A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



name of ^Ethelwine ' after his monastic profession.' The Pershore 

 annals give his epitaph, which speaks of him as originally ' iEdwinus 

 vocatus in baptismo,' and he may have adopted the name Odo (which 

 was Anglicized as ' Odda ') when he joined the foreign party. The 

 English chronicle describes him at his death as ' a good man and pure, 

 and very noble ' ; and Worcestershire, where he rests, may claim this 

 lord of Longdon as one of the earliest names that adorns its roll of 

 worthies. 



It was probably the remoteness of its great estate in this part of 

 the world that led Westminster Abbey to enfeoff almost all its knights 

 there.^ For the obnoxious duty of providing knights was laid upon 

 it as on Worcester. It is a striking feature of the Domesday survey 

 of the abbey's lands in Worcestershire that the irrepressible sheriff 

 Urse is entered as its tenant in no fewer than fourteen places, holding 

 in all some 50 hides. This holding was represented, eighty years 

 later, by the seven knights' fees which his heir, William de Beau- 

 champ, then held of the abbey. ^ The largest of the abbey's manors 

 held, in Domesday, by Urse was that of 'Newentune' (10 hides), which 

 obtained from his heirs its name of Naunton Beauchamp. Next in 

 importance among the abbey's vassals in 11 66 was Hugh 'Puher,' who 

 held three knights' fees,^ representing some 20 hides which Walter 

 ' Ponther ' held of the abbey in 1086.* It is remarkable that, as we saw 

 was the case with the Worcester fief, the Westminster return of knights 

 (1166) commences with the statement that the King himself owes the 

 Abbot the service of one knight in respect of ' Stokes in Wirecestrescira,' 

 that is of Severnstoke, which was then in his hands.^ 



Pershore Abbey, in spite of its large holding in the county (100 

 hides), was only called on to supply two or three knights — the Abbot 

 said two, and he seems to have carried his point.* The entry of its 

 Domesday fief, though by no means long, is interesting and instructive. 

 In no fewer than seven cases had Urse, the insatiable sheriff, obtained 

 lands on the fief, while his brother Robert, in addition, had secured 

 3^ hides at Wadborough. It is clear, however, that the Domesday 

 Commissioners overhauled the claims even of the dreaded Urse. In 

 one case his predecessor, they record, had only a life interest in the 

 land ; in another he was ' the third heir ' under a lease for three lives, 

 so that the land, they record, should revert to the abbey at his death. 

 In two cases he pleaded that the land was given him by the King, and 

 in one of these he admitted that he was bound to render the abbey 

 ' service ' for it. Of his hide at Bransford, the county (court) asserted 



* See the return of its knights in 1166 {Red Book of the Exchequer, pp. 188-9). And 

 compare the 1212 return in Testa de Nevill (p. 43). 



2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 



* All in Worcestershire, save one hide in Gloucestershire (Domesday). 



^ Red Book of the Exchequer, pp. 59, 132, 188. (It is not identified by the editor.) See 

 also The Commune of London and other studies, p. 265. 



* The I2I2 survey states his lands to be free save Beoley and Caldecot, from which two 

 knights were due. 



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