A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE house of Mercia, is still preserved in the dedication of the church of Wistow, 13 which may perhaps be the traditional scene of his murder by the hand of one of his own kinsmen. 14 The legend is not of much interest in any case, but the year to which his martyrdom is assigned by the chroniclers was certainly a year of ill-omen for Mercia and all England. He is said to have been mur- dered in 850, and in 851 the Danish pirates, who had been wont to return home after their plundering raids, for the first time settled down to spend the winter in Thanet. Twenty-four years later they had obtained possession of Mercia; 15 and from 874 to 919, when Leicester was again occupied by an English army under the heroic Ethelfled, 16 the churches of the Midlands lay desolate and forsaken. During the tenth and eleventh centuries there must have been a revival of church life, for the Domesday Survey points to the existence of a large number of churches in this county. There were apparently seven 17 in the town of Leicester ; and in forty-one places besides, 18 a priest is mentioned as resident on the manor amongst the serfs, bordars, and other settled inhabitants. Nor could these have been the only churches in the county. The names of Misterton 19 and Buckminster, neither of them included in the above list, imply the existence of important churches ; there are three Kirkbys ; and the dedication of Scalford, Shepshed, Ratcliffe Culey, Stathern, Braunstone, Great Glen, and Orton on the Hill, to the honour of St. Egelwin, St. Botolf, St. Guthlac, St. Cuthbert, and St. Edith, are suggestive of a Saxon foundation. It is of some interest also to note that at Market Bosworth and at Wigston the Domesday Survey mentions not only a priest, but a deacon or cleric, and at Melton Mowbray two priests ; whilst among the forty-two towns or villages which had one priest, Huncote, Earl Shilton, and Newton (Harcourt?) were only small hamlets, and not separate parishes at any time. There is therefore more evidence in Leicestershire than in most counties to prove the existence of a large number of parish churches before the Conquest. Apart from the parish churches, however, the lands granted to the Church in this county before the survey were comparatively few, and of small value. The bishop of Lincoln 20 had the largest revenue, but his holdings were small and scattered. The total value of his property was 15 6s. The abbot of Peterborough held in Langton and Great Easton 21 19 carucates, worth 12. The abbot of Coventry held the manor of Burbage, and 43* carucates in Potters Marston, Barwell, Stapleton, Scraptoft, and Packington ; 22 13 Wistanestou in Domesday. 4 The earliest version of the story is in Florence of Wore. Ckron. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), i, yz ; it is also found in Matthew Paris, Cbron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), i, 380 ; and John of Tynemouth, Nova Legenda AngRae (ed. Horstman), ii, 465-7. None mention the place where he was murdered ; but all say he was carried thence to be buried at Repton, beside his father Wigmund. 15 Florence of Wore. Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), i, gz. 16 Ibid. iz8. 17 Four in the possession of Hugh de Grantemesnil ; two in the possession of the bishop of Lincoln within the town ; and on the manor of the latter, outside the town, there was a priest, apparently serving the church of St. Margaret. See Domesday translation. 18 In this number are not included the three priests who held portions of the king's alms-land ; only those who appear to be resident. I' Minstretone in Domesday. *> See Domesday translation. 11 The statement that these lands were recently acquired furnishes evidence against the charter in Kemble, Cod. Dipt, dcccclxxxiv. " These were probably a part of Leofric's original endowment of the abbey. Ibid, dccccxvi, dccccxxxix 356
