ST. BEE'S , Barony of Circa 1154, Gødred of Mann and the Isles granted to the church of St. Bega in Coupaland, (Priory of St. Bee's); Eschedale and Asmunder toftas (the Dhoon and Ballellin) in exchange for the church of St. Olave and the little estate called Euastad. Charter of Guthred, King of the Isles concerning Eschedala in wood, plain, pasture and all other things.
By this charter, probably circulated 1175, Gødred of Man gave to St. Bees Priory, 'Asmundestoftes and Eschedala,' in exchange for the 'Church of St. Olaf and the villula which is called Euastad.' Asmundestoftes is Ballellin, Eschedala is the Dhoon: this may be taken as indisputable. Ballellin contains 57 statute acres; the Dhoon, 127; that is 184 acres, with the advantage of being near the grazing on the hills. There was a mill on Asmundestoftes, as is known from another document of 1302: and no doubt Ballellin means the `mill farm.' It is the work of scholarship to make certain where the Church of St. Olaf and the small vill (villula) of Euastad were, viz., in the absence of documents in which these names occur. The view here submitted is (i) that the church was at the Jallo, near Port Mooar; and (ii) that Euastad was the then name of Ballajora. They were certainly in the parish of Maughold.
We can start then from the point when Gødred's charter was given. St. Bees gave up to the King this Church of Olaf at Port Mooar and part of Ballajora, retaining only that part still called 'Barony of St. Bees ' and Staff land.' In exchange for this surrender they received Asmundestoftes or Ballellin, and Eschedala or Dhoon, with access to the hill pastures. It had a right of way to the sea at Port Cornaa, which port and the seaward half of Ormshow, now called the Barony, they acquired from King Gødred's son.
REGISTER OF ST. BEES. HARLEAN MS. BRIT. MUSEUM.
Carta Guthredi regis Insularum de Eschedala in bosco, piano, pastura, et omnibus aliis.
Know all men, as well present as future that I, Guthred, by the grace of God, King of the Isles, as well for my own salvation as for the souls of my father and mother, moreover also for the good estate of my kingdom and people have conceded and given to God and St. Bege and to the monks serving God there for a pure and perpetual alms the land which is called Eschedala in wood and plain, water and pasture and all things to the same appertaining free clear and quit from all earthly service as well of money as of suits, and from every charge as well on my part as on the part of any of mine, with the same laws and liberties which they have over their own land and men around the Church of St. Bege in Coupland. The land also which is called Asmundestoftes from them in addition to the aforesaid land so long as I shall be able to guarantee it to them from the calumny of any and every of my most upright men, which thing if it shall have befallen (otherwise), viz., that I am not able peacefully to guarantee it to them, I will give them an equivalent of equal value from the lands nearest and most necessary to them which shall be able to be found free in my own hands, with the same laws and liberties which we have before stated that we have conceded to the land aforesaid. But this donation we have made to them in exchange for the Church of St. Olaf and the small vill which is called Euastad, which was too short and narrow for them as well for cultivation as for the pasture of animals. To them retaining and keeping this alms in their hands may there be continual peace and eternal salvation (and) victory over enemies. These being witnesses . . . . Lord G. Bishop; Thomas, my Chaplain; Gillocrist, my foster-brother.
(i) The Gaelic 'Baly-Djora' and the Norse 'Djorabyr' (Jurby) mean the farm of the Djora, Deuar, or steward of ecclesiastical lands. In the Middle Ages throughout Europe, even to the remotest corners, this office (Lat., Advocatus) was a fixed institution. A layman held a part of the ecclesiastical land as hereditary 'owner ' on terms of service as steward, proctor, or defender of the rights of the ecclesiastics to the rents and dues of the remainder. The Deuar had a staff of office his land was called Staffland; and in local usage the Deuar's Farm.
