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Etchilhampton, as well as All Cannings and Allington, was originally in the Hundred of STODFALD. It is now merged, with the others, in the Hundred of SWANBOROUGH.

In Domesday Book there are no less than three entries, all of which refer to different portions of Etchilhampton. We will, first of all, give the entries, and then, as far as possible, trace their descent through successive owners.

The first entry is as follows:Idem EDWARDUS [de SARISBERIE] tenet ECESATINGETONE. Tempore Regis Edwardi geldabat pro 7 hidis. Terra est 4 carucatæ. De hac terra sunt in dominio 4 hidæ, et ibi 3 carucatæ. Ibi 12 bordarii, et 6 cotarii, et 2 francigenæ tenentes 2 hidas et unam virgatam terræ, et habent 2 carucatas. Ibi 6 acræ prati, et 50 acre pasturæ. Valuit 6 libras ; modo dominium Edwardi 6 libras et dimidium; francigenarum 40 solidos.

2

The second entry occurs under In ECESATINGETONE sunt 2 hida. Terra 1 carucata. Edricus tenuit tempore Regis Edwardi, et uxor ejus tenet modo de Ernulfo

The same EDWARD [of SALISBURY] holds ECESATINGETONE. In the time of King Edward it paid geld for 7 hides. The land is 4 carucates. Of this land, 4 hides are in demesne, and there are 3 carucates. There are 12 bordars, and 6 cottars, and 2 foreigners holding 2 hides and 1 virgate of land, and they have 2 carucates. There are 6 acres of meadow, and 50 acres of pasture. worth £6; the demesne of Edward is now worth £6 10s.; that of the foreigners is worth 40 shillings. the lands of Ernulf de Hesding.3

It was

In ECESATINGETONE are 2 hides. The land is 1 carucate. Edric held it in the time of King Edward, and his wife now holds

1 Domesday for Wiltshire, p. 65.

2 By the term "FRANCIGENA" is denoted a Frenchman born; a foreigner, an alien, in contradistinction to an Englishman. It seems to have been a general name for all who could not prove themselves to be English. Among the laws of William the Conqueror is one, "De jure Normannorum qui ante adventum Gulielmi cives fuerunt Anglicani," in which such persons are expressly termed "Francigena." Thorpe's Ancient Laws, i., 491.

3

Domesday for Wiltshire, p. 75.

[De Hesding] et ibi habet 1 it of Ernulf [de Hesding] and he has there 1 carucate; and there are 7 bordars, with 1 cottar. There are 12 acres of meadow, and 12 acres of pasture. It was and is worth 40 shillings.

carucatam; et 7 bordarii, cum 1 cotario. Ibi 12 acræ prati, et 12 acræ pasturæ. Valuit, et valet, 40 solidos.

The third entry is found under ERLECHING tenet unam virgatam terræ et dimidium in ECEBATINGETONE. Terra est 2 bovatæ. Valet 7 solidos et 6 denarios.

estates held as Thane-land.1

ERLECHING holds one virgate and a half of land in ECESATINGETONE. The land is 2 bovates. It is worth 7 shillings and 6 pence.

It will thus appear, that, at the time of Domesday, what is now included in Etchilhampton comprised three distinct estates, under different owners and occupiers. The first, or principal Manor, which was assessed at seven hides,-or, as it was afterwards reckoned, at 13 Knight's fee,-formed at least three fourths of the parish, and belonged to Edward of Salisbury. The second holding, assessed at two hides, or half a Knight's fee, belonged to Ernulf de Hesding, and was held under him as chief Lord by the wife of Edric, who had been the tenant in the days of the Confessor, and whose name, according to the Exon Domesday, was Estrit. The third was a very small estate, held by a tenure which possibly lasted only for the life-time of the Domesday owner, and afterwards lapsed to the Crown, or was merged into the larger Manor. It may perhaps be what is now called Fullaway.

The history of the two former estates, which, it is not unlikely, corresponded in the main with the two farms in the parish, one being of large and the other of smaller extent, can be traced without much difficulty for some centuries after the Conquest. We are warranted in this conjecture, of the probable identity of these estates with the existing farms, from a knowledge of the tenacity with which our countrymen have always clung to old territorial divisions, and the jealousy with which they have ever guarded

1 Domesday for Wiltshire, p. 137.

ancient boundaries. Nothing was more uncommon in olden times than the dismemberment of an estate. As it was originally granted, so it descended century after century, and one of the most interesting facts known to topographical students is this,—that you may still with the aid of an Anglo Saxon charter, granted originally nine hundred years ago, trace out with tolerable accuracy the border line of many of the Wiltshire parishes.

