[1647] K. 342 (ii. 153).
[1648] K. 1108 (v. 211).
[1649] K. 421 (ii. 287).
[1650] K. 599 (iii. 139).
[1651] K. 698 (iii. 299).
[1652] As to the limits of Downton, see W. H. Jones, Domesday for Wiltshire, 213.
[1653] D. B. i. 31; K. 1058 (v. 114); 1093 (v. 176); 605 (iii. 149).
[1654] D. B. i. 40. Forty hides said to have been given by Cenwealla. K. 997 (v. 39); 1039 (v. 85); 1086 (v. 162); 1090 (v. 162); 601 (iii. 144).
[1655] D. B. i. 42 b. This belongs to the New Minster. In K. 336 (ii. 144) Edward the Elder is made to give ‘quendam fundum quem indigenae Myceldefer appellant cum suo hundredo et appendicibus, habens centum cassatos et aecclesiam.’ The territory has 100 hides and is a ‘hundred.’
[1656] D. B. i. 87 b. K. 1002 (v. 44); 1051–2 (v. 99, 101); 1084 (v. 157); 374 (ii. 209); 598 (iii. 136).
[1657] They are hardly the worse witnesses about this matter for having been much ‘improved.’ They do not look like late forgeries. Those which bear the earliest dates seem to be treated as genuine in charters of the tenth century which are not (if anything that comes from Winchester is not) suspected.
[1658] Kemble, Saxons, i. 487; D. B. i. 87 b.
[1659] Eyton, Somerset, ii. 34.
[1660] See above, p. 499, note 1656.
[1661] Compare, for instance, the account of the estates of the Bishop of Wells, D. B. i. 89, with the charter ascribed to the Confessor, K. 816 (iv. 163). In the former we read of 50 hides at Wells; in the latter we see that these hides cover 24 villages or hamlets, each of which has its name. According to Eyton (Somerset, 24) this estate extends over nearly 22,000 acres. The Malmesbury charter, K. 817 (iv. 165) is another good illustration. Kemble’s identifications were hasty and have fared ill at the hands of those who have made local researches. A few examples follow:—Keynsham, 50 H. = 3330 A. (Kemble), 11,138 A. and more (Eyton). Dowlish, 9 H. = 680 A. (Kemble), 1282 (Eyton). Road, 9 H. = 1010 A. (Kemble), 1664 (Eyton). Portishead, 11 H. = 1610 (Kemble), 2093 (Eyton). The instances that Kemble gives (vol. i. p. 106) from the A.-S. land-books are equally unfortunate. Thus he reads of 50 H. at Brokenborough, Wilts, and seeks for them all in a modern parish which has 2950 A.; but the Domesday manor of this name covered ‘at least 6000 or perhaps 7000 acres’ (W. H. Jones, Domesday for Wilts, p. xxvii.). In several instances Kemble tries to force into a single parish all the hides of a hundred which takes its name from that parish.
[1662] Hanssen, Abhandlungen, i. 499.
[1663] See above, p. 229, and Mr Taylor’s paper there mentioned.
[1664] Napier and Stevenson, Crawford Charters, 43. Compare D. B. i. 101 b. In the Confessor’s time ‘Crediton’ gelded for 15 hides. There was land for 185 teams, and teams to that number existed. There were 264 villeins, 73 bordiers and 40 serfs. Æthelheard’s charter suggests either that in his day this part of Devon was very sparsely peopled, or that already, under a system of partitionary taxation, a small number of fiscal units had been cast upon a poor district. When at a later time Eadnoth bishop of Crediton mortgages a yardland for 30 mancuses of gold (Ibid. p. 5), this yardland will be a fiscal virgate of wide extent. See above, p. 467, note 1531.
[1669] Birch, Cart. Sax. iii. 671; Munimenta Gildhallae, ii. 627; Gale, Scriptores xv., i. 748; Liebermann, Leges Anglorum, 9. 10.
[1670] This we can not find. If Kent were included in the scheme, we should read of Canterbury, Rochester etc. Therefore we probably start in Sussex, but at some point east of Hastings. In any case, unless a name has dropped out, we can not make the five Sussex burgs correspond to the six rapes of a later day, which, going from east to west, are Hastings, Pevensey, Lewes, Bramber, Arundel, Chichester.
