A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE with a tenant-in-chief of that name in Essex held a third of the church (a noteworthy division) with a hide of glebe. The other two- thirds of the church, with four appurtenant hides, had been held by bishop Peter (of Lichfield) formerly a chaplain of the Conqueror. If, however, he was the Peter who had been chaplain to Edward (as I have suggested), 1 his tenure may have dated from before the Conquest, as may that of the wealthy Reimbald, in favour with both sovereigns, who held the livings of Cookham and of Bray. It should be observed that he secured at Cookham the lion's share of the endowment, the church with a glebe worth fifty shillings a year, while the share of * two other clerks ' (possibly his deputies) was only five shillings between them. A clear case of an alien rector succeeding a native is found at Blewberry, where William (de) Belfou had secured a living valued at 5. He had been given another at Marlborough, and was probably at this time William's chaplain and chancellor. It is worth noting that he seems to have obtained the East Anglian see ju.st about the date of the survey, namely at Christmas 1085, and that in the other volume of Domesday he is styled, under Norfolk and Suffolk, William bishop of Thetford. Another alien was ' Ralf the priest,' to whose share had fallen the church and glebe of ' Nachededorne,' and who seems to have also secured livings in Sussex, Hampshire, and Wiltshire. An Englishman, however, continued to hold the living of Sparsholt, as he had done under Edward, possibly because it was not rich enough to tempt the foreign clergy. The nuns of Amesbury also remained patrons of Letcombe, where the glebe was but small. The King's manor of Sutton Courtenay had still an English priest, whose case is of peculiar interest. Of him there is no mention under the King's land ; but under that of Abingdon Abbey we read that jElfwi the priest held of it a hide at Sutton as his father had done before him. The chronicle of the house explains that, in the days before the Conquest, the abbey held two- thirds of the tithes of Sutton the same division as at Wantage with a hide of land, which was held of the abbot by the priest of Sutton, and that it further received from William Rufus Sutton church (i.e. the advowson) with a recommendation that ./Elfwi should continue to hold it for life, as he was learned in the law. Subsequently ./Elfwi petitioned the abbot that his son might hold it for life after him, a favour which he obtained on paying 5 and releasing to the abbey the chapel of Milton, one of the abbey's manors. 3 Here, it would seem we have an English clerical family holding the same living for three generations. In Berkshire the survey, it is said, mentions some fifty churches, of which seventeen were on royal manors, and sixteen on those of ecclesiastical holders. 3 A chapel occurs at Harwell and a small church (ecclesiola) at White Waltham. It is well recognized, however, that the mention of churches in the survey is only incidental and is generally due to the existence of taxable glebe ; at Wallingford, although so lengthily described, not a church is spoken of, although we learn inci- Feudal England, p. 320. a Vol. ii. pp. 26-9. 3 Domesday Studies, pp. 435~6. 300
