{178} The Pelhams of old were a martial family. At the battle of Poitiers, the King of France surrendered to John de Pelham, and this badge was adopted by him as representing the sword-belt buckle of the defeated monarch, and became conspicuous on their residences, or in the churches which they endowed. {181} For an interesting life of Mr. Hanserd Knollys, see Crosby’s “History of English Baptists,” vol. i, p. 334, &c. {182} Odo was the son of Herluin de Contaville and Arlette, coucubine of Robert, Duke of Normandy, so that Odo and the Conqueror were sons of the same mother. The Earl of Moretaine, and Adeliza, Countess d’ Aumaile, were his brother and sister. {184} It has been suggested that this represented Belshazzar’s Feast (“Architect. S. Journal,” 1858, p. lxxiii), but this would hardly be in keeping with the other subjects. {185} The next ford on the Witham, southward, was Kirkstead wharf, or more properly “wath,” which is still the local pronunciation; “wath,” meaning “ford,” corresponding to the Latin “vadum,” and related to our word to “wade,” or “ford,” a stream, &c. There is a village called Wath in Yorkshire, which is near a ford or causeway over a Marsh. (“Archit. Journ.” xiii, p. 75). {186a} Mr. T. W. Shore, in an interesting article on “The Roads and Fords of Hampshire.” (“Archæolog. Review,” vol. iii., pp. 89–98), says that all the “Stokes” (a common local name), are connected with “wades,” or fords on streams, probably because they were stockaded. Stockholm, means a staked, or stockaded island. In South America there is a plain called Llano Estacedo, because the tracks across it are marked by stakes. (“Greater Britain,” Sir C. Dilke, p. 75.) {186b} This was the case with a manorial wood, formerly on the property of the Bishops of Winchester, at Havant, in Hants. (“Archæol. Review,” iii., p. 94), one of the conditions of tenure being, that it should furnish stakes for a “wade-way,” from the main land to Hayling Island, fordable by carts at low water, and stockaded on both sides. {186c} In connection with this, it is not a little interesting to note that, according to the Hundred Rolls (pp. 317 and 397), quoted Oliver’s “Religious Houses,” (p. 72, note 25), the prioress of Stixwould was accused in the reign of Ed. I., of obstructing the passage of ships on the Witham, “by turfs and faggots” (“turbis et fagotis”); this would probably be by making the ford shallower by sods, and narrower by bundles of stakes or sticks. {186d} Streatfeild (“Lincolnshire and the Danes,” pp. 147–8,) says “the swampy locality would favour the idea of the stakes,” as originating the name. {186e} Called by Ingulphus “Patria Girviorum.” (“Hist. Rerum. Anglic.” Vol. i., p. 5, A.D. 716).