A HISTORY OF DORSET 



gave 1 6 niatise in the same place to the monastery.^^ In io86 Corscombe (no. 44) was 

 assessed at 10 hides less a virgate. 



The last five manors entered in the bishop's fief are preceded by the heading Has terras 

 que stibterscribiintur habet episcopiis pro excambio de Scipeleia. He also held Chaddemvick 

 in Mere (Wilts.) in exchange for Scipeleia. There is no indication where Scipeleia was or 

 to whom the exchanged manors had belonged. The Dorset manors amount to over 20 

 hides and Chaddemvick is assessed at 5 hides, so Scipeleia should have been a sizeable 

 manor. This consideration eliminates Shipley in Yorkshire, assessed at 3 carucates,^^ 

 and Shipley in Derbyshire, assessed at 2 carucates.^^ William of Briouze held a manor 

 called Shiplev in Sussex, but the fact emerges only obliquely in the account of Fulking 

 and this Shipley is omitted from the Sussex Domesday. ^^ Xo other manor of this name 

 occurs in Domesday and the exchange remains a myster}'. 



If Sherborne was the largest of the Dorset monasteries, the smallest was Horton, a 

 poorlv endowed little house with only the manor of Horton (no. 117) in Dorset and 3 

 hides in Devon, a total of 10 hides in all. It may conveniently be discussed here since in 

 1 122 it was amalgamated with Sherborne and became a cell of that abbey. ^^ It seems to 

 have been founded between 1033, when Cnut gave 7 manse in Horton to his minister 

 Bovi,^^ and 1061, when Edward the Confessor freed the monks of Horton from all 

 duties except geld, the repair of fortifications, and the building of bridges.'" According 

 to William of Malmesbury Horton was founded by Ordwulf son of Ordgar, who also 

 founded Tavistock Abbey, but he is last recorded in looS.^i It has been noted that 

 Littleham (Devon), belonging to Horton Abbey in 1086, had been given by Edward to 

 his minister Ordgar in 1042, and suggested that this Ordgar was a descendant of 

 Ordwulf son of Ordgar and that the founder of Horton Abbey was a member of the 

 same family.'- William of Malmesbury stated that the land which Ordwulf left to 

 Horton Abbey was seized by the Abbot of Tavistock, and in 1086 the abbey of Horton 

 was claiming the manor of Antony (Cornw.) from Tavistock Abbey .'^ 



The largest nunner}- in Dorset, and indeed in the whole of England, was Shaftesbury, 

 which possessed about 360 hides, including 172 hides in Wiltshire, 161 hides in Dorset, 

 the manor of Falcheham (Suss.), and 10 hides in Somerset.''* It was founded by King 

 Alfred, whose daughter Aethelgifu was its first abbess.'^ Alfred left her a bequest of 100 

 hides"' of which 40 hides were at Donhead St. Andrew (Wilts.) and Compton Abbas, 

 20 hides at Handley and Gussage St. Andrew, 10 at Tarrant, 15 at Iwerne Minster, and 

 15 at Fontmell INIagna, all in Dorset. All these manors were in the possession of the 

 abbey in 1086. Donhead St. Andrew was assessed at 40 hides, Compton Abbas at 10, 

 and Iwerne Minster at 18, but the other hidages were the same as in Alfred's bequest. 

 With the exception of Donhead St. Andrew these manors comprised the Domesday 

 hundreds of Sexpene and Handley (later amalgamated under the name Sixpenny 

 Handley). According to two charters preserved in the abbey's cartulary Mapperton 

 (no. 137) was given by Edmund to Eadric the ealdorman in 943, when it was reckoned 



*■* Cod. Dipl. no. 1322. granted by Aethelberht, King of Wessex, to Sherborne in 



85 Doni. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, f. 318. 864. 



** Ibid. f. 277b. " Wm. of Malmesbun.-, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum 



" Ibid. f. 29b. Round suggested that Shipley (Suss.) (Rolls Ser.), 203. 



was included in William of Briouze's manor of Thakeham, '^ H. P. R. Finberg, 'The House of Ordgar and the 



assessed at 20 hides and 3 virgates: I'.C.H. Suss. i. 440 n. Foundation of Tavistock Abbey', E.H.R. Iviii. 190-201. 



'* Regesta Regttm .-Inglo-N ormamwrum , ii, no. 1325. " Doni. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, f. 121. 



*» Cod. Dipl. no. 1318. Miss Harmer (Anglo-Sa.xon •>* Kilmington (Som.) was given to the abbey by Serle 



Writs, 576) seems to accept it as genuine. Urk, who attests of Burcy when his daughter became a nun there : Dom. Bk. 



it, was the founder of Abbotsbur\-. (Rec. Com.), i, f. 98. 



''"Cod. Dipl. no. 1341 ; Robertson, Anglo-Saxon '>^ Asser, Life of King Alfred, S5. 



Charters, no. cxx. IMiss Robertson points out that this " Cart. Sa.x-. no. 531; Cod. Dipl. no. 310; Robertson, 



charter, which is incomplete, is almost identical with one Anglo-So-von Charters, no. xiii. 



42 



