DOMESDAY SURVEY 



Devonshire was never other than an agriculturally poor county. Before the 

 disafForestation it must have been poorer still ; for a large share of what 

 grew must have been devoured by the extensive herds of wild deer which 

 once flourished there. 



Next to the ancient demesnes comes a second set of royal estates to 

 which the Exeter Book prefixes the heading : ' The King's demesne {domini- 

 catus) in Devonshire.' It consists partly of ancient centres of settlement, partly 

 of portions of such centres set apart for county purposes, the support of the 

 queen and royal family and the earl. Mr. Eyton has applied to these estates 

 the name of ' comital ' or county lands. Professor Maitland^ and Dr. Round ^ 

 have followed him. The Exeter Book treats them as one class, and describes 

 them in the order in which the hundred returns were dealt with, whereas 

 the Exchequer Book groups them according to their holders T.R.E., first 

 describing four held aforetime by Eadgyth or Eddida the Confessor's queen, 

 daughter of Earl Godwin and sister of Harold, next the eight held by 

 ' Githa the mother of Harold,' followed by the fourteen held by Earl 

 Harold himself and the five held by Earl Leofwine his brother, and last of 

 all Ordulf 's manor of Broad Clyst, making a total of thirty-two. With the ex- 

 ception of Witheridge and Broad Clyst, which are valued at ^6 and ^24 respec- 

 tively, the return specifies the amount they pay to the king, and even in these 

 two cases the amount valued must have been the amount paid (fol. 97*^). 

 Baldwin paid jC375 for the lands of the earls, i.e. for the lands of Countess 

 Githa and Earls Lewin and Harold, excepting it would seem King's Nympton 

 (fol. 98),' whilst Goscelin paid j^io8 for Queen Eddida's (fol. 97*^) four 

 estates, and Reginald de Valletorta ^%\ for Ordulf s land of Broad Clyst. 

 Among the ancient centres of settlement set apart for county purposes we 

 find Lifton, North Molton, Wonford, South Tawton, Hartland, Witheridge, 

 Chillington, Tiverton, Werrington, Black Torrington, Shebbear, MoUand, and 

 Moreton. Why ancient demesnes should have been assigned to this purpose 

 it is at present impossible to say, but it is worthy of remark that there are 

 thirteen of them, exactly one-third of the thirty-nine original hundred centres. 

 In addition to the two above-named classes of royal estates the king 

 also held estates which had come to him by forfeiture or escheat. In 

 Devonshire this class was confined to a group of sixteen, of which fifteen had 

 formerly belonged to Brictric son of -^Ifgar or Algar,* and on his forfeiture 

 had been bestowed on Queen Matilda. One, however, had previously 

 belonged to Boia, possibly the clerk of that name at Bodmin who held the 

 small estate of Pendavid in Gluston in Cornwall by favour of the count of 

 Mortain, as recorded in Domesday.' Queen Matilda died 2 November, 

 1083,^ when all her estates reverted to the king. With the exception of 

 Ashprington, which was given to Nonant, the whole of them were 

 farmed by Goscelin and Walter de Clavil,'' and were included in the dowry 



^ Domesday and Beyond, iG-j-^. ' 'Bomtsdny,' F. C. H. Somers. i. 



' The list given in Trans. Devon Assoc, xxix, 458, ». 10, is faulty because it includes the booklands of 

 subjects, Ash, Blackpool, and Nimet, and omits Hartland, Shebbear, and Kilmington. Mr. Whale's list in 

 Trans. Devon Assoc, xxxii, 529, is also at fault because it includes the abbot of Battle's ' Sirefort,' names a wrong 

 payment from Woodbury, and entirely omits Werrington. Yet Werrington, Hartland, and Woodbury are the 

 only three whose value is stated * before Baldwin ' had them. 



* Freeman, 'Norman Conquest, Iv, 165, 763 ; Round, Feudal Engl. 424. 



' Exeter Book, fol. 507. ° Trans. Devon Assoc, xxxiv, 721. 



' Exeter Book, fols. 82, 84, 88, 92. 



389 



