rent-charge, lead of the value of 300 shillings-a large sum in those days-for the use of the said cathedral church, to Archbishop Ceolnoth and his successors. It is not shown what the consideration was which induced the abbess of Repton-a comparatively poor foundation to grant away so valuable a possession as Wirksworth must have been, to Duke Humbert; probably in return he took the institution under his powerful protection, as was the case with other monasteries in unsettled parts of the island. Nor is it shown how Christ Church, Canterbury, came to have so valuable a royalty as 300 shillings' worth of lead out of the Wirksworth mines. If, as is well shown presently, lead was worth d. per pound in Henry VIII's time, the value in A.D. 835, seven hundred years earlier, may be taken at four times less, or 16 lbs. for 1d. Then 16 times 3,600d. (=300s.) = 57,600 lbs. or nearly 30 tons of metal.

Domesday Book, as usual in other cases, throws much. light on the lead works in England in the time of the Conqueror. The royal demesne in Derbyshire was the only site where they were existent.

In Mestesforde there was one plumbaria (Royal manor). In Werchesvorde, or Wirksworth (Royal manor), "there are three plumbaria or lead mines.'

In Badequella, or Bakewell, one plumbaria (Royal manor).

In Aisseford, or Ashford, one plumbaria (Royal manor). In Hope "these three manors paid in the time of King Edward Confessor £30, 5 sextarii of honey, and 5 plaustrate or wain-loads of lead, consisting of 50 tablets (tabula). Now they pay £10 6s. Od."-which looks as if the lead works were declining. "William

Peverel was the warden of these royal manors."

At the same time we read in the same invaluable record that at Bremesgrave, or Bromsgrove, co. Worc., there were 6 plumbi (Royal manor), and in Terdeberie, hundred of Came, 2 plumbi (Royal manor).

The Bishop of Worcester receives from Wich manor, i.e., Droitwich, "de fabrica plumbi 2 solidos."

Mestesforde is the manor on the site of the present

parish of Matlock; but there was no ancient parish of Matlock. In the old days, Matlock was a Metal district of undefined or ill-defined area, like Anderida in Kent, and other similar sites.

Among the large number of documents and transcripts of documents relating to the ancient lead mines of Derbyshire and other counties, preserved in the British Museum, I will only mention the following:

A grant of a lead mine in Winster, co. Derby., late in the reign of Henry II. (Wolley Charter, 1x, 4.)

Wm. Earl of Ferrers grants to Win. de Mungai in fee hereditary "terciam partem mine mee plumbi quam habeo in campis Winester ubicunque fuerit inventa in territoitorio (sic) predicte ville scilicet Winester, . . . per duas ocreas cordewannas ad pentecosten annuatim reddendo."

A grant of iron and lead mines in Penyvae, co. Glamorgan, to Margam Abbey, 1261. (Harley Charter, 75 C. 51.)

In this deed Robert Russel of Penvey, son of Milo or Milot, with assent of his wife Agnes and his heir Thomas, grant "si marla reperta fuerit in terra mea vel vena mine ferri aut plumbi, omnia que sibi fuerint necessaria dicti monachi libere et quiete accipiant in perpetuum."

VIII fothers de plumbe from lands in co. Northumberland, 1421. (Cotton Charter, XII, 41.)

=

A cov't to supply VIII fothers de plumbe pour quarante livers. 8 fothers for £40 £5 per fother. The fother being 19 cwt., lead was at the date of this charter worth a fraction more than 5 shillings the cut. or a trifle over d. per lb.

The Deed of Sale of lead in Cromford, co. Derby., A.D. 1491 (Wolley Charter, vIII, 14), records that Philip Leche of Chattesworth, Esqre., sells to Wm. Merlage of Derby, 13 fothers leed BOOL weight and marchandable to be del'd at Cromforth booll' at Helesched, "and the seid Philipp grauntes by theis presentes auctoritie and power to the seid William for to assigne the tenauntes and servauntes of the said Phillip for to blok and brenne the seid leed at such seisons and as often tymes as the same William shall think convenient and profitable to the seid Phillip. And that when the seid leed is brent and smylted the seid William to take the half thereof after every bool so brent to his own use and behofe vnto the seid 13 fothers be to hym or to his assignes or executoures fully delyvered & peid, etc."

The supply of lead for Hampton Court Palace may be

fairly inferred to be derived from Derbyshire according to Mr. W. H. Black, because of the names of the persons from whom it was bought-Sir Godfrey Foljambe, Henry Smythe of the Peake, and William Fyssher of Derby. Privileges granted by Queen Elizabeth to mine for the calamine stone, 1584. (Harley Charter, 79 g. 4.)

Sales of lead in co. Cardigan, 1638-1646.
D. 6, 8, 10.)

(Harley Charter, 111,

A covenant concerning sale of lead to be brought to Aberdovey, co. Merioneth, 1641-9. (Harley Charter, 85 н. 37, a. b.)