[1671] See the Læwe, Læwes of K. 499, 1237.
[1672] A confusion of P and W is common.
[1673] Tisbury lies between Wilton and Shaftesbury. See K. 104, 641. Mr Stevenson suggests that the word may be Cysanbyrig, thereby being meant Chiselbury Camp. This also lies in the right quarter.
[1674] Tweoxneam, A.-S. Chron. ann. 901.
[1675] See Bridian in K. 656. Bredy lies about eight miles west of Dorchester. It seems to contain a ‘Kingston.’
[1676] There is a Halwell a little to the south of Totness. Already in 1018 (Crawford Charters, pp. 9, 79) the Devonshire burgs are Exeter, Lidford, Totness and Barnstaple.
[1677] Pilton lies close to Barnstaple.
[1678] A.-S. Chron. ann. 915: ‘be eastan Weced.’
[1679] A little to the west of Langport; close to Athelney. A.-S. Chron. ann. 878: ‘And þæs on Eastron worhte Ælfred cyning lytle werede geweorc æt Æþelinga eigge.’ Green, Conquest of England, 110. Observe that a very small district is assigned to Lyng.
[1680] After seeing Oxford and Wallingford together, we should naturally expect Bedford with Buckingham. See A.-S. Chron. ann. 918–9. Or we might look for Hertford. Ibid. ann. 913.
[1681] Eashing is a tithing in the parish of Godalming. See King Alfred’s will (K. 314): ‘æt Æscengum.’ Eashing may have been supplanted by Guildford.
[1682] Taking in the particulars the figures which seem the more probable, we make a larger total.
[1683] If Essex is meant this figure seems impossibly small. Gale gives ‘Ast Saxhum et Wygeaceastrum 1200 hidas.’ This may give Essex and Worcester 1200 hides apiece.
[1684] Mr Stevenson tells me that, though the document is very corrupt, some of the verbal forms seem to speak of this date.
[1685] Such a document is apt to be tampered with. Some bits of it may be older than other bits, but the reign of Edward the Elder seems the latest to which we could ascribe its core. If we compare it with the list of Domesday boroughs we shall be struck by the absence of Dorchester, Bridport, Ilchester, Totness, Hertford, Bedford and Guildford, as well as by the appearance of Burpham, Tisbury, Bredy, Halwell, Watchet, Lyng and Eashing.
[1686] See above, p. 189, note 747.
[1687] ‘Heorepeburan,’ Hastings, Lewes, Burpham, Chichester.
[1688] Eashing, Southwark.
[1689] Porchester, Southampton, Winchester, Twyneham.
[1690] Wallingford.
[1691] Wilton, Tisbury, Shaftesbury, Malmesbury, Cricklade.
[1692] Wareham, Bredy.
[1693] Watchet, Axbridge, Lyng, Langport, Bath.
[1694] Exeter, Halwell, Lidford, Barnstaple.
[1695] A good deal of doubt hangs over the entries touching Buckingham, Essex and Warwick.
[1696] Birch, Cartularium, i. 414; Birch, Journal Brit. Archæol. Assoc. xl. 29 (1884); Earle, Land Charters, 458; Liebermann, Leges Anglorum, 8; Stevenson, Engl. Hist. Rev., 1889, 354.
[1697] Unless the mention of Wessex is interpolated (and if it be interpolated then the grand total has been tampered with) it is difficult to suppose that ‘Wiht gara 600’ points to the Isle of Wight, ‘Gifla 300’ to the district round Ilchester, or the like. I owe this observation to Mr W. J. Corbett.
[1698] It is a little curious that if we multiply the 244,100 hides by 120 we obtain 29,292,000, a figure which is not very far off from the 32,543,890 which gives the total acreage (tidal water excepted) of modern England. However, it is in the highest degree improbable that the computer of hides was aiming at pure areal measurement. Nor could his credit be saved in that way, for the area of Kent is to that of Sussex as 975:932, not as 15:7. The total of ‘cultivated land’ in England is less than 25 million acres, that of arable is less than 12 million.
