lands of about 25 acres each], in the time of King Edward, and the same lately. Always 2 carucates. Then one borderer, lately 8. Then 3 slaves, lately 1. 8 acres of meadow. One mill, and worth 60s. in demesne. 4 working-horses. 3 head of cattle. 20 sheep. 7 hogs."-Fol. 8. Witham.

Lands were also held in Coggeshall by TEDRIC POINTELL. These included what is now known as Little Coggeshall Hall, or the adjacent Hamlet, mill and river, which are still called "Pointell's."

"Tedric holds one hide and half in exchange for Cogheshal, which TISELINUS held. Then 2 carucates, lately none. Then 3 borderers, lately none. Wood for 3 hogs. 12 acres of meadow. Then worth 20s., lately but 10s.”—Fol. 134.

"These two manors [Pakelesham and Canewdon] Tedricus Pointell held in exchange for Cogheshal."-Fol. 99 b. Rochefort. [also Fol. 96. Witbrictesherna.]

The number of inhabitants, according to the above enumeration did not exceed 60, and these were principally cottagers who cultivated each his little plot of ground, and handed over a portion of the produce to the lord. There were probably many more, for it was not the design of the Domesday Book to take a census of the people, so much as a survey of the land. The whole population of Essex according to it was only 16,000, of whom one half were borderers, and the rest chiefly husbandmen and slaves. With the exception of Colchester and Maldon, where there were several hundred burgesses, scarcely any other place was more thickly populated than this.

One of the most noteworthy particulars in the above extract, is that which refers to the "one priest" who

dwelt here. His district or parish had now been marked out, and the laws had given him a claim to a tithe of the product of the land. There was probably some church in which he ministered, although not mentioned; but where it was is unknown. It has been conjectured that "the font in which the Saxon inhabitants were baptized, first by the missionary priest of Colchester, and afterwards by their common parish priest," was St. Peter's well, about a hundred yards westward from the present church yard.* Nor is it at all improbable that, the earliest building for religious purposes in this place, was on the site of the present church. But already great errors and evils had grown up in rank luxuriance; such as, the worship of images and superstitious veneration of relics, the doctrine of purgatory and prayers for the dead, unauthorised assumptions on the part of the priesthood, and blind dependence on external rites; and the only remedy for these things was hidden in an unknown tongue. Yet the influence of the clergy of those days was beneficial, in relieving the oppression of the weak by the powerful; for it was the aim of the Roman Catholic Church to humble both the lord and his slave at her own feet.

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It is a circular bricked well about 3 feet deep, which supplies the town with beautifully clear water. Nearly 30 years ago it was opened and cleansed. Mr. Sprague states that he then witnessed the workmen discover, midway between the top and bottom, embedded in the steaning, a square stone, upon which was sculptured in relief the head of St. Peter with the keys." (A. J. Dunkin.) Mr. Joseph Denney, however, states that this was in another well, now closed up, in a cottage garden at the end of Church Lane, near Stoneham Street.

IV.

THE ABBEY.

Foundation by Queen Matilda.

EUSTACE, Earl of Boulogne, left behind him three sons. Godfrey the eldest, was, at the close of the first crusade, elected king of Jerusalem, where his tomb is pointed out in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at this day; and was succeeded by his brother Baldwin. Eustace, the third, married Mary, the daughter of Malcolm III. of Scotland, and their daughter Matilda became wife of Stephen, Earl of Blois, afterwards king of England. The manor of Coggeshall was a part of her inheritance, and was given for the purpose of founding an Abbey, according to the following charter :

"MATILDA, by the grace of God Queen of the English to all the prelates and faithful of the Holy Church greeting. Be it known unto you all that my lord King Stephen, and I, and my son Eustace, give and grant in perpetual alms for the health of our souls, and the souls of our ancestors, and of our children, and of all our friends, as well living as dead, to God and the Holy Church of Mary, and to the abbot and convent of Coggeshal, all the same manor of Coggeshal, in land and men, in wood and plain, in water and out of water, in way and out of way, and in all things pertaining to the same, as free and peaceable as Earl Eustace and my father, and we afterwards more freely and