THE SAXON HISTORY OE THE TOWN AND PORT OF
ROMNEY
By GORDON WARD, M.D., F.S.A.
I. ROMANUS THE PRESBYTER
WE are told in a charter of 7401 that Romney was granted to the nuns
of Lyminge " as Romanus the presbyter formerly held it", i.e. with all
the rights and privileges that Romanus once had. Since Romanus is
/
THE 5AXON TOWN /
«*-
«P
ROMNEY ISLE
*OF
OXNEY
AFFETun
tn
V\ i
\
+ LYDD \
RYE* v
w \
\
\ i \ \
THE NE55 'Ji
6.W.rECIT
FIG. 1.—A map of Saxon Romney showing the Great Estuary which formed
its Haven.
the first owner of Romney, of whom we have any knowledge, it will be
well to consider what is known about him.
He first appears in history (Bede, III, p. 25) as having come north
from Kent to the court of Queen Eanfked of Bernicia, a lady whose
mother had been a Kentish princess. This was somewhere about the
year 660 and must have been after he had given up his rights at Romney.
12
THE SAXON HISTORY OP THE TOWN AND PORT OE ROMNEY
He attended the great Synod at Whitby in 664. This is all we really
know about him, but there is good cause to suppose that he really held
this land in Romney in trust for the Nunnery at Lyminge when it was
founded or, it may be, already possessed it and handed it over to the
nunnery. This nunnery was founded by that Kentish princess,
Aethelburgh or Eadburgh, whose daughter became Queen of Bernicia
and had Romanus with her in Northumberland. She had been less
fortunate than her daughter for, when her own husband Edwin King
of Deira was slain, she had been obliged to fly from his kingdom and to
seek refuge in her native land of Kent. This is how she came to found
a home and nunnery at Lyminge. Presumably she brought her
daughter with her and, when the latter went north to marry the king of
Bernicia, sent Romanus with her. He was perhaps the parish priest
of Lyminge and the first to minister the sacraments to the nuns, or he
may have been attached to the nunnery at its first consecration. Since
no woman could be a priest and administer the sacraments, it was always
necessary to make provision of suitable clergy who could conduct the
services and also, as occasion required, advise upon the many problems
of land-ownership with which an abbess had to deal. It is surely a
justifiable conclusion that Romanus was not only the owner of Romney
long before our first charter of 740 but that from him it passed into the
possession of the new nunnery and that King Aethelbeorht II did no
more than confirm what the nunnery already possessed.
This carries the history of Romney back to about 650 at latest.
II. THE SECOND RECORD
Our first glimpse of Romney itself is in a charter of the year 7401,
and this charter still survives and is safe in the British Museum. At
that far off period, more than twelve hundred years ago, the settlement
at Romney was given by King Ethelbert of Kent to the nuns of Saint
Eadburg's foundation at Lyminge.6 In this way commenced the long
line of religious lords to whom Romney was in one way or another
subordinate. The Romney of 740 is not so named but is described as
including a fishery, etc., " a t the mouth of the River Limen". This
river was later known as the Rother, but that name did not become
popular until the sixteenth century.2 It has had, in the course of its
history, at least three openings to the sea. The first was by way of
West Hythe, and this was in use during the Roman era. The second
grew to importance as the first dwindled away owing to the obstruction
of shingle banks. In 740 the river flowed from Appledore and Oxney
southward to a great marsh near Rye and then turned east to find its
way to the sea in such a course that both Old and New Romney were on
its northern shore, while, across a considerable estuary, the church and
town of Lydd were already in existence, and Denge Marsh had long been
13
THE SAXON HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND PORT OF ROMNEY
a royal heritage. These latter facts we know from another charter of
774 wherein the sea is said to be to the north and east of Lydd.3 The
third mouth of the Limen, now the Rother mouth at Rye, was not
opened until the thirteenth century, by which period the estuary of
740 had become chiefly mud banks. The great estuary was a sheltered
haven which brought to Romney the fame and importance which made
it a Cinque Port and this importance was aheady commencing in 740.
