end of his life he became blind, and dying in 1103, was buried in his own church.1 Lysons says the tombs erected in memory of Bishop Osbern, and Bishop Leofric, his predecessor, are still in the south transept of Exeter Cathedral. According to Kelham, this bishop was kinsman to King Edward the Confessor, and allied to William the Conqueror. He held four small manors in Norfolk, whose united annual value was, T. R. E. £3. 10s.; T. R. W. £6.

XI.-GODRIC DAPIFER.

From this Godric the ancient family of the Calthorpes, of Norfolk and Lincolnshire, are said to be derived. He was twice married, and by Lescilina, one of his wives, had a son Herman, whose son Adam assumed the name of Calthorpe, from the parish of which he was lord, and dying without issue, was succeeded by his brother William, called William de Alto Bosco, or Hobbies; this William had a son of the same name, who had several sons, from whom descended the families of Hobbies and Calthorpe; and William de Suffield, or de Calthorpe, tenth Bishop of Norwich, was of this stock. Godric was not only a tenant in capite and a sub-tenant, but steward also, or manager of sixty-seven manors, which the Conqueror retained as the property of the crown. At the time of taking the Survey, he was tenant in chief of forty-one lordships in Norfolk, which were valued T. R. E. at £31. 19s. 4d., T. R. W. at £49. 18s.

Peter. Adam de Calthorpe; ob. s.p. William de Alto Bosco, or Hobbies.

T

From whom descended the families of De Calthorpe and De Alto Bosco.

1 Godwin, de Presulibus.

Hermer de Ferrariis, ancestor of the early lords of Wormegay, in this county-his descendants, according to the Norman custom, taking the name of De Wormegay from the lordship which he held in that parish-was rewarded for his services at the Conquest with the grant of twenty-two manors1 in Norfolk, from many of which Turchetil, a Saxon, had been ejected. Hermer is conspicuous in Domesday Book, as being by far the largest unlawful invader on the lands of the freemen of the county, and was probably one of the most violent and tyrannical of the powerful Norman barons who accompanied Duke William to England. His lands were worth, T. R. E. £63. 6s. 4d., and T. R. W. £67. Os. 8d.; while the value of the lands he invaded, or laid unjust claims to, was T. R. E. £19. 198. 5d., and T. R. W. £20. 198. 9d.

PEDIGREE OF HERMER DE FERRARIIS.

Hermer de Ferrariis, tenant in chief.

Richard de Wormegay, probably son of Hermer.

William de Wormegay; ob. 1167.

A

1 Blomefield says (vol. vii. p. 321) he had 25 lordships in this county; and afterwards (p. 493) he enumerates 42, including the Invasions.

XIII. THE ABBEY OF ST. EDMUNDSBURY.

At a very early period, King Sigebert founded a monastery upon, or very near to, the site which was afterwards occupied by the abbey founded by Canute, King of England and Denmark, in the year 1020. This abbey was richly endowed when William of Normandy arrived here, and when all its possessions fell into the hands of that ruthless conqueror. Upon the redistribution of the lands of the kingdom, the chief of those enumerated in the Domesday Survey, in Norfolk and Suffolk, as granted to St. Edmundsbury, were what the abbey had held in the time of King Edward the Confessor. With respect to Broke, in Loddon hundred, the record says expressly, that it was held by the abbey when the Survey was taken, and that it had been given to it by Toli the sheriff, in King Edward's time.1

This account, observes Blomefield, is authentic, although "it is partly contradicted by a register of Bury Abbey, which

1 Tom. ii. fol. 211.

says that William the Conqueror gave it to St. Edmund when he first supplicated his favour and protection, falling prostrate before him, and placing a small knife, wrapped up, on the altar of St. Edmund, in the presence of many of his chief nobility, and also the grant, signed with his seal, which the register observes was at that time preserved in the said convent."1 It does not appear very difficult to reconcile these accounts, if we suppose that William first took the manor from the abbey, and then gave it again to the rightful owners.

The lands in Norfolk belonging to the abbey of St. Edmundsbury, consisted of fifty-three manors, valued T. R. E. at £70. 2s., and T. R. W. at £94. 11s. 1d. The abbot was also found to have unlawfully possessed himself of five portions of land, valued T. R. E. at £2. 1s. 4d., and T. R. W. at £2. 5s. 4d.

XIV.-ELY ABBEY.

St. Etheldreda, or St. Audrey, as she is usually called, the daughter of Anna, King of the East Angles, was the first foundress of this monastery, in the year 673; the legend of her life and history, as taken from the Monkish Annals, may be seen at large in Bentham's History of Ely Cathedral. In King Edward the Confessor's time the abbey of Ely was very rich, and the greater part of the possessions with which the Conqueror endowed it, it had previously enjoyed under that King. At the Survey this abbey had a grant of thirty-eight lordships in Norfolk, valued T. R. E. at £97. 16s. 6d., and T. R.W. at £115. 15s. 2d. The abbot of Ely had also unlawfully possessed himself, by invasion of the property of others, of four portions of land, valued at 10s. 4d. T. R. E., and at the same sum in King William's time.

XV. THE ABBEY OF ST. BENET, AT RAMSEY.

The abbey of Benedictine Monks at Ramsey, in Huntingdonshire, was built by Ailwine, Alderman of all England, and 1 Blom. vol. x. p. 105.

Duke or Earl of the East Angles, in 969. In a charter of Inspeximus, remaining among the records in the Tower of London, and reciting a charter of King Edgar, respecting the foundation and property of this abbey, it is stated that Ailwine, a friend and relation of King Edgar, had been long afflicted with the gout; and that, upon a certain occasion, when his fisherman Vulfgeat had toiled long in vain, to catch fish for his master, in Ramesmere, he was at length directed, by a heavenly voice, to take a species called hacaed, and carry it to his master, and tell him to found a religious house on the spot where he should perceive his bull had torn up the ground, by doing which he should be relieved from his gout; and in token that this commission was true, the fisherman had his little finger bent by the heavenly voice, and restored to its original straightness again by Ailwine. All things came to pass as predicted: the abbey was founded, and finished in five years, and consecrated in 974.1

To the abbey of Ramsey there was a grant of twelve lordships in Norfolk, valued T. R. E. at £30. 1s. 8d., and T. R. W. at £28. 1s. 8d.

XVI. THE ABBEY OF ST. BENET, AT HULME.

King Canute, before the year 1020, founded an abbey of Benedictine Monks at Hulme, upon the site of an ancient monastery. From the time of its foundation its revenues rapidly increased, and, in addition to the extensive endowments assigned to it by its royal founder, its privileges were farther extended by Edward the Confessor, and by succeeding monarchs; and the nobility, during a long succession of years, devoted a portion of their wealth in augmentation of the revenues of this institution." 2 Among other benefactors to this abbey, Ralph Stalre, a sub-tenant, frequently mentioned in

1 See the charter, in intolerable monkish Latin, in the Archæologia, vol. xiv. p. 154.

2 Taylor's Index Monasticus.