[1699] Bede, Hist. Eccl. ii. 9 (ed. Plummer, i. 97): ‘... Meuanias insulas ... quarum prior ... nongentarum lx. familiarum mensuram iuxta aestimationem Anglorum, secunda trecentarum et ultra spatium tenet.’ Ibid. iii. 24 (p. 180): ‘... regnum Australium Merciorum, qui sunt, ut dicunt, familiarum quinque millium ... Aquilonaribus Merciis quorum terra est familiarum vii. milium.’ Ibid. i. 25 (p. 45): ‘Est autem ad orientalem Cantiae plagam Tanatos insula non modica, id est, magnitudinis iuxta consuetudinem aestimationis Anglorum familiarum sexcentarum (þæt is syx hund hida micel æfter Angel cynnes æhta).’ Ibid. iv. 13 (p. 230): ‘ad provinciam Australium Saxonum, quae post Cantuarios ad austrum et ad occidentem usque ad Occidentales Saxones pertingit, habens terram familiarum septem millium (is þæs landes seofen þusendo [hida]).’ Ibid. iv. 14 (p. 237): ‘Est autem mensura eiusdem insulae [Vectae] iuxta aestimationem Anglorum mille ducentarum familiarum: unde data est episcopo possessio terrae trecentarum familiarum (æfter Angel cynnes æhta twelf hund hida, and he þa þam biscop gesealde on æht þreo hund hida).’ Ibid. iv. 17 (p. 246): ‘Est autem Elge in provincia Orientalium Anglorum regio familiarum circiter sexcentarum (six hund hida) in similitudinem insulae.’ Ibid. iii. 25 (pp. 182–3): ‘donaverat monasterium quadraginta familiarum in loco qui dicitur Inrhypum.’ Ibid. v. 19: ‘mox donavit terram decem familiarum in loco qui dicitur Stanford, et non multo post monasterium triginta familiarum in loco qui vocatur Inrhypum (tyn hiwisca landes on þære stowe þe is cweðon Stanford ... minster xxx. hiwisca.)’ Ibid. iv. 13 (p. 232): ‘donavit ... Uilfrido terram lxxxvii. familiarum (seofan and hund eahtig hida landes) ... vocabulo Selæseu.’ Historia Abbatum (p. 380): ‘terram octo familiarum iuxta fluvium Fresca ab Aldfrido rege ... comparavit ... terram xx. familiarum in loco qui incolarum lingua Ad villam Sambuce vocatur ... accepit ... Terram decem familiarum quam ab Aldfrido rege in possessionem aceeperat in loco villae quae Daltun nuncupatur ...’ Hist. Eccl. iv. 21 (p. 253): ‘accepit locum unius familiae ad septentrionalem plagam Uiuri fluminis (onfeng heo anes hiwscipes stowe to norð dæle Wire ðære ea).’ Ibid. iii. 4 (p. 133): ‘Neque enim magna est [Iona] sed quasi familiarum quinque, iuxta aestimationem Anglorum.’ Ibid. iii. 24 (p. 178): ‘Singulae vero possessiones x. erant familiarum, id est simul omnes cxx.’
[1700] If the ‘Wiht gara 600’ of The Tribal Hidage refers to Wight, we have here a discord, for Bede gives the Island 1200. The North and South Mercians have together but 1200 according to Bede; the Mercians have 30,000 according to The Tribal Hidage: but the territory of ‘the Mercians’ is a variable.
[1701] B. i. 4 b, 12; Elton, Tenures of Kent, 135.
[1703] Round, Feudal England, 289.
[1704] Stubbs, Const. Hist. ii. 422—3; Rot. Parl. ii. 302.
[1705] Bright, Hist. Engl. ii. 386; Hall’s Chronicle, ed. 1809, p. 656.
[1706] Some of them seem to start from The Tribal Hidage and take the number of hides to be 303,201 (Liebermann, Leges Anglorum, 10). Divide this by 5 to find the knight’s fees. You have 60,640. In MS. Camb. Univ. Ii. vi. 25, f. 108 we find 60,215 knight’s fees, 45,011 parish churches, 52,080 vills. Another note, printed by Hearne, Rob. of Avesbury, 264, gives 53,215 knight’s fees, 46,822 parish churches, 52,285 vills.
