DOMESDAY SURVEY and its priest, and in four instances the priest is set down without any- definite mention of the church which his presence impHes. Sometimes the priest is entered as holding the church and a certain amount of land — usually about half a hide, though the ' clerks of the church ' of Box- grove held one hide and the ' clerks of the church ' of Singleton as much as 3 hides i virgate — at other times the priest's holding and the church are mentioned separately, and most often no land is assigned to the church, not, probably, because there was no endowment, but because the lands thus set apart were usually exempt from geld, as for instance in the case of ' Wilesham,' where ' Ulward the priest of this manor ' held the church and one virgate of land, which did not form part of the 1 5 hides at which the manor was assessed and had never paid geld. Tithes worth 40J. are stated to have been held at Bosham by the clerks, and at Arundel also the clerks of St. Nicholas were in receipt of the tithes, while at Iping ' Circet ' or Church-Scot of 30^'. is men- tioned. It is well recognized that no argument can be based on the omissions of Domesday, and this can be well demonstrated in the case of Sussex, where there is no allusion to the church of Selsey, although barely ten years had elapsed since the see had been transferred from that place, or to St. Dunstan's church of Mayfield, or to that of Worth, which displays so many features of pre-Conquest architecture, or to the nine churches of Lewes mentioned in contemporary charters. But, however many churches were omitted, the survey mentions ninety- eight besides nine ' ecclesiolas ' or chapels, and four priests whose presence implies a place of worship ; there were also in Pevensey Hundred three small estates held ' in alms ' by clerks, which would suggest the probable existence of chapels.' The monasteries and religious foundations which occur in the Domesday account form one of the divisions of the class of landowners with which we have now to deal. In examining the distribution of the lands within the county previous to the advent of the Normans it is natural to consider first the royal demesne. King Edward had in his own hands the manors of Filsham, Eastbourne, Beddingham, Ditchling, Beeding, Steyning and Lyminster, yielding a total of 240 hides, to which may be added 34 hides held in Bury, Littlehampton and round Warbleton by his sister the Countess Goda,^ and 91 hides in the hands of Queen Edith at Iford, Frog-Firle, etc., with possibly another 34 hides assigned in various places to ' Eddeva ' ; 400 hides in all, at most. The royal demesnes sink into insignificance when compared with the vast estate of the mighty house of Godwin, everywhere rich and powerful, but no- where more so than in Sussex, which was possibly his native county." At Bosham Harold had a manor house which is shown in the Bayeux tapestry, and from that port he set out on the fateful journey which ended ' See below, p. 376. 2 Owing to the carelessness of the Domesday scribes it is difficult to distinguish this Countess Goda from Earl Godwine's wife, the Countess Gida. 3 For a discussion of the identity of Godwin's father VVulfnoth with Wulfnoth the South Saxon, see Freeman, Norman Conquest, i. App. MM. I 369 47
