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History of Dunham-on-Trent
HE village of Dunham is situated on the west bank of the river Trent, six miles E. N. E. of Tuxford, and thirty miles from the town of Nottingham. It is in the ancient Wapentake of Bassetlaw.
Several suggestions have been made with regard to the derivation of the name Dunham. The most probable is that given by Mr. Mutschmann ("The Place Names of Nottinghamshire"), namely, that the first syllable is a personal name Dun(a), and "ham," an old English word for "homestead or village," and therefore means "the homestead of Dun." He also says that in Old English "dun" means a "hill," and that the word may mean "the village on the hill." However, one is inclined to the belief that the chief part of the village has always been on the level, near the river.
A PORTION OF DUNHAM VILLAGE Taken from the Church Tower, looking west
Though Dunham is not far from two Roman Roads, namely, the great North Road and the road that passed through Sturton and Littleborough to Lincoln, yet there is no indication of the Romans having had a camp here.
Most probably Dunham was a Saxon settlement, Dun or Duna being the name of the chief who settled here. It was in the old kingdom of Mercia that the Saxons first settled in Britain in the latter part of the fifth century. They sailed up the Trent, and made settlements in these parts. The earliest settlement would consist of a number of houses or huts built of timber and mud, and enclosed by a wooden fence and the river. It was about the year 449 that the Saxons first invaded Britain, and the land through which the Trent flows was probably almost the earliest occupied by our heathen forefathers.
When did the inhabitants of Dunham first become Christians? We know from history that in the seventh century Paulinus preached the Gospel in this neighbourhood, and baptized many converts in the river Trent. Paulinus was one of the missionaries sent from Rome by Gregory the Great in 601 to assist Augustine in the conversion of England. It was through his influence that Edwin, king of Northumberland, was converted to Christianity; he was baptized, together with his two sons, and other of his household and lords, on Easter Eve, April 11th, 627.
Paulinus was the first Archbishop of York. He accompanied Edwin on a visit which he made to the valley of the Trent, being part of his dominion south of the Humber, and baptised a large number of people in the Trent at a place called Trivulfingacester. The late Rev. R. E. G. Cole, in his history of Torksey, gives good reason to suppose that it was Torksey, where the Fosse Dyke flows into the river Trent.
We cannot say that Paulinus ever came to Dunham, but we may perhaps assume that not long after the event just recorded the seed of the Word of God was sown here, which bore fruit in the conversion to Christianity of the chief and all his people. When this blessed change took place, the chief would cause a church to be erected, probably on the very spot where the present Church now stands; it would originallly be built of wood. Thus Christianity was very likely established here in the seventh century, four hundred years before Dunham is first mentioned in history.
In the ninth century Dunham would be much disturbed by the inroads of the Danes, who, like the Saxons had done, came sailing up the Trent plundering towns and villages.
In the year 868 an army of Danes entered the kingdom of Mercia, and came to Nottingham, but peace was agreed upon without much fighting. It was the Danes who gave the name to the tidal wave that rushes up the Trent twice a day, and sometimes reaches as far as Dunham Bridge. When the Danes saw the tidal wave disturb the evenly flowing waters of the river, and when overtaken unawares by it, they exclaimed "O AEger" (AEger being the name of their god of the river). Thus the word aeger was given to the wave itself.
When William the Conqueror became King of England he caused a survey to be made of the country which he had conquered, the particulars of which are written in a book called "Domesday," dated 1086.
