Notices of the Ellises of England, Scotland, and Ireland, from the conquest to the present time

DESCENT OF THE MANOR OF HURST-PIERPOINT,
AND OF ITS LORDS.
BY WILLIAM SMITH ELLIS, ESQ.
The following is the account given of Hurst-Pierpoint in
the Domesday Survey : —
" In Botingelle (Buttinghill) hundred, Robert holds Herst of
William. Earl Godwin held it. It was then assessed at 41
hides. It is now not rated, because it was always exempt
from the land-tax. At the time it was transferred there were
only 18-^ hides. There are 3^ hides in the rape of the Earl
of Moreton, and 19 hides in the rape of William de Braiose.
The arable is 25 plough lands. There are two ploughs in the
demesne, and thirty-five villains, and eight bondsmen have
21-| ploughs. Here is a church, eight ministers, three mills
of nine shillings, eighty acres of meadow, and a wood of fifty
hogs. William holds three hides of this land ; Gilbert 3-|
hides, which villains formerly held. The total value in the
time of King Edward was £36 ; it was subsequently reduced
to £9, and the whole is now estimated at £12."
This is one of the largest manors, if not the largest, in Sussex,
mentioned in Domesday as held by a mesne tenant, the more
extensive ones being possessed by the great baronial tenants
in chief, and ecclesiastical corporations. Several subinfeuda-
tions of so considerable a lordship were no doubt made, the
greater number of which have either ceased to exist, or from
early desuetude, or extinction of dependent suit and service,
have continued to the present day as independent manors,
and cannot be identified, except conjecturally, from circum-
stances of ownership and locality. However, the manor of
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