these points, we may safely consider this theory to be quite as baseless as the former.

But even a more remarkable ascription to Ilbert de Lacy of the origin of the name of the town is to be found in Boothroyd's History of Pontefract, who gives the authority of Mortimer, who wrote in 1763, for saying that when in his expedition to York in 1069, the conquering Norman came to Pontefract, the enemy having broken down the bridge, he was unable to pass the Aire "till one of his Norman knights called Lisois (PROBABLY the same person afterwards called Lacy, on whom he bestowed the town) discovered a ford by which William and his army passed the river." But it can be easily shown that this probability is a very great improbability, and like a deal to be found in Boothroyd, is a mere matter of assumption. For the original of Mr. Mortimer's statement is to be found in Ordericus Vitalis, an excellent authority, who prided himself upon his English birth, whose father was with William in the train of Roger Montgomery, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury, and who probably derived his information from an eyewitness; * and when we quote his account, it will be

*The history by Vitalis down to the year 1071 seems to have been compiled from that of Richard of Poitiers (Ord. Vit. Book IV., chapter 7), but singularly enongh all that is now known of the history of Richard of Poitiers ceases at 1068. If his lost fragment should ever be discovered, it will probably be found to contain the original of Vitalis's account of the adventures of Lisois des Moutiers, at Pontefract. - Richard of Poitiers was Bishop of Lisieux, and as chaplain of William the Conqueror, was well

Des Moutiers.

17

seen that Mortimer or Boothroyd not only suppressed the fact that the knight had a surname, but has interpolated the groundless statement that the enemy had broken down the bridge, and the improbable if not contradictory one, that the river was "at that time swelled," and yet fordable, at or near Pontefract. As the passage of Ordericus Vitalis is by no means without its interest, we transcribe it at length from Bohn's translation.

"It was again reported that the brigands had gone to York, to celebrate the feast of the Nativity, and to prepare for battle. The King was hastening thither from Nottingham, but was stopped at Pontefract, where the river was not fordable, and could not be crossed by boats. He would not listen to those who advised him to return; and to those who proposed to construct a bridge, he replied that it was not expedient, as the enemy might come upon them unawares, and take the opportunity of their being so engaged, to inflict a loss upon them. They were detained there three weeks. At length a brave knight named Lisois des Moutiers, carefully sounded the river, searching for a ford, both above and below the town. At last, with difficulty, he discovered a place where it was fordable, and crossed over at the head of sixty bold men-at-arms. They were charged by a multitude of the enemy, but stoutly held their ground against the assault. The next day Lisois returned and announced his discovery, and the army crossed the ford without much further delay. The

acquainted with the whole of the proceedings of these first years of the Conquest.-Bohn's_translation, of which we have made use, is from the modern French text of Ordericus Vitalis, which has been formed by a collation of all the known early copies.

с

18

Lisois; not Lacy.

road now lay through forests and marshes, over hills and along valleys, by paths so narrow that two soldiers could not march abreast. In this way they at last reached the neighbourhood of York.'

We should mention that Duchesne, in his edition of 1619, styles Lisois, de Monasteriis, † and that we obtain a confirmation of the belief that this was really his name, from the Great Roll of the Pipe of 31 Henry I. (1131), which names Lisois de Monasterio (probably the grandson of the Lisois of Ordericus) as owing xxiiijli and upwards, "pro terra patris sui,” for his father's land, thus showing clearly that sixtyfive years after the Conquest a Lisois de Monasterio had a footing of inheritance in this district with a personality entirely distinct from that of the Lacies.

Whether, therefore, the ford was at Knottingley, at Ferrybridge (the Fereia of Domesday Book), or at

*Boothroyd's account, on the authority of Mortimer, is that this occurrence took place in 1070, that the enemy had broken down the bridge over the Aire at Ferrybridge, and that the waters were swelled.-Having already given above a translation of the original, we now note that Mortimer is responsible for the error in date, and for the unauthorised additions about the swelling of the waters and the breaking of the "bridges"; while it was Boothroyd himself who, rejecting Mortimer's plural, gave a locality to the suppositious and previously anonymous bridge. To anyone who knows the locality, and the impossibility when the river is swollen of using any ford between Knottingley and Castleford, the utter absurdity of Mortimer's statement, as endorsed by Boothroyd, is sufficiently manifest.

The sentence as found in Duchesne is, "Denique, Lisois audax miles, quem de Monasteriis agnominabant, flumen summopere attentabat, et vadum supra infraque quæritabat."-(At length Lisois, a brave soldier, whom they surnamed De Monasteriis, carefully sounded the river, and sought a ford both above and below.)

Tateshale in 1086.

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Castleford, there is nothing in this statement to lead to the assumption either of the identity of Ilbert de Lacy with Lisois, or that Pontefract received its name from this circumstance related of Lisois; but on the other hand, in direct contradiction to it, we know, as we have already mentioned, that in Domesday Book (compiled in 1086, seventeen years afterwards), the place still retained its Saxon name of Tateshale.

There was yet another theory that we must mention, that the name Pontefract originally belonged to Castleford, and that when Castleford decayed, the inhabitants came here and brought the name of Pontefract with them. But no evidence whatever is advanced, or pretended to be advanced, in favour of a most extraordinary liberty with easily ascertainable facts.

And recently the Rev. S. F. Surtees, the learned and ingenious Rector of Sprotborough, has endeavoured with considerable plausibility, to prove that the Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066) did not take place at the village of that name on the Derwent; but that its scene was the Standing Flat Bridge, where the Great Northern Road, the Roman Rig, the Watling Street, crosses the river Went (la rivière d' Went); and that Pontefract was so called in memory of the passage over that bridge having been defended against Harold's army by a Norwegian, who, with his battle-axe, through a hole in the broken bridge, killed forty of the English and stayed the advance of

20

Bubwith Bridge.

their whole army for hours. From which circumstance he thinks that Pontefract, seventy years (that is, two generations) subsequently, in order to commemorate the great victory, received from the descendants of those who conquered the victors, its name of Pontefract, or Broken Bridge. We fear that there is more plausibility than truth in so large an assumption.

But there is still one derivation given of the name, which we have left till the last, as it appears to us to be more probable than either of the others. And although we must confess that, like its fellows, it is not supported by irresistible proof, yet, we can maintain that, unlike them, circumstantial evidence is thoroughly in its favour. As the Standing Flat

Bridge, which Mr. Surtees considers to have been the scene of the Battle of Stamford Bridge, is the extreme south of the ancient parish of Pontefract, and is the boundary between the parishes of Ackworth, Badsworth, and Pontefract; and as it is across Standing Flat Bridge that the parish is entered from the south, that is, by the main road from Doncaster to London; so Bubwith Bridge, nearly in the centre of the old ecclesiastical parish, is the boundary between the townships of Pontefract and Ferrybridge, and it is across Bubwith Bridge that the borough of Pontefract is entered from the north, from the east, or from the river Aire, in ancient times the only open line of communication with the coast.