But if the College lost so many Newington deeds, why did it not lose deeds of other places? Further, many of the deeds seem to be copied from a Cartulary, not from originals; when the Liber Niger reproduces any of the deeds we possess, it gives the names of the witnesses to the deed, but the deeds that are peculiar to the Liber Niger are without the witnesses, and end with the words, "hiis testibus, etc.," after the manner of many Cartularies. Though most of the title deeds were kept at Longeville, there may have been a Cartulary at Newington, which came into the hands of New College in 1441. Or it may be that a Cartulary was made for New College by the monks of Longeville; for though the Priory of Newington was confiscated in 1414, there seems to have been some dealings between New College and Longeville in 1445.1 When we come to deal with the records about Long Wittenham it will be shown that about 1490 New College possessed a Register of the Prior of Longeville," of which there is now

no trace.

The earliest of the Longeville deeds to be found at New College appears to be the very large charter of Henry II of the year 1155, the longest charter of that king that is known, comprising not only the properties in England but also those in Normandy.2 But the lands in England which were held by Longeville had been given to the monks long before, and they must have had earlier charters about them. One such charter is preserved in France, and has been printed by Mr. Round in his Calendar of Documents in France (p. 74); it is a confirmation of Henry I, and by its witnesses can be assigned to the years 1106-1109. Earlier than this there must have been a deed, or deeds, by which the lands in England were granted to Longeville; for charter No. I says that they were given by Walter Giffard who married Agnes, that is Walter Giffard (II), who died in 1102, as Orderic informs us. This was the Walter Giffard who founded Longeville Priory about 1080, and it is probable that that was the date when most of the property in England was given. It is true that Domesday Book which was drawn up in 1086 does not mention the monks of Longeville as landowners in England, but the manors of Newington and Horwood, though designed for Longeville, may have been kept in Giffard's hands as long

1 See p. 101.

2 See p. 3.

3 See p. I.

as he lived. What makes it likely that the endowment was given before 1086 is that in several cases the monks were granted the tithe of the demesne of manors which by 1086 were no longer in the hands of Walter Giffard but had been granted to his knights. Unless these manors at a later date reverted into the hands of Giffard, we do not see how he could have granted the tithe of the demesne; for he no longer had power over it.

The property of Longeville, as described in the deed of Henry I, was less than it became subsequently. At this earlier date they held nothing in Berkshire or Oxfordshire; they had only two manors in Buckinghamshire, Newington and Horwood, and in Norfolk three churches but no manor. Most of the property of Longeville consisted of the tithes of the demesnes of the various manors which were in the hands of Walter Giffard in the county of Buckingham. In the early Norman days a portion of the land of the manor, on an average about a third, was retained in the hand of the lord and was called his demesne; the remainder was granted to villains, who instead of paying rent were compelled to till the lord's demesne, supplying not only labour, but also the necessary implements. The demesne, therefore, might be looked upon as vacant land, without inhabitants, and perhaps for this reason it was lawful to take the tithe of the demesne from the rector of the parish. It would not have been fair to take the tithe of the villains, as the rector had to attend to their religious needs. It was a method of endowment which was common at the end of the eleventh century, but was rare in the next century. In Oxfordshire we have similar examples in St. George's Chapel at the castle, and in the Priory of Coggs, the former being endowed about the year 1070 with two-thirds of the tithe of the demesnes of the manors of Robert d'Oyly and Roger d'Ivri; the latter about the year 1103 was endowed with two-thirds of the tithes of the demesnes of all the manors of Manasses Arsic. In the next century, when ecclesiastical rules became stricter, this method of transferring tithes was not allowed, but another system was followed, a monastery being occasionally granted the great tithes of a parish and holding the position of rector.

It has sometimes been said that if laymen were allowed in the eleventh century to transfer their tithe from one object to another, it proves that tithe was considered a free-will offering and might have been withdrawn altogether. But it must be

observed that it was only lawful to transfer the tithe from the parish priest when it was given to a still more deserving recipient, monks at that time being reckoned more acceptable to God than parish priests. Secondly, it was only the tithes of the demesne that might be transferred. And thirdly, even this step required the permission, or at all events the confirmation, of the Bishop; and we have among our deeds the charters of the Bishops of Salisbury, Lincoln, and Norwich authorising the monks of Longeville to receive these portions of tithe which had been given them in the past.

In the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas which was drawn up in 1291 the monks of Longeville are returned as having portions in some churches and pensions in others. The difference is merely this, that where the tithes were still the property of the monks but were leased from time to time at a varying figure according as prices rose or fell, they were said to have a portion in the church; but when the tithe had been granted away permanently to the rector of the church in return for a fixed payment, in that case the monks had a pension. When a monastery obtained the appropriation of a church, it was customary that another monastery which had a portion in the church should surrender it and receive in exchange a pension; and Longeville surrendered several portions to Notley Abbey in return for a pension.

