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JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
Plymouth Sutton ; for it is expressly stated to have been appendant, 
with Macretone (Maker) and Tanbretone (Kings Tamerton), to the 
manor of Wachetone, or Walkhampton. Was the other Sutton 
here also ? At first sight this would seem probable ; for in after 
years we read of the manors of Sutton Prior, and of Sutton Vawter, 
or Valletort, as well as of the tything of Sutton Raf, which, with 
part of the tything of Compton, were constituted in 1439-40 the 
incorporated borough of Plymouth. Enquiry at once throws doubt 
on the hypothesis. It is true that Leland, speaking of the Priory 
of Plympton, states that "the chirch, and much of the ground 
whereon Sutton, now caulled Plymmouth, was builded, was longing 
to one of the Prebendes titulo S. Petri and Pauli of Plympton, a 
collegiate chirch . . . before the Conquest;" whence the natural 
inference would be, that here was the origin of Sutton Prior. 1 
Domesday, however, is utterly silent about any such holding of the 
Saxon college in Sutton. We do not know Leland's authority ; but 
monkish legends are rot always to be trusted, and monkish for- 
geries of title-deeds are not unknown. The division of the original 
Sutton into Sutton Prior and Sutton Vawter is to be explained 
much more easily. Henry I. gave the manor of Sutton, with those 
of Maker and Kings Tamerton, to Reginald of Valletort, and the 
Valletorts were very liberal benefactors to the Priory. Copies of 
some of their grants are preserved — of the island of St. Nicholas, 
of a site to erect a milldam and mills at Millbay, of rights of fishery. 
It is not until long after the Valletorts held Sutton that we hear 
anything of Sutton Prior, and then it appears rather as a town and 
burgh than a manor, though the Prior certainly exercised manorial 
rights. In the Nomina Villarum (7th Edward II., 1314), for ex- 
ample, "John de Dalecurta" (Valletort) is said to own "Sutton 
RaufT" and the Prior of Plympton "Burgus de Sutton," and in an 
enquiry made by the Sheriff of Devon, four years later (1318), there 
is record of the existence of a fishing village and a place for the 
sale of fish, before the foundation of the ville of Sutton, ere the 
manor passed out of the king's hands; while "John de Vautort 
of Modeton" (Moditonham), and "John de Vautort of Clyst," 
with the Prior of Plympton, declare that the Prior is lord of two 
parts of the town, and they of the other third. The history and 
causes of the division of the manor seem therefore clear. But if 
1 This was the view I formerly inclined to accept, though doubtfully. (Vide 
Hist. Plym. pp. 16, 18. 
