Feudal Title Index & Research ~ U-Z

Lot #9 of Manorial Services Auction - Winter 2021 - Stephen Johnson

THIS MANOR was held by Robert de Ufford during the reign of Edward 1 (1272-1307), and seems to cover  the area of the parish of Cheapenhall formerly known as the hamlet of Chepenhall, now spelt Chippenhall.  Robert assumed the surname of Ufford once he had acquired the Lordship. There is a large entry for  Chippenhall in Domesday Book (1086): 

In CHIPPENHALL nine freemen under patronage; two and a half carucates of land (see Glossary). Always 17  smallholders; 10 ploughs. Meadow, 12 acres; woodland, 300 pigs. Value then 100 shillings now £6. Half a  church, 20 acres. One plough. It has two leagues in length and one in width; 15d in tax. The jurisdiction is in the  bishop (of St Edmunds’) manor of Hoxne, but Edric held half from Bishop Aelmar. Of this manor, Walter holds four  freemen; one carucate of land. (Value) 30 shillings. It is in the assessment of £6. Robert (Malet’s) mother (holds)  three (freemen); 80 acres. Humphrey (holds) one (freeman); 20 acres. Value 5 shillings in the same assessment.  Walter son of Grip (holds) one (freeman); 120 acres. Value 40 shillings in the same assessment. 

Robert de Ufford was the younger son of the Suffolk landowner John de Peynton, and attended Edward I on  his crusade to the Holy Land between 1270 and 1273. On their return Edward sent him to intensify the  introduction of English laws into Ireland, which had been started by King John more than sixty years before.  He also built Roscommon Castle ‘at countless cost’. On the 21 November 1281 Stephen de Fulburn, the  Bishop of Waterford, was appointed as Justice in his place, since Ufford ‘by reason of his infirmities’ could no longer perform his duties. Later in Edward’s reign, Adam, son of Sir Robert le Bevant granted and confirmed by ‘deed without date, to Henry, son of William de Sancroft and Margery his wife and the heirs of the said  Henry a certain messuage together with his houses and buildings in this parish of Fressingfield.’ The centre of the Lordship was and remains Ufford Hall, a half-timbered building, dating from the 16th century (for the  avoidance of doubt, not included in the sale of the Lordship of Ufford Hall). 

 The de Sancroft family held the Lordship of Ufford Hall for several centuries, starting with William, who was  married to a Margery, and living in the reign of Edward I. The male pogency of this family has been worked  out as follows: 

Henry 

Simon, 1304 

John, 1338 

John, son or more distant descendant, such as  

great grandson, 1414 

Stephen, 1432 

John, 1470 

John, 1478 

Robert married Alice William, 1528, 

married another Alice Francis, perhaps a great great grandson, died 1628,  

married Margaret Francis, 

married Catherine 

Dr William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury 

Francis Sancroft married Margaret Boucher and was the father of Archbishop William Sancroft. The Archbishop  was born at Ufford Hall, and was the leader of the seven Bishops who were imprisoned in the Tower of  London in the autumn of 1688 for opposing the policies of the Catholic James II (VII of Scotland). More  specifically, Archbishop Sancroft and his eminent colleagues refused to read the king’s Edict of Toleration, which included Catholics. It was in this year that James married Mary Beatrice, the daughter of the Duke  and Duchess of Modena, a Catholic. This prompted Parliament,to attempt to prevent the the marriage being  consummated, or to ensure that any children were bought up as Protestants. James was one of our more  bone-headed kings and was totally committed to the Catholic cause in a country that was Protestant. He  had star ted to fill the shrievalties and lord lieutenancies with Catholics. Army officers who were Catholic were promoted, and his inability to perceive the resentment of the overwhelming protestant population at  his actions. He also ‘dispensed’, of his Royal Prerogative. 

Six leading noblemen wrote to the the Stadtholder of the Netherlands, William of Orange, a Protestant,  to come to England with an army. He was married to King James’s daughter Mary, by his first wife, Anne Hyde. Archbishop de Sancroft and many Anglicans refused to read the ‘Second Declaration of Indulgence’  and he, with six other top bishops, were tried for seditious libel. The king, however, unlike his ancestors, no  longer controlled the judiciary, and the Seven Bishops Case was dismissed. Their acquital was greeted with  popular rejoicing. William of Orange landed at Torbay, Devon, and began marching towards London. James  sent John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough, to stop him, but Churchill was also a Protestant and joined William.  James then took to flight and went to France where Louis XIV welcomed him. Despite his opposition to Catholic James, Archbishop Sancroft was greatly troubled in accepting Willaim who had been offered the  crown by Parliament in 1689 jointly with his wife. He would have to crown them William III and Mary II.  Consequently, Sancroft was removed as Archibishop of Canterbury in 1690. He died at Ufford Hall in 1693,  where he was buried in the Chantry of the Chapel. 

Francis Sancroft died in 1708, and the Lordship passed to his son William, and on his death it was devised  to his widow Catherine for life. The Lordship was purchased by Sir John Major, whose posterity were  created Lord Henniker and Lord Hartismere, and he sold Ufford Hall Lordship in 1987 to the present owner.  A descent of the Henniker family is given with this Memoire. There are about 900 inhabitants and the  architecture of the manor house is printed in Nikolaus Pevsner’s Buildings of England series. 

A selection of Documents associated with the Manor in the Public Domain:

1581-1581: minister’s accounts Suffolk Archives - Ipswich 

1664-1664: court roll 

1673-1686: court roll 

1693-1697: court roll 

1698-1782: surrenders and admissions  

1760-1760: survey 

1793-1925: court books  

1800-1900: court book  

1802-1819: presentments 

1803-1803: precept to seize premises 

1815-1824: notices for holding court 

1888-1888: quit and free rental 

1890-1890: index of tenants 

1892-1919: quit and free rent accounts, 

1902-1929: court extracts 

1909-1922: quit rent accounts 

1921-1935: quit and free rent accounts 

1929-1929: correspondence rel to stewards’ fees and admissions 

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Lot #6 of Manorial Services Auction - Nov 2022 - Stephen Johnson

Ulting Manor lies in the parish of the same name, a Coat of Arms of Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex. few miles north of Hatfield Peverel and on the north  bank of the River Chelmer. It is the home of the  Toastmasters General Council, who have their office  in the village. It was also the site of the first sugar  beet factory in England, which was built in 1832 by  brothers Robert and James Marriage. They believed  that by refining sugar from home grown beet this  would reduce dependence on imported sugar grown  with the use of slave labour.

The earliest record for the Manor comes in  Domesday Book which notes that before the Norman  invasion it had been the property of Hacen. After 1066  it was taken from him and given to Ralph Baynard. It  was quite a prosperous manor and was recorded as  being worth £4. During the reign of Henry I (1100- 1135) Ulting was stripped from Baynard’s grandson,  William, after he had supported a rebellion of Robert,  Duke of Normandy in 1101. Baynard was one of the few Anglo-Norman barons who supported the Duke and paid a heavy price. The Baynards are perhaps most  remembered today for building Baynard’s Castle, in Co Durham. 

Henry granted Ulting to Robert Fitz-Gilbert, founder of the line which became the Earls of Clare.  It is likely that Fitz-Gilbert was the overlord of Ulting since by the reign of Henry II (1154-1189) the manor  complex was held by William de Ulting, perhaps a descendant of Gerrard, who was recorded as holding the  Manor from Ralph Baynard in 1086. The Ultings were likely of the class which became known as the landed  gentry. Consequently very little is recorded of the family, save that they held Ulting by a knight’s fee. In 1320  John Ulting succeeded to the manor and it is noted that he held it from Robert Fitz-Walter by payment of 3  shillings and from the Prior of Beeleigh Abbey for the same amount. The demesne is described as consisting  of 40 acres of arable and 2 acres of meadow. Given the propensity of copyhold tenure in Essex, it is likely  that he had a number of feudal tenants. 

Within a few years however, the De Ulting family had lost their titular estate. How this happened is not  known but there are a couple of references in the Chancery records of a John De Ulting being prosecuted  as a debtor in the middle of the 14th century so it seems likely that the family ran into financial trouble and  were forced to sell. By the 1340s the Manor was the property of Robert Bourchier or Bouchier. 

The Bourchier family were of Norman descent and settled in Essex soon after the Conquest. By the reign of  Edward II (1307-1327) John Bouchier of Colchester had been knighted and served as one of the Justices of  the Kings Bench. His son Robert, was a great favourite of Edward III and was made Lord Chancellor in 1340,  at a fee of £500 per year. Bourchier was the first layman to hold this position, ousting Archbishop Stratford. In  the struggle between the King and the Archbishop which followed, Bourchier withheld the writ of summons  to Stratford, interrupted his address to the other Bishops in the Painted Chamber of Parliament, and urged  him to submit to the King. Bourchier fought with notable distinction at the Battle of Crecy in 1346 where he  served under the immediate command of Prince Edward, the Black Prince. He was created Baron by Writ  of Summons in 1342 and was succeeded by his son John on his death in 1349.  

