Fourteen years then after the Conquest, King William ordered an exact account to be taken of all the manors of the kingdom ; this inventory appears to be exhaustive as far as it goes, but such places as were, if I may coin the term " extramanorial," are only incidentally noticed. Amongst such we must reckon Hastings. That no notice should be taken of her as a Cinque Port, though she had been so distinctly recognised ten years before, is certainly very remarkable ; but the Domesday Book is methodically arranged according to counties, and most of the Cinque Ports being in Kent, we find three of the principal Kentish ports grouped together, and their privileges enumerated , Hastings not being described , because not situated in that county.
The solitary passage however in which Hastings is mentioned , is one to which Iwish particularly to draw attention ; it reads as follows :-
" Land of the Church of Fecamp. In Ghestlinges hundred (Guestling.) The Abbot of Fecamp holds of the King Rameslie : he held it of King Edward , and then was rated for 20 hides,[1] but now for 17½. The land is 35 carucates. In the demesne is one carucate : and 100 villeins less one, have 43 carucates. There are 5 Churches returning 64 shillings. 100 salt pans of 8 pounds and 15 shillings, and -
- ↑ The Saxon " Hide" is of variable extent but may be calculated at 120 acres. The Norman " Carucate " is likewise variable, but in the present instance it may be reckoned at 60 acres, as 35 carucates, we see above,answer to 17½ hides or 2 carucates to a hide.
