A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
the river called Ribble (Ripa).'[1] Blackburn hundred was probably resigned by Albert Grelley and Roger de Busli soon after the accession of William Rufus, Grelley receiving Manchester and an extensive addition thereto, whilst Robert de Lacy received Blackburnshire, and Roger de Busli possibly some of Roger of Poitou's Craven manors. When Roger in 1094 gave to the abbey of St. Martin of Sées tithes of practically the whole of his demesne lands in Lancashire, he only gave in the hundred of Salford tithes of his demesne in Salford,[2] so that apparently he did not then hold a very large demesne in that hundred.
There is some probability that the lordship of Rochdale, which Gamel, the thegn, held before the conquest, as he also did a portion of it in 1086, descended during the twelfth century, as a single estate in the heirs of Gamel, one moiety remaining in the family of Elland, the supposed descendants of Gamel, until circa 1350, the other passing to the Hipperholme family by marriage shortly before the end of the twelfth century.[3]
The hundred of Blackburn passed in its entirety, as already stated, to Robert de Lacy, lord of Pontefract. In or before 1102 he obtained a grant from Henry I. of the vills of Chipping, Aighton, and Dutton, which had been surveyed in Domesday under Amounderness, and before the date of this grant had formed part of the fief of Warin Bussel of Preston.[4] The king also confirmed to Robert his possession of Bowland, a wide territory lying between Craven on the east, and Lonsdale, Amounderness, and Chipping on the west and south, which he had held of Roger, count of Poitou, to hold it thenceforth of the king.[5] The same year Robert made a considerable feoffment of lands parcel of his hundred of Blackburn, to one of his knights, to hold for half the fee of one knight.
Roger of Poitou held no demesne in Leyland hundred in 1086, but in 1094 it would appear from his grants to the abbey of Sées that he held Croston and one moiety of Eccleston.[6] A moiety of Eccleston (1 carucate) was held in the thirteenth century by the family of Walton, lords of Ulneswalton, of Roger Gernet, the master forester, by the yearly service of 4s., the other moiety being in demesne,[7] so that it would appear that in the year 1094 the Gernets had not yet been enfeoffed of the forest fee of which Eccleston was afterwards a member. Between 1088 and 1102 Count Roger gave the vill of Howick to Evesham abbey.[8] 'Girardus' held a fee of a hide and a half, which must have included the greater part of the pre-conquest demesne of the hundred, probably including Penwortham castle and town. 'Girardus homo Rogerii' held a small estate in Legbourne, co. Lincoln, under Roger, in Domesday, which was afterwards held by the priory of Marsey,[9] but although the founder of Marsey Priory possessed a considerable estate in this hundred, we have failed to find any connexion between the de Marsey family and the 'Girardus' of Domesday.
- ↑ Round, Cal. of Docts. France, 236.
- ↑ Reg. of the Abbey of Sées, fol. 109.
- ↑ 'Gamel' was the pre-conquest tenant of Elland and South Owram in the adjoining wapentake of Morley, co. York (Dom. Bk. i. 318a, col. 2), his successor under Henry de Lacy in the time of Stephen and Henry II. being Hugh de Elland, grandfather of Hugh, who with his kinsmen held the greater part of the lordship of Rochdale under Roger de Lacy, constable of Chester, in the time of King John—:—Kirkstall Coucher (Thoresby Soc.), 193-202; Testa de Nevill, 403b.
- ↑ Duchy of Lanc. Misc. Portf i. no. 36.
- ↑ Farrer, Lancs. Pipe Rolls, 382.
- ↑ Reg. of Lanc. Priory (Chetham Soc. N. S. vol. 26), p. 9.
- ↑ Lancs. Inquests (Record Soc. Lancs. and Ches.), vol. 48, p. 188.
- ↑ Chartul. of Evesham (Chetham Soc. O.S. vol. xxx.), 1.
- ↑ Testa de Nevill (Record Com.), 331.