The actual description of the village as it was then granted by charter
is fourfold.4 It included (a) a fishery at the mouth of the river called
the Limen Water, (b) part of that country in which is situated an
oratory of Saint Martin* with (c) the houses of the fishermen and (d) one
quarter of one aratrum about that place. This description requires a
little elucidation. It is generally thought that a fishery would at that
time have consisted of keddle nets, i.e. nets affixed to poles set in a
semi-circle near low tide mark and cleared when the next high tide had
receded and left within the nets such fish as may have been swimming
too close inshore. This type of fishing may still be seen along the
Camber sands and elsewhere, but we do not really know that other
methods of sea fishing were not as well understood at Romney as they
were by the Sea of Gallilee. The shingle banks on which the men of
Saxon Romney spread and mended their nets, as their successors did on
Yarmouth strand, have long been covered with mud and houses, but
one may walk along what is left of them by following the back lane to
Old Romney. The " quarter part of one aratrum " is not so mysterious
as it sounds. An aratrum was a unit of land of any shape or size which
had only one thing in common with other aratra, namely, that it paid
the same tax. In theory it may have been, and probably was at one
time, the amount of land which employed one plough team, that is,
eight oxen, but the fact that land was mostly pasture and used no
plough at all by no means excused it from taxation, and no one thought
it worth while to choose for its taxable unit some more appropriate
name. In 740 the idea of taxing a man in exact proportion to his
actual possessions had not yet arisen and the State was content with
reasonable approximations. If one had obviously less than a whole
aratrum one might be taxed on one, two or three yokes. This unit
followed out the plough team idea since four yokes of oxen make a full
team. The quarter aratrum of Romney is actually described as one
yoke in 1086 (D.B.). Whether or no it was the land now called Yoke
Farm it is for the medievalists to determine : the possibility is certainly
of interest.
The most important point about Romney in 740 is that it had a
church. Doubtless there were many churches in England at that date,
but we have seldom any record of them. A dedication to Saint Martin
of Tours, a soldier saint, was very popular in early days, witness the
14
THE SAXON HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND PORT OF ROMNEY
ancient churches of St. Martin at Canterbury and Dover. It is difficult
to know whether one ought to attach any particular significance to the
fact that the Romney church is described as an " oratorium ". This
would seem to denote a church of inferior order, but the existence of a
definite dedication rather suggests an independent foundation, and the
inferior churches had no burial grounds, an almost impossible deprivation
for a village situated as Romney was, between the rage of the sea
and the poor roads of the marsh.
There is one feature absent from this Romney of 740 which some
people have been willing to fit into the picture. This is the old channel
which existed before it silted up with mud and became the Rhee wall
on which a main road runs to-day. This channel was actually a canal
cut in the thirteenth century when the great estuary was filling up. It
was not dreamt of in Saxon days.
III. THE PASTURE LANDS
The charter of 740 does not content itself with a description of the
land at Romney but describes also, in some detail, the rights of pasture
which went with it. These were to be exercised at some distance from
Romney " next to the marsh called Bishop's Wic as far as the wood called
Ripp and the boundaries of Sussex." The Bishop's Wic is now known
as The Wicks and is in the parish of Lydd. The wood called Ripp has
nearly aU disappeared but the Ripes at Lydd preserve the name and
also the Midripps near Broomhill. The pasture was probably on either
side of what is now called the Jury's Gut Sewer (which certainly did
not exist in that form in 740) and extended not so far west as the modern
boundary of Sussex, which once came down to the sea on the Kent side
of Broomhill.
This pasturage right is stated to provide for the feeding of 150 head
of cattle. The word " jumentum " is usually used to describe the
cattle and this word means draught cattle, the patient ox and perhaps
the horse. It could not apply to sheep and this suggestion of 150
draught oxen to be pastured on the Romney meadows must come as
something of a surprise to those who have learned to look upon the
marsh as sheep country, and sheep fatting country at that, but in 740
the ox was the only form of heavy transport known and was just as
important to the men of Romney as the light lorry is to-day.
