DOMESDAY SURVEY 



Cranborne Abbey was poorly endowed, having only 21 hides in Dorset and the same 

 number in Wiltshire. Hugh fitz Grip gave to this abbey a piece of land in Gillingham, 

 which he received from the king's farm, and i hide at Orchard (nos. 422 and civ) pro 

 anima sua. The manor of Cranborne belonged to the king in 1086, having been one of 

 the manors which passed to Queen Maud from Beorhtric son of Aelfgar.'s When 

 Robert fitz Hamon received the land which had once belonged to Beorhtric, he became 

 the patron of Cranborne Abbey, and in 1102 made it a cell of Tewkesbury."^ 



Of the houses not situated in Dorset but holding land there, the most important was 

 the abbey of Glastonbury, the richest house in England. The 52 hides held by the abbey 

 in Dorset were only a fraction of its huge fief, totalling about 800 hides. The largest 

 manors of the abbey in Dorset were Sturminster Newton and Buckland Newton. Each 

 of these manors was the head of a hundred, and the two hundreds themselves were later 

 amalgamated to form Buckland Newton hundred. Sturminster Newton had been 

 bequeathed by Alfred to his younger son Aethelweard,'^ and according to a charter 

 preserved in the Glastonbury cartulary it was given to the abbey by Edgar in 968. '^ 

 Among the other religious houses with land in Dorset were the New Minster at 

 Winchester (Hyde Abbey), with Piddletrenthide (no. 69) which had belonged to Roger 

 Arundel ; Athelney Abbey, which held Purse Caundle by an exchange with the Count of 

 Mortain, who received Bishopston (Montacute) in return ; Tavistock Abbey, with two 

 small manors totalling 5 hides; and Wilton Abbey with Didlington and Philipston 

 {Winburne). 



The land of the king's almsmen follows the account of the bishops' and abbeys' land. 

 Bristuard the priest held the churches of Dorchester and Bere Regis (nos. 144 and xiii) 

 with their tithes and i hide, 20 acres, of land. BoUo the priest held the churches of 

 Winfrith Newburgh, with a virgate of land, and the churches of Puddletown, Chaldon, 

 and Fleet, with i\ hide of land (nos. 145a and xvi, 145b and xix). He held land as a king's 

 thegn as well, and was a tenant of Abbotsbury Abbey at Atrim. Walter the deacon 

 (diacomis) held Cernel (no. 147), and Bernard held of him. But the most important of 

 the king's almsmen was Rainbald (Regenbald) the priest, who held the manor of 

 Pulham (no. 146). He is undoubtedly to be identified as Rainbald of Cirencester,'^ who 

 held the post, if not the name, of chancellor under Edward the Confessor. He is called 

 Rainbald canceler in the Herefordshire survey.^" He had held Pulham T.R.E., assessed 

 at 10 hides. William I confirmed his lands to him,^' and in 1086 he held 67 hides in 

 5 counties, besides 8 carucates in Somerset. Some of this land had belonged to him 

 T.R.E. and he had obtained some of it after the Conquest. ^- 



III 



In 1086 the greatest lay landowner in Dorset after the king was Robert, Count of 

 Mortain, the king's half-brother, with 190 hides. His Dorset lands were a mere 

 appendage of his vast estates in Cornwall, where he held virtually the whole county. 

 He was probably the richest man in England apart from the king, with lands scattered 

 in many areas, particularly the south-west, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, and Sussex. 



■5 There is a tradition that the abbeys of Tewkesbury Glastonbury, vol. Hi (Som. Rec. Soc. Ixiv), 592. 



and Cranborne were founded by Aelfweard, said to be the " He is called Rainbald of Cirencester in the account of 



grandfather of Beorhtric : Dugdale, Man. iv. 465; V.C.H. Berks.: Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, f. 63. In 11 30 Alvred of 



Dors. ii. 70. Lincoln paid 60 silver marks to have the manor of Pulham 



■* Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i. 44; D. Knowles and R. N. de honore Cirecestr' : Pipe R. 11 30 (Rec. Com.), i6. 



Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, 63. ^^ Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, f. i8ob. 



" Select Eng. Hist. Doc. ed. F. E. Harmer, 17. For the ^' Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum, i, no. 19. 



identification, see A. Fagersten, P/ace-Afames 0/ Dorset, 47. ^' For a full account of Rainbald, see Round, Feudal 



'* Cart. Sax. no. 1214; The Great Chartulary of Eng. 421-30. 



45 



