103 
hunted, will adventure into the Sea and take salt soils, 
whereby they stand long and make brave sport, of which 
(having a fit opportunity, and a little time to cast away) I had 
some part much to my content.' 5 
Swanage is only once mentioned in the Saxon Chronicle, in 
connection with the disaster which overtook the Danish Fleet. 
According to one account, the Danish vessels were wrecked off 
Peveril Point while on their way from Wareham to Exeter, while 
another account says that the wreck took place after a sea fight 
with King Alfred’s fleet. 
Godlingston was not mentioned by name in Domesday Book. 
What at first led me to think so was this. Certain lands called 
Moulham, were granted by William the Conqueror to a certain 
Durand, on condition that he and his heirs should find a carpenter 
to keep the gutters and timbers in the King’s Great Tower of 
Corfe in repair when required to do so. In the fifteenth century 
the heiress of the family of Durand married Robert Rempston, the 
Lord of Godlingston Manor, and the lands held under this pecu¬ 
liar tenure became parcel of the manor of Godlingston. 
In the reign of Edward the Confessor, certain land, probably 
including Godlingston, was held by three thegns, but after the 
Norman Conquest, it passed into other hands, probably by con¬ 
fiscation. Godlingston, as I said just now, was not mentioned by 
name in Domesday Book, but as it was held in after ages of the 
Manor of Duntish in the Parish of Buckland Newton, it may 
possibly have been included in the Swanwic, which is described in 
Domesday as being held by the wife of Hugh Fitz-Grip. On the 
other hand, as Duntish is not specifically named in Domesday, it 
may have been included (and with it the land here at Godlingston) 
in the general survey of the extensive Manor of Buckland 
Newton, of which the Abbots of Glastonbury were the Chief Lords. 
The family of Talbot was resident at Godlingston at a very 
early period, for we find that one Aluard Talbot held one Knight’s 
fee here in the year 1166. The place remained in the hands of 
this family till the latter part of the reign of Edward III. when 
it passed to the Rempstons who became their heirs. 
Now we come to the most interesting chapter in 
the history of the place. - A certain Stephen "Mathew 
claimed part of the property comprised in the Manor 
of Godlinston from Robert Rempston (the same Robert 
Rempston who married the heiress of the Durands) on 
the ground that he (Stephen Mathew) was the heir of Remp¬ 
ston’ s predecessors in title, the Talbots. A very detailed record 
was preserved of 'the claims of both parties by John Estoke, step¬ 
father of Stephen Mathew. The document is referred to in the 
pages of Hutchins’ “ History of Dorset ” as “ The Godlingston 
Roll.” It is in Latin, written on parchment and said to be in 
a fair state of preservation and its date is certainly not later than 
1427, as Estoke appears to have died in that year. Hutchins 