The family remained Lords of Ulting until the death of Sir Bartholomew in 1409. On his death his estate  passed to his daughter, Elizabeth and so to her husband, Sir Hugh Stafford. He was summoned to Parliament  20 Sir William Parr as Lord Bourchier by Henry V. He died childless in 1421 and Utling then reverted to the Bourchier family.  Henry, Earl of Essex, died holding the manor in 1483 and was succeeded by his only daughter, Anne who was  married to Sir William Parr. Parr was the only brother of Catherine, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII. He  was the son of a Lancashire courtier and came to the attention of the king after his success in the suppressing  the great Northern uprising of 1537 known as the the Pilgrimage of Grace. He became a member of the  privy chamber and in 1543, a few weeks after his sister had married Henry, he was created Earl of Essex, in  honour of his father-in-law. After Henry’s death and the accession of Edward VI in 1547, Parr became one  of the most important men at court, and was known as the king’s ‘beloved uncle’. He was the leader of the  Protestant party in Edward’s regime and held a series of positions including Lord Great Chamberlain (1550- 1553). After Edward’s death in 1553, Parr and his second wife, Elizabeth Brooke moved to have Lady Jane  Grey placed on the throne instead of Mary but after the failiure of this plan he was arrested and convicted  of high treason. Although he was sentenced to death he was released only a few months later, but his estates  had been stripped from him and Ulting passed to the Crown. On the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558 he was  restored and created Marquess of Northampton. For reasons unknown, the manor of Utling however was  not returned to him. It is possibly because it had passed to Anne Bourchier, from whom he was divorced in  1542 after she had eloped. She is said to have told Parr that she intended to live as she lusted!

In March 1573 Queen Elizabeth granted Utling and Utling Hall to Thomas Heneage one of her  devoted courtiers, who served as a member of Parliament almost continually from 1553 to 1593. He was  great friends with both the Earl of Leicester and Philip Sidney. He was described by the historian, William  Camden, as a man for his elegancy of life and pleasantness of discourse, born, as it were, for the court. On his  death the manor was purchased by Anthony Collins from whom it was held jointly by the husbands of  his two daughters, Walter Carew and Robert Fairfax. During the middle part of the 17th century it was  purchased by a lawyer, Joseph Banks who retained it until 1791 when he put it up for auction at The Saracens  Head in Chelmsford, a public house which is still open today. It appears to have been purchased by the father,  or grandfather, of R. Nicholson, whose trustees sold the property in 1854. 

In 1878 the Lord of the Manor was Sir George Samuel Brooke Bt. who died in 1897 and was succeeded by  his eldest son, Sir Samuel George Brooke-Pechell and his second son, Sir Augustus Alexander Brooke-Pechell  in 1904. The manor remained in the possession of this family until 1983 when it was sold by the Trustees of  the Pechell Trust to the Ulting Overseas Trust, who in turn sold it to the present Vendor.

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Lot #28 of Stanford & Son's 'Second Auction' - Dec 1955

In the County of Hampshire 

This Manor adjoins Emsworth and its history from the earliest times is linked up with that Manor. Reference should therefore be made to the particulars of the previous Lot for its history and the names of former lords. 

The Manors were, however, quite distinct for the purpose of administration. Separate Courts were held for each Manor, but as the Stewards were the same, the proceedings at the Courts and also “out of Court proceedings”, when these were allowed by law, were through most of the period covered by the records to be handed over to the Purchaser recorded in the same book. It is fortunate that the Warblington Courts for the period 1686 to 1734 were duplicated in a separate book, as also were the Minutes of the Courts of that Manor from 1872 to 1886. The last two Books will, of course, be handed to the Purchaser of this Lot and he will receive, on completion, an acknowledgment of his right to production and to delivery of copies of the books which will be handed to the Purchaser of the Manor of Emsworth as relating also to that Manor. 

The lords of this Manor held Courts Leet as well as Courts Baron. It was probably at Warblington Castle that Queen Elizabeth stayed for two days during her progress through the Southern Counties in 1586. A drawing of the remains of “The Strong House of Warblington” can be seen on page 136, Volume III of the Hampshire Victoria County History. 

In 1340 the fishing and profits of the shore at Emsworth are said to have formed a valuable item in the revenues of the Manor of Warblington. The lord of this Manor also had a weekly market and an Annual Fair in Emsworth under a grant made in 1239 by Henry III. The Fair was always held on the Morrow of the Translation of St. Thomas, viz., 4th July. 

RECORDS to be handed over are: 

Court Books. 1686-1734 (duplicate).
Minute Book. 1872-86. 

Insurance of Records. £200, premium 10/-.
Commencement of Title. Deed dated 9th October, 1885.

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Lot #46 of Manorial Services Auction - 2004 UNPUBLISHED/ABORTED - Stephen Johnson

Warehorne is a parish lying west of Romney Marsh and around six miles from the English Channel. The town of Tenterden is five miles west and the village of Hamstreet, two miles to the East. The Royal Military Canal runs through it on the way to its termination at Hythe. The village is built around a large green, called the Lecton.

The Lordship of the Manor of Warehorne is an ancient one, and is first mentioned as early as 820. In a chart granted by King Egbert and his son Ethelwulf, a place called Werehornas, was given to Godwine. It is described as consisting of two plough lands, situated among marshes and was bought for 100 shillings. The boundaries were noted as being on the east part southward over the river Linmen unto the South Saxon limits. In 1010 Archbishop Alphage of Canterbury became possessed of Warehorne and in turn he granted it to the abbey of Christ Church in Canterbury. The profits of the Lordship were to be used to provide clothing for the monks. The Lordship then remained in possession of the abbey after the Norman invasion of 1066 and it is recorded in Domesday Book thus;

In Hame Hundred, the archbishop himself holds Werehorne,.

It was taxed at one sulung.

The arable land is two carucates, and six villeins, 

with three borderers having one carucate.

There are twelve acres of meadow, and wood for pannage of six hogs.

In the time of King Edward the Confessor and afterwards,

it was worth 20s and now 60s.

This last point is interesting since Warehorne is one of the relatively few Lordships which were worth considerably more in 1086 than they had been in 1066. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that the abbey divested themselves of Warehorne, in the hope of making a tidy sum from its sale. By the reign of King John (1199-1216) it was in the possession of Ansfrid de Dene. How long it remained in this family is not known for by the reign of Henry III (1216-1272) it had come into the hands of Richard de Bedeford. He is recorded as holding it in 1268 when he obtained the grant of a market to be held weekly on a Tuesday and an fair for three days after the feast of St Matthew (21 September). This grant was reaffirmed in 1280 at which time he was also granted the right of free-warren. Bedeford died in 1289 and the next Lord of Warehorne that we find is Hugh de Windsor, during the reign of Edward II (1307-1327). At the beginning of the reign of the next king, Edward III (1327-1377) we find the Lordship had been alienated to William de Moraunt of Chevening, who acted as sheriff of Kent in 1339 and 1340. His son and heir was Sir Thomas Moraunt who was survived by an only daughter, Lora. 

Lora Moraunt married first, Thomas Cawne of Ightham and then James Peckham of Yaldham. This Peckhams held Warehorne for a number of generations until it was sold to the Hawte family. The last of the Hawtes was Sir William, who, on his death left the Lordship to his youngest daughter Jane. On her marriage to Sir Thomas Wyatt of Allington she brought the Lordship to that family. Wyatt was the only surviving son of his father Thomas and a Catholic. In his boyhood he is said to have accompanied his father on a diplomatic mission to Spain where the elder Thomas was threatened with the Inquisition. From this moment on Wyatt became an immovable enemy of the Spanish. In 1537 he married Jane Hawte and five years later, after the death of his father, he succeeded to the family estate at Allington, which he added to his lands at Warehorne. As a young man he made friends with Henry Howard, earl of Surrey and at Lent in 1543 he joined the earl and others in a mob breaking windows of houses and churches in London. He was arrested and brought before the Privy Council. Wyatt decided to deny all charges and was kept at the Tower until May. He was freed soon after this and in the Autumn of that year he joined a regiment of volunteers to join the siege of Landrecies in France. Wyatt distinguished himself in the action as he did also at the siege of Boulogne in the following year. In 1545 Surrey, his commanding officer wrote to the King (Henry VIII) in praise of Wyatt’s ‘hardiness, painfulness and circumspection and natural disposition to war.’ 

He remained abroad until 1550 and only became involved in public affairs at the time of Mary’s marriage to Philip of Spain in 1554. He regarded the announcement as an outrage but did not think of mounting a public protest until he was asked by Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire, to join an insurrection to prevent the marriage.

