Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race/Chapter 22

by Thomas William Shore

CHAPTER XXII.

SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH-WESTERN COUNTIES.

WE can trace the expansion of the older settlements in the south-western counties. Somersetshire obtained its name from its original settlers, the Sumersætas. These, as the name implies, probably first formed summer settlements on its marshes, hill pastures, and in its forests. To have used these parts of the county for summer purposes at first the Sumersætas must have come almost wholly from Wiltshire and Dorset. Their pasturage places were probably of the same kind as the Scandinavian sæters or summer pasture houses, often many miles from the permanent homesteads, are at the present time. As the population increased the summer settlements became permanent, and in various portions of the country, as in the Vale of Taunton, immigrants from more distant parts were no doubt located. Somerset was not conquered by the West Saxons until after their conversion to Christianity, or at least until subsequently to the conversion of the royal house. This probably explains the continuous existence of Glastonbury and its abbey from the British period into that of the Saxons. A fusion of some of the British people with the Saxons went on in this county, and in this the influence of the abbey, whose estates were apparently—at least,in part—confirmed to it, must have been very considerable. This fusion probably explains Beddoe’s conclusion that ‘almost everywhere in Somerset the index of nigrescence is greater than in Wiltshire or in Gloucestershire east of the Severn.’^[1]

It is of some interest to note that among the early settlers in Somerset there were colonists from Sussex. In the great manor of Taunton Dean the customs which prevailed were almost identical with those in the Rape of Lewes. This great liberty in Somerset resembled in its constitution a Sussex rape in containing hundreds within it. These hundreds were Holwey, Hull, Nailsborne, Staplegrove, Taunton Borough, and Taunton Castle.^[2]

The chief customs of the tenants within the barony of Lewes and within the manor of Taunton Dean may be compared under the following heads,^[3] in which they were practically the same:

1. The tenants were able to alienate their land, and so to dispose of it by a process of surrender in court, and this privilege extended in both districts to parcels of the land as well as the whole.

2. The lands passed from a tenant to his heir at his death.

3. By the custom both at Lewes and at Taunton the widow inherited the estate for her life. She was admitted for life by the court.

4. On both manors if the husband made a surrender in favour of some other person than his wife, even if done on his deathbed before legal witnesses, the widow lost her right to succeed.

5. The guardianship of infant heirs, at Lewes and at Taunton, was, by the custom of both places, entrusted to one or more of the next of the infant’s kindred, to whom the land could not descend.

6. By the custom of both manors the youngest son succeeded to the estate, and if there was no son, the youngest daughter. If there were no children, the estate was similarly inherited by the youngest relative collaterally.

7. The customary tenants on both manors had to keep their houses and other customary tenements in repair.

8. The tenants on both manors were unable to let or farm their copyholds for a longer time than a year and a day without license from their lord’s court.

9. The customary tenants both at Lewes and Taunton were required to do their suit at the lord’s court held from three weeks to three weeks. There were also similar regulations by which defaulters were essoyned or fined.

10. A reeve was appointed in every manor of the barony of Lewes and in every hundred of the manor of Taunton Dean to collect the rents and to act as the lord’s immediate officer.

When we consider that junior inheritance and the other customs incidental thereto were not part of the common law of the country, but prevailed only in certain districts, having apparently come down from very ancient time, the similarity of these customs must be allowed to be very remarkable indeed.

The earliest historical references to Taunton connect it with Sussex. The conquest of the country around it was effected by Ine, King of Wessex, in alliance with his kinsman Nunna. This, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us, took place in the year 710, when Ine and Nunna fought against Gerent, King of the Welsh. In a charter of a later date Nunna styles himself ‘King of the South Saxons.’

The Chronicle tells us also that in the year 722 Queen Æthelburh, wife of Ine, destroyed Taunton, which her husband had built. It was probably owing to disloyalty or rebellion by the colonists from Sussex that this destruction was necessary. This event agrees exactly in date with that of Ine’s war against his former allies the South Saxons. It is difficult to see why it became necessary to destroy Taunton during a South Saxon war unless there had been a South Saxon colony in and around it. On the very probable supposition that the people in and around that town took part against Wessex in the South Saxon war its destruction becomes intelligible. It is difficult to see how the remarkable similarity in the customs of the people around Lewes and Taunton can be explained except by a South Saxon migration. It is difficult also to see why Taunton should have been destroyed in 722 except as part of the military operations of a South Saxon war.

