North Benfleet belonged to Harold in the time of King
Edward the Confessor and passed into the hands of
William I after the Norman Conquest. There are
two entries whieh relate to South Benfleet, although it
must be admitted that the actual identification of
the Benfleet manors mentioned in Domesday Book
is by no means complete. One of these entries
records that King William gave the church at South
Benfleet with seven hides (a hide is generally
regarded as about 120 acres) and thirty acres, which
had all formerly belonged to the Abbey of Barking,
to St. Peter of Westminster (Westminster Abbey).
In the time of Edward there were two ploughteams
on the demesne and five belonging to the "men,"
there were 15 villeins (unfree cultivators) and seven
bordars (unfree cultivators of a lower status), and
pasture for 200 sheep. It was reckoned as being
worth four pounds. At the time of the Survey (1086)
it was assessed at six pounds and had the same
number of villeins, but the bordars had increased to
twelve. There were then fifty sheep and five swine.
Half the profits of a mill monopoly also went to the
manor, and it is recorded that an eighth hide which
had also belonged to St. Mary of Barking had been
given by Ingelric to St. Martin (? S. Martin's le Grand)
without the King's sanction. The Abbey at Barking
was one of the richest and most famous of the early
Benedictine houses; it was founded about 675 by
Erkenwald, third bishop of London, whose sister
Ethelburga was the first abbess. Westminster Abbey,
it is interesting to note, also obtained considerable
grants of land in North Benfleet.
The other entry records that a certain free man,
Alwine (of whose fate nothing is known), held in
King Edward's time a manor of two hides at Benfleet,
but at the time of the Survey this was held by Sweyn.
In King Edward's time there were three ploughteams
on the demesne, but at the time of the Survey there
was only one, although it was noted that another
ploughteam could be employed. There were five
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