The "Nomina Villarum" for Wilts has already appeared in print in the Parliamentary Writs, (Vol. ii., div. iii., p. 346) under the editorial care of Sir Francis Palgrave, but that work is inconveniently cumbrous in its bulk, and is certainly not generally accessible. The document was also printed in a volume issued by Sir R. C. Hoare, entitled "Repertorium Wiltunense." Only a limited number of copies were printed, and it is known but to few. There is no copy of the work in the British Museum. This is the first time therefore that the document will be made generally known. Every care has been taken to secure a correct text; and it is hoped that the illustrative notes, which are now added, may be of use to students of Wiltshire topography. The chief value of the Nomina Villarum consists in this, that we find in it direct evidence of the persons who held the smaller subdivisions of the great tenancies at a particular time. For the long period of a hundred years after the Conquest there is a blank in our national records. We have, after that time, the Inquisitiones post Mortem, but as in these documents the proper scope was the investigation of tenures in capite, the information they afford concerning persons holding by mesne tenure was not a necessary part of the enquiry made by the escheator, and consequently the Nomina Villarum disclose the names of many landholders of whom no other record remains. As Mr. Hunter well remarks, "When no evidence is to be gathered from the Testa de Nevil, or the Hundred Rolls, this information is not only difficult to be arrived at, but can only be attained at all in an indirect manner. One fixed period of this kind is of great importance, inasmuch as a single name is an indication of the line in which the lordship is passing, and may often be the means of guiding an enquirer to a series of lords both before and after the date of the record itself: and the determining in whom the possession lay, is one of the chief points in the history of the rural parishes of England." 1 Incidentally this document throws light both on the meaning of the names of many of the places in Wilts, and also, when comQuoted in Parliamentary Writs, Vol. ii., part 3, p. 4. 1 pared with the Exon Domesday, on the gradual changes introduced as regards the Hundreds, The notes appended to the record will explain the former: those who are curious in such matters, may, by comparing the list of Hundreds in Domesday, first of all with those given for the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. in the Hundred Rolls, and then with those furnished for the reign of Edward II. in the Nomina Villarum,-see the changes that had taken place. One point they will not fail to observe,-the way in which the Ecclesiastical Lords of manors had formed for themselves distinct Hundreds, at the court of which they required the tenants of their manors, scattered though they might be in various parts of the country, to do suit and service. The Bishop of Winchester, for instance, has a separate Hundred called that of Knowel Episcopi (§ 6); the Abbot of Glastonbury in like manner holds that of Damerham (§ 10),-and the Prior of St. Swithin that of Elstub (§ 11),-under each of which were included manors situated in various parts of the country. To make the document more generally useful to students of Wiltshire topography, there has been added an "Index Locorum, containing also the Domesday names, and the modern names of all the Wiltshire vills mentioned in the text. The Nomina Villarum contains a tolerably complete list of all such manors, a few omissions only, such as Whaddon, (near Melksham,) Norton, (near Malmesbury,) Langford Parva, Baverstock, Fisherton Anger, having been observed. It is a testimony, moreover, to the completeness of the Domesday for Wiltshire, to observe how we are able almost invariably to identify the names with entries in that Record; insomuch that when, as in a rare instance, we may be in a little doubt, we may fairly conclude that it arises, not necessarily from its being omitted, but from our not being able to recognise the precise form in which the entry we seek is made. Bradford on Avon, January, 1869. W. H. JONES. 