Viz., 625 tons of good, pure, and merchaunttable lead in Sowes accompting 20 hundred waight to every tonne to be delivered to Thos. Deacon on the common landing place of the port or creek of Aberdovey, co. Merion., for £3250. This works out the price of lead at £5 4s. Od. per ton, or 5 sh. per cwt.; or very little more than d. per lb.

Crown lease of Customs in lead ore to Thomas Bushell, 1644. (Harley Charter, 83 H. 29.) "Lead, lead Oare, and litterage of lead," "which shall be exported out of the kingdom" at a yearly rent of £6000.

Covenant for working Sir E. Lloyd's lead mines, 1657. (Add MS. 3652, fol. 111.)

Exemplification of a record in a suit concerning lead mines in Bakewell, etc., co. Derby., 1730. (Wolley Charter, XII, 144.)

An early statute, but of uncertain date [Stat. vol. i, p. 204], says:

'Six times 20 stone, i.e., 1590lbs. make a load of lead, to wit, the great load of London, but the load of the Peak is much less."

And

"The load of lead (Charrus plumbi) doth consist of thirty fotmals or formels. Each fotmal equals 6 stones, minus 2 lbs. Each stone (petra) equals 12 lbs. Each pound equals 25 shillings in weight. Sum total of pounds in the fotmal, 70 lbs. But the sum of the stones in the load is 8 times 20, plus 15, and it is proved by 6 by 30 equals 9 by 20, but of every fotmal subtract 2 lbs., in the foresaid multiplication, which are 60, which make 5 stone; and so in the load there are 8 by 20 plus 15 as before."

"According to others the charre consists of 12 wayes after troy weight; and the sum of stones in this load is 8 by 20 plus 8, proved by 12 by 14. The way is 14 stones."

The lead from the Peak found a ready market in all parts of England, and we find occasional notices of its use and its especial manner of weighing, in ancient MSS. A twelfth-century MS., belonging to the Nunnery of Ely in Cambridgeshire, states that:

The Correta of lead of the Peak contains 24 fotmeles1
Each fotel contains 70 pounds, and this is 14 Cutti,
Each Cuttes contains 5 pounds.

Whereas (the same authority goes on), the Carreta of “Lundon" is greater than the above, but its actual weight is somewhat obscurely expressed. "Carreta de lund' est maior illa de cccc lib. et xx lib. per minus centum." (Inquis. Elien., p. 191.)

At a later period, during the reign of Henry VIII, as our learned associate, the late Mr. W. H. Black, ascertained from the original documents in H.M. Record Office, the supply of lead for the king's buildings at Hampton Court was reckoned by the fother of 191 hundredweight according to London custom, and the price was about d. per pound; the son of lead was the eighth part of the fother.

It is remarkable that the lead for the above appears to have been bought in London at Leadenhall, then perhaps a market for the metal, as it was in the time of the Ely record four hundred years earlier.

Giles Jacob, in 1772, describes the Fother from the Teutonic Fuder, and states that it is "a weight of lead containing 8 pigs; each pig, 203 stone. So that it is about a fun, or common cart-load. Among the plumbers in London it is 19 cut., and at the mines it is 20 cut."

1 The first part of this word appears to be connected with fother, mentioned presently; mel is Gothic mela, modius, a bushel measure.

Fother is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning a basket = Cophinus, and was used as a measure of wood, and of coal, corn, etc., as well as of lead. (Cart. Sax., Nos. 464, 465, etc.)

(To be continued.)

LITTLE GIDDING AND THE KNIGHTS

TEMPLARS.

BY REV. W. MACKRETH NOBLE, B.A.

(Read at the Peterborough Congress, July 18th, 1898.)

ITTLE GIDDING is a village with a history different in many respects from that of its neighbours. It would seem that, at the time of the Domesday Survey, the division of the Manor of Gidding was only beginning, for in that we find that "the Abbot of Ramsey had there one hide that paid geld. There is land for one plough. This land was in the demesne. Now Lunen holds of the Abbot, and has there one plough, and 2 villanes and 1 borderer with 1 plough, and 6 acres of meadow. In the time of King Edward it was worth 30s., and is so now.' Then in the same division of the book we find "the Abbot had 7 hides that paid geld; that there were 28 villanes with 7 ploughs, 20 acres of meadow and 2 furlongs of low wood, and its value was 100s."

Further on, we find that in the township of Gidding, Alwold and his five brothers had 4 hides that paid geld. These brothers complained that Eustace has unlawfully deprived them of it. Then we are told—which please note specially-that "William Engayne claims half a yard land, and 18 acres of land, as witness the jurors of the whole hundred." Further on again, we are told: "Wm. Engayne now has in the demesne 2 carucates and 15 villanes and 3 borderers who have 5 ploughs and 22 acres of meadow."

The above seems to show that Wm. Engayne had two separate estates within the township of Gidding.