The evidence which appears to connect the settlers around Lewes with the Wendish Lutitzer or Wilte tribe has been stated, and whether a coincidence or not, we find a place named Wilton was an old suburb of Taunton.^[4] The Saxon charters^[5] also tell us of a stream named Willite and of a place named Ruganbeorh, or Ruwanborg, apparently named after one or more settlers of Rugian descent, in the Vale of Taunton. The old place-names of Somerset afford traces of settlers of various races: Godeneie^[6] and Gateneberghe^[7] are apparently old names denoting Goths or Geats—i.e., Jutes. Godeworth,^[8] Godecumbe, Guttona,^[9] and Godele^[10] point also to settlers of the same name and probably the same race.

The hundred of Winterstoke, named after a decayed village so called, was one of the old hundreds of the county extending along the coast from Clevedon to Weston-super-Mare, and inland to Axbridge. On the north this hundred adjoined that of Portbury, which contained the district known now as Gordano. In the north-east of Somerset a range of hills extending generally from east to west finds its western termination near Clevedon. From this place another hilly ridge stretches along the coast in a north-easterly direction and ends at Portishead. The intermediate country between these ranges has been known for many centuries as Gardinu’ or Gordano. The name appears in the records in the thirteenth century, where it is stated that certain land in Gardinu’ was held at a quarter of a knight’s fee.^[11] Later on we find a record of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, holding the manor of Easton in Gordon in the time of Henry VI.,^[12] and others stating that Emma Neuton held the manor of Walton in Gordano, and that Richard Percyvale held Weston in Gordano, both in the time of Edward IV.^[13] This district is separated by the river Avon from Gloucestershire, and among the thirteenth-century list of land-holders in that county was Thomas de Gardino, who held a knight’s fee in Side and Gardino.^[14]

As we stand on the hills near Weston in Gordano the Steep Holme and Flat Holme may be seen rising above the water of the Bristol Channel, and on the coast near by are places called Blacknore and Capenore. All these are certainly Danish place-names. When we consider the strong evidence which exists of Scandinavian settlements on the Somerset coast and up the Wye and Severn, it does not appear unreasonable to connect this Gordano district with the Danes, and more particularly with that tribe of them known as the Gardene or Gardanes mentioned in Beowulf. Four places at the present time—viz., Easton, Weston, Walton, and Clapton—have ‘in Gordano’ attached to their names, the district name being evidently an old territorial one.

The name Winterstoke may have been connected with this Danish settlement, and derived from Winthr or Windr settlers, or Wends, who were allies of the Danes. In such a settlement some dialect of the Old Danish tongue, in which Wends were called Windr, would certainly be spoken.

The country around Glastonbury was not added to the West Saxon kingdom until the time of Cenwealh, who in 658 extended his frontier as far as the Parret. He, a Christian King of the Gewissas, began to build at Winchester the old church of St. Peter on the site probably of the present cathedral. His successor, Centwine, drove the Welsh to the sea in 682, and added the Quantock district to his kingdom. Thus, before the end of the seventh century Saxon Christians were settled in parts of Somerset. We cannot doubt that the profession of a religion common to both races must have had a great influence in preventing a war of extermination in this county. Then, no doubt, began that blending of the two races which can be traced by ethnological observation in the county at the present day. Fair and dark haired people may be observed among the natives in almost every village.

The dialect of Somerset, and particularly that of the western part of the county, points to a commingling of different tribal people among the original settlers. In the west, Elworthy has found eight forms of plural terminations, and in a small district containing two or three villages, among which is Kingsbury, the word utch for I is still used.^[15] The use of this word utch or itch as a survival of the Anglo-Saxon ic for I was formerly common in the dialect of various parts of the county. The dialect of west Somerset thus clearly points to colonists of various origins.

