258 parish of otteeham. 



The Fee. 



It appears that at the time of the Great Domesday Inquest, 

 the Manor of Otterham was one of the numerous (288) Manors in 

 Cornwall which William the Conqueror bestowed upon his half 

 brother Eobert, whom he created Earl of Cornwall. It is 

 recorded "The Earl has one mansion (manor) which is called 

 Otterham, which was held by Edwi on the day on which King 

 Edward was alive and dead. In the same is one hide of land 

 and it paid gild for half a hide. There are six ploughs. This 

 is held by Richard of the Earl. There Eichard has in demesne 

 one virgate and one plough, and the villans have the rest of the 

 land and three ploughs. There are six villans and four bordars, 

 and six bondmen and five animals and forty sheep. There is 

 pasture a league long and league broad, and the value per 

 annum is 20 shillings, and when the Earl received it it was thirty 

 shillings."* 



Lysonsf states that the manor appears to have belonged in 

 the reign of Edward III to the Champernouns, and in this he 

 has been followed, without investigation, by all subsequent 

 writers on the county. The statement can only be received as 

 partially accurate for it must be limited to the Fee in chief. The 

 manor itself, with the advowson of the church annexed thereto, 

 was held by others in sub-infeudation, as we shall presently see. 

 Moreover, the record upon which Lysons' statement is based 

 carried the possession of the fee up some 60 years higher. 



In the 18th year of King Edward I (1289), when an Aid 

 was levied for the marriage of the King's eldest daughter, 

 William de Campo Arnulphi (Champernon) was returned as 

 holding, inter alia, one knight's fee in Oterham, and in 20th 

 Edward III (1346), William de Campo Arnulphi paid the aid on 

 the same fee which his grandfather William formerly held on 

 the King's eldest son (the famous Black Prince) being made a 

 knight.J We do not know precisely the date of the death of 

 William Champernon the younger, but many circumstances 

 lead to the conclusion that he was already dead in 1346, and had 



*Domesday Survey, Exeter. 



fMagna Britannia, Vol. Til, p. 251. 



I Book of Aids. Excheq., Queen's Remembrancer's Office, Vol. III. 



