THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



that ' it belonged to the church of Pershore in the time of king Edward, 

 and yet the abbot of Evesham was holding it on the day of king 

 Edward's death, but they knew not how.' Comparing the case of Acton 

 on the opposite page of Domesday, we shall hardly err in concluding 

 that, as alleged by the monks of Evesham, Bransford was among the 

 manors acquired by abbot iEthelwig,* and obtained, on the Abbot's death, 

 by bishop Odo. The Bishop must then have given it to Urse. The 

 Pershore lands he held in 1086 amounted only, in all, to g^ hides ; 

 in I 166 his heir, William de Beauchamp, is returned as holding one 

 of the two knights' fees created on the abbey's lands. 



The list of the great Worcestershire houses is closed by Evesham 

 Abbey, which was charged with the service of five knights ^ in respect 

 of a fief comprising, we must remember, not only the 65 hides assigned 

 to it by Domesday in Worcestershire, but lands in three other counties. 

 Although as many as six ' Frenchmen ' [francigence) are found as tenants 

 on its Worcestershire estate, there is a singular absence of those cases in 

 which Normans had obtained possession, by subinfeudation, of church 

 lands. Indeed, except for the solitary hide held at Bengeworth by 

 Urse,^ the only case is at (Abbot's) Morton, of which the 5 hides were 

 held by ' Rannulf,' who was clearly the brother of abbot Walter men- 

 tioned in Heming's Cartulary as present at the great plea with Wor- 

 cester.* This Ranulf also held of the abbey 3 hides at Kinwarton, 

 Warwickshire, and is claimed, apparently with good reason, as the 

 founder of the house of Wrottesley. 



The other church lands entered in the Worcestershire Domesday 

 are, comparatively speaking, insignificant. The bishop of Hereford, at 

 Inkberrow, in addition to the 5 hides which he held there of the bishop 

 of Worcester (fo. 173), had 15I hides belonging to his see, which ' Earl 

 Harold wrongfully held, but King William restored' (fo. 174). The 

 hide that St. Mary of Coventry held at Salwarpe had been virtually 

 absorbed by the sheriff in his park ; St. Peter of Gloucester had rights 

 in Droitwich ; St. Guthlac of Hereford one hide there ; and the priests 

 of the collegiate church of Wolverhampton retained their small estate at 

 Lutley. Of foreign religious houses the great abbey of St. Denis prob- 

 ably owed its rights at Droitwich to its possession of a large estate in 

 Gloucestershire appendant to its priory at Deerhurst, which would make 

 these rights useful to its monks. Of the abbey of Cormeilles I have 

 spoken above, so that there remains only the gift by Ralf ' de Todeni ' 

 of 4 hides at Astley to the abbey of St. Taurin at Evreux, the monks of 

 which founded there a cell that became an alien priory.'' 



In Worcestershire we learn practically nothing of the parish churches 

 and their endowments from Domesday. Of priests, indeed, there is 



* See p. 254 above. * Feudal England, pp. 303-4. 

 ^ See p. 254 above. 



* See p. 255 above, and Feudal England, p. 302. 



* His gift of Alton in Rock to the abbey of St. Evroul (see my Calendar of Documents 

 preserved in France, p. 219. and Heming's Cartulary, p. 255) is not mentioned in Domesday. 



261 