The mention of Dunham in Domesday Book is as follows :—
"Manor in Dunham with the four Berewics Ragenehil, Wimentun, Derlunetun, Suanesterne. King Edward had 5 carucates of land and a half to be taxed. Land to 12 ploughs. The King has now there 2 ploughs in the demesne and 60 Villanes and 3 Bordars, having 10 ploughs and one mill of three shillings, and one fishery of ten shillings and eight pence, and 120 acres of meadow. Wood pasture 6 quarentens long and 4 broad. They paid in King Edward's time 30 pounds and 6 sextaries of honey, now 20 pounds with all things that belong to it." Then follows a list of the sokes of the Manor with particulars of the land in each, namely, '' In Draitone 2 carucates of land and 3 oxgangs and one-fifth part of one oxgang to be taxed. Land to 5 ploughs. 16 Sokemen and 17 Villanes have there 13 ploughs and 20 acres of meadow. Wood pasture one quarenten long and half broad. In Marchan (Markham East and Great) 3 carucates of land and half to be taxed. Land to 10 ploughs. 25 Sokemen and 15 Villanes have there 10 ploughs. There is a Church and Priest and 40 acres of meadow and very little coppice wood. In Grenleige (Greenley Little) 2 oxgang of land one-sixth part of an oxgang to be taxed. Land to 2 ploughs. 5 Sokemen and one Bordar have there 2 ploughs. Wood pasture 4 quarentens long 4 broad. In Ordeshale (Ordsall) one oxgang of land to be taxed. Land to one plough. 2 Sokemen have there one plough and 3 acres of meadow and 3 acres of wood. In Grave (Grove) and Hedune (Headon) half an oxgang of land to be taxed. Land to one ox; and 2 acres of meadow, it is waste. In Upeton (Upton) one oxgang of land to be taxed. Land to one plough and a half and 3 acres of meadow. Wood pasture 2 quarentens long one broad. In Normentone (Normanton) one oxgang of land and a half to be taxed. One moiety of this land belongs to Eddune (Headon) the other to Bodmefeald (Bothamsall). It is waste. Wood pasture 3 quarentens long 2 broad."
The method of measuring land in those days was quite different to that to which we are accustomed. A carucate was as much arable land as could be managed with one plough and the beasts belonging thereto in one year. It was equal to 8 oxgangs or 120 acres. An oxgang was as much land as a pair of oxen can keep in husbandry, usually about 15 acres. A quarenten was equal to 40 perches or a furlong. A sextary was an ancient dry or liquid measure containing about n pint.
The king was the chief landowner in Nottinghamshire, the extent of whose possessions may be gathered from Domesday map. Stretching across some 60 vills, they were in fact almost entirely grouped as "sokelands" or "berewicks" round the five great manors of Dunham, Bothamsall, Mansfield, Arnold, and Oreton. It is interesting to note that Dunham stands first on the list, and therefore was the most important of the King's manors in the county. Berewicks are manors within manors. Dunham was the chief manor to which was attached the manors or berewicks of Ragenhil, Wimentun, Derlunetun, Suanesterne. Each of these manors held a court called Court Leet, but the manor of Dunham held jurisdiction over these. Two of these berewicks, Wimentun and Suanesterne, have entirely disappeared. Wimentun, about which I shall have more to write, still existed in the 15th century, but of the latter nothing is known except as a fieldname, frequently mentioned in deeds of transfer. Independent of these favoured areas the king had others which lay further from the centre, these he reduced to "sokes," which meant that they were merged or incorporated into the chief manor of Dunham. The sokemen were what we should call tenant farmers, they paid rent, which was called soccage, either in money or in kind, to the lord of the manor; they could neither sell their lands, nor leave the manor without the lord's consent, and they had to do "boon work." The villeins had a farm of 30 acres consisting of a bundle of acres or half-acre strips, not collected together in one plot, but interspersed in the several fields. He paid no rent, but rendered service to his lord instead. He was under obligation to plough and do other agricultural work on his lord's demesne two or three days a week, and on certain days in times of pressure, such as harvest, called "boon work," his lord could demand his service, the number of days in the year, however, being fixed by the custom of the Manor.
The bordars or cottars had small holdings, a cottage with a courtyard and a few acres in the arable fields, usually five. As few of these were the owners of even one ox, they were generally exempted from plough service, except at certain times such as harvest; they were not called upon for more than one day's labour a week. They were employed in sowing, weeding, sheep-shearing, and on other occasions of pressure. Many of them were bound to supply the lord's household with so many eggs, or so much poultry or honey in lieu of other services.
All the tenants had to take their corn to the lord's mill to be ground, the payment for grinding it was called soccage; if they took it to some other mill they would still have to pay soccage to the lord of their own manor, hence the mill was called the sokemill.
TAKEN FROM THE BRIDGE OVER THE TRENT, LOOKING WEST, SHOWING THE FIELDS AND VILLAGE IN FLOOD, DECEMBER, 1910
Where the sokemill stood we are not certain. It was evidently a watermill, not a windmill. "The windmill," says a writer on Domesday (W. de Gray Birch) "does not appear to be noticed in Domesday." Moreover, "one fishery of ten shillings and eight pence" evidently refers to the mill pond, not to the river. In an old title deed mention is made of "two acres in Dunham Marsh and all that ancient Windmill which George Neville held" in 1631. It is possible the mill here referred to may have stood on the site of the sokemill. It should be noted that the river banks were not completed until 1844, and that the river bed is considerably higher than it was in ancient times. The Domesday mill could not have possibly been on the site of the present windmill on the Laneham road, not yet in the field opposite the vicarage, which in a title deed is called the "mill-field."
