DD [vol. 122] 51

free-tenants of

96 Fontefract appears not to have acquired that name at the time of the Domesday survey, when it was surveyed under the name of Tateshall, and was said to have had as many as 16 carucates of cultivable land, which was, moreover, "sine geldo," probably as the former hereditary possession of the King, though it had then been granted out to Ilbert. It was reported to have been able in the time of Edward the Confessor to support only 9 ploughs, but in its later condition not only had the lord four ploughs in his own demesne, but he had 16 villanes and 8 bordars, who had among them as many as 18 ploughs, while there were 60 lesser burgesses and 16 cottars, it being the only place in the wapentake which had either. There was a church and a priest and a fishery, and three mills; for although the manor did not border on any large river, two brooks of some capacity had their course within it. These united near the site of the monastery, and formed a considerable stream, which, having given motion to the East Mill in Bondgate, left the township and became the line of division between the two manors of Knottingley and Ferry. This stream is now very attenuated, many of its feeding springs having been, during the last few years, diverted into the recently-constructed main drain; but at the time of the Norman domination it

was of some considerable capacity. Of the three mills mentioned in Domesday, the East or Bondgate Mill and the West Mill were water-mills, and ultimately each belonged to the monks; but the third, a windmill, was at the west end of the town, on the borders of Carleton and Tanshelf. This had formerly belonged to the lord (see the Compotus of Henry de Lascy in vol. viii. 353); but for many generations it had been the property of the Corporation till its destruction by fire 60 or 70 years ago. It was then ruled that it was not worth rebuilding, and the site was sold. (It may be mentioned parenthetically that such mills were generally on a selected site, at the borders of two or more manors, where they could accommodate the inhabitants of each, and that the position of the site seems to indicate that the bordering manors were in the hands of the same lord at the time of the selection of the site of the mill.) These Pontefract mills were of unusual value, as much as 42 shillings in all, quite an exceptional amount, for the value of such erections was seldom more than three or four shillings. Indeed, the only mills in this neighbourhood which exceeded that value were those at Kirk Smeaton, itself a great centre of population and activity; and the two mills of even such a place returned 98. 4d. only. Tateshall had three

acres of meadow and a woody pasture of a league long, and half a league broad, while the whole manor was only of that breadth and half as long again. Thus, whatever those measures may mean, twothirds of the whole manor was wood. Its total value had been in the time of the Confessor as much as £20; but although its arable acreage had so largely increased, as I have above shewn, its rateable value was 25 per cent. less, having been reduced to £15, still, however, a considerable sum; and within its bounds were contained the alms of the poor. This memorandum, which points to the possessions of St. Nicholas Hospital, is more clearly defined in the Recapitulation, which adds to the statement that the manor contained 16 carucates "and two carucates in alms." This rather indicates that the almsland was a tithe of the whole, or at least two out of eighteen carucates. The Tateshall of the Domesday period seems to have comprised several hamlets or districts, the name of one of which, where the monastery happened to be located, and in which were the water-mills, has sometimes been supposed to have been that of the whole manor. But such was a misapprehension. Kirkby was indeed the hamlet which was the centre of the active life of the lordship for it had the Church and the Castle, the Mills and the Monastery; but the name belongs only to that which is still called the "Old Church," or the "Low Town." None of the upper town, or of the outlying district, is ever by any chance called Kirkby. The name of Pontefract is of comparatively late origin; and, indeed, the authorities of the last century agree to ascribe it to some miraculous circumstances attending the breaking of a bridge, on the occasion of the entry of Archbishop William into York in 1154. But investigation shows that the place already had the name at least thirty years previously; and the fact seems to be that it was so called because it was entered over a bridge with only one abutment, and which would therefore appcar to a horseman or a superficial observer as having one side broken away. The BridgeBubwith Bridge is its modern name—is in the centre of the eastern boundary of the manor, and to it the roads from the west, from Ferrybridge and from Knottingley, converged, while part of the Roman road from Castleford to Wentbridge forms the base of a triangle of which those two

roads are the two sides, and this Bridge -broken as it appears-is the apex.--The Poll Tax of 1378 comprised the names of 608 persons, of whom 488 paid 4d., 75 tradesmen or artisans paid 6d., 28 of a superior class paid 12d., 7 paid 28., 6 paid half a noble or three and fourpence, and 4 paid a noble, half a mark, or six and eightpence. These last four moneyed