IV. SHEEP FARMING
We have no evidence of sheep farming in the 740 charter, except the
name Bishop's wic. It has been shown by Horace Round (D. B. Essex
in V.C.H.) that the word " Wic " meant a dairy farm. We are dealing
now with the year 740, long before the Danes and Wikings or Vikings
descended upon our coasts. These place-names ending in " -wic "
15
THE SAXON HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND PORT OF ROMNEY
are nearly always to be found on the coast, or on a river estuary, or at
least in marshy country. In just such country was the dairy farm of
Saxon times situated, for it was not the cow but the sheep which
constituted the wealth of these farms. The sheep provided milk which
was mostly turned into cheese, if we may judge from the form in which
it appears in the medieval rent rolls, and, after that, they provided
mutton. Both cheese and mutton were highly esteemed in 740, but
we have no sure evidence of sheep farming in Romney itself until more
than a hundred years later. Even then it is rather indirect. In a
charter of the year 858 (B.C.8. 496) it is said that the manor of Westwell—
a long way from Romney up in the hill country—owned certain
" Wiwarawics " which provided the lord of the manor with cheese and
mutton. The word " Wiwarawics " means dairy farms belonging to
to the men of Wye. Since Wye belonged to the King he was able to
hand over some of these farms to the Lord of Westwell, a friend of his.
We should stiU not know where these farms are situated except for
discovering the fact that the Lord of Westwell owned such farms, some
hundreds of years later (See Arch. Cant., I l l , p. 24), very near Romney,
as near in fact as the area of Goose Farm in Hope-All-Saints parish.
There is no reason to suppose that the Goose Farm and North Fording
House of to-day are sited on any different lands to the Wiwarawic
homesteads of 858. It is not firm evidence but helps to support the
statement that sheep farming was an important industry in the Romney
area when we first have a glimpse of it. There is a charter of as early a
date as the year 700 (B.8.C. 98) which shows that sheep farming was
prosperous at the other end of the marsh, near Dymchurch, and there
also we find the reveahng place-names Orgarswick, Snavewick, etc.
There was a " wic- " name in or near New Romney at one time, namely,
" Dudmanswike " but its exact position has yet to be determined.
All these varied facts point clearly towards a very great age for the
Romney Marsh sheep farming industry and there can be no reasonable
doubt that the Romney of 740 knew quite as much about sheep as it did
about fishing, but the sheep were small-horned creatures, quite unlike
the massive Romney Marsh breed of to-day. Remains of these ancient
sheep have been dug up on the sand dunes of West Hythe.
V. THE BATTLE GROUNDS IN THE MARSH
In the Saxon Chronicles which remain to us there are certain
references to the Marsh in the year 796. It is not in doubt that at this
time King Ceolwulf of Mercia ravaged the kingdom of Kent, but there
is some doubt as to just how far he penetrated. Of the two best authorities
one says that he got " as far as the marsh " (oth Mersc) and the
other says that he ravaged " the men of Kent and the Marshmen "
(Cantware et Merscware). In a history of Romney it is not necessary to
16
THE SAXON HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND PORT OF ROMNEY
discuss the precise interpretation of these phrases. The road to
Romney was ill-advised ground for any midland army and it is perhaps
unlikely that it wandered so far, although the men of Romney with
others were doubtless summoned to resist it elsewhere, for the heathen
men of the Chronicle were the dreaded sea rovers from north-west
Europe, then called the northmen, but later the Danes. The armies
of Ceolwulf of Mercia could never have come upon Romney unaware,
but the Danes could and did come up over the horizon and, before the
alarm was given, sail well into the estuary and land on sheltered
beaches on almost any tide.
In 838 something much worse happened. It is recorded in the
Chronicles that " this year Herebryht the alderman was slain by the heathen
men and many with him amongst the men of the Marsh ". Romney must
have been deeply involved in this battle, or series of battles. The
Danish menace continued and in the year 893 came almost a formal
invasion. One can hardly do better than quote the Chronicle itself
translated as seems best:
893. This year the great army of which we have already Spoken
came from the east and westward to Boulogne. There they took
ship and carried themselves over at one time with their horses and all.
And they came up with 250 ships into the mouth of the Limen. . . .
On this river they rowed up their ships as far as the Weald, four
miles from the mouth outwards, and there stormed a fortress in the
fens which was half finished and contained a few countrymen.
In the year following this army left for London and Essex having
spent the winter at Appledore. It can scarcely have been a pleasant
winter for Romney, but in spite of the famous litany " From the fury
of the Northmen, Good Lord, deliver us " there are not wanting hints
in the Chronicles suggesting that the coast towns perforce came to some
sort of working arrangement with the Danes, an arrangement which
was scarcely compatible with loyalty to the Kentish king.
