Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/334

 A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE name of ^Ethelwine ' after his monastic profession.' The Pershore annals give his epitaph, which speaks of him as originally ' iEdwinus vocatus in baptismo,' and he may have adopted the name Odo (which was Anglicized as ' Odda ') when he joined the foreign party. The English chronicle describes him at his death as ' a good man and pure, and very noble ' ; and Worcestershire, where he rests, may claim this lord of Longdon as one of the earliest names that adorns its roll of worthies. It was probably the remoteness of its great estate in this part of the world that led Westminster Abbey to enfeoff almost all its knights there.^ For the obnoxious duty of providing knights was laid upon it as on Worcester. It is a striking feature of the Domesday survey of the abbey's lands in Worcestershire that the irrepressible sheriff Urse is entered as its tenant in no fewer than fourteen places, holding in all some 50 hides. This holding was represented, eighty years later, by the seven knights' fees which his heir, William de Beau- champ, then held of the abbey. ^ The largest of the abbey's manors held, in Domesday, by Urse was that of 'Newentune' (10 hides), which obtained from his heirs its name of Naunton Beauchamp. Next in importance among the abbey's vassals in 11 66 was Hugh 'Puher,' who held three knights' fees,^ representing some 20 hides which Walter ' Ponther ' held of the abbey in 1086.* It is remarkable that, as we saw was the case with the Worcester fief, the Westminster return of knights (1166) commences with the statement that the King himself owes the Abbot the service of one knight in respect of ' Stokes in Wirecestrescira,' that is of Severnstoke, which was then in his hands.^ Pershore Abbey, in spite of its large holding in the county (100 hides), was only called on to supply two or three knights — the Abbot said two, and he seems to have carried his point.* The entry of its Domesday fief, though by no means long, is interesting and instructive. In no fewer than seven cases had Urse, the insatiable sheriff, obtained lands on the fief, while his brother Robert, in addition, had secured 3^ hides at Wadborough. It is clear, however, that the Domesday Commissioners overhauled the claims even of the dreaded Urse. In one case his predecessor, they record, had only a life interest in the land ; in another he was ' the third heir ' under a lease for three lives, so that the land, they record, should revert to the abbey at his death. In two cases he pleaded that the land was given him by the King, and in one of these he admitted that he was bound to render the abbey ' service ' for it. Of his hide at Bransford, the county (court) asserted compare the 1212 return in Testa de Nevill (p. 43). 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. ^ Red Book of the Exchequer, pp. 59, 132, 188. (It is not identified by the editor.) See also The Commune of London and other studies, p. 265. knights were due. 260
 * See the return of its knights in 1166 {Red Book of the Exchequer, pp. 188-9). And
 * All in Worcestershire, save one hide in Gloucestershire (Domesday).
 * The I2I2 survey states his lands to be free save Beoley and Caldecot, from which two