King Henry II commanded the Sheriff of Nottingham and the men of the Soc of Dunham, that the canons of Thurgarton should well and peaceably hold their mills upon Trent (Thoroton). In some instances mills were granted to monasteries on condition that the neighbouring poor should be fed by the religious. Perhaps for that reason Dunham mill was given to Thurgarton Priory.
The first owner of the Manor of Dunham of whom there is any record is King Edward the Confessor (1041-1066). How long it had been in possession of the kings of England is not known. Henry I. (1100-1135) gave Thurston, Archbishop of York, the Church of Dunham that he might make it a Prebend of Southwell. Thurston was the 28th Archbishop of York, who resigned his See A. D. 1140, and died at Ponte-fract. We are informed he liberally endowed the two Prebends of Beckingham and Dunham in the Church of Southwell : the endowment of the latter was at the king's command transferred from this parish, and from that time until recently the patronage of the living of Dunham was in the gift of the Prebend.
It was the custom of the kings to bestow grants of lands upon their favourites. If the subject died without issue the lands would revert to the king, or if he happened to lose the royal favour he would most likely have to forfeit the lands bestowed upon him, which would be transferred to some new favourite. Thus we find that lands in Dunham bestowed upon royal favourites were taken from them or their heirs and bestowed upon others. In 1155 Henry II. bestowed lands valued at £60 to the Earl of Flanders. The Sheriff rendered an account of these lands almost every year until 1202, and from 1159 is added, "The same Earl rendered an account of £7 of the farm of Darlington. In the treasury he freed it, and is quit."
During the reign of King John, 1199 to 1216, frequent mention is made of Dunham. He paid a State visit here on May 21st, 1207. "He was wont to travel about the country with the Judge of Assize, and in his wanderings he was accompanied by huntsmen and all the paraphernalia of the chase. King John's Court constantly travelled between 30 & 40 miles per day, and on particular occasions the king travelled a distance of 50 miles. In one year the king changed his residence 150 times, visiting religious houses and his castles and manors, in some cases consuming the rents due to the Crown, and thus impoverishing the country by the rapacity of his purveyors." One would like to know where the house was situated at which he stayed, and where accommodation was found for the members of his Court. Two orders to the Barons of the Exchequer are dated from Dunham, May 22nd. In 1205 there were consigned to the King at Bristol 40 tuns of wine, which he ordered to be sent to Nottingham, one tun of which was to be sent, probably by boat, to Dunham, which would no doubt be for use at his mansion of Kingshaugh, where he frequently stayed. In 1212, Matthew, Earl of Boulogne, appears to have been made Lord Of the Manor. In 1216, Henry III. (1216 to 1272), then only 9 years of age, gave land to Rad Plucket, "who gave to the monks of Rufford, for the souls of his father and mother and ancestors, one toft in Dunham, on the south part of the town, contiguous to the Gyldehouse, 4 perches long, and as manyy broad, and the said monks were not to receive any more land in that town, but by the favour and goodwill of himself and his heirs; the witnesses were Gilbert de Archis, Swain de Hoiland, Robert de Draiton, Wm. de Draiton, Richard de Laxton, Thomas, Clerk of Headon." It is evident that in those days Dunham was of some importance, possessing a Guildhouse, and of considerable size to provide accommodation for the King and his retinue.
In 1217 the King granted the Manor to Palkesius Breant, Earl of Boulogne, who was probably the son of the aforesaid Matthew, and he was succeeded by Reginald de Dammartin. In 1223 Henry III. was declared old enough to govern, and all who held manors belonging to the King were to surrender them on pain of excommunication. It was either in that year, or on the death of the Earl of Boulogne, that the Manor of Dunham again came into the hands of the King, who held it some time, and, afterwards, in 1227, gave it to Ralph Fitz-Nicholas. "Grant to Ralph son of Nicholas and his heirs of the Manor of Dunham, late of the Count of Bolougne, to be held as Reginald de Dammartin late Count of Bolougne held it, until the King shall restore it to the heirs of the said Count of his free will or by a peace; nor shall the said Ralph be Disseised for any other cause." This gift was confirmed in 1229, and again in 1233 (Charter Rolls).
