A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
In the regions to the north of Amounderness, Earl Tostig's manors comprised the greater part of territories known as Lonsdale, Kendal, Cartmel, and Furness. Under his capital manor of Grindleton, which lay across the Ribble facing the most northerly point of the land between Ribble and Mersey, were grouped the twelve manors which constituted the territory known as Bowland. Intermingled with Tostig's vast estate were: (1) Torfin's chief manor of Austwick, in Yorkshire, with two adjacent manors in that county, the three distant manors of Caton, Claughton, and Warton, in Lancashire, and eight manors in Westmorland; (2) Chetel's Yorkshire manor of Bentham, with Wennington, Tatham, and Farleton, in Lancashire; (3) a small group of manors near Lancaster (Ashton and Cockerham); (4) Gillemichael's great Westmorland manor of Strickland, including Kirkby Kendal. All these manors we may look upon as having belonged to followers of Tostig, holding as thegns under the earldom of Northumbria. Evidence of this seems to be afforded by the fact that the regions lying between the Duddon and the Ribble, including Kendal, but excluding those manors which lay in Ewcross wapentake and in Bowland, were united for the levying of geld into a division assessed for 500 carucates.[1] Perhaps this ownership also explains the complete break up of these estates after the conquest and their re-arrangement in new manorial groups.
Having thus examined the physical divisions of the embryo county of Lancaster, we may next consider the personal and statistical condition of these districts at the time of the conquest, as revealed in Domesday Book. Passing over, for the moment, the royal demesne, and turning to the manors held in thegnage and drengage, we find a few thegns in possession of a larger franchise than the majority enjoyed. Between Ribble and Mersey, the most important of these was Ughtred, thegn of Roby, Knowsley, Kirkby, Little Crosby, Maghull, and Achetun (i.e. Bickerstaffe), in which manors he held two hides, woodland two leagues in length and as much in breadth, and two eyries of hawks. Altogether seventeen manors in West Derby hundred had been in the possession of 'Uctred.' In the case of Kirkdale we are able to identify the owner with the thegn of Roby, because he is subsequently stated to have certain franchises in connexion with Kirkdale and Little Crosby; it is therefore probable that it was the same Ughtred who held Aughton, and the three manors of Dalton, Skelmersdale, and Uplitherland, a manor in Lathom, another in Hurleton (including Scarisbrick), and a moiety of Martin. As Lathom at an early date gave its name to the family who were for centuries settled there, and under whom Hurleton and Scarisbrick were held by the yearly service of 8s., or at the Domesday rate of 32d. for the carucate; and as the same family also held Roby, Knowsley, Huyton, and Tarbock for one knight's fee, it seems probable that Ughtred of 1066 was the predecessor of the Lathoms, and possibly immediate
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- ↑ In the districts north of the Ribble the incidence of 'hundreds' consisting of 12 carucates in groups of 7 (84. car.) is remarkable. Thus Amounderness consisted of 4 parishes containing 168 carucates, or two groups of '7 hundreds.' Lancaster, Cartmel, and Furness contained 248½ car. or 3½ car. less than three groups of '7 hundreds,' Kendal contained exactly 84 car., or one group of '7 hundreds.' Again, the Yorkshire district of Craven, including Ewcross wapentake and Bowland, contained 504 car. 6 bov., or 6 bov. more than six groups of '7 hundreds.' Thus the component parts of Lancashire north of the Ribble, with Kendal and Craven, contained 1,005 car. 2 bov., a total which closely approximates to 12 groups of '7 hundreds' (12 x 7 x 12 = 1,008 car.). Mr. Round has called attention to these groups of 7 hundreds in Feudal England, 78-9.
