THE DOMESDAY SURVEY which cities (crvt'tates) are in a marked and designed way distinguished from other towns which were not cities.' ' That the term ' city ' did not then imply the seat of a bishopric is a point which was rightly made by Mr. Freeman ; where he erred was in holding, most characteristi- cally, that Domesday distinguished clearly between chitates and burgi* and that it reserved the former term for ' the great and important towns.' Norwich, greater and far more important than Colchester or most of Domesday's ' civitates,' is always a ' burgus ' in the record. It may be interesting to note that ' civitas ' is applied to York, Lincoln, Chester, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Worcester, Gloucester, Leicester, Exeter, Oxford, Chichester, Canterbury and Rochester, as well as to Colchester. But, as at Colchester, we find ' burgus ' as well as ' civitas ' used at Chester, 3 Leicester * and Worcester,' while at Gloucester we find the phrase * in burgo civitatis.' It is tempting to conclude that the civitas, at Colchester, represents the entire area as against the burgus or walled space, but at Chester, Hereford and Leicester the phrase murus civitatis * distinctly proves that civitas was used for the walled enclosure. In 1882 I sug- gested that this might be accounted for by that enclosure monopolizing in places the term civitas which had originally belonged to the whole area, while in others, as at Colchester, the differentiation was inchoate. 7 When, in the case of the Essex town, it was at last effected, the walled space was known as the burgus and the surrounding area as the banleuca, as we see in the charter of Richard I. Whether this explanation be deemed satisfactory or not, I have no better one to offer now. 8 It is worth noting that of all the towns to which Domesday applies the term ' civitas,' Colchester and Rochester are the only ones which are not now the capitals of their counties ; and Rochester, of course, was the capital of west Kent and is still the seat of its bishop's see. The opening portion of the survey deals with Greenstead, which is still one of the four parishes outside the walls, from which, indeed, it stands some distance off". Four hides which had been held there by Godric were equally divided between his sons, an interesting example of such division. The meadow (or ' meadow and marsh ') was also equally divided, * 1 2 acres ' falling to the share of each brother, and so was the mill (on the Colne). The church, however, which Godric had held, was allotted entire to one portion, probably because it had no endowment. Houses were appurtenant to Godric's estate, and the phrase ' iiii 1 'City and Borough' (Macmillan'i Magazine [1889], IT. 31). He even held that the Norman- ized Edward and his successor ' taught people to distinguish certain places as civitates' (ibid. p. 33). 8 ' The places to which the name of city is given are clearly the great and important towns, some of them Roman chesters, some of them English settlements which had greatly outstripped their fellows, towns which were local centres and something more, towns which had more or less of an independent municipal constitution,' etc., etc. (ibid. p. 32). 1 'Terra in qua e>t templum Sancti Petri . . . nunquara pertinuit ad Manerium extra clvitatem, ted ad turgum pertinet.' 4 ' Redditus cii-itatii ... in eodem iurgo.' 6 ' Consuetudines burp . . . redditus civitatii.' 1 The/onatum civitatis occurs at Canterbury. 7 See Antiquary, v. 249, for fuller statement.
- It is remarkable that Colchester was still entered as a ' civitas ' in the Pipe Roll of 1 1 30.
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