At some time during this first period of the Danish wars the direct
overlord of Romney, namely, the nunnery at Lyminge, was abandoned
or destroyed and its lands came under the influence, or into the ownership,
of the Archbishops of Canterbury. It is important to note here
that from now on, for some hundreds of years, the Archbishops were
Lords of Romney, and appointed their own bailiffs there.
From the time that the great army of the Danes sailed out of tho
estuary Romney seems to have enjoyed a long period of peace, but there
is just one recorded incident demanding mention. In the year 911
King Edward was in Kent whither he had gone on admiralty business
for " the ships were sailing along the sea by the south-west coast to meet
him." (A.8.C.) We cannot doubt that the fleet put in to Romney for
17
2
THE SAXON HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND PORT OF ROMNEY
water and stores and it is at least likely that some of them were Romney
boats. But the Danes did not then come near the marsh for they were
soundly defeated in Mercia.
VI. THE NAME OE ROMNEY
So far as we have reviewed the beginnings of Romney there has been
no mention of its name. This appears first in a charter of 8957 and
again in one of 914.8 It is not apphed to the town but to the river
Limen. In the first case we have " flumen quod vocatur Rumenea " and
in the other the same stretch of the same river is called the Rumenesea.
These words mean Rumene-water, the terminal " ea " meaning a river,
estuary, etc. The intrusive " s " in the second form of the name is due
to the error of a scribe who supposed that " Rumene " was a person
whose name had become attaohed to the river. What " Rumene "
really means is till quite unsettled, but we can at least trace it back to
895 which gives it a thousand years of history. It is probably derived
from some Celtic root and it is interesting to remember that there is a
second Rumney Marsh near Cardiff.
VII. PROSPERITY
In 994 Romney experienced the effects of the second wave of Danish
attacks. In the Chronicle for this year we read :
This year came Anlaf and Bweyne to London with 94 ships. And
they closely beseiged the city. . . . Thence they advanced and
wrought the greatest evil that ever any army could do, in burning and
plundering and manslaughter, not only on the sea coast in Essex,
but in Kent and in Sussex and in Hampshire. Then they took
horse and rode wherever they could committing unspeakable evil.
Certainly Romney must have suffered in those days, but it is possible
that they saw also the definite beginnings of prosperity. It was not
long after, 1008, that the King (ill-advised King Ethehed) ordered a
great ship-building programme and we know that the ships were actually
built. Equally is it true that they were lost by inefficiency and mismanagement.
But they were actually built, and the building was
compulsory, a national tax. No doubt the great estuary by Romney
was aheady narrowing with mud banks, as the land slowly, very slowly
subsided, but it was still a. first-class site for ship building and
conveniently near to the mustering point at Sandwich.
The men of the south-eastern ports went out after Sweyne, captured
his ships, in 1049 and 1050 (it must be confessed that the year is in
doubt). Soon after, in 1052, they witnessed another battle fleet standing
off Dungeness. To explain its presence and significance we must
introduce some actors in the national history of those days. Edward
18
THE SAXON HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND PORT OF ROMNEY
the Confessor was still on the throne and his court was a paradise for
his Norman friends. Of these the least popular in Kent was Eustace of
Boulogne who had not long before caUed upon the King with a strong
retinue. As he was going home and approaching Dover his men
donned their arms. In Dover they demanded free lodgings and slew
a man who refused them. Thereon the men of Dover, warned by the
incident of putting on arms that trouble was likely, fell upon Eustace
and his men and killed or wounded several of them. Eustace himself
escaped to London and told an evil tale of the men of Dover, how they
had attacked him unawares, etc., etc. The King was wroth and
ordered Earl Godwin to punish the rebellious town. Godwin was
Earl of Kent, and no friend to Normans. He flatly refused to carry
out or countenance any punishment of Dover. Thereon he was
banished, with his sons, and his Earldom taken from him. Even his
sister, the King's wife, although in name only, was deprived of all her
goods and sent to the nunnery of Wherwell. The Normans triumphed.