The ancient ports of Somerset were Watchet and Portlock, and through them we may trace the immigration of early settlers, among whom probably came the colony from Sussex. One of the peculiarities of the settlement of the south-western counties is the evidence pointing to the establishment of colonies on the coasts before the occupation of the interior of these counties or the subjugation of the whole British population within them. Beddoe’s researches have shown that a population much fairer than that in the interior exists along the Devonshire coast.^[16]

At Exeter the custom of partible inheritance prevailed, the estate of the father being divided among both sons and daughters. This might well have been brought there by a colony of Goths and Frisians, as the custom can be traced among both these ancient races. This could not have been a British survival, for in Wales daughters had no share in the paternal estate.

There are in Cornwall traces of Norwegian settlements in the survival on some manors of the custom by which in default of sons the eldest daughter succeeded to the whole estate. In Cornwall, also, the ancient divisions were called shires instead of hundreds, corresponding to the names used in those parts of the northern counties where Scandinavians settled, and to the names of ancient divisions in Norway itself, which were also called shires.

The settlements that were formed on the south-western coasts of England resembled on the one hand those early colonies of Teutonic people on the southern and eastern coasts in the earliest Anglo-Saxon period, and on the other the later settlements of maritime people, including Danes and Northmen, on the coasts of Wales. The existence of colonies of Saxons on the eastern coasts before the end of the Roman rule can scarcely be open to doubt, from the historical mention of the Saxon shore and the ethnological evidence afforded by the people of the maritime parts of north-eastern France at the present time, the coast of which had a similar name. Similarly, some of the coast settlements of the south-western parts of England were probably of the nature of migrations from Kent and Sussex, in association with people of the same racial descent from Northern Europe. It must be remembered that the maritime skill of the people of the east coast of Kent and East Sussex appears always to have been great. They were the ancestors of the people of the Cinque Ports, and by them communications with the Continent during the Saxon period must have been largely maintained. When a migration became necessary for such a population, a maritime colony would naturally suggest itself, in which people of the same races would also probably take part. At the time of the Domesday Survey the burgesses of Dover by old custom supplied the King with twenty ships for fifteen days in the year, each with twenty-one men, and they did this because he had released to them his sake and soke.^[17] The maritime facilities of the Kent and Sussex ports must have been formerly relatively great.

In the west of England we can trace the probability of Kentish settlers by the survival here and there of the custom of dividing the lands among all the sons, although the divided parts were taxed collectively, and by the survival here and there of the name Kent. Kent is written in Domesday Book as Chent, and in the same record we find Chent, now Kenn, Chentone,now Kenton, and Chentesbere, now Kentisbear in Devonshire. In the Exon Domesday, Kenn on the Somerset coast, is also written Chent,^[18] and Kentisbere is written Chentesberia. Caninganmærsces is mentioned as an old name for the Kentish marshes, and Caninganmærsces in Somerset as an old name for Cannington Marshes.^[19]

It is difficult to see how these coincidences can be explained except on the supposition of Kentish settlements. Among other Kent names in Devon are those of Kent’s Cave at Torquay, and Kentsmoor, near Honiton. The place-name Hengestecote, in the parish of Bradford,^[20] Devon, occurs in Domesday Book, and Kentish people, or Jutes and Frisians, are the only races whose history and traditions tell us of Hengist, or among whom the personal name of the hero would be likely to survive. There was probably an early settlement at Crediton, as shown by the birth of Winfrith, the missionary Bishop of Germany, better known as Boniface, at that place in the seventh century.

That the early colonies of Teutonic people on the south Devon coast appear to have been either migrations from Kent or settlements of people of the same race as the Jutes—i.e., Goths and Frisians—is supported by the survival of the custom of gavelkind in Exeter and Totnes,^[21] by the names of settlers in the district around Honiton, of the Hunni tribe of Frisians, mentioned by Bede as among the ancestors of the English race, and by the survival of the Kentish name in certain places along the Devon coast. As regards the custom of partible inheritance at Exeter, it was the Kentish custom, under which daughters divided the patrimony if there were no sons, and not the Welsh, under which they had no inheritance. This is a remarkable fact, and the prevalence of the gavelkind custom also at Totnes adds to its significance. The custom of the Goths and Frisians in respect to inheritance extended the shares to daughters as well as to sons, as previously mentioned.

