THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



portance in the early history of Worcestershire, it is impossible to pass 

 it by without some discussion. Professor Maitland bases his conclusion 

 on the fact that ' In 1086 the church of Worcester had to all appearance 

 just those rights which th.& A Ititonatitis^ professed to grant to her; already 

 they were associated with the name of Oswald ; already they were re- 

 garded as ancient privileges.' Urging with much force that ' kings and 

 sheriffs did not permit themselves to be cheated wholesale out of valuable 

 rights,' he accepts the witness of Domesday to the antiquity of the 

 church's rights and connects it with the story that they had been 

 granted to St. Oswald, when bishop, by Edgar.^ 



That the charter in its present form cannot possibly be genuine is, 

 one must repeat, admitted. But does it, as in some similar instances, 

 ' tell a story that in the main is true ' ? On the whole, there does not 

 seem to be sufficient cause for rejecting this conclusion. The stress laid 

 by the alleged charter on the monks' exclusive rights over one of the 

 three hundreds of which Oswaldslow was composed is, no doubt, some- 

 what suspicious in the light of the Domesday entry ; and if the document 

 were strictly interpreted, its wording would certainly exempt from 

 Danegeld the whole 300 hides, although we do not find them so exempt 

 in Domesday. But there might well be alterations. It is, however, a 

 singular fact, revealed on close scrutiny, that the lands which Edgar is 

 represented as adding to the 50 hides at Cropthorne in order to make 

 ' a perfect hundred ' out of the monks' estates, do not, as Professor 

 Maitland imagined, amount to just 50 hides,^ but comprise 20 hides 

 more, as we learn from other sources.* But, although the calculation 

 works out wrong in detail, the broad fact remains that the triple Hun- 

 dred of Oswaldslow did contain exactly 300 hides ; and, remembering 

 that the monastery had other manors up and down the county, I 

 consider the existence of such a ' Hundred ' proof that some king did 

 erect a triple Hundred out of its Worcestershire manors by taking for 

 the purpose as many as amounted, in assessed totals, to 300 hides, and 

 leaving the rest outside it. I cannot quite agree with Mr. Maitland 

 that ' this triple Hundred of Oswaldslow was made up,' according to the 

 charter, ' of three old Hundreds, called Cuthbertslaw, Wulfhereslaw, 

 and Wimborntree ' ; ^ for, as I read it, what was done was rather to 

 rearrange the Hundreds — just as Domesday shows us the Hundred of 

 Fishborough * rearranged — so as to assign to the monastery the above 



* The opening word of Edgar's charter is here used as its title. 



* Domesday Book and Beyond^ p. 269. 

 ^ I hid. p. 452. 



* At Teddington 3, Mitton i, Blackwell 2, Icomb i, these 7 hides being theirs 

 still in lo86 ; at Daylesford 3, and Evenlode 5, these 8 hides being entered as formerly 

 theirs in Domesday ; and at Dome in Blockley (as we gather from Heming's Cartulary, 

 p. 304) 5. The total, therefore, with these 20 hides added, would be, not 50, but 70 

 hides. 



* Domesday Book and Beyond, pp. 268, 452. 



* 'In Fissesberge Hundret habet aecclesia de Evesham Ixv hidas. ... In illo 

 Hundret jacent xx hidae de Dodentreu, et xv hidae de Wirecestre perficiunt hundret.' The 



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