Little Billing / Belinge / Bellica / Bellinge / Billinge / Billing Parva

There are four entries for [Great and Little] Billing [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/XX0000/great-and-little-billing/] [accessed 9 November 2014], one of which, the part in the lordship of Gunfrid of Chocques, mentions a priest in it, not a church, though there probably was one here. Barrel-shaped Saxon font. Paley (1844) calls it "jar-like" and dates the inscription to the time of William the Conqueror-- dated to the end of the 11th or begining of the 12th century [cf. the CRSBI entry below for a note on the inscription]. In Batty (1848), Parker (1849) and Whellan (1849) with reference to Paley. Bloxam (1858) has it as Norman. Romilly Allen (1888) states that the inscription is "in Latin capitals similar to those on the seal of William the Conqueror", and suggests a date "not later that the end of the eleventh century" based on the palaeographical and other evidence from the font. The only apparent ornament besides the inscription is the three plain bulging ring mouldings towards the bottom half of the barrel; inscribed in Latin (Anglo-Saxon lettering). Cox & Harvey (1907) give the following translation of the inscription: " Wigbert the artificer and mason made this [font], Whoever comes hither to dip his body, let him take it (Baptism) without doubt". Bond (1908) notes an "unfinished Latin inscription in characters exactly conforming with those on the great seal of William the Conqueror; it is to the following effect: 'Wilbert, craftsman and mason (artifex et cementarius), wrought this. Whoever comes to immerse his body without doubt gains.'" Bond (ibid.) dates the font to the end of the 11th or beginning of the 12th "on account of the palæological peculiarities of the inscriptions". Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928), who gives the inscription text as: "WILBERTUS ARTIFEX ATQ-CEMENTARIUS HUNC FABRICAVIT QUISQUIS SUUM VENIT MERGERE CORPUS PROCUL DUBIO CAPIT", which he translates as: "Wilbert craftsman and mason made this. Whoso cometh to immerse his body without doubt is the gainer". The Victoria County History (Northampton, vol. 4, 1937) notes: "On account of the palaeological peculiarity of its inscription, as well as from its resemblance to a Saxon baluster shaft, the font is generally attributed to the pre-Conquest period, but is probably not earlier than the 11th century". Mee (1945) writes: "a font shaped by a Saxon probably soon after England became Norman. It is crudely shaped like a barrel, and has round it an unfinished Latin inscription in plain characters still fine and easy to read, similar to those on the great seal of the Conqueror [...] The inscription reads: 'Wighbert the craftsman and mason made this. / Whoever comes to dip his body without doubt gains.' Although these long years the old font has been serving our people in our ancient countryside, and when the 13th century came it was fitted with a lock and staple [...]." Taylor (1965-1978) states the Anglo-Saxon pedigree of this font as well. Maguire (1970) notes: "Wigberhtus may provide us with an example of a country mason who continued, after the conquest, to carve in the old Anglo-Saxon manner [...] the pre-conquest traditions wer kept alive until the twelfth century, when the decoration of St. Peter's was carried out." Noted and illustrated in Pevsner & Cherry (1973) with Norman date. Described and illustrated in the CRSBI (2008), which notes: "Paley's illustration is interesting in reproducing part of the inscription (which he transcribed correctly in the text) entirely inaccurately."