The Saxons in England, Volume 2 (of 2): A history of the English commonwealth till the period of the Norman conquestKemble, John Mitchell
History
The Saxons in England, Volume 2 (of 2): A history of the English commonwealth till the period of the Norman conquest
Kemble, John Mitchell
Great Britain -- History -- Anglo-Saxon period, 449-1066
The growth of a city round a monastery is well instanced in the case
of Bury St. Edmund’s. The following passage is cited from Domesday
(371, b) in the notes to Mr. Rokewode’s edition of Jocelyn de
Brakelonde. “In the town where the glorious king and martyr St. Edmund
lies buried, in the time of king Edward, Baldwin the abbot held for
the sustenance of the monks one hundred and eighteen men; and they can
sell and give their land; and under them fifty-two _bordarii_, from
whom the abbot can have help; fifty-four freemen poor enough;
forty-three living upon alms; each of them has one _bordarius_. There
are now two mills and two store-ponds or fish-ponds. This town was
then worth ten pounds, now twenty. It has in length one leuga and a
half, and in breadth as much. And it pays to the geld, when payable in
the hundred, one pound. And then the issues therefrom are sixty pence
towards the sustenance of the monks; but this is to be understood of
the town as it was in the time of king Edward, if it so remains; for
now it contains a greater circuit of land, the which was then ploughed
and sown; where, one with another, there are thirty priests, deacons
and clerks, twenty-eight nuns and poor brethren who pray daily for the
king and all Christian people; eighty less five bakers, brewers,
seamsters, fullers, shoemakers, tailors, cooks, porters, serving-men;
and these all daily minister to the saint, and abbot and brethren.
Besides whom there are thirteen upon the land of the reeve, who have
their dwellings in the same town, and under them five _bordarii_. Now
there are thirty-four persons owing military service, taking French
and English together, and under them twenty-two _bordarii_. Now in the
whole there are three hundred and forty-two dwellings in the demesne
of the land of St. Edmund, which was arable in the time of king
Edward.” Chron. Joc. de Brakelonde, pp. 148, 149 (Camden Society).
Similarly Durham and other towns grew up around cathedrals.
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