THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
LXXX.—CENTRAL ENGLAND: RUTLAND, LEICESTERSHIRE, AND NOITINGHAMSHIRE.—THE SAXON PERIOD AND THE NORMAN CONQUEST. RUTLAND-or, as it was called, Rote-land—was not in Saxon times a separate county, but the districts included within its present boundaries were divided between the counties of North- ampton and Nottingham,—the southern part of the present county appearing in Domesday as part of Northamptonshire, under the Hundred of Wicelsea, or Wichelsai, now Witchley,— while the rest of the present Rutland, comprising the two wapea- takes of Alstoe (then Alfnodeston) and Martinsley is attached, though under the separate title of Roteland, to Nottingbatushire, the Sheriff of which county, by statute of 31 Henry III., was appointed Escheator for life of this latter district. A separate jurisdiction, however, for this limited Roteland is first found in the tenth year of Henry IL, when the King granted to Richard de Humet, Constable of Normandy, the custody of Roteland. From this time we have a list of Custodes ; but the term county is first found applied to these districts in the fifth year of King John, when it is assigned as such to the Queen as part of her dower. Alfnodeston, or Alstoe Wapentake, at the time of Domesday Survey, included two hundreds, and it was half in the wapentake of Thurgarton, in Nottinghamshire, and half in that of Broxton, in the same county.
Rutland formed part of the principality, or rather principalities, of the Mercians. Of the original settlers Mr. Kemble believes that the Mark of the Empingas may be deduced from the present. Empingham ; that of the Ridlingas, from Ridlington (which name also occurs in Norfolk) ; that of the Upingas, from Upping- ham (there is an Uppington in Shropshire) ; and that of the Lidiagas, from Liddington (also the name of a place in Wiltshire). After the union of the principalities under the crown of Wessex, the county, or rather that part attached to Nottinghamshire, seems- to have been the property of the Crown, for Edward the Confes- sor bequeathed it to his Queen, Edith, and after her death to- Westminster Abbey ; and he seems to have confirmed this dona- tion to the monastery by a sort of anterior deed, viz., a charter- bearing date in the twenty-fifth year of his reign, 1064.
Leicestershire also formed part of the principalities of the Mercians. or Middle Angles. Mr. Kemble finds the traces of nineteen marks or original settlements of these Teutonic invaders within its limits : —the Brentingas at Brentingley (found also in Yorkshire) ; the Bringas at Bringhurst (also in Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire); the Cnossingas at Kuossingtou (peculiar to this
county) ; the Cosingas at Cossington (also in Somerset) ; the Daed- lingas at Dadlington (peculiar) ; the Doningas at Donington and, Donnington ; the gfingas at Evington ; the Goddingas at Goddingstoke ; the llorningas at Horninghold ; the Lodingas at Loddington (also in Northamptonshire and Kent) ; the Paeccingas. at Packington (also in the counties of Derby, Leicester, Stafford, Warwick, and Sussex) ; the Saedingas at Saddington (peculiar) ; the Sceafingas at Skeffington ; the Swaningas at Swannington (also in Norfolk) ; the Theodingas at Thedingworth ; the Thryscingas at Thrussington (peculiar), &c.
In the year 680 or, according to others, in 737, Leicester was made the seat of a bishopric transferred thither from Sidnaceast,er; the diocese was afterwards united to the previously existing see-of Dorchester (in Oxfordshire). Leicestershire was overwhelmed by the Northman invasion, and to a considerable extent repeopled by Danes. By the treaty between Alfred and Guthrum it was included in the Danelagh or Danish territory, and Leicester became one of the great Danish burghs, and so remained until recovered by the Lady Ethelfreda, sister of Edward the Elder, and Governor of Mercia during his reign. The etymology of the villages still points to the Danish occupation and settlement, the termination by (corresponding to the Saxon ton) being so common as to be almost the rule. In the division of England into great earldoms during the reign of Edward the Confessor, it formed part of the earldom of Beorn, having probably before that belonged to Thored. Afterwards it passed into the family of Leofric, and at the time of the Conquest probably fell within the earldom of Edwin, one of the two heads of that house.
Nottinghamshire, or, as it was once called, Snottinghamshire, from its caves in the sandstone, was perhaps originally part of the kingdom of the Northumbrian Angles ; but as early, at any rate, as 626 it seems to have been divided between the Northern and Southern Mercians on the several sides of the river Trent. Twenty-two marks, or original settlements, are deduced by Mr. Kemnble within the limits of this county. When the North- men, under the sons of Rognar Lodbrog, invaded England, they passed the winter (867-868) at Nottingham, which they had taken, and which became one of the five or seven Danish burghs connected together in some sort of confederacy or alliance. By the treaty with Alfred of Wessex the Danes retained possession of Nottinghamshire. Perhaps the absence of Saxon antiquities in this county and that of Leicester may be attributed in some de- gree to the Northman ravages and occupation. We have almost a solitary exception in the burying-place at Cotgreave, to the south of Bingham. In the distribution of the great earldoms under Edward the Confessor, Nottinghamshire fell to the share of Beorn, and afterwards passed to the house of Leofric, being held at the Con- quest by Earl Edwin. It would seem also that Tostig had certain rights in the town of Nottingham, and the connection between this shire and the Northumbrian Principality makes it far from unlikely, in Mr. Freeman's opinion, that Tostig was at one time Earl of this district.
In Domesday Survey, in Rutland are enumerated 7 tenants-in- chief, 4 under-tenants, 109 bordarii, 7 priests, 5 sochemanni, and 730 villani. Sir Henry Ellis in his Summary mentions no slaves. Under Leicestershire we find 53 tenants-in-chief, and 196 under- tenants, 1,345 bordarii, 400 slaves, 1,914 sochemanni, and 2,665 Otani, a distribution of classes which gives the idea of a consider- able amount of freedom in this part of the country. In Notting- hamshire we find 50 tenants-in-chief, 138 under-tenants, 1,101 bordarii, 26 slaves, 1,516 sochemanni, and 2,603 villani—a very remarkable picture as respects the slaves.