In January 1554, Wyatt summoned his friends and allies to Allington Castle and he offered to lead a rebel army. Devonshire was arrested before his uprising could commence and Wyatt was therefore thrust forward as the rebellion’s leader. He announced a proclamation at Maidstone urging that ‘liberty and commonwealth’ were being threatened by Philip. With an army of 1,500 men and a promised reserve of 5,000 more, Wyatt fixed his headquarters at Rochester Castle. When news of his actions reached London, Mary issued a proclamation offering to pardon all those involved who left for their homes within 24 hours. Small parties on their way to Rochester were broken up and dispersed and Wyatt kept up the spirits of his men by promising them that aid from France was due. Mary’s offered seemed to work and many of Wyatt’s men departed and it looked desperate for him. However, the Duke of Norfolk was ordered to march from London to Rochester but was seriously undermanned and being followed by 500 supporters of Wyatt from the London mob. As soon as Norfolk’s men reached Rochester many deserted to the rebellion. Wyatt then set out for London at the head of an army of 4,000. On January 29 he marched through Blackheath and Dartford and Mary proclaimed Wyatt a traitor before the City of London. The next day 20,000 men were said toÒ have enrolled in a militia to protect the city. On February 3 Wyatt marched his forces to Southwark but was repelled by the batteries in the Tower. Many of his men then deserted on hearing of the preparations in London and he was forced back to Kingston. He then decided to cross the Thames at Ludgate but his plans were betrayed to Mary and his army was allowed to enter a trap. He was forced westward to Kensington and Hyde Park but rallied and attempted to storm the city at Ludgate. Finally, cornered, and with few men left, he was captured and taken to the Tower. On March 15 Wyatt was sentenced to death and on the scaffold he fully confessed his actions and exculpated Devonshire. He was beheaded and his head hung in a gibbet at Hyde Park. This was stolen on April 17.

On his death his estates were seised , but prior to his rebellion, Wyatt has swapped Warehorne with the Crown for other premises. During the reign of Elizabeth it was granted to Ellis from whom it passed to Thomas Paget and Thomas Twisden. They sold it to John Tufton, whose son, Nicholas was created earl of Thanet. The Lordship his remained in the possession of the Tufton family until the present day and the current representative of the family, Lord Hothfield, is the Lord of the Manor and Vendor.

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Lot #5 of Manorial Services Auction - Winter 2025 - Stephen Johnson

Lying in the fertile fenland of the Great Ouse, Watlington is a parish of some 1600 acres. This was  likely a Norse settlement since its name means farm or place of Hwaetel’s people. Watlington is around 7 miles  south west of Kings Lynn. The manor of Watlington Colts, also known as Trussbutts lies partially in the parish  of Watlington and partially in the neighbouring parish of Shouldham.  

In the great Survey of 1086 this manor was held by Ralph, Lord Baynard. The commissioners found that the  manor had previously belonged to a Saxon woman, Ailid, who had been the holder of a large estate in the  area. This was a valuable and extensive estate, with £2 per year and consisting of numerous tenants and  freemen as well as a mill, a fishery and two churches.  

The Lordship was stripped from Baynard’s grandson, William, after he had joined the rebellion of Robert,  Duke of Normandy in 1101. Baynard was one of the few Anglo-Norman barons who supported the Duke  and he paid a heavy price. The Baynards are perhaps most remembered today for building Baynard’s Castle,  in Co Durham. It was then granted to the powerful Clare family, known as the Earls of Clare. They were  effectively overlords of the manor and it was held locally from them by Geoffrey Fitz Piers. Geoffrey came  from a fairly modest Essex family but through good family connections became a prominent courtier during  the reign of Richard I. He was appointed one of five judges of the King’s Court, who advised the Regents  during Richard’s crusading and from 1189 began to accrue estates in East Anglia. In 1198 he was made Chief  Justiciar by Richard, which made him the King’s principal minister and when that king was crowned in the same  year he was created Earl of Essex. He later served King John in a number of roles, including Constable of  the Tower of London from 1198 to 1205 and High Sheriff of Yorkshire and Buckinghamshire. He was granted  Berkhamsted Castle by John and other estates, and donated land in Watlington to Shouldham Priory, which  he had founded in 1190. It is likely that some of the manorial extent was given to the Priory and it may  have been that the manor was divided into moieties for a time in the 13th century. The Priors of Shouldham  are noted as having an interest then, as did the Trussbutt family: Roger Trussbutt is noted as such in 1255. A  contemporary inquisition also found that Adam de Botefoy also held an interest in the Lordship but it seems  that the Trussbutt ownership became paramount since they are recorded as Lordship of the Manor by the  14th Century and it is from this period that the manor became sometimes known as Trussbutts. 

The Trusbutt family hailed from Runton Holme, a couple of miles  south of Watlington. Nicholas Trussbutt succeeded his father as Lord  of the Manor in the mid 14th century and it passed through several  more generations. In a will dated 31 December 1451, Thomas  Trusbutt was found to be Lord of Trussbutts. His son and heir, John,  was the last of the line. His estates passed to his only daughter, Jane.  She married Thomas Colt of Greys Hall at Cavendish in Suffolk and  though this marriage became part of this family’s estate and was  subsequently known as Watlington Colts. Colt himself was from  Cumbria and was a successful courtier and royal official during the  reign of Edward VI. He was made Chancellor of the Exchequer and  later, a member of the Privy Council. He was succeeded by his son,  John, who died in 1521 at the age of 57. John had eight children with  his wife, Joan Elrington, and his estates were inherited by his eldest  son, George, who died in 1578. 

George’s son, Sir George Colt was the last member of the family to be Lord of the Manor. By this time  the family estates had moved largely to Essex and Watlington Colts was first leased out in 1581 and then  sold to Thomas Schuldham, or Shouldham, in 1596 . The conveyance included the manor of Watlington Coltes  or Watlington Trusbuttes with appurtenances in Watlyngton and all his messuages, lands and tenements etc. in  Rongton Holme, Thorpland, Watlington, Totnell, Seche, Secheth, Wigenhall St. Mary Magdalen, Wigenhall St. Peters,  Wigenhall St. Germans, Wigenhall St. Maryes, Terrington and Mershlonde.

Thomas Shouldham sold Watlington Colts to Sir Francis Gawdy, Justice of the King’s Bench in Norfolk  who took part in the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603. On his death in 1605 his estates passed to his  granddaughter, Francis, who had married Robert Rich against Gawdy’s wishes, in 1605, but he was unable to  alter his will after breaking off relations with them. Rich was the eldest son of the Earl of Warwick and was  an avowed puritan. He became the 2nd Earl of Warwick in 1619 and spent much of his time and wealth in  colonial ventures. He invested in various companies, such as the Virginia and the Somers Isles and established  a small fleet of privateers which caused problems for the former company and led to his estrangement from  court. He was already an opponent of Charles I when the Civil War broke out in 1642, and was appointed  as commander of the Parliamentary fleet. In 1648 he led an attack to retake Deal Castle from Royalist forces.  His grandson and heir, Robert, married Francis, the daughter of Oliver Cromwell. By this time however the  manor of Watlington Colts had been sold to Sir George Hare of Stow Hall.  

The Lordship of Watlington Colts remained in the Hare family for several generations before being sold to  the Plestow family, who purchased the Watlington Hall Estate and various manors, including Colts, in the  late 18th century. Three generations of the family held the manor before selling it to George Coote in the  1869. In 1929, his daughter, Mary Humphreys sold the manor to Robert Holmes Edleston, ancestor of the  present owner.

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Lot #12 of Manorial Services Auction - Nov 2023 - Stephen Johnson

Lying next to a stretch of golden sand on the Norfolk coast is the small village and former parish of  Waxham. Waxham contains a number of buildings of historic importance, including Waxham Hall, the 16th  century home of the former Lords of the Manor, a 16th century tithe barn and the 14th century St John’s  Church. Though diminutive in size in the present day, Waxham parish was formerly both larger and more  important. The tithe barn is considered to be of national importance and was purchased in the 1990s by  Norfolk County Council at the instigation of HRH The Prince of Wales.

The manor of Waxham can be dated to Domesday Book when there are three estates noted. At  this time the parish and village was much larger but over the centuries the slow creep of the sea has eroded  many acres of the original extent and Waxham is now smaller than it was even 100 years ago but it is still  in an extremely attractive part of the county. The owner in 1086 was Alan, Earl of Richmond and Count of  Brittany, the son-in-law of William the Conqueror. The entry notes two churches and a possible population  of 250, which is more that it was 800 years later.  

In the 12th century the manor became the possession of the Ingham family who may have descended  from Edric, who held a demesne Lordship under Alan in 1086. Edric was also the holder of an estate in  Ingham a few miles away and so it is possible. The first named lord of this family was Oliver, who held  Waxham in 1183 when tithes belonging to his manor here were confirmed by the monks at the Abbet of St  Benets at Holme. He was succeeded by his son, Sir John, during the reign of King John (1199-1216). He was  married to Albreda, one of the daughters and coheirs of Walter Waleran, a scion of a Norman family of great  repute. She later married William Botterell, who, to obtain a licence to marry her, gave the King two horses  for the great saddle and a Norwegian goshawk. 

Albreda’s eldest son, Sir Oliver, inherited Waxham. He was among the barons summoned by Edward  I to attend his expedition to Wales in around 1181 but died soon afterwards. His son, John, served Edward  in Gascony and in Scotland and died at the beginning of the reign of Edward II. His son, Sir Oliver Ingham,  was governor of Ellesmere Castle in Shropshire and was summoned to various parliaments during the reign  of Edward III. He was a military professional and is recorded at various times as governor of Malborough,  Devizes, Guildford and Chester castles in England, and Bordeaux in France. In 1345, whilst acting as seneschal  of Gascony, and lord warden of the marches of Guien he raised a great army, and recovered the county of Agnois  from the French. He died two years later and was succeeded by two daughters, Elizabeth and Joan. It was the  latter who appears to have inherited the Lordship of Waxham, as it is her husband, Sir Miles Stapleton, who  is recorded as Lord of the Manor soon afterwards. Sir Miles was a military man, like his father-in-law, and was  a veteran of the wars in France, being present at the siege of Tournai in 1340 and that of Calais in 1347. In  1354 he attended Pope Innocent VI in Rome in the hope of gathering support for England in its war with  France. In 1361 he received an annuity from the Crown for his unwearied labours and laudable services. He  was injured at the Battle of Auray in Brittany September 1364 and is thought to have died from his wounds.

