General history: Property division at the time of the Domesday Survey

Division of Property at the Time of the Domesday Survey.

At the time of the Domesday survey, the landed property of Cornwall was chiefly divided between the King, Robert Earl of Mortaine, in Normandy, (by English writers called Moreton,) and of Cornwall, the King's half brother, and those who held under him; the Bishop of Exeter, the Prior and convent of Bodmin; the Abbot and convent of Tavistock; and a few other monasteries and colleges.

Twenty manors were held by various persons under the Earl, who held them under the King's great manor of Wineton (Wynianton). This, and fourteen other manors, then in the crown, had belonged to Earl Harold (fn. n1). The Queen, Matilda, had four manors in her own hand, and a fifth was held under her, as described in the Exeter MS.: after her death, in 1083, these fell to the crown. The Bishop of Exeter held seven manors in his own hand; four others were held under him. The Prior and convent of Bodmin held six in their own hands; nine manors were held under them by the Earl of Cornwall, and three by other persons; seven manors, which had been taken away from that church, were then held under the Earl. The Abbot and convent of Tavistock held six manors; four others are stated to have been unjustly taken away from them by the Earl of Cornwall. The Prior and convent of St. Michael had one manor; another had been taken away from them by the Earl. The collegiate churches of St. Carantoc, St. Achebran (St. Keverne), St. Burian, St. Constantine, St. Neot, St. Piran, and Probus, had one manor each; that of St. Stephen at Launceston, four. The remainder, except one manor, which belonged to Goscelmus, and another which belonged to Judhil de Totenais, were vested in Robert Earl of Moreton and Cornwall, or those who held under him. The number of manors held by this great Earl has been incorrectly represented. Dugdale states them at 248; Hals, and other writers of later date, at 288. Ample as his possessions were, these numbers give a very exaggerated view of them. According to the Exeter copy of the Domesday survey, including all his usurpations from the church, he possessed the fee of 285 manors in Cornwall; but of these, he held only thirty-six in his own hands, and of the thirty-six, ten are stated to have been held, not by Comes ipse, as the others, but by Comes et villani, that is, his tenants in villenage. This, therefore, must be considered as the actual amount of his landed property; from the other manors, which appear to have been 249 in number, he received certain high or chief rents, as lord-paramount. As he had numerous manors in eighteen other counties, it is probable that he was the greatest landholder then in the kingdom. (fn. n2)

The greatest landholder under the Earl was Rainaldus or Reginald, who held thirty-nine manors, including the manor and castle of Trematon. There can be no doubt that this was Reginald de Valletort, who is known to have possessed the honor of Trematon at a period not much later. Dugdale mentions Reginald de Valletort as witnessing a deed in the reign of William Rufus, which he speaks of as the first mention he had found of the family: he does not seem to have been aware, that his property is described in the Domesday survey.

Ricardus held twenty-nine manors. Reginald, who was created Earl of Cornwall in 1140, married the daughter of William Fitz-Richard, of Cornwall, who is described as having Comitatus Cornubiensis amplissimum principatum (fn. n3); no doubt this was a son, and the Fitzwilliams immediate descendants of the Ricardus of Domesday. They were all possessors of the manor of Tywardreth, and benefactors to the monastery at that place.

Hamelin, supposed to have been the ancestor of the Trelawny family, and to have resided at Treloen, one of the manors described in the survey, as his property, held twenty-two manors under the Earl; Turstin, the sheriff, twenty-seven; Nigell, eleven; Offers or Osferd, ten; Bernerus, twelve, and Joinus, thirteen. We know nothing of the posterity of these persons. Alured and Bristicius held seven manors each; Algar, Brient, Ermenald, and Odo, six each; Alnod, Blohin (fn. n4), and Roger, five each; Alward, four; Andrew, Erchenbald, Levenot, and Ulsi, three each; Alwin, Alric, Dodo, Godwin, Griffin, Osfil, and Rabel, two each; twenty-nine others, one manor each. Among these are several Saxon names, as Almar, Brixi, Ulric, Ulward, &c. It appears by the survey, that some of the Saxons, who still continued to possess landed property in Cornwall, had much more extensive property in the reign of Edward the Confessor, particularly Algar and Dodo. The above statement is made from the Exeter copy of the Domesday survey, which, in some particulars, varies from the copy printed from the Exchequer record (fn. n5). The following table of the Domesday manors is taken from the Exeter manuscript; for an analysis of which (by permission of the Dean and Chapter) we were indebted to Mr. Ralph Barnes. It contains the owners of each manor in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and at the time of taking the survey, with the ancient names appropriated to existing manors, as far as we have been able to do so, either with certainty or by probable conjecture.

[Editorial note: When the Exeter Survey column is blank, the holder is that given in the reign of Edward the Confessor.]