6 The Nomina Villarum for Wiltshire. COMITAT: WILTES. CIVITAS, BURGI, et VILLE, eorumq: Domini. § 1. HUNDREDUM DE WONDERDYCHE....Episcopus Sarum. Civitas NOVE SARUM...... Episcopus Sarum. Burgus VETERIS SARUM... LAKE WODEFORD MAGNA............. WODEFORD PARVA................. MULEFORDE 2 STRATFORDE 3 A Dominus Rex. Theobaldus de Verdoun. Elias Cotel [de Cotell. B.] Episcopus. Decan. et Capit. ecclesiæ beatæ Mariæ [sc. Sarum]. Civitas Nova Sarum, et est Dominus ejusdem episcopus Sarum, et non est infra aliq. Hundred. B. § 2. HUNDREDUM DE AUMBRESBURY....Comes Lancastr'. AUMBRESBURY a BOLTFORD 4 DURYNTON b a Comes Lancastr'. et Priorissa de Aumbresbury. Priorissa de Aumbresbury Johan. de Neyville canonicus ecclesiæ Sarum, et est prebendarius. 49 Edw. III., Wills de Cantilupe ten. M. de Aumbresbury de Com. Sarum, per. servic. mil. b9 Edw. III., Gilbert. de Neville ten. M. de Durynton de Rege per servic. mil. 1 This name, now modernised into UNDER-DITCH, but usually spelt in old documents WONDRE-DIC, and, in the Exon Domesday, WINDRE-DIC, is derived from one of those ancient " dykes," of which there are several near the southern borders of the county. 2 MILLFORD, a district of some 1100 acres due east of the present city of Salisbury. 3 STRATFORD SUB CASTRO, situated by the site of Old Sarum. 3 6 Edw. III., Edwardus, Comes Arundel, ten. M. de Mersheton Meisy. 1 Edw. III., Henric. Husee ten. M. de Standen et medietatem M. de Tudeworth per servic. mil.-35 Edw. III., Ricard. de Husee ten. M. de Tude worth in capite. 1 Edw. III., Wills La Zouche de mortuo mari ten. M. de Neuton Mortimer per servic. mil. § 3. HUNDREDUM DE ALWARDEBURY....Comes Lancastr'. WYNTERBOURNE COMITIS.6 ....Comes Lancastr'. 1 ALTON, a portion of the present parish of FIGHELDEAN; in Domesday it is called ELTONE. In Domesday it is called BRISMAR-TONE, a name derived from BRISMAR, its owner in Anglo-Saxon times; in modern times it has been corrupted into BRIG-MILSTON. "NEWTON TONY, deriving its distinctive name from the family of Alice de TONY, Countess of Warwick, mentioned above. 'WELLOW WEST, by Bramshaw, an outlying part of the Hundred, not situated within its local limits. * SHEEP-RIDGE, and HINTON, are small portions of Wilts locally situated in Berks. 6 WINTERBOURN EARLS, deriving its distinctive name from its Lords, the Earls of Lancaster. WYNTERBOURNE GONNOR Prior Sci Martini de Bristollia WYNTERBOURNE DAUNTESEY? Ricardus de Dauntesey, et Prior de DUNE GRYMSTEDE 3......... Laurent. de Sco Martino, et Oliver. de Ingham. WHADDON GRYMSTEDE... Andr. et Joh. de Grymsted, et Alanus LAVERSTOKE ADWARDEBURY Plukenet. Margareta de Wodefolde. Decan. et Cap. beatæ Mariæ Sarum, et a * 35 Edw. III., Gilbert de Berewike ten. M. de Wintresleu per servic. magnæ serjiantiæ faciend. Reg. adventu Regis apud Claryndon per summonicionem vinum vocatum Claretum sumptibus Regis, et ad serviend. Reg. de dicto vino in adventu suo. (Cf. Testa de Nev. 149a) See Hoare's Alderb. Hund., 47. b 21 Edw. III., Stephanus Tumby ten. med. M. de Est Grymstede et Waddene per servic. mil. 1 This estate formed part at one time of the posessions of GUNNORA de la Mare, (Inq. p. m. 33. Henry III.,) whence the name WINTERBOURN GUNNER, It was also termed Winterbourn Cherbourgh, from its Lords of the 13th century. Test. de Nev., 140, 144. 2 WINTERBOURN DANTSEY still, in its appellation, preserves the memory of its Lord of the Manor in 1316. The MS. reads as above, but most probably two manors are intended DUNE (=EAST DEAN) and GRYMSTEDE, (=EAST GRIMSTEAD), both of which were at Domesday held by Waleran, the ancestor of the families of ST. MARTIN and INGHAM. Jones' Domesday for Wilts, 213, 218. 4 This entry would seem in like manner to comprise WEST GRYMStede and WHADDON, an immediately adjoining estate, now portion of the parish of Alderbury. |