For many centuries after the Conquest, the chief fee of the larger of these two Manors of which we are now treating was vested in the descendants of EDWARD of SALISBURY, its Domesday owner. Not a few literary contests have been waged as to his parentage. Those who feel at all inclined to follow out a long and not over interesting discussion, will find, in the references in the foot-note below, enough to tax their patience. The tradition of the "Book of Lacock" tells us that he was the son of a valiant Norman soldier, Walter de Ewrus, Count of Rosmar, to whom, in consideration of his services, William the Conqueror gave the whole of Salisbury and Ambresbury. He held the high office of Sheriff of Wilts at the time of the Domesday Survey, and no less than forty estates, large and small, in various parts of the County fell to his share. He appears to have lived to a good old age, for he was standard bearer to Henry I. at the famous battle of Brenville by which an end was put to the rebellion in Normandy. His large estates were divided between his son Walter of Salisbury and his daughter Matilda, who was married to Humphrey de Bohun, the ancestor of the Earls of Hereford.

The Lordship of this Manor in Etchilhampton fell to Walter of Salisbury. He founded at Bradenstoke, one of the largest of the estates which he inherited, a Priory, and endowed it, amongst other possessions, with "one hide at Etchilhampton." There are 1 Bowles History of Lacock, p. 39. Arch. Inst. Journal (1849), p. 213. British Arch, Assoc. Journal (1859), p. 38.

2 In the T. de Nev. (153 b), we have this entry: :- ."" The Prior of Bradenstoke holds one hide of land in Etchilhampton in pure alms of the Earl of Sarum, and he of the King by ancient feoffment." See also, Placita de quo W. Edw. I., (p. 798) and Hundred Rolls 3 Edw. I. (ii., 273). Amongst Ministers' accounts (temp. Henry VIII.), relating to the temporalities of Bradenstoke, is the following:-"Echelhampton ;-Redd' Assis.' xxxixs. ivd." New Mon. vi., 340.

copies of charters still preserved, in which Patrick and William successive Earls of Salisbury confirm this gift, and one in which Henry III. sanctions it, and it is repeatedly alluded to in public records. Walter of Salisbury however, in alienating this portion of his estate, reserved to himself the rights and privileges belonging to the chief Lord of the fee, and these, as the following extracts will shew, descended to his successors for some centuries.

Thus in Testa de Nevill (fol. 135) under the date of c. 1260 (towards the close of the reign of Henry III.,) we have the following entry "William de Malewain holds 1 Knight's fee in ECHILHAMPTON, with one hide of land which he holds in the vill of MERTON of the EARL OF SALISBURY, and he of the King in chief, of his Barony of Cettre (Chittern) by ancient feoffment." A few years later in the Hundred Rolls,3 3 Edward I., (1275), we have the Jurors reporting that "the EARL OF LINCOLN in right of his wife holds 1 Knight's fee in HECHILHAMPTON of the King in chief and William Malewyn holds the said fee of the Earl." In the Inquisitiones post mortem for 20 Rich. II., (1397), we have "William de Montacute, Earl of Sarum" registered as having died siezed of "13 Knight's fee in Hechilhampton"; and in the same records for 2 Henry V. (1414) "Eileva, wife of William de Montacute, Earl of Sarum" is recorded as having, at her decease, been possessed of the same Manor.

2

It must be borne in mind that we have been speaking hitherto

1 New Mon. vi., 338.

This place is what is now commonly called MARTIN, in the parish of Great Bedwin. It is repeatedly alluded to in the Records. See Test. de Nev. 139, 144; also Hundred Rolls, ii. 270. The foundations of an old chapel were discovered there a few years ago, and, on some fragments of glass, were the arms of Malwyn, viz., "Per pale sable and argent a cross moline counterchanged," from which it may fairly be inferred that some member of the Malwyn family was, if not the founder of the chapel, at least a benefactor of it. There does not appear any ground for the conjecture in the Wilts Mag. vi., 274 (where a full account of the remains of this chapel is given), that it was dedicated to St. Martin. The name of the hamlet in old documents spelt MERTON, MERTONE, or MERTUNE, and once MARTHORN. See above, p. 9 note. It may be mentioned in passing, that "John Malwayn" held lands at West Grafton, immediately adjoining Martin, 44 Edw. III, See Gent. Mag. (new series) iii., 591.

4

3 Hundred Rolls, ii., 273.

Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, married Margaret Longespèe, eventually

of the Lordship of the Manor. It by no means necessarily followed that land originally belonging to the chief Lord should not be alienated from the Manor, and become the property of others, whilst the rights appertaining to the Lordship of the same were retained by the original owner or his descendants. The tenant by degrees came to exercise all the rights of the chief Lord, compensating the latter by some annual payments. This seems to sole heiress of Ela, Countess of Salisbury. The following extracts from the pedigree of Edward of Salisbury, will shew this clearly.

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1 We have a similar instance of the Lordship of the Manor being retained in the family of Edward of Salisbury, though much of the property originally appertaining to it was alienated, in the case of "Bishopstrow." The Church at Bishopstrow and a hide of land in that village, together with other property, is particularly specified among the gifts of Matilda de Bohun, daughter of Edward of Salisbury, to the Priory of Monkton Farleigh. The Manor of Bishopstrow, which was one of those belonging to Edward of Salisbury at the Domesday Survey, descended in the male line to the Countess Ela, and was employed by her in the foundation of the nunnery of Lacock.

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