But some pensions arose in another way. In the earliest charters we find a list of churches which were given to the monks, and in the heading of deeds we speak of them as the gift of so many advowsons. Such the property came to be in the thirteenth century, but in the twelfth century the possession of a church by Longeville was more than the right to present to the living. The charter of Pope Urban states that the monks might place temporary vicars, or as we should say curates-in-charge, in the churches they possessed, to attend to the cure of souls, while the monks would receive the emoluments. In the next century a reform was made, and if an appropriation of a church was granted, there was to be an adequate endowment for a perpetual vicar; in most cases there was no appropriation, but the monks in return for what they had lost were granted a small pension. Hence we find the monks of Longeville receiving the tithe of the demesne and a pension as well in parishes where they had been granted the church as well as the tithes of the demesne.

It is not certain which is the earliest charter of Longeville that is preserved at New College; the confirmation by Henry II is of Sept. 1155, and the confirmation by Walter Giffard and his wife seems to be between 1152 and 1158. Perhaps the best hypothesis is that the king's charter is the earlier; for it contains some properties which are omitted in the confirmations by Bishop Robert de Chesney (about 1164) and Pope Urban (about 1186), whereas the charter of Walter Giffard agrees with them. The king's charter mentions three properties in Buckinghamshire of which we hear nowhere else, namely, the church of Crendon, the tithe of the demesne of Crendon, and the tithe of the demesne of Chearsley, for that must be what is meant by the name "Jerdeslaia". It was about 1155 that Walter Giffard was endowing the abbey of Notley near Thame, and gave it the churches of Crendon and Chearsley, and we may assume that between the charter of Henry II and the charter of Walter Giffard, these two properties had been given to Notley, and Longeville had surrendered its claims. Probably in return it received from Walter Giffard the manor of West Hanney; for in the charter of Henry II there is no mention of this property. If this guess is correct, it shows that the foundation of Notley Abbey took place shortly after 1155.

It may be noticed that we do not speak of the foundation of the Priory of Newington Longeville by Walter Giffard, and any such expression would be inaccurate. Neither Walter Giffard nor Henry II speak of any priory at Newington; and, as will be shown, there never was a priory there in the ordinary sense of the word. In some cases when a Norman baron gave lands to a foreign house, he bargained that a daughter house should be founded in England, and such was the case with the Priory of Sele in Sussex, and with Monk Sherborne in Hampshire. But Walter Giffard makes all his gifts direct to Longeville, and does not even mention a daughter house in England. It is true that the editor of the Bucks Victoria County History, in the account of Newington Longeville, assumes that Giffard contemplated a priory at Newington because he promises that the monks shall have from the wood of Whaddon all that is necessary for building houses at Newington, and making hedges and for firing; but these words have no reference to the erection of monastic buildings, but are merely the ordinary grant of house-bote,

hay-bote, and fire-bote which were often made by owners of woods. It seems to have been assumed that the monks of Longeville would keep the manor of Newington in their own hands, and that it would be a place where their agent could live; but there is no mention of any Prior of Newington in the early deeds, and from first to last there is no mention of any priory buildings. As our documents show, there were no more than two monks resident at Newington, and sometimes only one, sent over from the monks of Longeville to manage their English properties; and if one of these monks bore the title Prior, he was almost as often known as the proctor or agent of Longeville. No doubt Newington is called a priory in medieval deeds, but this need not imply that it had monastic buildings. Like many another alien priory it had no chapel, no refectory, no cloister, no chapter house. These things were unnecessary where there were only two members, who took no novices and did nothing more than act as agents for the Priory of Longeville. Some few alien priories had proper monastic buildings, but most of them had none, and needed nothing more than a manor house or a rectory house in which the two members resided. This was the case with Coggs and Minster Lovel, the alien priories in Oxfordshire; at each place two foreigners resided, who were sent over for a few years to look after the English properties, and then were recalled; and we hear of no monastic buildings, nor should we expect them. At one time a monk resided at Kirtlington, but because he did not take the title prior, we do not look for monastic buildings; but there was no more reason why there should have been such buildings at Coggs or Minster Lovel. When Buck, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, was making his drawings of the ruins of monasteries, he came to Minster Lovel, and assuming that the priory must have had buildings, he took a drawing of the only medieval ruin he could find, and called it Minster Lovel Priory. But his sketch is the ruins of the manor house of the Lovel family; and there were no buildings of the priory, either in his time or in the Middle Ages. Though the head resident in an alien cell might bear the title of prior, he was very different from an ordinary prior; he was not elected but nominated, and only bore his title for a short time, and when he was recalled to the mother house, he ceased to be a prior.

Walter Giffard (III) died in 1164, as we are informed by