Godwin went, where most exiles went in those days, to the court of
Baldwin of Bruges, so picturesquely shown to us in the pages of
Hereward the Wake". Harold, his eldest son, went to Ireland. There
they bided their time. All this is in the Chronicles. Then, on the day
before midsummer eve in the year 1052, Godwin sailed from Bruges
and came to the Ness. It is called " Naesse the is be suthan Rumen
ea "—the Ness which is south of Romney. His fleet would there be
well protected, for no doubt the Earl was sure of a welcome in his old
earldom. But his voyage was really an experiment to see what support
might be forthcoming.' The Confessor's Norman friends persuaded him
to call out a land force as well as a fleet to oppose Godwin. When the
fleet arrived, Godwin had gone and after some time spent in idleness it
melted away. In the meantime Harold had also come out from Ireland
and was ravaging the south-west coasts as far as the Isle of Wight.
Presently, he was joined by his father and once more they came back to
the Ness, having brought under their standard all the ships at Pevensey.
At the Ness, virtually in Romney Haven, they collected all the ships
from Hythe and Folkestone and Godwin " enticed to him all the Kentish
men" as weU as many others, the boatmen of Hastings being
particularly mentioned. Although King Edward had still 40 long
ships at Sandwich, they availed him nothing. Godwin sailed in
triumph to London and there made as if to attack the city and the
King's ships. Then the wiser heads counselled reconciliation and
Godwin was received back into favour while the Normans fled the land.
It is particularly to be noted that they did not dare to flee by way of
the channel ports. After this there seems to have been peace .at
Romney until 1066.
No sooner was Harold upon the throne than he experienced trouble
19.
THE SAXON HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND PORT OF ROMNEY
from his brother Tostig who, soon after Easter, in 1066, " came from
beyond sea into the Isle of Wight, with as large a fleet as he could
get . . . thence he proceeded and committed outrages everywhere by
the sea coast where he could land, until he came to Sandwich."
Whether he landed at Romney, or failed to land, is not recorded, but it
was not many months before a more momentous attempt was made,
namely the landing of Duke William's forces. Some at least came to
Romney and we have an account of the incident as it appeared to
Wilham of Poitou,10 the conqueror's chaplain (i.e. private secretary).
This is tainted evidence and it only exists in very bad Latin, but what
he wanted to say is in a paragraph headed " Profisciscitur ad
Romanaerium ". This paragraph may be broadly translated :
When he had buried his dead and given the charge of Hastings to a
vigorous custodian, he attacked Romney and exacted what penalty he
chose for the slaughter of his men who had landed there in error, and
whom the savage people attacked and inflicted upon them the greatest
possible damage.
It may be regretted that the first description of the men of Romney is
that they were "/era gens ", but the evidence after all comes from a
hostile source. What penalty was exacted by the Conqueror is
unknown. It is true that he was " stark to those that withstood him "
(A.S.C.), but the channel ports were lines of communication and were
not lightly to be destroyed. Dover was indeed burned, but this was
the accidental act of drunken soldiers and William punished them for
it. Romney was certainly not burned. It was probably the citizens
rather than the town itself which suffered. And now we are bound to
ask ourselves " What manner of town was this Romney which William
punished, and which he left in charge of a man named Robert ? " The
answer must come from records of post-conquest date and chiefly from
two of them, Domesday Book itself and the various records collected
together in what is called the Domesday Monachorum. The picture
these sources give is full of interest. As to the name and size of the
town we gain most information from certain lists of Saxon churches >
which commence the Domesday Monachorum. These tell us that
there were two churches called Rumenea. One of these paid 32d. each
Easter to the Archbishop, and the other 31d. These church hsts are
long, but nowhere else in them do we find such sums as these. The
usual figure is 28d. for an independent church not attached to any
religious house. Lesser churches pay smaller sums, but always a
multiple of 7d. except one only of which we have record and this paid
3^d. avowedly because it was so small. Now the two Romney payments
added together make 63d. and this fulfils all requirements for it
is a multiple of 7d. The inference is that the two Rumenea churches
20
THE SAXON HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND PORT OF ROMNEY
had at one time paid 63d. and that this sum had later been divided
between them. These two were evidently at Old and New Romney
although these specific titles do not yet appear in history. There were
altogether four churches, namely, St. Clement (Old Romney) and
St. Nicholas, St. Lawrence, and the old foundation of Saint Martin in
New Romney. It is thus evident that Romney was a very considerable
town and port. We know that Sandwich had two churches, but we
are not told that it had more. Hythe had also two churches, like those
of Romney at opposite ends of the old anchorage, West Hythe and
Hythe itself. But Romney had not only two independent parish
churches, but also two others in the then deanery of Lymne. It also
had 96 burgesses, a surprisingly small number which rather suggests
that the Duke's vengeance had dispossessed many of Romney's citizens.
