This brings us to the Hundred Rolls, some thirty years later, and to the 'Monasticon' document. Here again we have Honington divided into three portions, and only three, of which one was held of the Earls of Chester and the other two of the 'Gaunt' fief. Of these two one was held by the Crevequer family throughout, as half a knight's fee,[1] and their name is correctly given in the 'Monasticon' and the Hundred Rolls. The other (which is the portion of Honington with which alone we are concerned) was similarly held throughout, as a quarter of a knight's fee, by the family of Armenters or Ermenters.[2] It is this last name which has been corrupted into 'Ermondeys' and which the daring of a pedigree-maker has eventually converted into 'Estmonte.'[3]
We have, happily, the highest evidence of all for the true name of the house which gave its land at Honington to Stixwold. The original charter of donation is preserved at the British Museum (Eg. Ch. 427), and by it the twelve bovates, which, the Testa de Nevill has shown us,[4] were the holding of the Armenters family, are given by David 'de Arment(er)iis' to Stixwold. In the legend on the fine seal attached to this charter the name is given in bold letters as ARMENTIRS. The Museum authorities assign this Charter to about 1150, so that the donor may well be identical with that David who held no fewer than ten knights' fees on the 'Gaunt' fief (then
- ↑ This enables us to localize the half knight's fee held by Reginald (de) Crevequer on this fief in 1166 (Red Book of the Exchequer, p. 383).
- ↑ These two forms of the name were used indifferently at the time. Thus, at Cranwell (a few miles north-east of Honington) which the family held also of the Gaunts, the same man is described as Geoffrey 'de Ermet's' and 'de Armet's' in two consecutive entries (Testa de Nevill, p. 319), so also we have 'Ermenteres' and 'Armet's' in Rotulus de oblatis et finibus. The same alternative forms are found on the other side of the Channel.
- ↑ Although the corruption of the name on the Hundred Roll has been
demonstrated by record evidence, it may be as well to mention that an equally wild corruption of it appears on the corresponding Hundred Roll for another Wapentake (3 Ed. I.) where we read of the family's holding at Cranwell, not far from Honington, that the Templars of Temple Bruern held—
'unum feodum militis in Cranewell … ex dono Gerardi (sic) de Emycers qui tenuit illud feodum de Gysilbrycht (sic) de Gaunt.
… et elemosinatur ex dono Gerardi (sic) de Ermycers elapsis C annis, qui quidem Gerardus tenuit de Gysilbricht de Gaunt' (Rot. Hund. I. 278).
Here we have the same loose reckoning of 'a hundred years back' as on p. 191 above. The Testa (p. 319) gives us the right version, by which the Templars hold 'de dono Galfridi de Arme(n)t(er)s.' - ↑ See p. 191 note 2 above.
