56

Postscript.

P.S.

In the course of one of our visits to the British Museum Library, in search of information with regard to the subject of this enquiry, while examining some of the Harleian MSS., we came upon a very handsome and elegant "Coat of Armes for the Tʊwne of Pontfract."

The Heraldic Visitation (A.D. 1585) in which we found it, is of prime authority, and although the arms it ascribes to the town, are now out of use, and till we called attention to them, were utterly unknown in the borough, there can be no question as to their authenticity and correctness.

The various copies of the MS. differ slightly from each other, but all agree in giving a Castle, as of four circular towers, connected by four battlemented walls standing at right angles to each other, but diamondwise as regards the spectator, the view of the fourth tower being totally obscured by the prominence of the nearest. Each of the towers has a globular roof and bears a small flag, while the nearest has a doorway, which in some MSS. is of fair size, but in others is dwarfed considerably.

Accompaning the Pontefract arms, in these MSS., is generally a copy of the Corporation Seal, of a much more graceful and elegant character than that now in use; but the Mayor's Seal, which is a debased quartering of somewhat later date than the Visitation, necessarily does not appear.

PONTEFRACT:

ITS LORDS AND ITS CASTLE.

Of the particulars of the manner in which the land of this district was divided among the various Saxon proprietors before the Norman Conquest, and of the regulations whereby it was held of the chief lord, nothing is, we believe, known, except what is to be found in Domesday Book, which is, however, almost a bare nominal record, though anything but uninteresting. From that survey we learn that this township (then including apparently both Tanshelf and Carleton) had been a Royal Manor, and that it contained 16 carucates of land, free from tax, which might employ 9 ploughs: that Ilbert then had there 4 ploughs and 60 lesser burgesses, 16 cottars, 16 villains, and 8 bordars, who had among them 18 ploughs: that there was a Church there, and a Priest, and a Fishery, and 3 Mills, rendering 42 shillings, and 3 Acres of Meadow: that the woody pasture was a leuga long and a half-leuga broad: that the whole Manor was a leuga and a half long and half a leuga

58

Saxon Owners.

broad: that in the time of King Edward the Confessor, 20 years before, its value had been £20: that it was then reduced to £15: and that within its boundaries were some alms-land for the poor.

Of the neighbouring townships we know little more than their value as sources of royal revenue, and the unvarying tale-a Saxon proprietor formerly held them, but now Ilbert. In Skelbrooke, the owners had been Godric and Alwin; in Hampole, Godric; in Stubbs, Elsi, Archil, and Edward; in Badsworth, Upton, and Rogerthorpe, two brothers, names unmentioned; in Thorpe, Elsi; in Smeaton, Gamel, Ulchil, and Morcar; in Little Smeaton, Baret and Artor; in Womersley, Wege; in Stapleton, Baret and Ulchil; in Darrington, Baret and Alsi; in Ackworth, Edulf and Osalf; in Hessle, Alward; in Featherstone, Purston, Hardwick, and Castleford, Ligulf; in Houghton, Lewin; in Wheldale and Frystone, Gamel; in Ferry, Swan; in Knottingley, Baret; in Beal, Baret; in Kellington, Baret; in Roal and Eggbrough, Baret; but each is followed by the talenow Ilbert holds it, or now someone holds it of Ilbert. Baret seems to have been a partial exception to this rule, for he, lucky man, is recorded to have retained as a sub-feudatory, four of the eight manors which he formerly held as chief, Beal, Roal, Eggbrough, and a moiety of Kellington; but he was to be known no more in Smeaton, Stapleton, Darrington, or Knottingley. And thus it was throughout the country, the

Leland's Statement.

39

former proprietors were dispossessed, while a Norman lord and his followers shared the plunder, the intruders putting their feet upon the neck of the conquered Saxons.

To the statement we have extracted from Domesday we may add that Leland says (ITINERARY I. 43):—

The Castel, Town, and Landes about Brokenbridg longgid afore the Conquest to one Richard Aschenald. Richard had Ailrik, and he had Swane, of whom cam Adam, of Adam came 2 Doughters, whereof one of them was maried to Galfride Neville, the other to Thomas Burge. But nother of thes 2 had any part of the Quarters of Brokenbridg.

But in matters of antiquity Leland is very frequently inaccurate, and there is not a word in Domesday to corroborate his statement. Ailric was, it is true, a large landowner in the neighbouring wapentake of Staincross, and was, like Baret, continued in his possession under Ilbert. There is, however, no certain trace of him in the immediate neighbourhood of Pontefract, which, as Domesday tells us, was a "Royal Manor" in the time of Edward the Confessor,and therefore in the King's own hands, and not in those of any subject; while the name of Ailric's father (Richard Aschenald) appears of very doubtful authenticity, having a sound anything but Saxon. Among the Saxons surnames were altogether unusual, and the prenomen "Richard' was not of their adopDodsworth, indeed, calls Aschenald "Aske,"

tion.

which is still a great Yorkshire name; though as we

60

Ilbert, the First Lord.

fail to trace it during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries we lose the link which might have connected it with the former Saxon proprietor of this neighbourhood. The extract from Leland thus really helps us not a whit, and unless we except a charter we shall presently mention, not only is Domesday our earliest source of information in this enquiry, but it records the earliest name to which we can with certainty assign the lordship of Pontefract, or Tateshale as it was then called.

In the general division of England among the Norman leaders, which followed the Conquest, the whole of this district, including what was previously known as Taddenescylf or Tateshale, fell to the share of Ilbert, surnamed de Lacy, Tateshale becoming the seat of his Government, and the central point of his power.

Who were the ancestors of this Ilbert, and whence he sprang, are as uncertain as are the achievements by which he so eminently gained the favour of the Conqueror as to obtain a grant of as many as a hundred and ninety-three lordships in the West Riding alone, besides several in Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire; for history records nothing of either the origin of this powerful Baron or of his birthplace; while the fable which in consequence of a similarity between the first name of the hero and the patronymic of de Lacy professes to ascribe to the latter, the assistance which, by the timely discovery of a serviceable ford