DOMESDAY SURVEY 



were enfeoffed of 9 J carucates of land in Lowton and Golborne with their 

 members before the death of Henry I., to hold by the service of one 

 knight's fee, and they or their successors afterwards took their names from 

 these two vills.^ 



Passing to Salford hundred, ' Nigel's ' fee of three hides and half a 

 carucate first claims attention. There is some reason for believing that this 

 fee comprised Manchester and its members within that parish, the half 

 carucate apparently being the glebe of the church of St. Mary in Manchester. 

 The details are : Manchester, 2 car. ; Ancoats, 3 bov. ; Moston, 3 bov. ; 

 Ardwick, 2 car. ; Gorton, 3 car. ; Openshaw, 6 bov. ; Newton, 6 bov. ; 

 Clayton, i car. 4 bov. ; Crumpsall, 2 car. ; Withington with its members, 

 including Denton and Haughton, 5 car. 2 bov., making in all 3 hides. The 

 question of Nigel's identity has not been satisfactorily solved, but it is 

 not altogether improbable that he was Nigel de Stajffbrd * whose 

 descendants, the Gresleys, subsequently held Drakelowe of the honour of 

 Lancaster as a serjeanty. The only manor which Nigel de Stafford held in 

 chief in Staffordshire, viz., Thorpe Constantine, was also incorporated in the 

 honour of Lancaster by Henry L as an escheat. There is no record of the 

 date when Nigel lost his fee in Salford hundred, but there appears to be some 

 reason for believing that it was at, or immediately after, the date of Domesday. 

 His successor was Albert Grelley, who held large estates under Roger of Poitou 

 in the counties of Lincoln,* Norfolk,* and Suffolk,^ and in this county in the 

 hundred of Blackburn, which he held jointly with Roger de Busli. We read 

 in one of Roger of Poitou's charters to St. Martin of Sees, dated in 1094, that he 

 gave ' tithes of the whole land of Albert Greslet (Grelley), and tithe of Warin 

 Boissel of Brostone (/.«•., Preston in Amounderness), and tithes of the land of 

 Roger de Montbegon, of Calisei (South Kelsey) and Tablesbei (Tealby), and 

 of Tit (Tydd Gout), and of his whole demesne between Ribble and Mersey." 

 In several charters of this period Albert Grelley, Roger de Montbegon, 

 Ralph Gernet, Geoffrey Bussel and Albert, his brother, appear as witnesses 

 to Roger of Poitou's grants to St. Martin of Sees,'^ so that we seem to be 

 justified in looking upon these persons as representing his greatest feudatories. 



Indications that new military fees had been created since 1086 are not 

 wanting. We have seen that Roger de Montbegon occurs in the survey as 

 holding several manors of Roger of Poitou in Lincolnshire, and we have sug- 

 gested that he might be identified as the ' Roger ' who held i ^ hide in West 

 Derby hundred and 2 car. in Leyland hundred. In these 1 1 carucates we have 

 the exact extent of the fee of Sefton which Roger of Poitou gave in these 

 hundreds to the ancestor of Molyneux, of Sefton.* In place of these lands, 

 and perhaps of one car. in Warrington hundred, and in augmentation of his 

 fee, Roger de Montbegon received the fee of Tottington, in Salford hundred, 

 and Hornby with its members in Lonsdale, of which we find evidence of his 

 tenure in a charter wherein he and Sezilia his wife gave to St. Martin of Sees 

 the tithe of their demesne between Ribble and Mersey, ' and even beyond 



1 festa de Nevill (Record Com.), 4051^, 406. 



5 It is proper to state that such authorities as Professor Tait, Mr. Round, and General Wrottesley do not 



concur in this suggested identity. — ^W. F. * Dom. Bk. i. fol. 352, s.t. Haintone. 



* Dom. Bk. ii. fols. 243^. 244. ^ Ibid. fol. 351^. 



* Reg. of the Abbey of Sees, fol. 104 ; Round, Cal. of Docts. France, 237. 

 '' Reg. of the Abbey of Sees, fol. 103^, 109^. 



* Testa de Nevill (Record Com.), 402 ; Record Soc. Lane, and Ches. vol. 48, p. 12. 



I 281 36 



