Archaeological Journal/Volume 3/Observations on the Wait Service mentioned in the Liber Winton, and on the supposed Monastery of Sapalanda

by Edward Smirke

OBSERVATIONS ON THE WAIT SERVICE
MENTIONED IN THE LIBER WINTON, AND ON THE SUPPOSED MONASTERY OF SAPALANDA.

It is to be regretted that, although the attention of learned antiquaries has lately been drawn to the subject of Winchester and its memorials, no one has been tempted to analyze and illustrate the venerable record called the Liber Winton or Winchester Domesday. The earlier of the two inquisitions, which are included under that name, is one which needs explanation, and presents several topics of great interest. I am aware of no general observations which have been published on this subject, except those contained in the communication made by the late Bishop Lyttleton to the Society of Antiquaries, and referred to by Gough in his British Topography^[1]. It is with a view to correct what appear to me to be two material misapprehensions in the statement of those eminent antiquaries, that I have thought it worth while to offer the following observations.

In enumerating the houses and other tenements within the city, and the various pecuniary and other duties and services attached to them, the record occasionally mentions one which is called wata. Dr. Lyttleton supposes this to be a tax in the nature of Danegeld. The following are some of the entries in which the word occurs:

Fol. 3. A house, held by Will. de Albinneio and Herbertus Camerarius under Wolwardus Harengarius, "nullam reddit consuetudinem præter^[2] watam."

Again: Roger filius Geroldi holds lachenictahalla (sic. the knighten hall), "et nullam consuetudinem inde facit præter watam."

The house of Stanulfus is found to have been "quieta tempore Regis Edwardi præter watam et geldis."

Fol. 5. Under the lands of barons and others we find a house of the abbot's fee, occupied by Osbertus filius Alberede, "quæ faciebat watam."

The house of Alvinus is stated to be "quieta præter waitam."

So (fol. 8) land is found to be "libera præter waitam;" and again (fol. 9), "Tenet eas (domos) comes de Mellent, et sunt similiter quietæ præter waitam."

I apprehend that the word being coupled in two or three instances with "geldis," has led to the conjecture that wata or waita was a tax ejusdem generis: yet I cannot entertain any doubt that it really refers to the service of watching (guet), and not to any pecuniary rent or impost, though services of this kind were in other instances, and at a later period, often converted into fixed fines.

The early occurrence of this personal service as annexed to the tenure of land, is familiar in this and other countries, and many examples are given by Ducange, verb. Wacta. It is found in custumals, charters, and capitularies of the eighth and ninth centuries, and was a charge imposed on free as well as servile tenants^[3]. Sometimes we find it enforced for the protection of some castle or fortress, against surprise or hostile attack, in which case the tenure is similar to that of castle-guard. In other cases, it is a measure of police established for the security of property, and the preservation of peace. To which of these classes the wait-service at Winchester in the twelfth century is to be referred is not very clear. The twelve "vigilantes homines de melioribus civitatis" mentioned in the Exchequer Domesday, under the city of Shrewsbury, may be considered as an example of a local police, called into service only for temporary purposes during a royal visit.

The castle of Norwich affords an instance of the service of castle-watch distinct from castle-guard, from which favoured individuals or bodies were occasionally exempted. The duty is called gawite (i.e. gwaite) in the charter of Richard I., and the money-payment exacted in lieu of it was afterwards familiarly known by the name of wait-fee^[4].

In the earldom of Cornwall a very remarkable example occurs of a class of tenants who held (and may perhaps be considered as still holding) their lands as of the castle of Launceston, by the tenure of keeping watch at the castle gate. The tenants thus bound to perform "vigilias ad portam castri" also owed suit to a special court in the nature of a court baron, called the "curia vigiliæ," "curia de gayte," or "wayternesse court," of which many records are still extant in the different offices of the Exchequer, and among the records of the Duchy^[5].

Among the instances of wait-service in the Winchester Domesday is the following:

"Alestanus fuit monetarius T. R. E. et habuit quandam terram, Modo tenet eam Wigot Delinc et facit omnem consuetudinem præter waitam, et reddit monachis de Sapalanda 30d."

This passage has given rise to the second error of Dr. Lyttleton, to which I have alluded; for he infers from it the existence of a monastery of which every other record has perished, namely, the monastery of Sapaland. Another passage (in folio 8 of the record) appears at first sight to warrant his inference:

"Est ibi juxta quædam mans[io], quæ reddit monachis de Sapalanda 30d, et facit consuetudines quas solebat facere T. R. E."