Waxham descended with the Stapleton family for several generations until around 1467 when  Waxham passed through marriage to Sir William Calthorpe. He was steward of the household of the Duke of Norfolk and was made a Knight of the Bath by Edward IV in 1465. Elizabeth Stapleton was his second wife.  Sir William’s grandson, William Calthorpe, sold the manor to Sir Thomas Wodehouse. He is recorded as Lord  of Waxham in 1558 and after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Wodehouse was granted the lands and  grounds of Bromholm or Bacton Abbey a few miles up the coast. The family retained the manor of Waxham  for several generations. A later Sir William, living in the early 17th century, is reputed to be the first person in  England to use decoy ducks for hunting.  

In 1733 the Lord of Waxham is noted as Thomas Blofield who had the advowson of St John’s church.  This family is relatively obscure and it seems that in that same year the manor was sold to the Brograve family.  Thomas Brograve purchased Waxham and the manor of Horsey and moved his family to Waxham Hall. The  family gave rise to several legends and stories and six of them are said to haunt the hall still. Thomas built a  mill nearby, to drain some of the local fens and the remains of this still stand. A local tale goes that, Thomas,  who was known as a black-hearted man made a wager with the Devil that he could out mow him over two  acres of beans. When the Devil easily won the bet he went to Brograve to collect his soul, but the landowner  fled towards his mill and just managed to lock himself inside. Incensed, the Devil banged on the door and  demanded to be let in but Brograve refused. The next morning, when Brograve gingerly opened the door he  is daid to have found hoof prints in the mud and could see that the Devil had tried to blow the mill down.  Subsequently the family became notorious in Norfolk and this story may well be a reflection of their wider  reputation for roguery.  

The last of the Brograves was Sir George. He succeeded to his father’s estate in 1797 and trained as  a lawyer. He was involved in a famous divorce case after it was found that his wife, Emma, who had never  wanted to marry George in the first place, was found to have had a criminal conversation with Captain  Masham Elwin in 1807. After the divorce, Brograve tore up his will but never wrote another one and so died  intestate. Eventually a cousin was traced, Henry John Conyers, and consequently he became Lord of Waxham  in 1828. Incidentally, Sir George’s brother, Roger was a notorious gambler and was said to have lost his entire  fortune of £10,000 on the Derby in 1813 and as a result shot himself in bed a few days later.

The Manor was later purchased by a local solicitor, Louis Tillett who died in 1943. Waxham then  passed to Joseph Laird who in turn sold it to Isolde Guenther in 1978. She then sold the title to the present  owner.

Documents in the Public Domain Associated with this Lordship:

1392 -1393 Account Roll Norfolk Record Office 

1708-1864 Court Books 

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Lot #16 of Stanford & Son's 'Second Auction' - Dec 1955

In the Parishes of Stratton St. Mary & St. Michael, Wacton, Mourning Thorpe, Moulton, Forncett & Tharston

Blomefield (Vol. V, p. 202) gives the following account of these two Manors:

"Welholme's, or Welham's Manor:

"Was granted by the Strattons, from their manor to the Welholmes, and it belonged in 1274 to Robert de Welholme, and in 1285, to Alex. de Welholme, who had a lete or view of frankpledge, and assize of bread and ale, allowed him in eire; on condition he paid 8d. a year to the King's bailiff of Depwade hundred, for that liberty. In 1315, John and Richard de Welholm had it; in 1345, Rob. de Welholm and Stephen his son, held it at half a fee, and half a quarter of a fee of Sir John Inglose, he of Isabel Queen of England, and she of the King, as heir to Montrealt, the lord of Rising Castle. In 1401, John Brusyard had it, and it was purchased by Sir John Herling, Knt. and ever since hath passed as Stratton-Hall manor, the customs being the same, and the court is always held at the same time." 

The demeans and site severed from the manor, were late Bootys' and are now owned by John Howse, Esq. who also hath the demeans of:

Rees's Manor: 

"Here, severed anciently from that manor, which is now (and for a long time hath been) joined to Welholme's, the style being, Welholme's or Welham's and Reese's in Stratton.

This manor was infeoffed by Fitz-Corbun, as is already observed, in one Hunfrid or Humfry, whose descendants assumed the name of Stratton; and it was in Robert de Stratton; and in 1195 William de Stratton had it. In 1207, Roger de Stratton, in 1239, Henry de Stratton." 

"In 1249, Ralf de Stratton, called also de Bosco or Bois, held it at one fee, and was fined for not being a knight. In 1285, John de Stratton was killed by William son of Nic. de Dunston; but it being found that he did it in his own defence, and not feloniously or maliciously, he had the King's pardon, which he pleaded before the itinerant justices at Norwich."

"In 1270, Robert son of Nicholas de Stratton, sold part of the demesnes to Richard de Boyland, who joined them to his manor of  Boyland-Hall in Morningthorp. In 1274, Roger de Stratton was lord. In 1315, Thomas Staunton owned it; about 1318, Thomas Picot; and in 1323, Nicholas and Jeffry de Stratton released it to Nicholas Pycot; in 1341, Sir John Walweyn, Knt. infeoffed it in fee in John Dengayne; and in 1358, Tho. son of Rob. de Bumpstede of Norwich, and Alice his wife, conveyed it to Roger de Herdegrey of Norwich, and his heirs, and he infeoffed William de Wreningham, John de Berney, John de  Bonyngham, and others. In 1362, Margaret daughter of Tho. Pygot of Long Stratton released all her right to Edmund son of Isabel Berry."

"In 1404, it belonged to John Rees and Margaret his wife, William Rees, Esq. and Margery his wife, who sold the manor in 1407, to John Kirtling, clerk, and Rob. Park, and the heirs of John, but reserved the site and demeans; the manor was soon after conveyed to Sir Robert Herling, and ever since hath attended the manor of Stratton-Hall."

"The site and demeans called Ree's messuage in 1449, were conveyed by Rich. Baxter of Sratton, Will. Norwich, Gent. and Thomas Swayn to William Alnwyk Bishop of Norwich, Sir John Fastolf, and Sir Henry Inglose, Knts. as trustees to Thomas Ludham, clerk, and Tho. Howes, chaplain to Sir John Fastolf, and their heirs; and in 1464, Howes and Ludham having conveyed it to Sir John, John Paston, heir to Sir John Fastolf, died, seized, and since, it hath passed through many conveyances, to John Homes Esq. the present owner." 

The Sir John Fastolf referred to above is believed to have been, with Sir John Paston, the part original of the composition created by Shakespeare int he person of Sir John Falstaff.

After being held by Sir Robert Herling, as stated above the Manor devolved in company with the Manor of Stratton Hall (sold privately since the first Auction).

The Customs and transactions in this Manor also follow the pattern f those in Stratton Hall and the first extant Court Book (1693-1725) contains entries in respect of that Manor for the same period. Subsequent proceedings where enrolled in separate books. The lord for the time being of the Manor of Stratton Hall is entitled to production and delivery of copies of the Court Book referred to. 

The eldest son succeeded on intestacy, the fines on death and alienation were arbitrary, and felling timber without license, allowing buildings to fall into disrepair, etc., rendered the tenant liable to have his property forfeited. This liability to forfeiture was, however, often mitigated, upon the defaulter paying a fine or doing what he should have done, by readmission at the next Court. (See 1759 Thos. Kybird and 1773 Francis and Elizabeth Wright). 

The documents of title, which will pass to the purchaser on completion and relate also to the Manor of Stratton Hall, are of special interest. The conveyance of 21st October, 1910, to the late Henry Edwards Paine contains a detailed description of the rights intended to be included in the Sale of the Manor and runs on "all royalties right of turbary (i.e. to lift and carry away turf) felling and taking away of timber gorse and underwood and of planting and replanting the same and the commonage and rights of commonage in over and upon the commons appendant or appurtenant to the said Manors commonly called the Crow Green or Rays Green Common and the Ratts or Reezes or Rays Green or Common situate in the said County save and except the demesne lands of the Lord of the said Manors which have been sold or are now severed from the said Manors or either of them." This deed is marked as "Enrolled in the Central Office of the Supreme Court of Judicature" on 28th October, 1910. 

Records to be handed over are:

Court Books: 1693-1725 (with Stratton Hall) 1725-71; 1772-1826; 1826-92; 1893-19258; duplicate 1825-42

Particulars (compiled 1910) of tenants, properties, rents, enfranchisements (including Sir Charles Harvey of Raynethorpe Hall, land in Tharston £35; Geoffrey Fowell Buxton, land in Tharston £10).

Insurance of Records: £300, premium 15/-.

Commencement of Title: Two deeds dated 21st October 1910.    

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Lot #8 of Stanford & Son's 'Second Auction' - Dec 1955

(Identical histories provided for lots 9 & 10 of this auction - those being the Manors of Kavenham-Stoke-Wereham and Iron  Hall respectively.)