men of the town were William Baylay, merchant (will dated 13 Aug., proved 20 Dec. 1391) and Johanna his wife, who kept three servants, Nicholas, Isabella, and Agnes; John Gayton, merchant (will made the Thursday following St. Nicholas day, 1387, proved some time in 1390), and Margaret his wife; he kept two servants, William and Matilda; Robert de Beal, draper, and Magot his wife; and Thomas Elys, sergeant, and Joanna his wife, who also kept three servants, Robert Cok, Robert and Elizabeth. The six who paid 40 pence were William Boteler and Cecilia his wife; John Roller, merchant, and Agnes his wife; William de Karleyl, osteler; John de Balne, lister, and Emma his wife (against whose estate there was a Probate Act on 6 Oct. 1392); John Clerk, franklin, and Johanna his wife; and John de Elmesall, mercer, and Johanna his wife. The seven who paid two shillings each were Thomas Bollay and Matilda his wife; William de Tanshelf, barker, and Alice his wife; Adam Holman, merchant and Isabella his wife; Adam Vause, merchant, and Margaret his wife; Nicholas Fletcher, cattle-dealer, and Agnes his wife; John de Tankerley, merchant, and Matilda his wife; and John Spicer, draper, and Alice his wife. The 28 who paid 12d. each included 5 skinners, 4 ostelers, 3 cattle-dealers, 2 barkers, 2 drapers, 2 pardoners (sellers of Papal indulgences), and 1 each mason, lister, cutler, spicer, smith, coverlid maker, flesher (butcher or dealer in flesh), sadler, bowyer and marshall. The 75 who paid 6d. were 12 websters, 11 tailors, 9 smiths, 9 souters, 4 spicers, 4 taverners, 4 walkers, 3 sadlers, 3 wrights, 2 each drapers, coopers, barkers, bowyers, barbers, and listers, and 1 each chapman, cordwainer, tailor and bakester. Those at fourpence comprised small householders, adult servants, and grown-up children at home. In this class were 197 married householders with two adult male children, and 8 adult females; 12 male servants and 12 female servants.

97 See next page.

DDD [vol. 39] 30

Kirkstall 7 acres of

M [vol. 160] 22 Scrop.

99 The date of this Walter de Toulouse is sufficiently fixed by his having been a witness to several of the Pontefract charters, and especially to one given to the monks of Pontefract by Hugh Foliot, the holder, in 1166, of a knight's fee under William de Percy (see vol. xi. 445). He was also one of the witnesses of a remarkable charter to the same monks from the first Robert de Stapleton, by which he exchanges with them a toft in Southgate, l'ontefract, "for three bovates of land in Osmundthorp, which he formerly gave them in exchange for land in Armley, which formerly they had from his gift and grant." Robert de Stapleton, the earlier of the two Roberts, was at the time contemplating the gift of his manor of Osinundthorp to the Knights Templars of Newsome; but as he had already maimed it by giving these three bovates to the Pontefract monks, he desired to reclaim them by the substituted gift of property in Pontefract, which was more advantageously situated for the donees; and accordingly he made this exchange. But the land at Osmundthorp (Ossetorp in Domesday) was itself exchanged land, having been given by him to them in exchange for land at Armley which he had formerly given them; and these few words form the only intimation, so far as I have learnt, that the Stapletons ever had possessions in that manor, which was one of those obtained by Ligulf, and to which he was, as it were, transplanted after his supercession at Featherston. It should be noted that these Stapletons of Pontefract were an entirely distinct family from the Stapletons of the Lower Division, the ancestors

of Lord Beaumont, though they are often confused with them. (But see post, STAPLETON.)

100 These Wakefields were, for many generations, an important family in Pontefract. The William named in the inscription had been one of the collectors of a grant of a whole fifteenth and a whole tenth, granted to the King in 3 Henry V. [1414], and the account of its collection is still extant in the Record Office, 206/64. But we shall meet with an earlier William de Wakefield under SKELBROOK. For a Ralph de Wakefield, probably his son, had been taxed in Pontefract on the Non Rolls, as early as 15 Ed. III. [1342], and a William with his wife Alice were impleaded by Edmund de Botiler in 30 Ed. I. [1302] [see post, p. 71]. The will of still another William W. of Pontefract (probably son of the William named in the text) is at York (WILLS, iv. 426, dated Sept. 20, proved Oct. 4, 1466). He left his body to be buried in the chapel of St Katherine (and thus perhaps gave the name of Wakefield to that part of the church, which Dodsworth called the North Quire; it was a north chapel at the western end of the Quire); his mortuary to be according to the custom. He left 6s. 8d. to the gild of Corpus Christi, and a like sum to the fabric of the church for his burial. He had no alms for either monk or friar, but the residue went to "Alice my wife, for the good of my soul, and the maintenance of my sons and daughters." There is in Glover's Visitation, a pedigree of six generations beginning with still another William and ending with one of again the same name, in whom the family