13
S 100

Æthelbald, king of the Mercians, grants seven hides (manentes) in the district called Geddinges (cf. Yeading), Middlesex, to Wihtred, comes, and to Answyth, his wife. [A.D. 716 x 757]

Archive: Canterbury, Christ Church

In nomine Domini nostri Iesu Christi . Nichil intulimus in hunc mundum sed nec auferre quid possumus Ideo premia eterne patrie nobis caducis celestia momentanis manenta sunt mercanda Iccirco ego Æthelbaldus rex Merciorum Domino dispensante comite meo Withredo coniugique eius Ansithe terram .vii. manencium in provincia Midelsexorum in regione que dicitur Geddinges in australi atque in occidente habens torrentem cuius uocabulum est Ficesburne et in aquilonale ulterius quam uia publica iacet . duorum iuierum latitudine in oriente in aquam que Anglorum lingua [..] lake nominatur habens . que est duarum que ibi sunt . ulterior usque dum illam accipient sulcesque procedunt . insuper memoratam aquam id est Fissesburnam ea racione prorogans dono ut sit ecclesiastice iuris potestate subdita inper<pe>tuum Numquam ego ullusque successorum meorum contra hanc donacionis descriptionem uenire temptauerit Quod si quis hoc presumserit nouerit se in districto examine Domino racionem reddendam insuper cum raptoribus insolubilem subire sentenciam.

Edition: Charters of Christ Church, Canterbury, ed. N. P. Brooks and S. E. Kelly, Anglo-Saxon Charters (The British Academy, forthcoming), no. 13. For apparatus criticus and a detailed commentary see this edition.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have brought nothing into this world but neither are we able to take anything away. Therefore, the heavenly rewards of the eternal fatherland that are lasting must be purchased by us with perishable things of brief duration. Therefore, I, Æthelbald, king of the Mercians through the direction of the Lord, give to my comes, Wihtred, and his wife, Ansith, land of 7 hides in the province of the Middle Saxons in the district that is called Gedding, having in the south and west the stream whose name is fish-bourne; and in the north [extending] two acres beyond the public road; in the east [extending] to the water which in English is called 'the lake', which is the more distant of the two that are there, as long as they receive and plough it, in addition the aforementioned stream, that is fish-bourne, preserving it for this reason that, as it has been subjected to the power of ecclesiastical law in perpetuity, I and any of my successors should never try to oppose the terms of this gift. If anyone should presume [to do] this, let him know that at the account that must be rendered to the Lord at the Last Judgment he must also undergo with robbers a sentence from which he cannot be released.

Translation: David A. E. Pelteret, with the bounds adapted from Charters of Christ Church, Canterbury, ed. N. P. Brooks and S. E. Kelly, Anglo-Saxon Charters (The British Academy, forthcoming), no. 13.