Although these three Manors are and always have been quite separate for the purpose of administration and the holding of courts, the y are geographically very much intermixed. They lie in the three Parishes of Wereham, Stoke-Ferry, and Wretton which are contiguous and lie in the North of the River Wissey on the main road from Thetford to Kings Lynn in the Hundred of Clackclose.

In Domesday Book the following is the description of Wereham (alias Wigreham) and Stoke-Ferry (Stockes): 

2 Ploughlands was held by Toli, a Freeman, 

T.R.E. then (there were) 15 villeins afterwards, and now 11; 

There are now 8 Bordars. 

Then (there were) 6 serfs, now 4 and 20 acres of meadow. 

Wood (land) for 12 swine.

Then as now (there were) 2 plush on the Demesne.

Then 1 1/2 Ploughs belonging to them now 1; 

Then as now half a mill and 1 Fishery,

then as now *there was) 1 Rouncey and 28 Mares (eque) and 25 foals (pulli) and 2 beasts. 

Then (there were) 15 swine, now 7. Then 90 sheep, now 260.

And it is worth 100 shillings, but it rendered 8 pounds for (ad) all custom.

To this Manor belong 4 Freemen *with) 12 acres.

In Stokes (Stoke Ferry) (there are) 4 Freemen by commendation and all custom, with (d) 12 acres and 1 Freeman with (2) 2 acres. 

There also Rogers and Hugh held 2 sokemen with (de) 74 acres. 

Then as now (there were) 1 1/2 (ploughs) and 10 acres of meadow. 

All this is worth 20 shillings. 

The whole of Wigreham (Wereham) is half a league by length and (the same) in breadth and renders 6 1/2 pence in (every) 20 shillings of the King's Gled.

Blomefield, writing of Wereham, says that it takes its name from a stream or run of water, issuing out of a pond in the midst of the town. There is in fact a largish pond with seven weeping-willow trees lying close to the Church and Wereham Hall, the Manor House. 

King William granted the Manor of Wereham Hall to Rainold, son of Ivo, one of the Norman adventurers. His great possessions later came to the Earls of Clare, who were the capital Lords of the town. Jeffrey Fitz-Piers Earl of Essex held the Manor of Cavenham (Kavenham) in the reign of King John of the Earl of Clare, and on his founding the Priory of Shouldham gave a moiety of the town to the said Priory. In the thirty-third year of the reign of Henry III the Prior had a charter for free warren, free bull and boar, the amercements of Brewers and Bakers in hi s homage, and owed once a years suit of court at Clare. "In three Edw. I the Prior was found to have the leet a gallows, etc." After the Dissolution it was granted to Sir Edmund Bedingfield of Oxburgh by the name of Manor and Grange of Cavenham. According to Blomfield Cavenham Grange lay about a mile North-East of the town of Wereham and in the same Parish. In 1570 the rent of assize of the free tenants was four pounds four and ten pence. In 1718 Sir Henry Bedingfield conveyed the Manor to Sir Edward Nightingale of Kneesworth in Cambridgeshire. It remained in this family until about 1816 when it passed to G. R. Eyres. He was soon followed by Charles Sanders. The Stewards during the Nightingale ownership were members of the Micklefield family, during the earlier years, and later Charles Sanders and John Houchen. In 1826 J. B. S. Bradfield was Lord and R. B. Sanders was Steward. Mr. Bradfield remained Lord until 1874 and was followed by the Rev. Sanders Etheridge and Edward Etheridge. By 1878 the Manor had been acquired by Henry Edwards Paine and Richard Brettell of Chertsey and two years later Mr. Paine acquired Mr. Brettell's half-share of the Manor. Hie remained Lord until 1917 when he died and the Manor was thereafter vested in the devisees under his will and their Trustees  until recently sold y them to the present Vendor. During the early part of Mr. Paine's ownership, Mr. H. B. D. Mason acted as his Steward, but later on the Stewardship was taken over by George Frederick Beaumont of Coggeshall, Essex. 

The Manor of Wereham Hall was, according to Blomfield, held in 1235 by Robert Bardolf and Thomas Rede of the Earl of Gloucester and Clare. During the reign of Edwards I it came to Sir Ingelram Belet K.B., through his marriage to Bardolf's daughter, and his son Robert succeeded on his death. Subsequent owners were members of the Belet , Benstead, de Wesenham, de Hinton, Walkfare, de Fransham and Tooth families. Later Lords were Roger Davy, Sir Lewis Orrell, Sir Thomas Lovell, K.G., Sir Francis Lovell, Sir Thomas Derham (1615), Stephen Edgar, 1652, Benjamin Dethick, 1683. During these years it would seem that the Manor House descended together with the Lordship of the Manor, but in 1751 John Dethick, son of Benjamin, conveyed the Lordship o the Manor and demesne without the Hall to John  Heaton of London. Blomfield gives a pedigree of the Dethick family which comes from Dethick Hall in Derbyshrire.

As regards Wretton, Blomfield informs us that there are no capital Lordship in the Parish and it was not therefore mentioned in the Domesday Book. He refers for an account of it to his remark under the other Manors in this group. He does however, make an interesting reference to proceedings taken in 1240 by the Prior of Shouldham, whose Manor of Kavenham extended into Wretton, in which he claimed "merchettam" from William de la Ferte, who was acquitted because he proved that he was a Freeman and no villein. Blomfield gives this explanation of Merchetta: "This was the Fine paid to be free from a savage custom which used to exist i many Manors, by which exemption was obtained by the bride of a tenant from lying the last night with the Lord of the Manor." This would seem to be the same custom or practice which is usually referred to as "Droit de Seigneur" or "Jus primae noctis" but it differs in that the right was apparently exercised on the last night before the marriage instead of the first night of the the marriage. 

The Courts of this group of Manors were held from Wereham Hall, when the Estate and Lordship of the Manor were in the same ownership, at the Manor  House itself, but when they became separated most of the Courts were held at the Crow Hotel, Stoke Ferry. On on e occasion the Duke's Head in Stoke Ferry was chosen. 

With regard to the Manor of Iron (alias Wyrun) Hall which extended into all three Parishes, according to Blomefield it was held in 1231 by Stephen de Stokes and his wife Basilea. The Capital Lord was Earl of Gloucester and Clare. In the reign of Henry III, John de Stokes held it of Peter de Narford, and in 1321 Robert de Sale had an interest. Later Lords were Nicholas Gamage, and his wife Alianore; Guy St. Clare and his wife Margery; John Flynn (1346) who paid a sum towards making Edward III's son a knight: John Bray (1350); John de Wessenham; John de Denham; Richard Tooth; Roger Davy and John Heaton. In 1839 Abraham Sewell was Lord and in in 1857 the Manor was purchased by H.B.B. Mason, whose Steward was Richard Scarle. 

The customs in all o these Manors were the same. On testacy copyhold properties descended to the oldest sons s at Common Law, while the Fines on Death or Alienation were "arbitrary," i.e. based upon two years' annual value, instead of "certain," i.e. fixed sum of a sum all amount. The Lords had the usual right to take a third of the proceeds of the sale of any timber felled on copyhold properties.

The following are a few extracts of interesting entries to be found in the Court Boos of the manor of Kavenham-Stoke-Wereham: 

Court Baron held 5th December 1743

Thomas Rumball appointed Guardian "as well to take care of the body of the said Ann Harvey as to receive the rents and profits of the said premises during her minority...rendering account thereof." 

Court Baron held 24th October, 1757

Lord: Geoffrey Nightingale

Steward: Roger Micklefield

And the said Homage presented all Persons that owe suit and service at this Court and have this day made default in their appearance and amerce the m six pence apiece and refer their names to the suit rolls. 

General or Customary Court, held 12th November, 1824

Lord: Charles Sanders

Steward: John Houchen

Also at this Court the Homage present that John Sparrow Springfield hath encroached upon the Rights of the Lord of this Manor by also and also by building upon a certain part of the Waste Lands adjoining the Estate of James Bradfield Sanders Bradfield Esquire int he occupation of Charles Sanders Esquire Lord of this Manor.

General Court Baron held 27th October, 1762

At a court held on this date at the Crown Inn, Stoke Ferry, by Jeffrey Nightingale the Byelaws for the Manor of Kavenham-Stoek-Wereham were recorded in the form of the Verdict of the Homage. These are too long to be set out, but are most interesting. Amongst the various subjects dealt with are the method of assessing Fines, the felling of Timber, the keeping of Sheep in the Common Drove or Waste Ground, impounding by the Pindar, letting Beasts stray into fields growing cord and grass, digging of Turf, etc.

At a later Court held on 9th November 1773, the Verdict was substantially the same as at the previous Court with the addition of three more clauses, one of them dealing with the powers of  Fen Reeves and the division of penalties for offences between the Lord of the Manor and the Poor of the three respective Parishes wherein such penalties or forfeiture might from time to time happen. 

The following is a cutting from the Provincial Paper, which will be handed over with the Records of Lot 9, as a showing that the Lords of the Manor in 1877 were alive to the value of the Sporting Rights over the Wastes of the Manor. 

