Heritage Doncaster

It is true that the lordship of Doncaster – which consisted of the town of Doncaster along with Balby, Hexthorpe, Rossington, Long Sandall, Blaxton, and the Yorkshire part of Auckley, (and not much else, and so bears only limited relation to the modern city) – was given by King Stephen of England to Henry, the son and heir of King David I of Scotland, in 1136 .

However, this gift didn’t make Doncaster part of the kingdom of Scotland. Doncaster was a lordship in England held as personal property by Prince Henry in much the same way as lordships in France, such as Normandy, were held by the kings of England as personal property. The overlord of Doncaster was still the king of England and the overlord of Normandy was still the king of France.

We don’t know whether the gift of Doncaster was only to last for Prince Henry’s lifetime or if it could be inherited by his heirs. In any case, Prince Henry died in 1152 and his son and heir, Malcolm, was only 10 at the time and therefore not old enough to inherit his father’s properties. This meant that the king of England was entitled to repossess Doncaster and keep it until Malcolm reached the age of 21. Before that could happen, Henry II, who succeeded Stephen in 1154, cancelled most of the grants of property made by Stephen during his somewhat chaotic reign. Doncaster became property of the king of England once again – as we can see from the payments from Doncaster made into the English exchequer from 1158 onwards.

Much is often made of the lack of evidence for any formal resignation of the manor by Henry or his son, or of the rescinding of the gift by the English crown. Such evidence is unnecessary. If, for any reason, the heir to a property did not take seizin of the property the gift would lapse and pass to the crown as escheat.

All this means that Prince Henry of Scotland was the only Scottish lord of Doncaster and that he held Doncaster for the period 1136-1152. He never became king, since he died a year before his father, David I. Malcolm did become king, as Malcolm IV, but he never took possession of Doncaster. At no stage was Doncaster ever incorporated into the kingdom of Scotland. If it had become part of Scotland, only the townships mentioned above would have been involved; Conisbrough, Mexborough, Bentley, Tickhill, Bawtry, Hatfield, Thorne and many other places now in the present-day local authority were not in the manor of Doncaster and therefore were never in Prince Henry’s possession.