Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/289

 ii s. x. OCT. 10, 19U.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the task of portioning the total hidage among the individual parishes was under- taken. The boundaries of the diocese of London must also have been settled in their mediaeval state. The separate deaneries may afford a clue to the manner in which the subdivision of the larger totals was effected. Thus, still utilizing Mr. Rick- word's figures, the 650 hides of Colchester proper seem to have been allotted thus :

Standard. Recorded.

hides. hides, acres.

Witham Deanery .. .. 170 172 27

Lexden with Colchester. . 240 237 54

Tendring 240 241 87

650

651 48

The corresponding hundreds give the same totals, viz., Witham with Thurstable, Lexden with Colchester and Winstree, and Tendring. The hundreds of themselves do not show how they should be grouped.

The ecclesiastical boundaries were not arbitrary, but founded on old distinctions, often remaining unchanged when the secular boundaries altered. When it is remembered that the East Saxons had at various times three kings, the three ecclesiastical divisions of Essex may be pointed to in illustration. The archdeaconry of Essex is no doubt Essex properly so called ; Colchester and Middlesex had their under-kings, whose districts or provinces may be shown by the boundaries of the archdeaconries. The detached part of Colchester in the north- west is an anomaly. It may have belonged originally to the East Angles of Cambridge- shire and have come to the under-king of Colchester by marriage. Its principal hun- dred (Uttlesford) is the upper part of the Cam valley, and the name of this hundred has a curious resemblance to Whittlesford, its northern neighbour in Cambridgeshire.

In Bede's time (672-735) London was the chief city of the East Saxons ; it may be regarded as a federal capital. Later it had a separate archdeacon. WhenMellitus(c. 600) went to preach the Gospel to the East Saxons, a church was built for him in London. Sebert, then king of the East Saxons, is traditionally the founder of the first abbey at Westminster. So far as appears from th<> story he ruled alone, but his three sons succeeded him in the kingdom, and the division above indicated may have been due to the arrangement they made. When Cedd about 653 restored the Christian religion among the East Saxons, he built monastic

churches at Ithancestir (Bradwall) and Tilbury, both within the archdeaconry of Essex possibly an indication that that was- the principal portion of the kingdom of his patron Sigebert, then king of the East Saxons. This king was succeeded by Suid- helm, and he in turn by Sighere and Sebbi,. who were reigning together in 665. The same kings were still reigning in 676, when Erconwald was appointed Bishop of London. That Sebbi reigned in Essex proper appears from his charter to Barking Abbey, dated in 692 or 693. He would then be an old man ; and two other kings, as appears from the charter, were associated with him Sigiheard and Suebred, no doubt his sons. The last-named, as king of the East Saxons, in 704 gave or confirmed to the bishop the place called Twickenham in the " province " of Middlesex. If Sebbi reigned in Essex proper and Middlesex, his partner Sighere appears to have had the Colchester district, for St. Osith is assigned to him as wife, and' he is said to have given her Chich, within the later archdeaconry of Colchester, as the site of a monastery. St. Osith was a Mer- cian princess. It is noteworthy, as showing political cleavage between two sections of the East Saxons, that after Sighere and his people had apostatized in a time of pestilence,, they were brought back to the faith, not by the Bishop of London, but by Jaruman,. Bishop of Lichfield. The dedication of St. Runwald's in Colchester may be another sign of Mercian influence in that part of the county. Sighere's son Offa, called " king- of the East Saxons " by Bede, imitated the king of the Mercians in resigning his king- dom in 709 ; the two went together to Rome, where they became monks. In 797 Siric, king of the East Saxons, went to Rome. The East Saxon " kingdom " is mentioned in the Chronicle in 838 and 854, possibly in revivals ; in 897 it was not a king, but an " ealdorman," Bertulf, who was in command.

Of the peculiar detached portion of Col- chester in the north-west nothing much can be said. The abbey of Ely had posses- sions there. King Ethelred in 1004 gave the monks 20 hides at Littlebury, and sold to them in 1008 Cadenhou (now Hadstock) and Strethall, having 19 and 10 hides respectively. Cadenhou had only 2 hides in 1066, so that a great part must have been alienated. Mr. Round has pointed out the prevalence of the 5 - hide unit in this part of the county (Engl~ Hist, Rev., July, 1914).

J. BKOWNBUX.