[1707] Bede, Hist. Eccl. iii. 24 (p. 178): ‘donatis insuper xii. possessiunculis terrarum, in quibus ablato studio militiae terrestris, ad exercendam militiam caelestem, supplicandumque pro pace gentis eius aeterna, devotioni sedulae monachorum locus facultasque suppeteret ... Singulae vero possessiones x. erant familiarum, id est simul omnes cxx.’ In these villages there have been men who owed military service; they are not being ousted from their homes; they are being turned over as tenants to the church; henceforth they will no longer be bound to fight, and in consideration of this precious immunity, they will have to supply the monks with provender. That is how I read this passage. Others can and will read it to mean something very different. But if Bede were speaking of decuriae of slaves, how could there be talk of military service? The slaves would not fight, and if the slaves belonged to eorls who fought, then how comes it that Oswy can expropriate his nobles?
[1708] Hist. Eccl. iii. 4 (p. 133).
[1709] Keith Johnston, Gazetteer.
[1710] I do not suggest, nor does Bede suggest, that Hii was laid out in hides. He is speaking only of size.
[1711] Bede gives to Anglesey the size of 960 families, to Man that of 300 ‘or more.’ Anglesey has 175,836 acres; Man 145,011. Anglesey in 1895 had ‘under all kinds of crops, bare fallow and grass (mountain and heath land excluded)’ 152,004 acres. Man 96,098. Anglesey had 24,798 acres growing corn crops and 9,305 growing green crops, while the corresponding figures for Man were 22,666 and 11,580. Rationalistic explanation of Bede’s statements would be useless. He is reporting vague guesses.
[1712] Hist. Eccl. iv. 13 (p. 232): ‘Quo tempore Rex Ædilualch donavit reverentissimo antistiti Vilfrido terram lxxxvii familiarum, ubi suos homines, qui exules vagabantur, recipere posset, vocabulo Selæsu, quod dicitur Latine Insula Vituli Marini.’ Bede goes on to describe the Selsey peninsula and Wilfrid’s foundation of a monastery. Wilfrid proceeded to convert the men who were given him. They included two hundred and fifty male and female slaves whom he set at liberty.
[1713] K. 992 (v. 32); B. i. 98.
[1714] K. 464 (ii. 341). The 55 hides are reduced to 42, no mention is made of Medemenige, Egesauude or Bessanheie, and the 32 hides are somewhat differently distributed.
[1715] D. B. i. 17. The Bp of Chichester has 24 hides at Amberley.
[1716] I infer this from the thorough discrepancy that there is between these charters and D. B. A forger at work after or soon before the Conquest would have arranged the church’s estates in a manner similar to that which we see in King William’s record.
[1717] As a matter of fact, however, it is not very easy to reconcile the earlier charter with Bede’s story. The charter makes the land proceed from the West-Saxon Ceadwealla and says nothing of Æthelwealh, who, according to Bede, was the donor. Mr Plummer, Bedae Opera, ii. 226, says that the forger betrays his hand by calling Wilfrid archbishop. Really he seems to cut Wilfrid into two, making of him (1) an archbishop, and (2) a bishop of the South Saxons. See the attestations.
[1718] In D. B. i. 17 the bishop’s manor at Selsey has but 10 hides and but 7 teamlands.
[1720] Meitzen, op. cit. ii. 563.
[1721] Meitzen, op. cit., ii. 553–69; iii. 557–61; Lamprecht, Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben, i. 348.
[1722] Meitzen, op. cit. ii. 566. The Kalenberger Hufe was a measure prevalent in the district of Braunschweig-Lüneberg. It contained 180 Morgen or 47.147 hectares. A hide made of 120 statute acres would contain about 48.56 hectares. Apparently Dr Meitzen (ii. 113) has found no difficulty in accepting a hide of 120 acres as the normal share of the English settler. See also Lamprecht, Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben, i. 348.
[1723] Polyptyque de l’abbaye de S. Germain des Prés, ed. Longnon, i. 102.
[1724] Pertz, Leges, i. 536; Ann. Bertin. (ed. Waitz) 81, 135; Richter, Annalen, ii. 400, 443; Dümmler, Gesch. d. Ostfränk. Reichs, i. 585.
[1725] Meitzen, op. cit. ii. 592–3.
[1727] Tacitus, Germania, c. 15, 23. The very lenient treatment by Abp Theodore of the monk who gets drunk upon a festival tells a curious tale: Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 177; Robertson, Hist. Essays, 68.
[1728] Thus, e.g., D. B. i. 127, Fuleham: ‘ibi 5 villani, quisque 1 hidam.’