Manor of Kavenham, Stoke, Wereham and Wretton, 

IN THE COUNTY OF NORFOLK

-----------

WE, the undersigned, Lords of the above Manor,

hereby give notice that we have delegated to 

Samuel Henry Winfield, Esq., of Stoke Ferry the

right and power to deal with trespassers in the above

Manor; also the right to shoot over and exercise the

Lord's rights in and upon the waste lands within 

the Manor

PAINE & BRETTELL.

Chertsey, 17th September, 1877.

There is an Enclosure Award dated 1818 for the Parishes of Stoke Ferry, Wretton, Wereham and the little Hamlet of Winnold deposited at the office of the Clerk of the County Council, Norwich. The Vendor has a photocopy of this which has been coloured. It is a most interesting Map as it not only shows the bounds of the three Manors but also shows for instance Wereham Church with the Village Pond and Wereham Hall - the Manor House in close proximity.  It also shows how intermixed the lands of the three Manors are and it gives the names of many tenants which appear also in the Court Records. The copy of this Map will be available for inspection at 53, Chancery Lane, W. C. 2 prior to the Sale and also at the exhibition on the morning of the Sale (see Remarks and Stipulations). If required, couloured or uncoloured copies could be supplied to interested persons.

Negotiations are being opened with the Telegraph, Telephone and Electricity Authorities for wayleave agreements in respect of poles, stays, kiosks, etc., erected on the wastes of the Manor ant it is expected that further information will be available for giving out at the Auction. 

The Records which will be handed over to the Purchaser of each Manor will be as under:

Lot 8 - Manor of Wereham Hall

Court Books: 1839-1894; 1894-1920

Minute Book: 1881-1887

Enfranchisement Particulars

Insurance of Records:  £100, premium 5/- p.a. 

Commencement of Title: 1st October, 1881

Lot 9 - Manor of Kavenham-Stoke-Wereham

Court Books: (all the foregoing include Iron Hall) 1536-1597; 1602-1615; 1615-1633; 1633-1641; 1642-1653; 1674-1686; 1700-1793; 1794-1819; 1819-1841; 1842-1867; 1867-1920 (including a rental)

Minutes and Minute Books: 1664-88; 1720-45; 1745-59; 1799-1814; 1815-1882; 1881-87- 1888-91; 1908; 1932

Rentals: 1887-1900

Particulars: 1813-1914

docket Book: 1697-1806

Index Book: 1801-1819

Print of Enclosure Act: 1815

Insurance of Records:  £400, premium £1 p.a.

Commencement of Title: 11th April, 1876

Lot 10 - Manor of Iron Hall

Court Roll: 1387

Court Book: 1839-1900

Commencement of Title: 1st October, 1881

Insurance of Records:  £200, premium 10/- p.a.

The Purchaser of this Lot will receive an acknowledgment of his rights to production of those Court Books to be handed to the purchaser of Lot 9 which relate also to his Manor.

There is an Enclosure Award dated 1818 for the Parishes of Wereham, Stoke-Ferry, and two with a Map attached, a coloured copy of which will be available for inspection and will be displayed at the exhibition.

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Lot #47 of Manorial Services Auction - 2004 UNPUBLISHED/ABORTED - Stephen Johnson

SOON AFTER the Norman invasion of 1066 the Lordship of the Manor of West Almer was granted to Shaftesbury Abbey. The village predates the invasion since it takes it name from the Anglo-Saxon for Eel Lake. It is situated around three miles west of Sturminster Marshall and eight miles north of Warham.

The earliest mention of the Lordship comes in ancient records of Shaftesbury Abbey. This house was thought to have been founded, in 888 by King Alfred, though there is another school of thought which credits King Ethelbald. The charter was made in honour of ‘God the Blessed Virgin and all the saints’ and conferred on the nuns, under the guidance of the Abbess, Elfgiva, and endowment of 100 hides of land in Wiltshire and Dorset. This modest grant was much increased during the reigns of Aethelstan, in 932, Eadred in 948 , Edgar, in 966, Aethelred the Unready in 984. The same king, in 1001 bestowed on the abbey the vill and monastery of Bradford in Wiltshire and with the relics of King Edward, the Martyr, that they would given protection and refuge there against attacks from the Danes. The nuns returned to Shaftesbury in 1019 under the protection of Canute, who died there in 1035.  

After the Norman invasion of 1066 the new regime added a number of endowments to the abbey’s lands. William II (1088-110) gave a number of estates and Henry I (1100-1135) granted the Lordship of the Manor of Donhead. Stephen (1135-1154) confirmed all the house’s holdings with a new charter and his successor Henry II (1154-1189) took the abbey under his personal protection and gave them the freedom from all tolls and passage. 

The gifts continued to flow from the Plantagenet kings and we find ‘Almer’ recorded An agreement in 1276 was made between the abbess, Mary and Roger de Novo Burgh (Newburgh) when the former granted to the latter 46s 8d, out of 60s which he ought to render annually for the vill of Almere during the lifetime of Acilia, mother of Matilda, the wife of the said Roger, who for himself and heirs covenants to pay during this term one mark yearly, to wit half a mark at Easter and half a mark at Michaelmas, and after the death of the said Acilia again to pay at the four terms the said 60s annually. The Newburgh family seem to have been the lessees under the abbey for a number of generations.

Shaftesbury Abbey was so wealthy that in the Middle Ages there was a popular saying which went; ‘If the abbot of Glastonbury could marry the abbess of Shaftesbury their heir would hold more land that the King of England’. This was slight exaggeration, but not too much of one to make it unbelievable. Its wealth presented problems of its own and on a number of occasions it was found that there was an excessive number of inhabitants at the abbey. In 1218 the Pope forbade the abbot from admitting more than a hundred nuns since this affected how much alms could be given. Evidently this decree was ignored for in 1322 the bishop of Salisbury reported that there were far to many inmates for the limited amount of food to go round. By most standards this was a huge institution. Whereas the average number of nuns or monks would be around 15 -20, in 1441 Shaftesbury boasted over 70 nuns. After this time however the house went into something of a decline as war and pestilence affected the nation. 

As with many religious houses, Shaftesbury was no always a repository for the good and holy. Many unwillingly entered houses at the behest of their families whilst other sort escape from punishment or disgrace. In 1298, Robert, the rector of Donington, was ordered by the bishop of Salisbury to enforce a suitable penance on both the abbess and the nuns at Shaftesbury, ‘for their offences against God and by creation of scandal had incurred the sentence of excommunication’. Evidently there had been some, sadly unrecorded, instances of immoral practices at the abbey. In 1309, the abbess, Alice de Lavyngton, was warned not to let nuns enter the town and in 1316 there was a serious dispute between the new abbess Margaret Archer and a number of the sisters who had been unhappy at her election. In 1394, on the death of Joan Framage it was found that the former abbess had willed a number of household goods to personal friends. For a while after Joan’s death there was a hiatus before another abbess was elected. So serious was this that Richard II (1377-1399) became personally involved, writing to the bishop of Salisbury ordering him to ensure a suitable candidate was given the position. In the ensuing election, Lucy Fitzherberde secured the most votes but Egelina de Countville was made abbess. This was evidently a placement, but it appears that there were no repercussions. 

After the Abbey was dissolved in 1538, West Almer was granted to John Woollacomb, who is described as a clerk, and Roger Prideaux and their heirs. As was common practise at the time, these two members of the merchant class made a swift profit and sold the Lordship a year later to Thomas Butler. This was something of a revision since Butler’s family were recorded as being major manorial tenants under the Abbey from as early as the reign of Edward IV (1461-1685). In 1553 Thomas died and West Almer passed to his son Thomas. On his death, during the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603), it descended to his son, another Thomas Butler. The family held it for a number of subsequent generations, including Henry Butler, who was compounded for £568 during the Civil War for taking up arms against Parliament. Later in that century West Almer was purchased by the Ernle family and it has remained with his descendants until the present day.

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Lot #48 of Manorial Services Auction - 2004 UNPUBLISHED/ABORTED - Stephen Johnson

LYING IN THE parish of Morden, this Lordship was anciently associated with that of East Morden. West Morden is a hamlet in its own right, about a mile from its eastern neighbour. It is included in Domesday as part of a singular Lordship for which the entry reads;

Morden. Four thanes held it before 1066. It paid tax for three hides

and 2 1/2 virgates of land. Land for three ploughs. In lordship 1 plough;

1 1/2 virgates.

8 villagers and 10 smallholders with 2 ploughs and 3 hides and 1 virgate.

A mill which pays 45d; meadow, 14 acres; pasture, 3 leagues

in both length an width; woodland 2 furlongs long 

and 1 furlong wide. 14 pigs, 85 sheep, 5 goats.

The value was and is 60s.

The earliest record we have of West Morden as a singular Lordship comes in 1286 when it is recorded as belonging to John Beauchamp of Hatch. He was distantly related to the great Beauchamp nobles of Warwick though he had married very well, to Cicely, heiress of William de Vivonne. In 1283 he was summoned to attend Parliament as a baron by writ at Shrewsbury. This was to be his only attendance since he died a few weeks later. He was succeeded by his son, John, who had been born in 1274, in 1295 when he had come of age. This John had fought for Edward I (1272-1307) in Scotland and was summoned to attend Parliament at Salisbury in 1296. He then seems to have attended most of the following Parliaments up until his death in 1336. He was invariably referred to as Lord Beauchamp and was knighted by the Prince of Wales in 1306. In 1321 he succeeded to the extensive estates of his mother, which included Bullingham in Cambridgeshire and served as Governor of Bridgwater Castle in 1325. At his death it was found that West Morden was held of him by John Cifrewast and this family continued as chief tenants under Beauchamp’s successor, John. This Lord of the Manor was summoned to Parliament in 1336 and again in 1342 as a baron by writ. In the intervening period he served Edward III (1327-1377) in France. He died in 1361. 

