The
Danish name given to Sileby was probably
originally that of one of the men who founded
the settlement, such as Sighuifby, and the
language spoken here would have been Danish,
one pure Danish word came down the ages
from that time, remaining in common use
in Sileby up to the middle of this 20th
century, it was a word that was often banded
about in the playground in my school-days,
but not in class, or in front of the teacher,
and that was the word "ligger",
meaning a liar, or to lie in bed, this word
can still be found in Scandinavian dictionaries
with the same meaning.
In a period of about 200 years between the
settlement and Doomsday, the Sileby dialect
would have been modified, by intermarriage
with Anglo-Saxon and other people, to realize
this you only need to take into account
what the English language has been through
in the U.S.A.
As there were no written records of Sileby
lands at the time of making of the Doomsday
survey, the Commissioners sent by the King
had to record what was said to them phonetically,
so that the Commissioner recording the Earl
of Chester's land, heard his steward call
Sileby, Siglebi, but the steward of his
own lands called it Seglebi, but the steward
of the Earl of Leicester's pronunciation
agreed with the Earl of Chester's steward.
The amount of land belonging to each of
the three manors, was given in carucates,
that was a measure of land which a team
of oxen could plough, although it was a
common form of measurement, the acreage
could vary considerably according to the
type of soil, on heavy clay soils the acreage
was small compared with that of a light
sandy soil, in Sileby it works out to about
96 acres to a carucate.
So that the recording of acreage of the
Earl of Chester is about 96 acres, that
of the Royal manor c216 acres, but of the
Earl of Leicester c816 acres.
The Earl of Leicester also had 4 Socmen,
(freemen) 18 Villeins <villagers owing
feudal service to the Earl of Leicester)
and 4 Bordarii, (small- holders) and 4 Servii
<slaves) these were all male, most would
have a wife or wives, and with children,
the population would be around the 100 mark.
There were also 13 "burgesses"
from "Siglesbie" <the third
spelling), these would have been of Danish
stock.
The total acreage under cultivation plus
the meadow land recorded in the Doomsday
survey was about 1,200 acres, whilst the
present acreage of Sileby parish is 2,285.
A further Leicestershire Survey was made
between 1124-9, this revealed some interesting
changes in the intervening 40 years, the
Earl of Leicester had increased his acreage
by about 114, the Earl of Chester had trebled
his acreage, though this might be due to
his lands in Seagrave in the Doomsday survey
being included.
The King was no longer shown as the Lord
of the Manor of Rothley, but instead Richard
Basset and Robert de Ferres were recorded
as joint Lords. Their lands also showed
an increase of about 36 acres, their lands
in Seagrave recorded in the Domesday Survey
may also have been included. Richard Basset
was married to Maude Ridel the Earl of Chester's
grand- daughter, and they founded Launde
Abbey.
The Ferrers family continued to be Lords
of the Manor in Sileby right into the 20th
century, and for all I know may still be.
