J|3Otes; on Jqelungton. by F. T. ELWOETHY
j|3otes; on JQelUngton. BY F. T. ELWOETHY. |_j^ NOUGH has already been said upon the name of our ^ to^m and its probable etymology, but the question of its undoubted antiquity seems to have received but small attention. All writers from Collinson downward, take it for granted that the history of Wellington begins with the earliest known written document—a certain Charter of exchange of manors, between Eadweard the King and Asser, Bishop of Sherborne. This charter (in latin) which Mr. Hugo, a better authority than Collinson, puts at a.d. 904, is printed at length in the “Calendar of Wells Manuscripts,” by the late Bev. J. A. Bennett, and published by the Historical MS. Commission, 1885, at p. 196. A careful study of this will show not only, that the history of Wellington did not begin then, a thousand years ago, but that of whatever date the document may be, Wellington must have had a past of many centuries, and had even at that time attained to a position of civilisation and considerable development. We find that in the days of Edward the Elder, 150 years before the Norman Conquest, there were six manentes, i»e., tenants, residents, or proprietors in Weolingtun, and five in Bocland, under the Over Lord, whose joint holdings constituted what afterwards came to be called the hlanor, instead of the Villa of those days. Notes on Wellington. 221 Even then Wellington was closely associated with Bocland, and this connection has lasted unbroken, down to the present time. The name Bocland, which unlike Wellington admits of no controversy, in itself
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