Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England

by Frederic William Maitland

[951] R. H. ii. 458.

[952] D. B. i. 172 b.

[953] R. H. ii. 283.

[954] Hale, Worcester Register, pp. xxx, 21 b; K. Appendix, 514 (vi. 237); Hickes, Dissertatio Epistolaris, i. 86; at the end of his dissertation Hickes gives a facsimile of the instrument.

[955] A record of 825 (H. & S. iii. 596–601) mentions a place ‘in provincia Huicciorum’ called Oslafeshlau; the editors of the Councils say ‘Oslafeshlau is probably the original name of the hundred which now, either from some act of S^t. Oswald or by an easy corruption, is called Oswaldslaw.’ One of Oswald’s books (K. iii. 160) mentions ‘Oswald’s hlaw’ among the boundaries of Wulfringtune, i.e. Wolverton, a few miles east of Worcester. It is very likely that the true name of the hundred is Oswald’s hlaw, i.e. Oswald’s hill, not Oswald’s law, though the mistake was made at an early time. But the story told by the charter as to the fusion of three old hundreds is corroborated by Domesday, and in the thirteenth century one of the three courts was still held at Wimborntree.

[956] But Dr Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 118, relies on part of this charter and it is not like ordinary forger’s work. If, as is highly probable, there has been some ‘improvement’ of the charter, such improvement seems to have favoured, not the church of Worcester as against the king, but the monks as against the bishop.

[957] ‘cum tolle et teame, saca et socne, et infangenetheof, et proprii iuris debitum transgressionis, et poenam delicti quae Anglice dicitur ofersæwnesse, et gyltwyte.’

[958] D. B. i. 172 b: ‘Ecclesia S. Mariae de Wirecestre habet unum hundret quod vocatur Oswaldeslau in quo iacent ccc. hidae. De quibus episcopus ipsius ecclesiae a constitutione antiquorum temporum habet omnes redditiones socharum et omnes consuetudines inibi pertinentes ad dominicum victum et regis servitium et suum, ita ut nullus vicecomes ullam ibi habere possit querelam, nec in aliquo placito, nec in alia qualibet causa. Hoc testatur totus comitatus.’

[959] Another example is Edgar’s charter for Ely, A.D. 970 K. 563 (iii. 56), which bestows the soke over the two hundreds which lie within the Isle, five hundreds in Essex, and all other lands of the monastery. Kemble was inclined to accept the A.-S. version of the charter. It purports to be obtained by bishop Æthelwold and, if genuine, is closely connected with the Oswaldslaw charter; both testify to unusual privileges obtained by the founders of the new monasticism.

[960] E.g. K. 1298 (vi. 149), ‘Dis is seo freolsboc to ðan mynstre æt Byrtune.’