the ' long hundred ' which prevailed 

 in the Danelaw, would normally be described as a hundred in themselves. 

 The same sum of 8 appears in our Survey as the 'relief which a thegn 

 having more than six manors paid to the king. 



In studying Domesday, it is always advisable to pay attention to 

 more than one county at the same time, for vills situated on the border 

 of two counties are frequently surveyed under each of them, while there 

 also exist cases in which a vill is described in the Survey under a county 

 with which it had no territorial connexion.* 



The latter cause of perplexity does not affect us in dealing with 

 Derbyshire, but our county was curiously implicated with Leicestershire 

 in the extreme south of it. Until quite recently a group of villages 

 belonging to Derbyshire formed an island surrounded by Leicestershire. 

 Appleby, Oakthorpe, Donisthorpe, Stretton-en-le-Field, Willesley, Chilcote 

 and Measham, with probably the unidentified 'Trangesbi,' were reckoned 

 as part of Derbyshire in 1086 as afterwards, but were separated from the 

 body of the county by the Leicestershire parishes of Over and Nether 

 Seal. 8 The first four of these vills, together with Ravenstone, which is 

 still further imbedded in Leicestershire, and Linton, which seems to be 

 wholly in Derbyshire, were surveyed, in fact, under each county in 



1 The following valuations of mills may be quoted : Spondon, Hope, Winshill, Staveley, Youlgreave, 

 Sandiacre (5*. 4</.), Brailsford, Bakewell (\os. 9>d.). A villein at Osmaston-by-Derby paid zt. 8</. 

 Mr. Round considers that the valuation of mills in ' ores ' was widespread in Domesday. 



a Chadwick, Studies in dnglo-Saxon Institutions, pp. 24-5. 



8 Mr. Round points out that the Burton Cfiartulary, combined with the Okeover Charters, contains 

 proof that the ' ore ' of 1 6 pence was recognised ' eo nomine ' in the district. 



* Feudal England, p. 73. 



6 Thus parts of Oxfordshire and of Warwickshire are found surveyed with Northants. 



6 In 1893 Over and Nether Seal were transferred to Derbyshire in exchange for the group of 

 villages mentioned above. In the Domesday map they are represented as in Derbyshire. 



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