A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE resist the conclusion that the boundaries of the hundred and the county were here determined by those of the ancient lordship of Farringdon. The case of Coleshill, on the Wiltshire border, is one of singular interest. From Domesday we gather that, under William I, the Berk- shire portion had been assigned in three equal shares, eight hides to Walter de Laci, 1 eight to Turstin Fitz Rolf, and eight to William Fitz Richard. Of its Wiltshire portion we have an entry perhaps unique in Domesday Rogerius de Laci et Turstin filius Rolf et Willelmus Leuric tenent I hidam in Coleselle." Roger de Laci was the son of Walter, and the meaning of the entry is that the one hide in Wilts was divided in three shares exactly like the twenty-four in Berks. The first point here is that Coleshill was assessed, as a whole, at 25 hides, and that we thus reinstate 'the five hide unit.' 3 The next is that William ' Leuric ' equates William Fitz Richard as the third holder. Qan they possibly be identical ? The singular name of William ' Leuric,' half Norman and half English, is always deemed a puzzle : the suggested identity would solve it. On looking for the predecessors of the two Williams, we find that the first was preceded in his five Gloucestershire manors by ' Osgot, and the second in his three Berkshire manors by * Osgot.' And as they had the same predecessor, so they had the same successors. We read under Gloucestershire in the Testa (p. 77) that (in 1212) Henricus de Scrupes tenet Wychington in dominico et debet Domino Regi de tenementis suis in Bercsir' et Oxon iij milites. This holding comprised William Leuric's manor of Whittington, Glouc., and William Fitz Richard's manors of Odstone and Childrey, Berks. 4 We can even go further back and say that Odstone must have been held of Robert de ' Scrupa ' by Simon de ' Ordingetone 'inn 66. 6 Apart from this interlacing of Berkshire, along its western border, with Wiltshire, there were, in the east of the county, three detached portions of Wiltshire of a very remarkable character. The largest of these was ' interned ' in the county between Twyford and Wokingham (both of which were partly comprised in it, and therefore in Wiltshire), while the other two were on the Hampshire border, Swallowfield being Testa and in Feudal Aids. It is clear that lands had been granted from the lordship even before John's time, and the Testa, which records the fact (p. 128), speab of ' Berninton ' also as a ' member of Farring- don,' and of Littleworth, apparently, also. The latter is styled by Henry II ' membrum manerii mei Ferendon' Worda vocatum ' (Ancient Charters [Pipe Roll Society], pp. 85, 86) when given by him to Stanley Abbey, which appears as holding it in the Testa and in Feudal Aids (i. 68). 1 See p. 288 above.
- fo. 724. Owing to this entry being crowded in at the foot of the column, under the land of
' Drogo filius Ponz,' it has been supposed to belong to his fief (Domesday Book [Rec. Com.], Index vol., p. 216 ; Bristol and Glouc. Arch. Trans, xii. 27). 3 See p. 319 note 2 above.
- Testa, p. 123, where Richard de Scrupes is entered as holding ' Ordeston ' and ' Chelry ' temp.
Hen. III.
- Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Ser.), 295 ; the place is ' Ordegeston ' in Domesday.
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