POLITICAL HISTORY 



under it, at Shauk and at Wafyr and at Pollwathoen * and at bek Troyte 2 and the 

 wood at Caldebek 3 ; and I desire that the men abiding with Thorfynn at Cartheuand 

 Combetheyfoch 4 be as free with him as Melmor 6 and Thore 6 and Sygulf were in 

 Eadread's days, and that (there) be no man so bold that he with what I have given 

 to him cause to break the peace such as Earl Syward and I have granted to them for 

 ever as any man living under the sky ; and whosoever is there abiding, let him be geld 

 free as I am and in like manner as Walltheof and Wygande 7 and Wyberth 8 and 

 Gamell 9 and Kunyth 10 and all my kindred and dependants ; and I will that Thor- 

 fynn have soc and sac, toll and theam over all the lands of Cartheu and Combethey- 

 foch that were given to Thore in Moryn's 11 days free, with bode and witnessman l2 

 in the same place. 



It may be inferred from the general tenor of the document that Gos- 

 patric held a high position in the district, for it is most improbable that 

 he should have used such a style of address to the men of Cumbria 

 had he been only the lord of Allerdale. Subsequent events, such as the 

 position of his son Dolfin at Carlisle in 1092 and the succession of Wal- 

 deve to the paternal estates in Allerdale, appear to warrant the belief that 

 Gospatric ruled the district south of the Solway. As no allusion is made 

 to Scottish sovereignty, and as Gospatric appeals to the laws which Earl 

 Siward and he had established in Cumberland, there can be little doubt 

 of the political subjection of the district to Northumberland at the 

 period to which the grant refers. 



It is interesting to inquire how northern events during Siward's tenure 

 of the earldom (1041 55) u will suit this Northumbrian overlordship. It 



I Shauk, Waver and Wampool, three streams well known as boundaries of Allerdale on the north 

 and north-east. The Wampool is usually found in early evidences as Wathunpol, which is much the same 

 form as that in this charter. 



Troutbeck is the common name for a small stream in northern England. 



Caldbeck, a parish forming the eastern limit of Allerdale. 



Cardew and Cumdivock, two vills in the parish of Dalston, separated from Allerdale by the water 

 of Shauk and lying over against Thursby. 



* Probably the owner from whom the parish of Melmerby in the east of Cumberland took its name. 



Apparently the same person as the father of Thorfynn above mentioned, who gave his name to 

 Thursby or Thoresby, as the parish was called in the twelfth century. 



' Probably the owner of Wiggonby, a vill to the north-west of Thursby in the parish of Aikton 

 near the Wampool. 



s Not identified unless he was the owner of Waberthwaite, formerly Wyberthwaite, a small parish 

 in the lordship of Millom, which was within the portion of ancient Cumbria surveyed under Yorkshire 

 in Domesday as part of the possessions of Earl Tostig. 



9 Perhaps the owner of Gamelsby, a vill on the Wampool in the parish of Aikton. It is almost 

 certain that another Gamel, the son of Bern, who lived somewhat later, bequeathed his name to Gamelsby 

 in Leath Ward. It is very striking that we should have the names of Thore, Wygande, and Gamell 

 embodied in a group of places close to the Wampool. 



10 The reading of the script here is somewhat doubtful owing to the condition of the ink. The 

 name may be intended for some form of the uncertain Celtic or Pictish name Kenneth, which appears in 

 Symeon of Durham under 774 as 'Cynoht.' 



II The owner of the district of Dalston, of which Cardew and Cumdivock are parcels. Dalston 

 was afterwards forfeited by Hervey son of Morin ; was an escheat in the hand of Henry II. ; and was 

 granted to the See of Carlisle by Henry III. 



1J The services of ' bode and wytnesmann ' were well known institutions in the early history ot 

 Cumberland. In 1292 John de Hodelston excused the monks of Furness of suit at his court of Millom, 

 of pannage and puture, and of ' bode and wyttenesman ' for ever, which services were formerly claimed 

 from them in respect of their land of Brotherulkill in Coupland (Duchy of Lancaster Charter, Box B, No. 

 I 55). Opinions differ on the exact nature of these institutions. 



13 Symeon (i. 91, ii. 198, ed. Arnold) says that Earl Eadulf was slain by Siward in 1041, and 

 Florence (Mem. Hist. Brit. p. 600) calls Siward earl of the Northumbrians in the same year. He was cer- 

 tainly in possession of the earldom in 1043 according to Symeon (ii. 163) and died at York in 1055 as 

 stated by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.. 



II 233 30 



