(Vol. viii., p. 151.)
A. W. H. says, "In the case of many parishes it is stated [in _Domesday
Book_], that there was a church there: is it considered _conclusive_
authority that there was not one, if it is not mentioned in _Domesday
Book_?" This question has, I doubt not, often engaged the attention of
antiquaries; and I am somewhat surprised that the Query has elicited no
reply. The conclusion has often been drawn that, no church being mentioned,
none existed before the survey. It would appear this conclusion has been an
erroneous one. In the last volume issued by the Chetham Society (_Documents
relating to the Priory of Penwortham, and other Possessions in Lancashire
of the Abbey of Evesham_, edited by W. A. Hulton, Esq.) that point is ably
discussed; and as Mr. Hulton's views on a subject of so much interest
cannot but be valuable, I venture to extract them, as worthy of a place in
"N. & Q." He says:
"Donations of churches with tithes are made directly after the survey
of _Domesday_ was taken. And yet that survey is entirely silent as to
their existence. Similar omissions have given rise to doubts, whether
the institution of our parochial economy had been carried out to its
full extent previous to the Conquest, and whether we are not indebted
to the Normans for its full perfection. Such doubts are unfounded....
There is nothing in _Domesday_ to justify the doubts alluded to. A
consideration of the objects of that survey will dissipate them: the
purpose was principally financial. It was directed so as to obtain a
correct account of the taxable property within the kingdom. And it was
immaterial whether the proceeds were paid altogether to the owner, or a
definite portion was diverted into other channels. Therefore those
churches which were endowed only with tithes of the surrounding
districts, as Eccleston and Croston, Penwortham and Leyland, in Leyland
Hundred, and Rochdale and Eccles, in Salford Hundred, were unnoticed,
although the two first-named churches were granted by Roger de Poictou,
with their tithes and other appurtenances, to the Priory of Lancaster;
and the pages of the _Coucher Book of Whalley_ prove the two latter
churches to have existed at a date perhaps anterior to the Conquest.
But the case was different when a church was endowed with glebe-land.
Such a church appeared in the light of a landowner, and in that
character is its existence notified. Thus, in modern Lancashire, south
of the Ribble, the churches of Wigan and Winwick, Childwall, Walton,
Warrington, Manchester, Blackburn, and Whalley are expressly named in
_Domesday_, but invariably in connexion with the ownership of land. It
seems clear, therefore, that the silence of _Domesday_ cannot be urged
as a proof of the {356} non-existence of a church, or of the subsequent
grant of those rights and privileges by which its due efficiency is
maintained."--_Introd._, p. xxiii.