The result has been that the new monastery of Sapaland has taken its place among the ancient English conventual estabhshments in Nasmyth's edition of Tanner's Notitia, and in the two last editions of Dugdale's Monasticon: yet out of the five passages in the Liber Winton where the name of Sapalanda occurs, three seem to me to negative the in- ference of Dr. Lyttleton: they are as follows:

"Borewoldus Horloc tenuit i. domum tempore Regis Edwardi, et facit (sic) omnem consuetudinem. Modo tenent monachi et fac[it]^[6] similiter consuetudinem et redd[it] eis 30d. de Sapalanda."

"Lowricus presbyter de Sapalanda monacorum tenuit i. domum T. R. E. et reddit omnem consuetudinem et 30d."

"Hunbric tenuit quandam terram de Sapalanda T. R. E. et facit omnem consuetudinem, Modo tenet eam Alwinus Barbitre et facit similiter."

The accidental position of the words "de Sapalanda," after the word "monachis," in the two first entries, has occasioned the ambiguity; the three last shew that Sapaland was the name or other description of some place, estate, or land, out of which some Winchester monastery derived a revenue, amounting, in the case of each tenement, (except the one occupied by Hunbric,) to 2s. 6d.^[7]

The word "monachi" is used alone in several instances, as in fol. 12 (p. 541 b, of the printed copy), and probably means the monks of St. Swithun. Whatever may have given rise to the name of Sapaland, the land itself from which the Sapland rents were derived, appears from the property described in connection with it to have been on the north, or north-east side of the city, near Ovington; at least there are circumstances which lead me to conjecture that such was the fact.

It is singular that it did not occur to the bishop to make another addition to the Monasticon on the authority of the same record; for, on fol. 7, we have "inter illam terram et monasterium Sancti Walarici erat una venella," &c. It might plausibly be inferred from this that there was a monastery of St. Valery at Winchester, if we did not know that a parish church was sometimes designated as a minster, without any pretence to conventuality, and that in fact there was such a church near the Westgate at Winchester. E. Smirke.

1. Sir H. Ellis, in his Introduction to the supplemental volume containing the Exeter and Winchester Domesdays, particularly cites the opinion of Dr. Lyttleton on the points hereafter referred to.
2. The word præter is sometimes contracted, but both syllables are also found in extenso; so that there is no doubt about the word.
3. See Prolegomena to the Polyptique of Irminon, p. 776—8, for numerous citations.—"Facit wactam et omne servicium quod ei injungitur." Polypt. Irminonis, p. 212—"Faciunt wagtas aut redimunt denariis ii." Polypt. S. Amandi, printed p. 925 of the above Prolegomena:—"Domus super allodium infra parochiam castelli excubiæ quod appellant gueteur respondere prorsus nihil neque persolvere teneretur." Charter of exemption (A.D. 1159) by the Count of Namur in favour of the church of St. Aubain. This duty is referred to in a charter of another Count to the same church, A.D. 1423. "Item que par toute nostre ville de-Namur ledit chapitre dedans leur paroche, et dehors les mannans sur leurs allost et mazures ne payent a nous d'uu deult appellé waytage que doivent tons autres bourgois et mannans."—Galliot, Hist. de Namur, vols. v. and vi.
4. See 1 Rym. 5 Ric. I. new ed. Bloomfield, in his History, seems to have misunderstood this word. Spelman, in his Gloss., voc. waite-fee, gives an instance, temp. Eliz., of a tenure by "waite-fee et castle-garde."
5. The horn of the castle watchman was troublesome to noctivagous lovers:

   "Gaite de la tor!
   Gardez entor
   Les murs, se Deus vos voie;
   C'or sont à séjor
   Dame et seignor,
   El larron vont en proie. (La gaite corne.)
   Hu, et hu, et hu, et hu!
   Je l'ai veu,
   Là jus soz la coudroie!
   Hu, et hu, et hu, et hu!
   A bien près l'ocirroie." &c.

   Chansons de Flore et Blanchefleur, 13^e siècle. Chants Historiques, par Leroux de Lincy, 1^e Serie, p. 139. ed. 1841. Paris. My readers will hardly require to be reminded that the waits, whose spontaneous music disturbs our sleep before Christmas, are souvenirs of the armed watch, who guarded the repose of King William at Shrewsbury, of the burghers and nobles at Winchester, and of the abbot and monks of St. Germain, in the days of Charlemagne.

6. The tenement, and not the tenant, is here, and in other places in the record, represented as doing or owing the service and rents.
7. One would expect to find some such local name as Sapland, Sopland, or Shapland, in the neighbourhood; but I am not aware that there is such. We have Chilland, Milland, Boysland, &c.