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PRINCIPAL LANDOWNERS IN CORNWALL, A.D. 1165. 



By WILLIAM SIXCOCK. 



Introduction. 



'•'At the time of the Domesday Survey, the landed property 

 of Cornwall was chiefly divided between the King : Robert, Earl 

 of Mortain, in Xormandy. and of Cornwall, and those who held 

 under him ; the Bishop of Exeter, and some monasteries and 

 colleges." 



Being desirous of ascertaining the origin of the families who 

 held land, about a century after the conquest, in the county of 

 Cornwall. I began with the owners when the Exeter Survey was 

 taken, i.e., before 1083. and found that it was only in a few 

 instances that descent could be traced or inferred. The Earl 

 himself ; Rainaldus de Valletort ; Ricardus Dapifer ; HameHn. 

 supposed to have been the ancestor of the Trelawny family ; 

 Aiured and Nigel, presumed ancestors of the Bosearrocks; Blohin, 

 of the family of Bloyou: and Erchenlald, progenitor of Flandrensis, 

 or Fleming ; were all that could be discovered. 



As these were only seven in number, I had recourse to 

 the next record obtainable, which contained, including Earl 

 Eeo-inald's, about 23 names in all. This record, the Black Book 

 of the Exchequer, was drawn up for the collection of an Aid on 

 the marriage of Matilda, the eldest daughter of King Henry the 

 2nd, to Henry the Lion, of Saxony, ancestor of the house of 

 Brunswick. A royal writ was. in 1165, addressed to all the 

 tenants-in-chief, requiring froin them an account of the knights' 

 fees which they held, and the services due upon them ; the 

 collection of the money, however, was not finished until the 

 summer of 1169, a year and a half after Matilda's marriage. 



The aid levied was a strictly feudal impost, assessed at one 

 mark, or thirteen shillings and four pence, on every knight's fee. 

 The total number of knights' fees returned by the Earl, as of 



