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1906 the BEGINNING of ABINGDON ABBEY 697 ' Godmundcslaeck'

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1906 the BEGINNING of ABINGDON ABBEY 697 ' Godmundcslaeck' 1906 THE BEGINNING OF ABINGDON ABBEY 697 Cilia being now dead, her lands passed to Hean and were included in those which Ini confirmed to him. We hear no more of the land in South Oxfordshire after the original grant in 675. The next year Headda succeeded to the West Saxon bishopric and found it advisable to move his Bee finally from Dorchester to Winchester. The foundation, therefore, of a West Saxon monastery on that aide of the river would now be attended with considerable danger. Bat on the other side of the Downloaded from river, sectu vadam, across the ford of Bestleaford, Hean had his own inheritance ai Bradfield, where also Eadfirth, the son of Iddi, who had founded a church here for his BOOI'B welfare, gave additional lands, including Streatley; and in this district Hean now proposed to build his monastery, since it could not be on the site which he http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ had desired. Bat in the meantime Ceadwalla gave him the site of Abingdon, twenty miles higher up the river, possibly because a large monastery in this locality would be of greater political and strategic value as a protection against the encroachments of the Mercians. Ini, when he consented to renew the grant, probably gave Hean no choice, but confirmed to him the lands about Abing- don together with those of Cilia's inheritance- Thus the monastery was built at Abingdon, and the chronicler, supposing this to be the at Memorial University of Newfoundland on March 5, 2015 same site that Cissa had originally granted, makes havoc of the early documents before him by trying to adapt them to his mis- taken notion. J. E. FIELD. ' Godmundcslaeck' THE importance of the 'Donation of Ethelbald' in the study of the Early English ' immunity' would seem to moke it desirable to settle a small point in connexion with the actual granting of the instrument. The dating clause of the charter rum as folioWB : Hvius icedulae icriptio dominicae incarnation** anno DCCXLVIIII indictione tecunda ut loco celebrc cxdus vocabulwn at GodmutidctlaccJi XXXIII anno Addbaldi rtgit pcracta at. This charter has been printed by Haddonand Stubba,1 Kemble,1 Thorpe,1 Earle,4 and Birch,* none of whom, however, seems to offer any identification of * God- mundeslaech.' Before attempting such an identification it may be well to refer to two other charters which purport to have been granted at the same place. The first is a document bearing date 779, in which Ona at' Godmundes leas' grants the rerersion of eight 1 GomxoUs, UL p. B86. ' Codtx Diplomatic**, no. TO. * Lhptomutfariaat, p. ML • Lmtd Charter*, p. 42. » Oariuiarimm StomiatM, DO. 178. fi98 UiODMUNDESLAECB' Oct. manses of land at Evenlode to his family monastery of Bredon, Wor- cestershire.1 The secondT is a contemporary charter of 779 grant- ing four eassatee of land at ' Sulmonnesburg,' nearBourton-on-the- Water, to ft certain Duddo. In the dating clause the grant is stated to be made'totiorotlaforda'—probably Hartleford, Gloucester- shire, but a defective note following the list of witnesses reads, . godmwuU* leak subseripMcrunt et confirm[ai>}crtiitt pluriini epiteopi et (qytrmata. ThiB most be connected with a list of boundaries in Anglo-Saxon given by Kemble* and assigned by him to Burton- Downloaded from on-Trent, bat which is really an expansion of the Latin boundaries contained in the body of the previous charter, and therefore assign- able to Bourton-on-the-Water. The list is headed Itcrum in con- ctiio qui dtatitr Qodviun<{e$lcah ttibscrtpterunt et coiiftrmavcnint plttrwii epitcojri et optivwtei el diices, thns agreeing with the im- http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ perfect addendum to the 779 charter BO far as the latter has been preserved, *nd probably referring to a later confirmation of the original grant. These charters would seem to suggest that ' Godmundeslaech ' was a recognised place of meeting for the witenagemot of Mercia in the eighth century. The cine to its identification is fonnd in two entries in the Domesday survey of Leicestershire, folios 284 and 236, at Memorial University