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Linton
is the first manor listed in the Herefordshire section
of the Domesday Book. Linton was in Bromsash 'Bromesais'
hundred. Bromsash, in the parish of Linton, was the
hundred meeting place.
The place-name Linton probably means ‘flax enclosure’.
Before the Norman Conquest Lintune was a manor
of the king and it was a manor of William the Conqueror
at the time of the Domesday survey in 1086.
After
1066 William fitz Osbern was created Earl of Hereford.
He seems to have had palatinate powers and to have controlled
even the old royal manors.
At
Domesday the abbey of St Mary of Cormeilles near Pont
L'Evêque in Eure, France, held the church at Linton
together with its priest and the tithes and one villein
with a virgate of land. This arrangement dates
from Earl William's time: St Mary of Cormeilles was
founded by him and it was there that he was buried in
1071. It was during his period as earl that he made
gifts of what had been royal land to his new foundation.
At
Domesday the tax that the manor of Linton paid was a
quarter of one night's revenue - quartā partā
unius noctis. At first sight obscure, this term
reflects an old, pre monetary, system of taxation rendered
in food and drink for men and horses. In this, a night's
revenue meant the amount of food required to maintain
the king and his household for one night and was common
in royal manors in the south of England.
The
inhabitants in the 'lordship' part of Linton are listed
as 10 villeins and five bordars together with six slaves,
There was also a mill worth six pence per year.
Another part of Linton was held of the king by Ansfrid
of Cormeilles. He had nine villeins. Ansfrid was one
of William fitz Osbern's followers and this provides
another example of the free use fitz Osbern could make
of these royal manors.
A
peculiarity of Linton was that 'Ibert the Sheriff has
in his revenue of Archenfield all the customary dues
of honey and sheep which belonged to this manor before
1066'. Linton is the parish immediately east of Weston-under-Penyard
where the old Roman town of Ariconium
stood.
It
was Ariconium which gave its name to the post-Roman
native British kingdom of Ergyng which the English newcomers
called Archenfield. By Domesday, with the exception
of King's Caple, all that was left of Archenfield was
on the west bank of the River Wye. Any association between
Linton and Archenfield may date from the time before
the English arrived in the area and began their hundred
meetings at Bromsash.
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