sium Monachorum, in honorem sanctæ Dei genitricis, sempérque virginis, Mariæ, in villà de Spalding; totum manerium meum situm juxtà parochialem Ecclesiam ejusdem villæ, [inter manerium prædicti domini mei Leofrici Comitis, et ripam occidentalem fluminis ejusdem villa] cum omnibus terris et tenementis, reditibus, servitiis, averiis, et utensilibus, quæ habui in dicto manerio, et in dictâ villâ, et in campis ejus, tàm in parte orientali fluminis quàm in ejus parte occidentali, cum omnibus appendiciis suis; scilicet,

Colgrinum, præpositum meum, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ villâ et in campis ejus et mariscis, absque aliquo de omnibus retinemento:

Item Hardingum, fabrum, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ villa et in campis ejus et mariscis, absque ullo de omnibus retinemento:

" Item Lefstanum, carpentarium, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ villâ et in campis ejus et in mariscis, absque aliquo de omnibus retinemento:

"Item Ryngulphum, primum, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ villa et in campis ejus, et mariscis, absque aliquo de omnibus retinemento:

"Item Elstanum, piscatorem, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ villà et in campis ejus, et in mariscis, absque ullo de omnibus retinemento:

"Item Gunterum Liniet, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ

villâ et campis ejus et in mariscis, absque ullo de omnibus retinemento:

" Item Outy Grimkelson, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictà villâ, et in campis ejus, et in mariscis, absque ullo de omnibus retinemento:

"Item Turstanum Dubbe, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ villà, et in campis ejus, et in mariscis, absque ullo de omnibus retinemento:

" Item Algarum nigrum, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ villà, et in campis ejus, et in mariscis, absque ullo de omni bus retinemento:

"Item Edricum, filium Siwardi, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ villa, et in campis ejus, et mariscis, absque ullo de omnibus retinemento:

❝Item Osmundum, molendinarium, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ villâ et in campis ejus et mariscis, absque ullo de omnibus retinemento:

Item Besi Tuk, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ villâ et in campis et mariscis ejus, absque ullo de omnibus retine

mento:

"Item Elmerum de Pyncebek, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ villâ et in campis ejus, et mariscis, absque ullode omnibus retinemento:

❝Item Gouse Gamelson, et totam sequelam suam, cum omnibus bonis et catallis quæ habet in dictâ villâ

et

et in campis ejus et mariscis, absque ullo de omnibus

retinemento:

"Istos servos meos, et omnia bona et catalla eorum, cum omnibus cotagiis quondam meis, situatis in orientali parte fluminis circà ligneam capellam sanctæ Mariæ in villa de Spalding, ab antiquo,* Croylandensi monasterio pertinentem, cum omnibus juribus et aliis rebus appendentibus, Dedi Deo et Sancto Guthlaco, ad constructionem prædictæ cellæ, unà cum omnibus pis: cationibus reis tàm in mariscis adjacentibus quàm in mari ad dictam illam accedente, in Iberam et perpetuam Ele-emosynam meam, pro salute animæ meæ et animarum omnium progenitorum et parentum

meorum.

"Istud meum Chirographum apud Leycestriam, in præsentià multorum Christi fidelium ibidem in die sancto Pentecostes collectorum, anno Dominicæ In, carnations M.L.I. Ego Thoroldus signo sanctæ Crucis confirmavi.

"Ego, Wifinus, Episcopus Dorcacestrensis, ratificavi. t

"Ego, Wlgatus, Abbas Croylandiæ, gaudens acceptavi. †

Ego, Lefwinus, Abbas Thorneyensis, collaudavi. t

"Ego, Leofricus, Comes, concessi.

"Ego, Godiva, Comitissa, diù istud desideràvi. "Ego, Algarus, Comes, consensi. †

"Ego, Turnerus, Capellanus Domini mei Wlfini, Episcopi Dorcacestrensis, præsens affui. †

"Ego, Wulnarus, Capellanus ejusdem domini mei Wlfini Episcopi, auscultavi. †

"Ego, Sitricus, Capellanus dicti domini mei Wlfini, aspexi. †

66

Ego, Stanardus, minister domini mei Comitis Leofrici, interfui. t

66

Ego, Fulco, monachus Croylandiæ, applausi. † "Ego, Pigotus, monachus Thorneiensis, conspexi. †

"Ego, Livingus, Clericus, istud Chirographum manu meâ scripsi, et domino Thoroldo, Vicecomiti, tradidi, prædicto Wulgato, Abbati Croylandiæ, de manu in manum donandum.”

See Gale's edition of the Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores veteres, in three small folio volumes printed at Oxford in the year 1684, Vol. I. page 86.

In this grant, or Chirograph, (as it is there called,) we see that thirteen inhabitants of the town, or village, of Spalding, with all their family, totam sequelam suam, and all their goods and their cattle in the said town, are transferred, or made-over, by name, to the abbot of Crowland, as appendages to the manor of Spalding, by Thorold, their former lord, or owner. And among these we find a man named Colgrin, who is called the Præpositus of Thorold in the said manor, which I take to be his bailiff, or chief manager of his concerns and interests in the said manor; and another man named Harding, who is called Faber, and seems to have been the blacksmith of the town of Spalding; and a third named Lefstan, who is called Carpentarius, and whom I suppose to have been the cart-wright, or maker of carpenta, or carts, in the same town; and a fourth named Elstan, who was a

fisherman;

fisherman; and a fifth named Osmund, who was a miller. There is therefore no manner of ground for the opinion that some persons have been inclined to adopt, and which formerly prevailed amongst many of the soldiers of Oliver Cromwell's army about the year 1647," that in the time of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs of England, and particularly in the reign of the great and good king Alfred, every man in England was perfectly free, and that slavery was first introduced into this kingdom by the Norman conquest." That conquest was certainly an unjust invasion and usurpation, and produced a great deal of misery in England by dispossessing all the English gentry who opposed it, that is, in the end of the Conqueror's reign, (after the suppression of numerous rebellions against his authority,) of almost all the English gentry in the kingdom, of their estates, which the Conqueror granted away to his Norman, and other foreign, supporters: but it made no change as to personal liberty in the kingdom, and but little affected the peasantry of the country, who only changed their masters, and became the dependants of their new Norman land-lords, or grantees of confiscated estates, in the same manner and upon the same conditions and services, (whether as slaves, or villains regardant, or as free-men,) as they had before been the dependents of their former English land-lords.

It may further be observed concerning the foregoing grant of the manor of Spalding, that the manner of executing it by the grantor and the grantee, and the other persons whose consent was necessary to its confirmation, and the manner of attesting the execution of it by the other persons above-mentioned who were

only