of Newfoundland on March 5, 2015 both of which relate to a place called in the first instance Godmun- delai, in the second Gutmundeale*. The man< 'il descent of this pUce proves beyond donbt thai it represents the modern Gumley, a Tillage lying near the southern border of Leicestershire, some five miles north-west of Market Harborougb. In 1086 it was divided between Robert de Veci and tho countess Judith, the latter's share being held of her by Robert de Buci, a considerable tenant in chief himself elsewhere in the county. These two manors followed independent descents, the former, as did other of the Veci estates, becoming part of the Harcourt fee.0 The church of Countess Judith's part of Gumley was given in 1109 to Daventry Priory by Robert the son of Vitalis,10 and this grant waa confirmed by Earl Simon of Northampton and bis wife, Matilda, Countess Jndith'B daughter," and by a long succession of tho heirs of the original grantor. In all these confirmations Gumley appears as an appen- dage of the neighbouring manor of Foiton, which had also been held in 1086 by Eobert de Bucd of the countess Judith, and formed accordingly part of the honour of Huntingdon.11 The contraction of the form ' GodmundeJai' and its representatives into Gumley • KemWe, DO. IN, Birch, DO. 109. ' DHL Hut. Fac*. L 10; Eembla, DO. 187; Bird), DO. £K>. SO* abo tkmucUi Boot and Oipemi, p. 183, oota V • K«mbK DO. I860. * Tuia <U NtviU p. 85 b. '• Register of D»T«nti7 Priory, ifotwttuon, T 179. 11 IbuL p. 180. " Tola d* Nttnll, p. VI. 1905 ' GODMUNDESLAECH' 699 doea not appear till late. In 1426 the name waa spelt ' Gromon deeloy ;' " early in the seventeenth century the form ' Gomlye '14 appears. The place admirably suits all the conditions for a meet- ing-place of a Mercian witanagemot, being situated roughly in the centre of that kingdom ae it existed in Ofta'a time and within a short distance of the episcopal city of Leicester. F. M. BTEHTON. Downloaded from The Lincolnshire Sokemen. MAITLAMD has pointed out that ' the eastern counties http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ are the home of freedom,'1 and the evidence of the number of sokemen in Lincolnshire in 1086, and of free tenant* in later years, helps to prove his statement. The Lincolnshire aokeman was a peasant proprietor, cultivating his own little farm, and often help- ing to cultivate the demesne farm of the lord to whoee court he owed suit. He was a free man, who had undertaken certain Bervices, in return for which the lord protected him and his land. The number of sokemen in Lincolnshire mentioned in Domesday at Memorial University of Newfoundland on March 5, 2015 Book is, according to Sir H. Ellis, 11,508 : his calculation gives 7,728 villeins and 4,024 bordars, thus making the number of soke- men in the county almost half the rural population, whereas in many counties in the south and west of England there were hardly any Bokomen, or free tenants, at all. Some few years since I compiled an analysis of the Lincolnshire portion of Domesday Book, trying to put the entries back into their original form, arranged under the wapentakes and villa. As part of this work I had to count the sokemen, villeins, and bordars, as well as the carncates, teams, and team-lands, and I found, to my astonish- ment, that I could not make the total of the recorded population come within 1,900 of that given by Sir H. Ellis. I have counted again, and yet again, with the same result.1 The figures accord- ing to my calculation are 10,823 sokemen, 7,198 villeins, 8,467 bordara. Not only were there more sokemen here than in any other county but their number actually exceeded that of the villeins and bordars combined. 11 Indsx to Pu Gkartsn and Rolls m Ou Dntosh Uumttm, L 018. " In a document of abont 1630, ibid. On the prwwding pag» of thb index it U tentatiTeJj cnggwtvd jh*i % Mercian ooanell met in 780 at this plaoa with refereoo* to tiw ' BnlnKmxutsbarg ' charter, mentioned abora. 1 Domcftiay Book and Bgfmd, p. 28. * ID DamMdif Book a mmmuj of certain manon U pr*n (L. 833 b, 9*9 », 540 a), at w«U MM the particular!, *od If we add thii to mj flgurw the mm total Ix ahnott the •une at that of Sir H. KUli (2»,371 to hla IB.iM), oat tb* number* of tbm Tarkms do not bj any roaana oorreapond..
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