THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
193 
The statement of Eisdon, that in the life of St. Indractus, 
Plymouth is named Tamarworth, rests, so far as I know, upon this 
sole authority. Whether it be so or not, the assertion has little 
significance. Tamarworth may fairly be interpreted to mean "the 
island of the Tamar " — island being one of the usual renderings of 
many-meaninged " worth and in such a case would by no means 
imply the existence of a town of that name. Moreover, had there 
been such a settlement, how are we to account for its total dis- 
appearance at the Norman Conquest. 
We pass then from the Chronicles to the second source of in- 
formation I have mentioned — the Charters, and here we do get a 
gleam or two of light. My friend Mr. Davidson, whose know- 
ledge of Saxon Devon is so extensive, has kindly placed his 
investigations at my disposal, and it is to him that I am indebted 
for the few but important facts I have next to lay before you. 
Two Saxon documents refer to this district ; one relating to the 
Monastery of Plympton, and the other to an estate in Meavy. 
About the year 904 Eadward of Wessex (Eadward the Elder, son 
of iElfred the Great) granted to Asser, Bishop of Sherborne, and 
the community (convent) at that place, three properties; namely, 
Wellington (Somerset), consisting of six manors, Buckland (West), 
and Lidiard (Bishop's, though not so called from the Bishop of 
Sherborne, but from the Bishop of Wells, to whom it afterwards 
belonged), consisting together of twelve manors, by way of ex- 
change for "the monastery, which in the Saxon tongue is called 
Plymentun " (Plympton), to be held on either side by the 
grantee and his successors in perpetuity. Mr. Davidson remarks, 
" The original of this deed is a paper writing in the British 
Museum (MS. Cott. Vit. E. v. fo. 124, b.), being a copy made in 
1592, by one Francis Thynne, at the house of William Lambard, 
Esq., the Kentish antiquary. Of the original nothing seems to 
be now known. Kemble (K.C.D. v. 156) marks the deed (No. 1083) 
as being of doubtful authenticity. Collinson (ii.) accepts the state- 
ment as to the grant of the three estates to Sherborne, as an his- 
torical fact, but says nothing about Plympton or the exchange. 
The editors of the Mon. Hist. Britannica, in their preface (p. 78), 
speak of the grant 1 in exchange for Plympton ' as an undoubted 
fact. The existence of a Saxon monastery at Plympton in 904 is 
neither impossible nor improbable. All that can be said is that 