The Saxon owner had been Earl Godwin, which means, in effect, King
Harold for the writers of Domesday Book commonly assumed that
Godwin had lived until 1066 in order to avoid any mention of Harold.
The actual tenant was Aelfsige, otherwise Alsi, an eminent thane of
Kent who also owned the far reaching manor of Eastbridge in the
marsh. He was probably slain at Hastings.
VIII. THE MINTS
The increasing importance of Romney in the century before the
conquest is shown by the use of this town as one of the royal mints.
About the year 836 Aethelstan, who was sub-king of Kent and the
South-East, had made laws setting out how many mints there might be
in each borough, but no mint was then assigned to Romney. It is not
until the time of Aethehed the Unready (979-1016) that we meet with
coins minted in Romney. One of the men responsible for making this
money was named Wulfnoth and he put his name on his coins followed
by the words " On Rume ". There was no room to spell "Romney"
in full. It was not mere pride that caused the moneyer to give these
details. He would probably have preferred not to do so, but the regulations
were very definite. The country knew from bitter experience
that under-weight coins would very soon flood the market if no one
could be quite sure whom to hold responsible for them. Other moneyers
under Aethehed were named Aethelwine, Leofric, etc. King Cnut
carried on the tradition of Aethehed and allowed a mint at Romney.
The moneyers appear on their coins as Earnoth, Godman, Godric,
Wulnoth, Aelfweard and Leofwine. These were not artisans but men
of standing in the town of Romney, burgers who could handle' silver
bulhon in a responsible manner and be penalized effectively for any.
default. They may well have employed artisans to do the actual
minting. When Cnut died his son and successor Harold had his coins
minted at Romney by Edmaer and Wulnoth. It should be noted that
21;
THE SAXON HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND PORT OF ROMNEY
coins allow small space for proper names and it may well have been
that in other spheres, for example, upon a charter, the name of Wulfnoth
would have been correctly spelt. Similar considerations apply to other
names. Under Edward the Confessor Romney remained a mint town
and it is highly significant that even under the Conqueror one of
Edward's moneyers continued in office while two others, both Saxons,
were added. In spite of the Conqueror's vengeance on Romney, there
were still citizens sufficiently trusted to be allowed to mint coins—or
was it perhaps a burdensome duty from which they could not escape
although it yielded them little profit ? No complete answer is possible
to this question.
Since these men whom we call moneyers were in fact foremost
citizens of Romney in their day, the only citizens and burgers whose
names have survived so long, it is worth listing them below :
Aethehed II (979-1016). Aethelwine, Leofwine, Leofstan,
Manna, Wulfric.
Cnut (1016-35). Aelfweard, Eadnoth, Godman, Godric,
Leofwine, Wulfnoth.
Harold I (1035-42). Eadmaer, Wulfnoth.
Edward the Confessor (1042-66). Brungar, Estan, Wulfmaer,
Leofric.
Harold I I (1066). Wulfmaer.
Wilham Conqueror (1066-1087). Wulfmaer, Aelfmaer, Winedaeg.
Wilham I I (1087-1100). Wulfmaer, Winedaeg, Coc.
Henry I (1100-1135). Wulfred, Godric.
IX. RXJMINELLA,
A surprising incident in the history of Romney occurred in an
unexpected quarter when Edward, son of Ethelred the Unready, was
an exile in France while Canute occupied the English throne. Edward
consorted much with monks and learned men and, from time to time,
he made them promises of great things he would do for this and that
Norman monastery if ever he came to the throne of his fathers. Such
a promise he made between 1032 and 1035 to the Monastery of Mont
St. Michel in France. This gift,9 which the monies persuaded him to
put into charter form, included " the port called Ruminella . . . with
mills and fisheries, etc." (" Portum qui vocatur Ruminella cum . . .
molendinis et piscatoriis.") The name of the port should be noted as
also the presence of tide mills. Ruminella is a latinized form of
Ruminel and this was the usual Norman name for the town as may be
seen in Domesday Book and many subsequent records until our native
tongue came into its own again. There can be no doubt that this
charter purported to give Romney to the monks of Mont St. Michel.
