Page:VCH Derbyshire 1.djvu/388

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A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE which, with the exception of some ten carucates variously distributed, belonged to him. Compact blocks of territory of this kind are so rare in Domesday that one is tempted to suggest that this was the reason for the pointed entry in the introduction to the county survey, to the effect that the financial rights of the king and the earl in Appletree wapentake made part of the sheriff's farm. 1 Henry's possessions in Appletree wapentake were separated from his land in the north of the county by the royal manors of Ashbourne, Parwich, and Wirksworth, and he and the king between them absolutely dominated the western half of the shire. It will be clear that a territory of this kind must have been divided before the Conquest among many holders of land and Domesday gives us the names of these, to most of which it is impossible to attach any more definite meaning. Some of them possessed typically Norse names, such as Ketel, Swegen, Gamel, Hacon, Turgis, and Uctebrand. All of them seem to have been totally dispossessed ; in only one case does a former English landowner appear to have continued to hold his estate under Henry de Ferrers. 2 Nevertheless, English undertenants do appear, among them being the Ketel who held at Mugginton, the Godric at Shottle, the Alsi (./Elfsige) at Yeaveley, and the ^Ifric (Alric) at (Potter) Somersall. It is quite possible that this last undertenant may be the same as the ' Elric ' who had held the same manor before the Conquest. An Orm appears as holding of Henry de Ferrers at Wyaston and at Little Ireton, and there is no doubt that in the latter we have the ' Ormus ' who gave two-thirds of his demesne tithes to Tutbury priory ; 3 but there is no evidence to show whether or not he was identical with the Wyaston Orm. Very possibly the ' Cola ' who held at Yeldersley and at Winster under Henry de Ferrers was an Englishman, as a ' Cole ' appears before the Conquest at ' Salham ' (in Hartington) and a ' Colle ' appears at Youlgreave. With the exception of Earls Edwin and Waltheof one only of Henry de Ferrers' English predecessors can be recognised outside Domesday. This is the Siward who appears several times as a pre-Conquest owner on Henry's fief, and he may be identified with the Siward Barn who in 1071 joined Hereward and his fellow insurgents in the Isle of Ely, His general position in Domesday has been discussed in the Victoria History of Warwickshire? where it is shown that his estates in that and in several other counties had been granted to Henry de Ferrers. In Derbyshire our difficulty is that the Siward who had preceded Henry appears without any distinctive suffix, so that we cannot be certain that in all cases we are dealing with the right man. There cannot, however, be much danger of our confusing him with Earl Siward of Northumbria, as we have seen that the latter's manor of Markeaton had passed to Earl Hugh of Chester ; moreover earls in Domesday are usually though by no means invariably distinguished by an interlineation expressing their rank. Accordingly we l Fol. 280. z The Suain who had held two bovates at Cowley before the Conquest was very probably the same person as the ' Suan ' who held the whole manor under Henry de Ferrers. s Dugdale, Men. iii. 392. * V. C. H. Warto. . 282. 300