West Morden then seems to have been sold by Beauchamps heir, John, to Peter Rake, a London merchant. He was recorded as granting out land in the Lordship to William Bishop of London, in what was an early example of the sort of land speculation which would become common in the Tudor period. 

In 1409 a deed granted on the Feast of St Mark the Evangelist (25 April) by Sir John Tichborne, Lord of West Morden, gave to his trusted steward, William Warner; ‘all his lands, tenements, woods, meadows, rents and services, with a water mill, in Dorsetshire’. Quite a golden handshake. Warner seems to have kept it for a only a short time before it came to the Warre family of Somerset. Their chief tenants in West Morden were the Filiol family. In 1426, John Filiol is recorded here at his death. 

The Warre family continued to hold the lordship until the reign of Henry VIII (1509-1547) when it passed to the Willoughby family of Woodlands. From them it came to Lady Wharton and from her to the Erle family. It has descended with this family, which became that of Plunkett Erle Ernle Drax, who retain it to the present day.

Documents associated with this Manor:

Compoti 1470-78 Dorset Record

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Lot #49 of Manorial Services Auction - 2004 UNPUBLISHED/ABORTED - Stephen Johnson

THE BARONY OF WESTMORLAND encompasses the east and west wards of the historic county of Westmoreland, with the remainder of the county forming the barony of Kendal. Within the barony lay a number of manors including the important seigniories of Appleby and Brough. It included castles at both these sites and at Brougham and Pendragon and the forests of Mallerstang, Ogelbird and Stainmore. The barony was originally held by the service of a knight’s fee from the King. 

After the Norman conquest of 1066 the victorious King William gifted the whole of the county of Cumberland and the Barony of Westmoreland to Ralph Meschines. There appears to be some confusion as to which Ralph this was and how many held the Barony until it passed from this family since there appears to have been two, father and son. In some accounts the father, in 1088 Meschines granted his churches of St Michael’s and St Lawrence and his castle, all in Appleby, to the Abbey of St Mary in York. In others it is the son. It seems probable that the younger Ralph Meschines, was granted the Earldom of Chester by Henry I (1100-1135). The Barony of Westmoreland then passed to Ralph’ sister, the unnamed wife of Robert D’Estrivers. We know very little of D’Estrivers save that his heir was his daughter, Ibria, who took the Barony in marriage to Ralph Engayne. Again this is an elusive figure and all we know it that he was succeeded by his son, William. He, in turn, was succeeded by his daughter Ada, the wife of Simon Morville.

Moreville was succeeded by his son, Roger, who in turn was succeeded in the Barony by his son, Hugh. Hugh was one of the four knights who murdered Thomas Becket, supposedly on the orders of Henry II. This is one of the most famous events of mediaeval history and Hugh appears to have been an ideal assassin since he saw loyalty as a virtue. Though his character has been blackened by his deeds it seems as though Morville began he career as just another well connected landowner. Records show that he was a regularly at the court of Henry II (1154-1189) and witnessed a number of grants and charters. He married Helwis de Stuteville and through this union became possessed Knaresborough Castle. In 1170 he was recorded as holding the Barony of Westmoreland as well as other estates in Cumberland. At court, Morville had been an advisor to Thomas Becket when the cleric was Chancellor but had always, in loyalty, belonged to the King’s party. When Henry, vexed by Becket’s apparent betrayal, to the extent that he famously denounced the archbishop and called for action against him, Morville was roused to action and placed himself at the service of the King. Morville travelled from France, in the company of three other knights, Sir William Tracey, Sir Reginald FitzUrse and Sir Richard Brito to Canterbury. Morville and his companions approached the cathedral in full armour and Becket was thrust inside by one of his monks. The four knights entered the church crying out, “Where is Thomas Becket, traitor to the King and the country?” Becket replied, “Here I am, no traitor to the King, but a priest”. One of the four retorted, “Fly from the Church, or you are a dead man” They then tried to force Becket outside but he wouldn’t move. As though accepting his martyrdom, Becket, placed his hands together to pray and he was struck. After a third blow he fell to his knees, crying out; “For the name of Jesus I am ready to die”. Then the fatal blow was struck. During this struggle Morville had been at the door t.o hold back the crowd which had gathered at sword point. He was therefore not guilty of striking Becket, but he was complicit all the same. 

Once Becket was dead the four fled to Saltwood Castle in Kent. From here they were forced to flee to Scotland before ending up at Morville’s Yorkshire castle at Knaresborough. They remained here for a year and despite there whereabouts being known both locally and to the King, they were not arrested. They were shunned by the local landowners. Eventually the Pope intervened and demanded all four leave for the holy land to do penance. It seems likely this happened and on his return to England Morville was taken up by the king once more as a favourite. However, as a result of his deed his lands in Cumberland and Westmoreland were declared forfeit to the Crown, in w-hose hands it remained for a number of years. It was after this time that the Barony was invaded by William of Scotland and the castle and town of Appleby were sacked and destroyed. (For a description of this see the particulars for the Lordship of Appleby in this catalogue).

During the reign of John (1199-1216), Westmoreland was granted, together with the lucrative custody of the castles of Appleby and Brough and the ‘sheriffwick and rent of the county of Westmoreland’ in perpetuity to, Robert Veteripont, son of William Veteripont and Maud de Morville.

This unusual incidence of a hereditary office of sheriff, vested in the Barony lasted until 1849. The Veteriponts were a Norman family and Robert was known and noted for being ‘a man of great parts and employments, and was trusted with the custody and disposal of much of the king’s treasure.’ Coming from King John, this trust must have been well earned. As well as handling the king’s cash, Veteripont was given custody of a number of castles and towns, including Windsor, Bowes, Salisbury and Carlisle. He was a great benefactor of nearby Shap Abbey and as a gift to that house he granted to it Milburn Grange and ‘the tithes of the renewal of all the beasts taken by him or his men in all the forests in Westmoreland.’ This was a generous gift given the extent of forest in the Baronial territory and the Anglo-Norman proclivity towards the hunt. The grant to Veteripont was extensive, as well as the Barony it included the manors of Appleby, Brough, Langton, Brougham, Kirkby Thore, Kirkby Stephen, Winton, Mallerstanåg amongst others. The Sheriffwick of Westmoreland was a parcel of the Barony and held by a separate knights fee. The Barony itself was held now by the service of four knights fees. 

Veteripont was obviously a man of importance and was well rewarded. His was given charge of the custody and disposal of French prisoners and served as Sheriff of Caen in Normandy and was sheriff eleven times of various counties in England. His was entrusted with the education of John’s niece, the daughter of William Longspee and that of Prince Richard, later Earl of Cornwall.

Robert married Idonea, daughter and heir of John Builly and on his death, in 1228 the Barony passed to their son, John. John married well, the daughter of Wiliam Ferrers, earl of Derby, but did not live long enough to establish his place in history. He was succeeded by his son Robert, in 1242. As he was underage at the time of his father’s death, this Robert became a royal ward. During his minority his baronial lands seem to have decayed somewhat. Appleby Castle, the seat of the barony was given over to Hubert de Burgo and under his custody the fabric of the castle fell into disrepair. The barony was held in custody by the prior of Carlisle but his management of his ward’s lands proved disastrous. Through the wards and manors of the barony land became untilled, trees were cut down and game was poached. Once he reached his majority however Robert took a firm grip on the Barony and began to task of restoring his income. During the ensuing years, Veteripont became closely allied with the party of Simon de Montfort, which ranged against Henry III (1216-1272). In the civil war which followed, Robert fought in a number of the great baronial battles but died of wounds he received either at the battle of Lewes in May 1264 or Evesham in August the following year. Once more the Barony of Westmoreland was seised by the Crown and was restored to the family into the possession of Veteripont’s daughters Isabella and Idonea. This was achieved through the intercession of Prince Edward. He wrote to his father arguing that neither daughter had taken part in the rebellion and that the Barony could revert to the Crown if they died without producing heirs. Henry agreed and the Barony and lands were restored to Isabella and Idonea on this condition. The girls were committed into the wardship of Roger de Clifford and Roger de Leybourne, who, not surprisingly, married them off to their eldest sons.

The Barony continued to be divided between the two women until the death of Idonea and the whole estate became invested in Isabella’s son, Robert de Clifford. Whilst Isabella and Idonea were still alive it seems as though the former acted as Baron and she is said to have undertaken her duties as Baron very seriously. She fulfilled her hereditary role as Sheriff of Westmoreland, perhaps the only woman to hold such a position during this period, and regularly attended courts. She claimed the right to appoint an under-sheriff, with Idonea providing consent. An example of this fairly unique female power was demonstrated at Michaelmas, 1286, when is is recorded that; Isabella de Clifford, Sheriff of Westmoreland, presented to the barons of the exchequer Robert Morville her under-sheriff by her letters patent which the said Robert produced before the said barons: who was admitted and took the oath faithfully to execute his office and to answer to her and Idonea her sister parcenter of the inheritance. Despite Isabella’s leading role in political affairs, the income generated by the estate was divided equally between the two sisters. Even after Isabella’s death the division of the Barony continued to be important. In an episode from 1295, Isabella’s heir, Robert de Clifford presented Ralph de Manneby to be under-sheriff, but the government demanded to know first, what Idonea thought about the matter. Robert was then required to produce evidence of this. 

