[30] Probably a feast at the completion of corn-stacking.
[31] The best printed text is in Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, I. 444.
3. The Borough of Dover [Domesday Book, I, 1], 1086.
Dover in the time of King Edward rendered 18l., of which money King Edward had two parts and Earl Godwin the third. On the contrary the canons of St. Martin had another moiety.[32] The burgesses gave twenty ships to the King once a year for fifteen days and in each ship were twenty-one men. This they did for that he had fully granted to them sac and soc.[33] When the King's messengers came there, they gave for the passage of a horse 3d. in winter and 2d. in summer. The burgesses, however, found a pilot and one other assistant, and if need were for more, it was hired from the messenger's own money.
From the feast of St. Michael[34] to the feast of St. Andrew[35] the King's truce (that is, peace) was in the town. If any man broke it, the King's reeve received therefor common amends.
Whosoever, dwelling in the town continually, rendered custom to the King, was quit of toll throughout all England.
All these customs were there when King William came to England.
Upon his very first coming to England the town was burned, and therefore the value thereof could not be computed, how much it was worth when the Bishop of Bayeux received it. Now it is valued at 40l., and yet the reeve renders therefrom 54l., that is, to the King 24l. of pence which are twenty in the ounce (ora)[36] and to the Earl 30l. by tale.
In Dover there are 29 messuages, from which the King has lost the custom. Of these Robert of Romney has two, Ralph de Curbespine three, William son of Tedald one, William son of Oger one, William son of Tedold and Robert Niger six, William son of Goisfrid three, in which was the gildhall of the burgesses, Hugh de Montfort one house, Durand one, Ranulf de Columbels one, Wadard six, the son of Modbert one. And all these of these houses avow the Bishop of Bayeux as their protector, donor and grantor.
Of the messuage which Ranulf de Columbels holds, which belonged to an exile (that is, an outlaw), they agree that half the land is the King's, and Ranulf himself has both. Humphrey the Bandylegged (Loripes) holds one messuage wherefrom half the forfeiture was the King's. Roger de Ostreham made a house over the King's water and has held hitherto the King's custom. And the house was not there in the time of King Edward.