In a grant by King Æthelstan in A.D. 938^[22] to Earl Æthelstan of land at Lyme Regis, which is not far from Honiton, the name Huneford occurs as one of the boundaries. The Saxon names Hunespil, Honelanda, Honechercha, and Honessam, also, are met with in the Exon Domesday record. The Domesday name Hunitone for Honiton can scarcely have come from any other source than the head of a family named Huni, of the Hunni tribe, or from a kindred of Hunni or Frisian Hunsings. Another Domesday name in Devon is Frisehā, or Friseham, which appears to have been derived from the home of an original Frisian settler. Similarly, the names Brocheland and Godescote probably denote a family of the Brocmen or Boructers and of Goths. Galmentone points to British people, Danescome to Danes, and Essemundehord^[23] possibly to one or more Eastmen. There are also names in the Exon Domesday which point to the settlement in Devonshire of other Danish allies from some of the tribal people of the Baltic. Weringehorda and Wereingeurda appear to be named after one or more families of Warings, and the place-name Wedreriga, which is found in the same record, similarly denotes people from the Wedermark—i.e., Ostrogoths from the east of Lake Wetter in Sweden. The Anglo-Saxon Curi names in Somerset—Curi and Curesrigt, and Curylond, and Curymele, as well as others of the same kind in Cornwall, derived, apparently, from settlers’ names, are peculiar among English place-names, and may reasonably be connected with the Curones or Curlanders, who were allies of Danes and Northmen^[24] in some of their wars, and may have had representatives among Danish settlers in England.

The earliest settlements of Devonshire and Cornwall were probably all formed from the sea. In this they differed from Somerset, where the parts adjoining to Wilts and Dorset most likely received their earliest permanent colonists from the Wilsætas and Thornsætas of Wilts and Dorset. The Devonshire settlements began on the coast like the earlier ones of Kent, Sussex, and Wessex. It is no doubt owing to this that the Devon people along the south coast and banks of the navigable rivers are of fairer complexion at the present time than the people of the interior.^[25]

Of all the south-western counties, Devonshire and Cornwall afford perhaps the best example of the blending of the Teutonic and Celtic races. Herefordshire and Shropshire afford similar examples on the border of Wales. The old Cornish people differed from the Welsh in being probably of a darker complexion, owing to their descent more largely from an ancient darker stock. The same process that went on in Devon and Cornwall went on, apparently, in South Wales, but with a difference. In the south-western counties the Teutonic element absorbed the Celtic to a great extent. In South Wales the Teutonic element was to some extent absorbed in the Celtic. There is a considerable percentage of people in Cornwall who have red hair, and among the country people of South Wales there are some with red hair. It is certain that this is not a common characteristic of either the Cornish or the Welsh. It probably came in through settlers of another race in each case.

The custom of junior right prevailed on the three manors of Braunton, near Barnstaple. The place was no doubt originally one settlement, and the Domesday name Brungarstone may refer to it. In the mediæval period it became parcelled out, apparently, into three manors, all having the same custom of inheritance. The widow of a tenant had her customary dower of the whole of her husband’s land for her life, if she remained chaste and single, and the youngest son succeeded. If there were no sons, the daughters shared equally.^[26] This custom was not Welsh; it was not Saxon or Jutish; it was not Anglian. Unless the settlers at Braunton invented it—a most unlikely proceeding—they must have brought it with them, and as it did not prevail among the Britons or Scandinavians, or generally among the Frisians, it must have been brought into Devonshire by Wendish settlers, or perhaps in this instance by settlers from the hinterland of Frisia, or by a migration from the vale of Taunton. The common name, used locally, of Barum for Barnstaple,^[27] points, in reference to the common Frisian termination -um, to Frisian settlers in this neighbourhood.