Sir Fitz-Nicholas played an important part in the reign of Henry III., and spent a long life in the King's service. That he was a man of sterling integrity is evidenced by the important posts he filled. We first meet him in the service of King John, who placed great confidence in him. During the reign of Henry III. he became Sheriff of Nottingham and Derby, Constable of several castles, one of which was Nottingham, and Keeper of the Honour of Peverel. In 1226 he was seneschal of the King's household. In 1236 the weak King fell entirely under the control of his foreign advisers. The English counsellors of the King were got rid of, and among them Ralph Fitz-Nicholas. Sometime afterwards he was restored to the King's favour. He died in 1257, being still one of the King's trusted counsellors. His son Robert, upon the rupture between the King and the barons, joined the latter, and his lands were forfeited to the Crown.
In 1258 the King granted "to his brother and faithful William de Valence the Manor of Dunham," "which the King formerly gave by charter to Ralph, son of Nicholas and his heirs, and which Robert son of Ralph after his father's death quite claimed to the King for the behoof of the said William, to whom he delivered all the charters and muniments thereof to be held by the said William and his heirs from the King by the service due thereof £50, the value of the said Manor being deducted from the yearly fee payable to the said William at the exchequer."
William de Valence was the King's half brother, being one of the four brothers which Isabella, his mother, had bourne to the Count of la Marche, from whom she had been unjustly taken by King John whilst in her childhood, and married to himself; but whom, after the death of her royal husband, she espoused as soon as possible.
In the Issue Roll is the following entry—"Easter 42 Henry III. to William de Valence £100 which he lent to the King, to be repaid by Robert son of Nicholas for the Manor of Dunham." It seems that poor Fitz-Nicholas was not only deprived of his Manor, but was ordered to pay to William de Valence the King's debt of £100.
William married the rich heiress Johanna de Munchensi. He was knighted in Westminster Abbey, made Earl of Pembroke, and given much property in England, receiving in 1257 a promise of the reversion of the Manor of Gainsborough, though he did not obtain full possession of it for many years.
He made himself much disliked in England, where the favour shown to him and his brothers by the King was one of the causes of the popular discontent which culminated in the revolt of the barons. The Earl took a prominent part in the civil war, and was more than once forced to fly abroad. He died at Bayonne, where he had been sent on an expedition. At his death in 1296 he was buried in the chapel of St. Edmund in Westminster Abbey, where his tomb, erected by his son, may still be seen.
He was suceeded by his son, Aymer de Valence, who took a prominent part in the affairs of his country, defeating Robert Bruce in 1306, and after his own defeat the next year becoming a minister of the Crown.
In 1310 he escaped from the English defeat at Bannock-burn, and afterwards went on a mission to the Pope. He acted as one of the judges of Thomas Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster, his cousin, and condemned him, unheard, to death. The people never forgave him for the death of that Prince. Being sent on a mission to France in 1324, he was murdered, and his mysterious death was regarded as a judgment for consenting to the death of Thomas Plantagenet. He was buried near the High Altar in Westminster Abbey. He married Mary, daughter of the Count of St. Pol, who founded the College at Cambridge which still bears the title of the famous Countess of Pembroke. Having no children he was succeeded by his wife.
Mary de Valentia, Countess of Pembroke, was very wealthy, being the possessor of land in twenty-two counties, and of no less than sixty manors. She held that of Dunham for fifty-three years, and was succeeded by Elizabeth, the daughter of David Strabolgi, Earl of Athol.
Aymer de Valentia had a half sister, Joan, who married John Cumin of Badinock. They both died before Aymer, leaving two daughters, Joan and Elizabeth. Joan, the elder of the two, who was heir-at-law to the Manor of Dunham, married David de Strabolgi, tenth Earl of Athol, who died in 1326. They had a son David, aged 19 at the time of his father's death, who married Katherine, daughter of the Earl of Buchan. He was killed at the siege of Kildrummy Castle in 1334, at the age of 27. He left a son who became 12th Earl, also called David. This last Earl of the family fought with the Black Prince in France, sat in the English Parliament, and died in 1375. He was heir-at-law to the Manor of Dunham.
"Edward III. David de Strabolgi comes Athol pro Elizabeth de Burge and Athol. Dunham Manor cum soka Notts. Stockeye, Fileby, Norfolk."
He married Elizabeth, relict of Lord Ferrers of Groby, she died 1376. They had no son, but left two daughters, aged 14 and 12 respectively, Elizabeth and Philippa, the elder of whom, on the death of Maria de Sancto Paulo in 1377, became Lady of the Manor.