Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/17

THE PRIORY. 3 Domesday Book alleges that the Earl Moriton (Robert, half brother to the Conqueror) took from Launceston a market valued at twenty shillings, which lay there in the time of Edward the Confessor (1041-1066). This re- markable statement throws light on the relative conditions of Launceston and Dunheved at that time. It appears from the Red Book of the Exchequer that the Conqueror had enacted, " That no market or fair shall be, nor be permitted, except in cities of our kingdom, and in boroughs, and in walled towns, and in castles, and in safe places, where the customs of our kingdom and the laws of the same, and the dignity of our crown, which were consti- tuted by our good predecessors, cannot be taken away." The Launceston market was transferred to the Earl's castle, or to the walled town of Dunheved. The manor of Launceston comprised, in 1085, four hides of land. The arable land was twenty carucates, the pasture three carucates and seven leagues, and the woodland sixty acres. The hide contained about one hundred and twenty acres ; the carucate or plough-land was as much arable as could be managed in a year with one plough, and the acre seems originally to have meant any enclosure or open field, without absolute reference to extent, until the quantity was defined by statute 33 Ed. I. (1305). "God's acre" was the consecrated enclosure, whether large or small, for bury- ing the dead. The subsequent borough of Newport, and the Priory, were undoubtedly within the manor of Launceston. dL)t IPrtorp. Soon after the Domesday Survey, namely, about the year 1 126, King Henry I., finding the Canons of St. Stephen inadequately provided for, granted their possessions to William de Warlewast, then Bishop of Exeter, who re- founded the College, and placed therein canons professing B 2