We find among other names in Domesday Book of persons hold- ing lands in Rutland the following leading proprietors :—Robert Malet, the son of the William Malet to whom the Conqueror, after the battle of Hastings, committed the body of Harold to see it buried, and himself time founder of the monastery of Eye,—his father's death is twice alluded to in Domesday Book, and " the mother of R. Malet" is also mentioned in the same document ; Gilbert de Gant, or Gand, nephew by marriage of King William, being the sou Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, whose sister the Con- queror had married,—the founder of Bardney Abbey, in Lincoln- shire, who is believed to have died about the year 1094; Hugh d'Avranches, Earl of Chester ; and Albert, "the Clerk." Several manors also in this county whose exact situation is doubtful were given by the Conqueror to his niece, Judith, the wife of Earl 1Val- theof, and to his half-sister, Adeliza, wife of Odo, Earl of Champagne and Albemarle, and whole sister of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and of the Earl of Moretaine. "It is evident, however, that considerable royalties were reserved in these grants ; for, as we have already mentioned, the county of Rutland and the town of Rockingham, in Northamptonshire, were assigned, with the common consent and unanimous agreement of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, and clergy, with the whole commons of the realm, to Queen Isabel at her coronation in the reign of John."
In the distribution of the lands in Leicestershire (Ledecestre- wire), King William gave to Rebert, Earl of Mellent, eldest son of Roger de Bellomont, the whole or the greater part of sixteen lordships which had formerly belongel to Saxi. This Robert was one of the richest and most powerful of the Anglo-Norman barons, and died in 1118, when his great possessions went to his brother, Henry de Neubergh, first Earl of Warwick. Earl Hugh d'Avranches had twenty-two lordships. William Peverell had six lordships. This William—a natural son of the Conqueror by the
daughter of Ingelric (founder of the collegiate church of St. Martin's-le-Grand in London), and wife of I: tnulph Peverell- was in great trust with his father, had the castle of Nottingham, and appears to have lived at least to the szventh of Stephen. Ile founded the priories of St. James no tr Northampton and Lenten.
The Countess Judith had 38 lordships, Earl Alberic or Aubrey (concerning whom nothing is known) had 14 lordships, which, with the rest of his estates in Wiltshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, and Yorkshire, were "in the hands of the King" at the time of the Survey. As we have already said, he is not to be confused with Aubrey de Vere, the founder of the family who were afterwards Earls of Oxford. Henry de Ferrariis, or De Ferrers, had 35 lordships. lie was one of the Conqueror's Commissioners for the formation of the Survey, and
ancestor of the family of Ferrers, Earls of Oxford, and he founded the priory of Tatbary, at which place he had a castle, Robert Dispensator, the Dispenser, had 17 lordships. He was, as his name implies, Steward to the Conqueror, and was the ancestor of the Despensers, Earls of Gloucester. Ile was brother to the Earl of Montgomery, and to Urso d'Abetot, Sheriff of the county of Worcester. Geoffrey de Wirce, or Lawirce, had 27 lordships. He is said to have come from Little Brittany, and to have co-operated in the conquest of England. Two houses in Leicester appertained to his manors of Dalbi and Pichewelle. Hugh de Grentemaisnil had no less than 67 lordships. He is said to have derived his name from his scat in Normandy, built by Grento. King William made him Sheriff of Leicestershire and High Steward of England, and he must be regarded as the principal landowner and most powerful baron in this county. Towards the close of his life he embraced the monastic habit, and retired to Normandy, where he died in 1094, at St. Evroul, which he had restored and endowed with ample possessions. Besides the above-mentioned landowners and their sub-tenants, the Archbishop of York, and the Bishops of Lincoln and Constance possessed landed property in this county, and sonic was annexed to the abbeys of Peterborough, Coventry, and Croyland. Castles to secure the baronial possessions soon sprang up at Leicester, at Groby and Hinckley, at Douington, at Melton, at Ravenston, at Sauvey, and at Thorpe.
In Nottingkamskere the great landowner at the time of Domesday Survey was William Peverell, who had no less than 103 lordships. Roger de Bush had 86. His principal residence was at Ticklmill Castle, in Yorkshire, in which county and in Nottinghamshire he had his largest possessions. Ile founded the priory of Blythe, in Nottinghatnshire, in 1088. The barony terminated in John, his grandson, who left one daughter. Ralph Fitz-Hubert had 10 lord- ships. According to the 11Iessrs. Lysons, he was the ancestors of the Frechvilles, a Derbyshire family, which became extinct in the reign of Charles 11. Earl Hugh d'Avrancht% had 4 lordships. Alan, Earl of Brittany and Richmond, had 7. Robert, Earl of More- table, had 6. William Malet had 2. Henry de Ferrets; had 3. Ralph de Limesi had 8. Hugh de Grentemaisnil had 1. Ralph do Burun had 8 lordships. The Countess Godeva or Godiva is also mentioned in four places in connection with this county, but pro- bably she herself was dead at the time of the Conquest, and her lands held in farm of the King. The Saxon Algar also held 1 lordship. Other lands were held by the Archbishop of York ; the Bishops of Lincoln and Bayeux; the Abbot of Burgh ; Roger Pictavensis ; Gilbert de Gaud ; Gilbert de Tison ; Ilbert de Laci ; Berenger tIe Todeni ; Hugh, son of Baldric; Osbern, son of Richard ; and 1Villiatit Hostiarius, or the Usher.
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