Of all the counties in England at the present time, Cornwall has the darkest people. Its pre-Saxon inhabitants do not appear to have been all of one race. Some were descendants probably of the Neolithic or old Iberian stock, and some of the people of the Bronze Age. The former were long-headed; the latter were broad-headed. Beddoe recognises three race types among the Cornish people: (1) The Neolithic or Iberian; (2) the British or bronze broad-headed; (3) the Saxon or other Teutonic invaders. The physical type which struck his eye most in Cornwall was the first crossed by the second.^[28] Topinard, who also made observations in Cornwall, found there many people of a fair, tall type, with blue eyes, blonde hair, and a reddish complexion.^[29] These are clearly descendants from Teutonic or other settlers. A reddish complexion of some kind is, according to Ripley, one of the most general characters of the Slavs of Russia.^[30] Beddoe says also of the blue eyes: ‘I am not ready to admit that pure blue eyes are more common in the Teutonic than in the Slavonic or any other race.’^[31] There is, however, another trace of this racial character among the Cornish people, which is locally connected with a settlement of Danes, and survives to the present time. In all the western parishes of Cornwall there has existed time out of mind a great antipathy to red-haired families, who are popularly supposed to be descendants of Danes, and, much to their own disgust, are often called Danes or Deanes. As late as 1870 this local prejudice came out in a magisterial inquiry at Penzance.^[32]

The possibility that the Danes and Northmen who settled in parts of Cornwall had some Wendish allies among them finds support in the folk-lore of the county. Lach-Szyrma^[33] has drawn attention to the remarkable resemblance that exists between Slavonic and Cornish folk-tales, and has mentioned instances in which practically the same superstitions and omens prevail. Some of these relate to witches, omens connected with luck, storm myths, transfixing the fiend in mid air, the enchained spirit neither saved nor lost, the mermaid and the lady of the lake, the river claiming its yearly tribute of a life, etc. It is not improbable that these Cornish tales may have been introduced when the Scandinavians, who formed settlements on the coast, were in alliance with the Wends, as they were both before and during the time of Cnut. West Cornwall has apparently some traces of the mythology of these Wendish allies of the Danes. The Wendish word for Thursday is Peründan, after Perun, the thunder god, corresponding to the Norse Thor, and the Cornish place-name Mên Perhen and others may be traces of him.

Near Penzance, also, the Cornish black spirit of evil omen called Bucca, Bugga, or Buccaboo, is still remembered, and he may probably be traced to the old Slavic Boge, the general name for a deity, which after the Christian conversion became degraded to that of a hobgoblin. The most notable of the folk-tales common to Scandinavia and Pomerania on the one hand and to Cornwall on the other is probably that of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk,’ which is found with but slight variations, and does not appear to have been a native folk-tale in intervening countries. In Norway, the Cornish Jack the Giant-killer is also known.

The common personal names ending in -o among Cornish family names, such as Pasco, Jago, also point, apparently, to Scandinavian colonists.

The very old place-name Ruan, near the Lizard, is, of course, commonly derived from the saint so called, but, like some old names found in Anglo-Saxon charters, it is identical with the Latin Ruani used in old German records for the people of Rügen. The name of the Scilly Isles is Scandinavian, as is Grimsby, one of the places in the islands. St. Agnes, also, may not improbably be traced to Hagenes, a common name among the Norsemen.^[34] The Devonshire names ending in -beer, such as Rockbeer, Houndsbeer, Aylesbeer, Lungabeer, are perhaps of Norse origin, derived from the Old Norræna word byr, corresponding to by, the ending so common in the Lincolnshire place-names.

Those tenants who are entitled to common rights on Dartmoor are known as Venville tenants. The ancient form of this name was Wengefield or Vengefield, and it was applied to those free settlers in the villages around Dartmoor who had summer pasture rights upon it. In Lincolnshire there are many fields known as the wong, the older form of which was wang, such as Waring-wang and Quenildewang.^[35] The Old Norse word ‘vangr,’ or ‘vengi,’ appears to denote an enclosure.^[36] The word ‘wang’ or ‘wong’ for a field or plain may not improbably be traced to an old Northern dialect, and so be another trace of Scandinavian settlers in Devon.

