DOMESDAY SURVEY Hereford. But the latter received from him also lands on three of his manors, with a villein in Weobley, and another in Shropshire. But the whole endowment, at his death, was very small, and the house was subse- quently united with that of St. Guthlac, but on a new site. There remain two minor foundations, which are just alluded to in Domesday. 'The nuns of Hereford' are mentioned as holding some land, on one of the bishop's manors,"^ and under Shropshire, we read that ' St. Mary of Wigmore ' was holding of Ralf de Mortimer half a hide at Walford, near Leintwardine. This was doubtless the collegiate foundation which Ralf is said to have estabUshed for three prebendaries at Wigmore, although the Monasticon makes him found it with the consent of Bishop Gerard, i.e. in 1096-1101."' The evidence of Domesday, therefore, is here of value. The holding of the abbey of Cormeilles, William Fitz Osbern's founda- tion, is dismissed in two or three lines, and yet deserves special notice. We read of its 2 hides at Kingston™ that they (i.e. their occupiers) '(pay their) geld in Gloucestershire, and do their work (there) ; but those who dwell there come together {conveniunt) to the pleas in this Hundred^^" to do and receive justice {rectum).' The same terms were used in connexion with the case of ' Niware,' also in this hundred. We read of its z hides that they 'used to come together and do their work^^^ in "Bremesse" Hundred, but that Roger de Pist[r]es^^^ diverted them to Gloucestershire in Earl William's time.' In the case of Kingston we ought to be able to identify its 2 hides on the abbey of Cormeilles' land in Gloucestershire, but there is no trace of them or of Kingston under Newent, the abbey's only Gloucestershire manor, which William Fitz Osbern's son Roger had given to it for his father's soul. But under the great royal manor of Westbury (on Severn), seven or eight miles south of Newent, we find, among the losses it had suffered, ' In Noent et Chingestune viii hid.' Here we have the 6 hides of Newent,^^' and the 2 of our Herefordshire Kingston unexpectedly accounted for. Kingston must have been economically part of Newent, 6 miles to the east, and fiscally of Westbury on Severn, of which they were both members. Nor does identification stop here. We read of Westbury's losses: 'has terras tenent modo abbas de Cormeliis et Osbernus,' and it has been said by a high authority ^^* of ' Chire ' and ' Cliston,' ^^^ which precede Newent and Kings- ton, that these ' places cannot be identified.' They are found, however, as ' Clistune ' and ' Chure ' (Clifton on Teme and Kyre Wyard), some thirty miles to the north of Westbury on Severn, duly held by Osbern (Fitz Richard), and duly assessed at 6 hides ! Neither they nor Newent are entered as in any way connected with Westbury, but only as having been held by King Edward. The length of this investigation is justified by the remarkable evi- dence it affords of the wealth of information that the Domesday Survey can yet be made to yield on the ramifications of tenure before the Conquest. '" In the S.P.C.K.'s Diocesan Hist. (p. 17), we read : 'There was in Hereford a house for nuns, in what is now Broad Street, under the patronage of St. Katherine, but little is known concerning it.' '" This foundation is not mentioned in the above Diocesan Hist., though it deals with the beginnings of the abbey of Wigmore at some length. '" Between Ross and Linton. '■" i.e. that of ' Bremesse.' '" ' Conveniebant et operabantur.' "" A deceased sheriff of Gloucestershire. '" So assessed in Domesday. '^' Mr. A. S. Ellis, in Bristol and Glouc. Arch. Trans, iv. "' ' vi hidae in Chire et in Clistone' {pom. Bk. i, J 63). 283