22
THE SAXON HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND PORT OF ROMNEY
One naturally wonders if ever they got it. There is no question that
Edward, when he came to the throne, did in general try to keep promises
of this sort. But it is also known that Earl Godwin held the port of
Romney and that his tenant is named as holding it in Domesday Book.
The monks could not, therefore, have had any but a short tenancy, if
indeed they had any. One might dismiss the whole matter as a promise
never fulfilled if it were not for the fact that there are certain curious
reminders of the name of St. Michael's near Old Romney. On the
6-in. Ordnance Map (Kent, LXXXIV, N.W. Revised to 1906) appears
a spot marked " St. Michael's Church, site of". On the Tithe Map
this is called St. Michael's Glebe and in sale particulars of 1860 St.
Michael's churchyard. Although no trace of a church remains, nor any
other record of it known to the writer, it is not wise to dismiss this
evidence as of no importance and it remains quite possible that someone
else, if not Edward himself, succeeded in giving some form and
substance to the Confessor's youthful promise, either before or after the
conquest.
X. CrvrL CONSTITUTION
The civil constitution of the town was somewhat complicated since
it was in part manorial and in part that of a privileged borough. The
nucleus about St. Martin's church was part of the Archbishop's manor
of Aldington, a manor which was used as a convenient centre for the
attachment of outlying possessions even when they were as far off as
Romney. In this part lived 25 burgesses paying manorial dues worth
£6 to Aldington. The manor of Langport covered the Old Romney
shores of the estuary and in this lived 25 more burgesses. There was
attached to this manor a yoke of land which is specially mentioned
apart from the total valuation of the manor. This is very likely the
quarter aratrum of 740. Finally " in burgo de Romenel " were 50 more
burgesses who did not pay rent to any manor. This was probably that
part of the town which seems always to have contained the administrative
buildings and the church of Saint Nicholas as well as that of St.
Lawrence and the markets. It lies south-east of the High Street and
probably grew up from a nucleus of fishermen's shelters out on the
shingle banks where they guarded their nets. This area was apparently
not within the confines of any manor.
Of the total of 96 burgesses none were exempt from paying to
Robert de Romenel the fines for certain named offences, namely, for
theft, for breaking the peace and for " forstel " or assault on the highways.
These fines formerly went to Aelfsige, or Godwine. The
burgesses paid no other dues. Robert and his predecessors had no
market tolls or court fines. In return for this exemption the 96
burgesses were bound to perform sea services and these are fully set out
23
THE SAXON HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND PORT OF ROMNEY
in Miss Murray's exceUent Constitutional History of the Cinque Ports, to
which reference should be made.
Thus it is that the story of Saxon Romney ends (until worthier
hands shall take up the pen). The Norman, Robert de Romney, is
living at Affetun, the old manor house by the church of Saint Clement
and, in the words of an exile of those days, " Cold heart and bloody
hand now rule Engeland."
XI. REFERENCES.
1 Cotton Aug. II, p. 101, Birch. Cart. Sax., p. 160.
2 Place Names of Sussex, p. 7.
3 Brit. Mus. Ashburnham (Stowe), p. 3, Birch. Cart. Sax., pp. 214, 215.
* The original is in Latin which is here translated.
5 The extracts in this chapter are from Earle and Plummer's edition of the
Chronicles.
6 Jenkins has several papers in the Archceologia Cantiana and reference should
be made to the Index of this journal. His best essay for present purposes is in a
small and rare booklet printed at Folkestone, undated and entitled The Chartulary
of the Monastery of Lyminge.
7 Birch Cart. Sax. 572.
8 Idem, 638.
" This charter has been discussed by Haskins in his Norman Institutions
(Harvard Historical Studies), p. 273, where further references are given. There
is no good reason for doubting its authenticity.
30 The work of William " Pictavensis " is published in Vol. CXLIX of Patrologia
(Gamier Fratres); and in Histories Anglicana?.... Selecta Monumenta, published
in 1807 and not readily accessible.
24
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* &.
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