The settlement of Danes and Northmen, probably in alliance with Wends or Frisians, in parts of Cornwall is shown by evidence of several kinds: (1) The Scandinavian place-names along the coast. Among these are Helston, which may have had some connection with a settler from Helsingland. All the chief harbours in Cornwall are or were anciently called havens, from the Danish havn—viz., Falmouth Haven, Helford Haven (leading to Helston), Bude Haven, and Fowey Haven. (2) The survival here and there in Cornwall of certain customs of inheritance which are not Celtic. On the manor of Blisland the tenant’s land, in default of sons, was inherited by the eldest daughter, a custom pointing to Norwegian settlers. On the other hand, at Helston the tenant’s customary heir was the youngest son, which points either to Wendish settlers or some of the tribal Frisians. Frisic is an old place-name near the Lizard. (3) There is also the evidence of the remarkable parallelism between some of the folk-lore of Cornwall and that of Pomerania, which points to Wendish allies among the Norse settlers. (4) The existence of fair people at the present time among those descended from old Cornish families.

The ancient circles of stone in Cornwall have no counterpart in the purely Celtic districts of Wales, but very much resemble those in Scandinavia and the parts of Britain occupied by the Northern race. The remains of numerous small camps or earthworks for defensive purposes along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, close to those rivers which might afford protection to the ships of an invader,^[37] point to enemies by sea, as do similar earth-works on the coasts further eastward. The most remarkable of these in Devon is Grimspound, in the parish of Manaton, which is a curious amphitheatre having within it no fewer than twenty circles, none of them more than 5½ yards in diameter. At the present time two of these circles have stones set up as pillars on their circumferences—thirty-five in one and twenty-seven in the other.^[38] All the circles appear to have originally had similar erect stones. The area of the whole enclosure is only 4 acres. This remarkable monument may mark the site of a Scandinavian battlefield. A battle is commemorated by a number of similar stone circles on Bravella Heath in Östergothland in Sweden.^[39] At Mortura in Ireland, also, two battles in which Northmen, called in the Irish records Tuatha de Dananns, are said to have been engaged, are similarly commemorated by stones arranged in circles spread over a large area.^[40]

There is evidence of early Scandinavians in Devon and Cornwall in the stones which have been discovered marked with ogham characters.^[41] There is further evidence of these settlements in Cornwall in inscriptions in the Northern language which have been found. The discovery of a block known as a pig of tin, now in the Truro Museum, with a runic figure stamped on it, proves that among the metal-workers in that county during the Anglo-Saxon period there must have been some to whom the runic letters were known. The figure on this block is, Stephen says, a well-known character of the English type, and has the equivalence of the letters st.^[42] It must be remembered, as already mentioned, that the Goths of Scandinavia, who first wrote in runic letters, were the most skilled metal-workers in Europe during the centuries immediately after the fall of the Roman Empire. Runic letters similar to those on the block of tin now at Truro have lately been discovered in an inscription found at Ödemotland in Norway, the identification of which was one of the last made by Stephens before his death.^[43] Another discovery pointing to Scandinavians or their descendants in Cornwall is that of the inscribed slab found at Lanteglos between Bodmin and Camelford, and now, or lately, in the rectory grounds at Lanteglos. It is not in runic letters, but in an old dialect resembling a Scandian dialect, and identified by Stephens as about A.D. 1100 in date.^[44]

There can therefore be no doubt that people speaking dialects of the Old Norræna or Danish language were settled in isolated colonies at an early period on the coasts of the south-western counties, or that in the tenth century, when King Edgar ordered his laws ‘to be common to all the people, whether English, Danes, or Britons, on every side of my dominions,’ he had in view these maritime settlements in the south as well as the great Danish settlements in the north and east.

The arrangement of the homesteads over a great part of the south-western counties, more particularly in the hilly parts, is even at the present time largely that of isolated farms and hamlets. This is probably a survival of that of the Celtic tribesmen,^[45] who had both permanent and temporary homesteads, feeding their herds in summer on the higher ranges of the hills and in winter in the villages, as is the case in the Highlands of Scotland and in Switzerland. The same homestead arrangement prevails in Scandinavia.