Deuars on a large scale were called Abbots, as owning substantial parts of the abbeyland. Jurby parish has over 1,100 acres of ecclesiastical land still definable: so the land assigned to the Deuar or lay abbot must have been considerable. We find it identifiable in The Nappin, ' Dan appan ' (of, or belonging to the abbey), containing about 300 acres, with Jurby Church in the centre of it. Manx parishes are named from the parish church, and this parish from its church being on the Djora-byr, or steward's farm.
ii) The Norse name Cullfby, and the later Gaelic name Ballacurry, found to be the early and later names of the same farm, the Norse ' byr ' as suffix and the Gaelic ' Baly ' as prefix, show the use of Norse gradually giving way to Gaelic so ' baly ' would take the place of ' stadt.' In the 12th century Norse was still a living tongue in Man, and probably down to late in the 13th century. Baly-Djora is, therefore, a later usage for Djora-stadt, which even by the 12th century amid Gaelic habits of speech would have become Deuar-stad, Deua-stad, Yeua-stall, Eua-stad.
(iii) Ballajora, on the sea-slope west of Port Mooar in Maughold. contains about 230-acres and adjoining it is the ancient Clerk's Glebe on the north slope from Port Mooar, of 29 acres. Ballajora consists of two parts, 83 acres of Staffland forming Barony of St. Bees, and 146 acres of Particles land. This latter part may possibly be the villula of Euastad, named in King Gødred's charter; or this particles land along with the ancient Clerk's Glebe.
(iv) The time of Gødred's charter was the time when the parish system was being introduced, parishes formed, existing churches made into parish churches and others allowed to fall into disuse or serve for other purposes; and, equally important to bear in mind, the new institutions endowed out of the old ecclesiastical lands: for the family of Gødred gave nothing, but only applied the already existing endowments to religion, or learning, or charity, in the fashion or terms of organisation then coming into vogue in Man as in Scotland. The same activity was in progress in the then newly-formed diocese of Carlisle, where the new priory of St. Bees, a branch of the Benedictine abbey of St. Mary at York, was acquiring a share of such endowments. We can safely say that the ancient Clerk's Glebe became a glebe about the time of Gødred's charter; but, prior to that, was ecclesiastical land. The first charter of a Manx king, giving to St. Bees land in Maughold, is lost. The original extent of that land is, therefore, not known. It was seemingly all at Port. Mooar, consisting of the whole of ' Ballajora,' and probably also the Clerk's Glebe; and there was there a church of St. Olaf, situated possibly at ' The Jalloo '; possibly our English article ' the,' a corruption of the Gaelic preposition 'da ' viz., 'da Alloo,' or 'da'n Alloo ' with the word Keeill understood. For an exact parallel we have ' Baly-na-serve ' in Andreas, where ' na' is feminine and ' Seyre' a male saint; the feminine keeill (or church) being implied and understood.
(v) The Jalloo has been explained as meaning 'the image,' monument or cross; and a cross is said to have stood there in human memory. But Olloo and Alloo are the actual forms of the name Olaf that have come down from early times in place and personal names. For instance, in Orkney it is Kirk Ollo, now Kirkwall, the church of Olaf. In Lorne, there is Dunolly, the dun of Olaf. In Man, Knockaloe, the cnoc or hill of Olaf. The clan name Callow, older form Mc'Aloe, is the clan Olaf. St. Bees may have found a church of Olaf at Port Mooar, on the site of the old school, and may have begged it as a gift for this reason. The original nucleus of the great mother abbey, of the Benedictines at York was a church of St. Olaf, founded by the Earl of Northumbria about 1050, as his own burial-place, endowed with a few acres of land. Round this church the abbey grew; the saint was, therefore, held in honour by that community, as likewise he would be by the colony from York settling on the coast of Cumberland. St. Olaf died 1030. His dedications mostly date from the first generation after his death: hence the 1050 dedication at York. But in 1164 he was canonized by the Church of Rome, made national saint of Norway, our King- Gødred present at that great function in Drontheim Cathedral, and a party to the deed of making Dronheim an archbishopric with Man and the Isles one of its suffragan sees.