A HISTORY OF DORSET 



In all, he held over 790 manors in 20 counties. One of his Dorset manors, Piddlehinton, 

 had apparently belonged to his wife, Maud.-' He derived his lands from a number of 

 small thegns, but Edmar, who held his more important manors in Dorset, seems to 

 have been a man of considerable wealth. He is probably identical with the Edmer who 

 held land in Somerset and Devon which later passed to the count, and possibly identical 

 with Edmer attile or atule who held land in Hertfordshire, Micidlesex, and Berkshire 

 which belonged to the Count of Alortain in 1086.--* Count Alan, lord of Richmond in 

 Yorkshire, held the 15-hide manor of Dewlish in Dorset. He held no other land in the 

 area, and his possession of this solitary' manor is rendered more inexplicable by the 

 fact that it had formerlv belonged to Beorhtric son of Aelfgar, whose lands generally 

 passed to Queen jMaud. Hugh, Earl of Chester, held 35 hides in Dorset in consequence 

 of his acquisition of the lands of Eadnoth the staller, who had held all but two of the 

 Dorset manors held by Earl Hugh in 1086. Aubrey de Couci, sometime Earl of 

 Northumbria, had held Gussage St. Michael in Dorset which in io85 was in the king's 

 hand.--'' He had held several manors in Wiltshire and Gussage appears in the Wiltshire 

 survey with the rest of his land. The Countess of Boulogne held 3 manors in Dorset, 

 Winterborne Monkton, Bockhampton, and Swanage, all of which had been held by 

 Wulfgifu T.R.E. The Geld Roll for Ailezes-zfode hundred refers to the tenure by Count 

 Eustace (of Boulogne) of a manor which can only be Swanage.-^ 



The wife of Hugh fitz Grip held 116 hides in Dorset and 3 hides at Damerham 

 (Hants), the latter as tenant of Glastonbur}^ Abbey. Her name is not recorded in 

 Domesday, but in an inspeximns of Philip IV, dated 1305, concerning the land of the 

 abbey of IMontevilliers, there is a charter by \\-hich Iladuidis, filia Xicolai de Baschel- 

 rilla, uxor Hugoiiis de \ arhaii (Wareham) filii Griponis, ga\e the manor of Waddon to 

 the abbey. Friar Waddon (no. 143) belonged to this abbey in 1086 by the gift of Hugh 

 fitz Grip. It seems likely that the charter is genuine, and that Hugh's wife was Hadwidis 

 or Hawise de Baschelville.-" Hugh fitz Grip, late Sheriff of Dorset, had held 18A hides 

 of the queen, which had reverted to the king. The Domesdav survev itself supplies 

 most of what is known about him, but two writs, both concerning the land of Abbots- 

 bury Abbey, are addressed to him as sheriff.-^ Three Dorset abbeys, Shaftesbur}% 

 Abbotsbury, and Cerne, had suffered losses at his hands, and he seems to have been 

 responsible for the devastation of the Dorset boroughs. He also appropriated a virgate 

 of \\'illiam of INIoyon's manor of Winterborne Houghton (nos. 275 and Ixxxv) and gave 

 to Brictuin the manor of Little Waddon (no. 460) in exchange for a manor worth twice 

 as much. He was dead by 1084, since Aiulf the chamberlain appears as sheriff both in 

 the Geld Rolls and in Domesday. The wife of Hugh held 28 hides as a mesne tenant, 

 6 hides of the Bishop of Salisbury, 15 hides of Glastonbury Abbey (excluding Damer- 

 ham), a piece of land in Purbeck of William of Briouze, and Ailwood (no. 482) of 

 Swain. 



Aiulf the chamberlain held just over 55 hides in Dorset, 6 in Wiltshire, and 10 in 

 Berkshire. Chine (no. 351) belonged to him as long as he was sheriff {qitaiudiii erit 

 zicecomes) and Lulworth (no. 350) had belonged to Alfred, the Saxon sheriff. Aiulf's 

 largest manor, Wootton Fitzpaine (no. 347), was held T.R.E. by Beorhtsige, a thegn of 

 King Edward {miles regis Edzvardi).-^ None of his other Saxon predecessors was a man 

 of any importance. By 1091 Aiulf was Sheriff of Somerset, and held both offices in the 



" See p. 130. =■• See pp. 31-32. Dorset Xat. Hist, and Antic/. Field Club, xiv. 1 15-16. 



^* See p. 129. For .Aubrey de Couci, see Stenton, ^^ Regesta Regiim Anglo-Normannorum, i, nos. 109, 



Anglo-Saxon Eng. 606. 203. 



^' See pp. 136, 137. ^^ Eyton (Key to Domesday: Dorset, 141-2) identified 



-' GnWm C/iriin'ana (1874), xi, App. col. 329E; T. Bond, this manor as Marshwood, Fagersten (Place-Names of 



'On the Barony of the Wife of Hugh fitz Grip', Proc. Dorset, 298) as Wootton Fitzpaine. 



46 