The settlement of the south-western counties was accompanied by a migration of some British people, and perhaps by a reflux of descendants of the same race. As Wales was the refuge of those who were driven from the old homes in the midland counties, and Cumberland their refuge in the north, so there is both historical and archæological evidence that Brittany received Celtic refugees from probably the south-western parts of Britain. We are told that ‘Britons who dwelt as early as the sixth century beyond the sea were passing over into Lesser Britain’—i.e., Brittany.^[46] At that time Armorica, although diminished from its ancient extent, still existed as a separate State, extending as far south as Nantes.^[47] There is evidence in relation to South Wales, as will be stated in the next chapter, to show that some very early Teutonic settlements were established in Pembrokeshire, and equally early colonies may have been formed on the south-west coast of England. Ermold, a French monk who wrote in the early part of the ninth century, records the arrival in Brittany of Britons fleeing from their Teutonic enemies,^[48] and he lived sufficiently near to the time in which this migration is said to have occurred for the traditions concerning it to have been local history when he visited Armorica in 824. In connection with this migration, we must consider also the interesting contemporary statement of Asser, that in King Alfred’s time Armoricans were among those people of foreign birth who voluntarily placed themselves under his rule. In Alfred’s time some of the descendants of the former British refugees may well have returned, and if so, the south-western counties probably received them.

1. Beddoe, J., ‘Races in Britain,’ 258.
2. Shillibeer, H. B., ‘History of the Manor of Taunton Dean,’ Appendix, xxvii.
3. Ibid., pp. 31-67, and Horsfield, T. W., ‘History of Lewes,’ 178, 179.
4. Collinson, J., ‘History of Somersetshire,’ iii. 294.
5. Codex Dipl., Nos. 1052, 1083.
6. Ibid., Nos. 73 and 567.
7. Collinson, J., loc. cit., iii. 61.
8. Taxatio Eccl. P. Nich., 179.
9. Testa de Nevill, 416.
10. Domesday Book.
11. Testa de Nevill, 159b.
12. Cal. Inq. Post-mortem, iv. 85.
13. Ibid., iv. 311, 374.
14. Testa de Nevill, 82
15. Elworthy, F. T., ‘Grammar of the Dialect of West Somerset,’ p. 34.
16. Beddoe, J., loc. cit., p. 258.
17. Maitland, F. W., ‘Domesday Book and Beyond,’ p. 209.
18. Exon Domesday, p. 132.
19. Camden, ‘Britannia,’ edited by Gough, i. cx.
20. Cal. Close Rolls, 1323-1327, p. 597.
21. Devonshire Association, Report and Trans., vol. xii., 193, quoting Hoker’s MS.
22. Cart. Sax., ii. 438.
23. Dom. Bk., Index.
24. Saxo Grammaticus.
25. Beddoe, J., loc. cit., p. 49.
26. Devonshire Association, Report and Transactions, xx. 278, 255.
27. Gribble, J. B., ‘Memorials of Barnstaple,’ pp. 1, 2.
28. Beddoe, J., Journal of the Anthropological Inst., New Series, i. 328.
29. Ibid., i. 329, quoted by Beddoe.
30. Ripley, W. Z., ‘Races of Europe,’ 346, 361.
31. Beddoe, J., ‘Races of Britain,’ p. 76.
32. Bottrell, W., ‘Traditions of West Cornwall,’ 148.
33. Lach-Szyrma, W. S., Folk-Lore Record, iv. 52.
34. Streatfield, G. S., ‘Lincolnshire and the Danes,’ 28.
35. Ibid., 152.
36. Ibid.
37. Polwhele, R., ‘History of Cornwall,’ iii. 20.
38. Devonshire Association, Report and Trans., v. 41.
39. Fergusson, J., ‘Rude Stone Monuments,’ 281.
40. Ibid., 176-183.
41. Taylor, I., ‘Greeks and Goths,’ 110.
42. Stephens, G., Old Northern Runic Monuments,’ i. 372,
43. Ibid., iv. 25.
44. Ibid., iv. 102.
45. Seebohm, F., ‘Tribal Custom in Wales,’ 46, 47.
46. Boase, W. C., ‘The Age of the Saints,’ 165, quoting ‘Chron. in Morice,’ i. 3
47. Ibid.
48. Ermoldus, Nigellus, Monumenta Germaniæ, ii. 490.