148 Devon Notes and Queries. Branscombe was Crown property until Aedelstan bestowed Branscombe and one part of Sidury, which is now called Salcombe, on the Dean and Chapter {Hundred Rolls quoted in Trans, Devon, Assoc, xxx, 304). Whichever of these suggestions may be right, it is most improbable that King Alfred's Sutheswyrthe can be the Sutreworote of Domesday, now called Lustleigh. The Domesday Sutreworote was then held by Walter of Douay, and there is no evidence that it had ever been a Crown estate. Mr. J. B. Davidson (Trans, Devon Assoc, ix, 204) on unim- peachable evidence, fixes the date of the Conquest of Devon by the Saxons between 710 and 823 A.D. Aedelheard (728-741) tells was *^ an un warlike or an unsuccessful King. In 731 the British throughout a great part of England freed themselves from the Saxon yoke. In 732 Somerton was besieged and taken by the King of the Mercians. Amidst these troubles it is more likely that the Welsh of Devon recovered some of their losses than that the sway of Wessex over them was extended " [in £thelherd*s reign] . Is it not then somewhat rash to give an earlier date to the Conquest of Devon on the sole evidence of a doubtful charter, and to say that we have proof that the English were settled at Crediton in 739 and had been there for many years ? It is, I believe, conceded by the Editors that the language of Ethelheard*s Charter to Bishop Forthere belongs to the nth century, not to the 8th, and with all the skill that has been expended upon them the boundaries are hard to locate. Is it not more likely that this Charter had its origin from the nth century, and was one of the many which were produced before the King's uncritical court, in this case to support the Bishop's right to the Hundred of Crediton, for which no other evidence than that of user at the time existed ? Excepting these details, Mr. Chope's conclusion that Alfred's kingdom included the whole of Devon and the part of Cornwall called Triggshire, agrees with that of Mr. Davidson. Oswald ]. Rbichbl. 112. Battishill Arms (II., p. 125, par. 88.) — I am obliged to the Editors for kindly giving me the reading of this coat ; the saltire seems to be imperfect, as it apparently ought to be a cross croslet in saltire. I can make nothing out of Callis, unless William Battishill, st. 10 in 1620, did marry
