efeated by the fyrd and aldermen of Devon, and in 878,
when the Danes under Hubba were harrying the coast with a squadron of
twenty-three ships, they were again defeated with great slaughter by the
fyrd. The modern hundreds of Devonshire correspond in position very
nearly with those given in the Domesday Survey, though the names have in
many cases been changed, owing generally to alterations in their places
of meeting. The hundred of Bampton formerly included estates west of the
Exe, now transferred to the hundred of Witheridge. Ten of the modern
hundreds have been formed by the union of two or more Domesday hundreds,
while the Domesday hundred of Liston has had the new hundred of
Tavistock severed from it since 1114. Many of the hundreds were
separated by tracts of waste and forest land, of which Devonshire
contained a vast extent, until in 1204 the inhabitants paid 5000 marks
to have the county disafforested, with the exception only of Dartmoor
and Exmoor.

Devonshire in the 7th century formed part of the vast bishopric of
Dorchester-on-Thames. In 705 it was attached to the newly created
diocese of Sherborne, and in 910 Archbishop Plegmund constituted
Devonshire a separate diocese, and placed the see at Crediton. About
1030 the dioceses of Devonshire and Cornwall were united, and in 1049
the see was fixed at Exeter. The archdeaconries of Exeter, Barnstaple
and Totnes are all mentioned in the 12th century and formerly comprised
twenty-four deaneries. The deaneries of Three Towns, Collumpton and
Ottery have been created since the 16th century, while those of
Tamerton, Dunkeswell, Dunsford and Plymptre have been abolished,
bringing the present number to twenty-three.

At the time of the Norman invasion Devonshire showed an active hostility
to Harold, and the easy submission which it rendered to the Conqueror
accounts for the exceptionally large number of Englishmen who are found
retaining lands after the Conquest. The many vast fiefs held by Norman
barons were known as honours, chief among them being Plympton,
Okehampton, Barnstaple, Harberton and Totnes. The honour of Plympton was
bestowed in the 12th century on the Redvers family, together with the
earldom of Devon; in the 13th century it passed to the Courtenay family,
who had already become possessed of the honour of Okehampton, and who in
1335 obtained the earldom. The dukedom of Exeter was bestowed in the
14th century on the Holland family, which became extinct in