Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/450

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A HISTORY OF SUSSEX date, is clearly the Gilbert who held at ' Clopeham,' or Clapham, in 1086 ; and possibly Morin de Sancto Andrea, who occurs in a charter of 1093, may be the Morin who is found at Thakeham and Muntham. In Lewes ' Ralph,' by his grant of Brighton church to Lewes Priory, and by the descent of his manors of Saddlescombe, Street, and ' Hame ' to the de Says, is shown to be Ralph ' de Caisned ' or Chesney/ William de Wateville, who held lands in Brighton, Perching and Keymer, is noticeable from the appearance of his wife as tenant of Clayton in her own name ; and Mr. Round observes that ' Tosardus,' who held land in 1086 at Iford, gave it to Lewes Priory on becoming a monk there.^ Under the Count of Mortain one of the most important tenants was William de Cahannes, or Keynes, who occurs by name at Bevring- ton, Tilton, and Sherington, and can be discerned, with the help of the charters of Lewes Priory, to which his family were considerable bene- factors, in the 'William' mentioned at Selmeston, ' Remecinges,' Langley, ' Litelforde,' Horsted (-Keynes) and Bunchgrove. Another man of wide estates was Ralph, who took the surname of de Dene from his manor of West Dean : a certain amount of light is thrown upon his fee by the charters of Otham Abbey, which was founded by his grandson and further endowed by the latter's heir, Ela de Sakeville ; the bulk of his lands passed eventually to Isabel de la Haye, one of the co-heiresses of ' Catherine de Monte Acuto.' With Ralph de Dene must be taken Ansfrid, whose long list of manors is almost entirely reproduced in the fee of Ralph's descendants, and who was therefore evidently connected in some way with Ralph.^ Of the other men of the count, Boselin, who occurs under Pevensey, was Boselin de Dives, and his son William, who held of the archbishop in South Mailing, is shown by the Lewes charters to be the William who held in Alfriston, and was probably also the William who was tenant at Eastbourne, Hailsham, and Bowley ; Rannulf, who appears at Ratton, Horsted, Alfriston, and elsewhere may be Rannulf the seneschal of the Count of Mortain, father of Robert de Haia, as a branch of the family of Haye was early settled in this neigh- bourhood ; and Alvred, of Eastbourne, Pevensey, and Claverham, is certainly the ' Alvred the butler ' who held largely of the count in Somerset, Northants, and elsewhere, and was apparently the founder of the house of Montague, one branch of which continued in this part of Sussex until near the close of the thirteenth century. In the rape of Hastings precedence must be given to Reinbert ' the sheriff,' not only by reason of his official position and extensive possessions, which included Salehurst, Mountfield, Ninfield, Udimore, Whatlington, Cortesley, and other estates, but from his having been the founder of the influential house of Etchingham, of which name the first was Simon son of Dru, which Dru was ' the heir of Reinbert,' as he is styled in a deed of about 1 100, which also refers to Reinbert's two nephews, Richard • Mr. Round, in Suss. Arch. Coll. xliv. 141, and Genealogist, July, 1901. a Suss. Arch. Coll. xxix. 144. a Ibid. xl. 68. 380