A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



the river called Ribble (Ripa).'* Blackburn hundred was probably resigned 

 by Albert Grelley and Roger de Busli soon after the accession of William 

 Rufus, Grelley receiving Manchester and an extensive addition thereto, 

 whilst Robert de Lacy received Blackburnshire, and Roger de Busli possibly 

 some of Roger of Poitou's Craven manors. When Roger in 1094 gave to the 

 abbey of St. Martin of Sees tithes of practically the whole of his demesne 

 lands in Lancashire, he only gave in the hundred of Salford tithes of his 

 demesne in Salford,* so that apparently he did not then hold a very large 

 demesne in that hundred. 



There is some probability that the lordship of Rochdale, which Gamel, 

 the thegn, held before the conquest, as he also did a portion of it in 1086, 

 descended during the twelfth century, as a single estate in the heirs of Gamel, 

 one moiety remaining in the family of EUand, the supposed descendants of 

 Gamel, until circa 1350, the other passing to the Hipperholme family by 

 marriage shortly before the end of the twelfth century.* 



The hundred of Blackburn passed in its entirety, as already stated, to 

 Robert de Lacy, lord of Pontefract. In or before 1102 he obtained a grant 

 from Henry I. of the vills of Chipping, Aighton, and Dutton, which had 

 been surveyed in Domesday under Amounderness, and before the date of this 

 grant had formed part of the fief of Warin Bussel of Preston.* The king also 

 confirmed to Robert his possession of Bowland, a wide territory lying between 

 Craven on the east, and Lonsdale, Amounderness, and Chipping on the west 

 and south, which he had held of Roger, count of Poitou, to hold it thence- 

 forth of the king.' The same year Robert made a considerable feoffment of 

 lands parcel of his hundred of Blackburn, to one of his knights, to hold for 

 half the fee of one knight. 



Roger of Poitou held no demesne in Leyland hundred in 1086, but in 

 1094 it would appear from his grants to the abbey of Sees that he held 

 Croston and one moiety of Eccleston.* A moiety of Eccleston (i carucate) 

 was held in the thirteenth century by the family of Walton, lords of Ulnes- 

 walton, of Roger Gernet, the master forester, by the yearly service of 41., the 

 other moiety being in demesne,^ so that it would appear that in the year 1094 

 the Gernets had not yet been enfeoffed of the forest fee of which Eccleston 

 was afterwards a member. Between 1088 and 1102 Count Roger gave the 

 vill of Howick to Evesham abbey.^ ' Girardus ' held a fee of a hide and a 

 half, which must have included the greater part of the pre-conquest demesne 

 of the hundred, probably including Penwortham castle and town. ' Girardus 

 homo Rogerii ' held a small estate in Legbourne, co. Lincoln, under Roger, 

 in Domesday, which was afterwards held by the priory of Marsey,® but 

 although the founder of Marsey Priory possessed a considerable estate in this 

 hundred, we have failed to find any connexion between the de Marsey family 

 and the ' Girardus ' of Domesday. 



1 Round, Cal. ofDocu. Trance, 236. 3 Reg. of the Abbey of Sees, fol. 109. 



3 ' Gamel ' was the pre-conquest tenant of Elland and South Owram in the adjoining wapentake of 

 Morley, co. York {Dom. Bk. i. 318a, col. 2), his successor under Henry de Lacy in the time of Stephen and 

 Henry II. being Hugh de Elland, grandfither of Hugh, who with his kinsmen held the greater part of the 

 lordship of Rochdale under Roger de Lacy, constable of Chester, in the time of King John -.—Kirkstall Coucher 

 (Thoresby See), 193-202 ; Testa de Nevitl, 403^. 



* Duchy of Lane. Misc. Portf i. no. 36. 5 Farrer, Lanes. Pipe Rolls, 1.9,2. 



* Reg. of Lam. Priory (Chatham Soc. N. S. vol. 26), p. 9. 



7 Lotus. Inquests (Record Soc. Lanes, and Ches.), vol. 48, p. 188. 



6 Chartul. of Evesham (Chetham Soc. O.S. vol. xxx.), i. » Testa de Nevill (Record Com.), 331 



282 



