CLARBOROUGH.
CHAP. XV.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION, ETC.
As usual I must again refer to that original record, Doomsday-book, for the oldest account we have of this place, that can be depended upon. The mention there made of Clarborough, is as follows
From which we learn that part of Clarborough belonged to the king’s great soke of Mansfield, paying the tax for two and a quarter bovats of land. The land was one caracute. There was also at that time two sokemen, one villain, and one border having six oxen in plough, and two mills, the whole valued at 32s. Also six acres of meadow, valued at 40s. There was likewise land here of the fee of Sutton, belonging to the Archbishop of York; which paid for six bovats and a half of land, to the public tax. The meadow land was four quarents and a half square, which, at the general survey, was estimated at forty-five acres. Roger de Bush also held certain lands here, which, previous to the conquest, was held by Reginald; afterwards Fulco the tenant of Roger, had half a caracute, eight villains, one border, one caracute and a half of land, and seven aeres of meadow, which in the Confessor’s time, was valued at 6s., but in the Conqueror’s at 20s. Ulchil also held of Roger two bovats of land, and had two borders, with two oxen, and one acre of meadow, which was also valued at 16s. The Taynes also had a manor here, held by Ulmer, and paid the tax for one bovat and a half of land, having sac and soke without a hail. Afterwards the said Ulmer held it under the king, and had two villains, one border, and half a caracute, and three acres of meadow; it in the Confessor’s time was estimated at 3s., in the Conqueror’s at 2s. In the time of the Confessor, Archil also held property here, valued at 4s.—in the Conquerer’s time, Erwin held it, when it was valued at 2s.
For some time subsequent to this, it does not distinctly appear to whom the lands descended, at least so as to trace their course with certainty; we find, however, in the fifteenth century, that Thomas Fitzwilliam held of Alice, Countess of Augi, the lady of Tickhill, three parts of a knight’s fee in Clarborough and West Drayton. John de Boughton also held here five acres of land, three roads of meadow, and two parts of a messuage with the appurtenances. Sir Robert Waterton, Kt. also held lands here. In the year 1537, Alexander Bannister and Marmaduke Faukys, claimed against William Bannister, twenty messuages, ten tofts, four hundred acres of land, forty of meadow, one hundred of pasture, and forty of furze and heath, with the appurtenances in Clarborough and elsewhere. In 1674, Thomas Denman and Thomas Dawes, claimed against Francis Denman, clerk, two messuages, &c. in Clarborough. In 1612, the freeholders in the village of Clarborough were Thomas Fee, gent. Alexander Sherbrooke, sen. William Barker, John Otter, Dennis Huddlestone, and Richard Harpham.
The village, which contains several tolerably well built houses, is long and straggling, yet of a cheerful and healthy appearance; it stands at the foot of a hill, about two miles north-east of East Retford, on the Gainsbro' road. The land, generally speaking, is strong and useful, being well adapted either for grazing, or for agricultural purposes; a considerable portion of which, until recently, was the property of the Duke of Devonshire; but it is now divided into a great number of small freeholds.
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