The Archbishop of Canterbury's land, which follows that of the king, consisted of three manors, ' Nedreham ' and Halton (of which I have spoken), and (Monks) Risborough, which, like the king's manor of (Princes) Risborough, was assessed at 30 hides. ' Nedreham ' is of interest for the singular transaction by which, but a few years after the date of the Survey, Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, agreed with William Rufus to fortify the enceinte of Rochester castle with a stone wall in re- turn for possession of the manor.[1]
To the see of Winchester there here belonged two extensive manors, while the Bishop of Lincoln who had removed his throne from Dorchester (Oxon) can only be said with certainty to have suc- ceeded Wulfwig his predecessor in one, namely Buckland, which Godric, a brother of Wulfwig, had held. Another brother of Bishop Wulfwig, 'Alwine' by name, had held Westbury (by Shenley ?); indeed, before as after the Conquest it was at times a profitable matter to be the brother or nephew of a prelate.[2] Wulfwig had several ' men ' in the county, but Remi did not obtain their lands. He succeeded, how- ever, his predecessor in the richly endowed livings of two royal manors, as we shall find when dealing with church endowments.
It was as a son of the Conqueror's mother and not, of course, as a prelate that Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, received, here as elsewhere, so large a share of the spoils. The record of his Buckinghamshire lands fills more than three columns, and at four places he had for tenant no less a man than his fellow-prelate, Gilbert, Bishop of Lisieux. When his great fief was forfeited, it was broken up into baronies, representing the holdings of his chief tenants, which were thenceforth held directly from the Crown. It is followed in the Survey by those of Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances, and of a far more interesting man, Gilbert 'Maminot,' Bishop of Lisieux, the Conqueror's friend and physician, and an astrologer. He held here two manors as a tenant-in-chief in addition to those spoken of above, which came to him, doubtless, as a member of the Courbepine family, who were vassals of Bishop Odo. The Gilbert Maminot who held of the latter at Leckhampstead was probably a nephew and name- sake of the Bishop of Lisieux.
The manors held in Buckinghamshire by English religious houses were but few in number, the county having no local abbey such as that of Abingdon in Berkshire or St. Albans in Hertfordshire. Denham had been given to Westminster Abbey before King Edward's death, but we are not told how or when that house had acquired its lands at East Burn- ham ; we only learn that from its former holders there was due a custom- ary annual payment to ' the minster of Stanes.' Although ' Stanes ' is
- ↑ ' Quomodo Willelmus rex filius Willelmi Regis rogatu Lanfranci Archiepiscopi concessit et con- firmavit Rofensi ecclesie . . . manerium nomine Hedenham ; quare Gundulfus episcopus castrum Rofense lapideum totum de suo proprio Regi construxit ' (Anglia Sacra, i. 337). Although only Had- denham is here spoken of, the manor lay in Cuddington also. In the actual charter recording the transaction (Campbell charter vii. I ) it is called ' Hedrehan,' a close approximation to the Domesday name.
- ↑ Compare Heming's Cartulary (ed. Hearne).
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