Three years earlier the King Edward had demanded from Idonea, at Appleby, 1,600 acres of wood and 1,000 acres of pasture in Kirby Stephen and Brougham, as well as the manors of Appleby and king’s Meaburn. This was no doubt in a bid to raise war funds and appeared to be justified by way of the Crown’s previous restoration of the Barony to Idonera and her sister. At the King’s court Idonea argued that the estate had lawfully passed to her and her son in turn and she prayed aid of him (Edward). Edward’s justices found in her favour but then demanded from her by what right she claimed free warren, assize of ale and waste within the various manors of the Barony, of which there were many. Idonea presented writs to the court showing the legality of her claim, as her inheritance from her father. Robert de Veteripont. The jury seem to have found partly in favour of the King for the claim of Robert de Clifford was held until he reached his majority.

Eventually the whole of the Barony did indeed became the possession of Robert de Clifford. The family of Clifford were an ancient and noble one, with their ancestral estates being in Herefordshire and Robert was among the most illustrious of his family. He was evidently of a martial spirit and in 1295, aged 23, he was made a King’s Captain and Keeper of the Marches in the north toward Scotland. He appears to have raised an army and made several skirmished into that country. A year later he was summoned by Edward to Carlisle to march with the king in a general invasion of England’s northern neighbour. Any lingering dispute over the Westmoreland Barony was obviously forgotten since Clifford was then made one of four guardians of Edwards’ son and heir, Edward. On his accession as Edward II, the new king made Clifford admiral of all England and Lord Marcher. In addition he was bestowed him with the Barony of Skipton in Yorkshire. 

Clifford was married to Maud de Clare, a niece of the powerful Earl of Gloucester and his wife, a daughter of Edward I. During early part of the reign of Edward II, Clifford was involved in the King’s catastrophic Scottish Wars. In a bid to turn attention away from the crisis that had arisen over his favouritism toward Piers Gaveston, Edward made half-hearted bid to defeat the Scots, led by the the inspirational leadership of Robert Bruce. The campaign ended with ignominious defeat at Bannockburn, in 1314, and here Robert de Clifford was killed.

Like his father before him, Roger de Clifford was a minor when he inherited his estates. Unluckily he reached his majority at a time of extreme turmoil. England under Edward II had descended into virtual chaos with the barons led by the Earl of Lancaster ranged against the King. Roger supported the former and was attainted for treason. Once more the Barony of Westmoreland was forfeited to the Crown. Despite the general military anarchy the king’s bureaucracy appeared to work sufficiently well since in 1326 there is record of the constable of the King’s castle of Appleby, receiving cornage (rental) from the baronial tenants and fulfilling the baron’s pledge to supply cozrnage to Shap Abbey. Meanwhile, Edward had granted out portions of the Barony, including the castle and manors of Brougham, Mallerstang, King’s Meaburn and Kirkby Stephen to his loyal supporter, Sir Andrew de Harclay. Harclay also claimed Whinfell forest and the sheriffwick, acting, more or less, as the Baron himself. This state of affairs was short lived. Once Edward II had been deposed by his Queen Isabella and Sir Roger Mortimer, and the former had been removed by the new King , Edward III, the whole of the Westmoreland estate was returned to Roger. Unfortunately for him, he had only a month to enjoy his restored lands before he died.

Roger was succeeded by his son Robert who then, on the death of Idonea de Veteripont, inherited the entire estate. Sensibly, Robert remained loyal to Edward and lived a peaceful life. He died at Shap Abbey in 1344. The Barony then descended to his son Robert, who was a underage, and thus became a royal ward. As a young man he served the King in France and was present with the Black Prince at the Battle of Cressy. As a reward for his service he received letters patent and is the first member of the family to be known as Lord Clifford. His son and heir was his second son, Roger who has been described as a man of ‘much gallantry and valour’ and ‘one of the wisest men of his time’. He continued the family’s fighting tradition, and took part in both Scottish and French wars. He was a great admirer of buildings and architecture and undertook a systematic renewal of the Baronial castles of Appleby and Brough, making then inhabitable after the destruction wreaked during the numerous Scottish invasions of the 14th century. He died, after a lifetimes devoted service to the Crown, in 1392.

The Barony of Westmoreland then passed to Roger’s son, Thomas though his two younger sons, profited from their father’s connections to become notable men themselves. Sir William Clifford was governor of the strategically important Berwick Castle, and Sir Lewis, after serving the Duke of Lancaster in France, during the later years of the reign of Edward III, became a Knight of the Garter and founded the dynasty which today survives as the Lords Clifford of Chudleigh, in Devon. Thomas was by all accounts a wild youth and was, for a time, a favourite of Richard II(1377-1399). He was banished from England in 1387 after the brief civil war which had followed the King’s defiance of Parliament. A year later, the Baronial castle at Appleby was again destroyed by the Scots in a serious incursion into English territory. Thomas could do nothing about this since he had fled to Germany to fight the ‘infidels’. He was killed there, in 1393, at the battle of Spruce.

One more the Barony descended to a minor. John de Clifford was only two years old when his father was killed and he was taken as a royal ward. As a result the Barony was granted, first to Richard’s consort, Anne of Bohemia, who then granted it to John’s mother, Elizabeth to beheld until John’s majority. As he grew John became a favourite at court and accompanied Henry V (1413-1422) on his famous French campaign, being present at Agincourt. Later he was made a Knight of the Garter but was killed at Meaux, after being shot with a cross-bow bolt in 1422. Yet again therefore the Barony descended to child, John’s eldest son was seven years old at the time of his death. When he reached maturity he again donned armour and fought for Henry VI (1422-1461) in France. He is recorded as having acted with daring and courage at the assault on Poitiers, in 1438. It was deep winter and the ground was covered in snow. Clifford had himself and his men clothed in white, a very early example of camouflage, and he was able to surprise the town’s defenders and take it. He successfully repulsed a bid by the French to retake Poiters in 1440. As the dispute between the houses of York and Lancaster descended into civil war, Clifford was recalled by Henry and became a leading Lancastrian commander. He was killed at the Battle of St Albans in 1455 and was buried at the abbey there. He left nine children, his heir being his eldest son, John.

This John was also killed in the Wars of Roses, on the day before the Battle of Towton, being shot in the neck with an arrow. His heir, Henry was, perhaps rather predictably, only seven years old when his father was killed. After the Yorkist victory of Edward IV (1461-1483), his was deprived of the Barony. Remarkably he spent most of the period living as a shepherd in Yorkshire and Cumberland. During this time the Barony was granted out to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who retained it as Richard III (1483-1485). After Henry Tudor’s victory at Bosworth in 1485, Clifford was restored to his estates in full. After a life as a peasant, Clifford could neither read, nor write but this did not prevent him from taking full control of the restoration of baronial lands, which had fallen into decay during the civil war. On his death, in 1523 the Barony and the rest of the Cliffords estates passed to his son, Henry. 

This Baron of Westmoreland was created Earl of Cumberland by Henry VIII (1509-1547) and held the offices of Lord President of the North and Lord-Warden of the Marches. He raised armies for Henry and on a number of occasions waged war in Scotland. He married twice, firstly the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury, the second the daughter of the Earl of Northumberland, thus putting himself in the first rank of Tudor Noblemen. The Barony remained in the Clifford family for a number of ensuing generations, and included Anne de Clifford, the only daughter of George, the 3rd Earl of Cumberland. She was able to hold the barony by way of the entail made by King John upon Robert Veteripont. Originally it had passed to her uncle, Francis Clifford, with Anne to receive £15,000, however, on the advice of her mother, she contested the settlement. This case rumbled on for number of months, during which time Anne married Lord Buckhurst. In the same year a court at York granted possession of the Westmoreland Barony to her Uncle and his son. Both men died within a short period of each other and Anne therefore became sole inheritor of the whole estate. After the death of Lord Buckhurst Anne married Philip Herbert, the earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. He died after a few years and she then remained widow for 27 years, living between Skipton and Appleby Castles, both of which she repaired and restored. she lived until 1675 and was noted in the north for her public and private acts of charity. In 1653 she wrote:

‘I continued to live in Appleby Castle a whole year (1651), and spent much  

time in repairing it and Brougham Castle, to make them habitable as I could.

And in this year, the 21st of April, I helped to lay the foundation stone

of the middle wall of the great tower called Caesar’s Tower, to the end it

might be repaired again and made habitable, it if pleased God..which tower

was wholly finished and covered with lead, the later end of July 1653.’

After Anne’s death the Barony along with all the family’s estates passed to her daughter, Margaret who was married to John, Lord Tufton, whose father had been made the Earl of Thanet, by Charles I, in 1628. Through this marriage therefore the Barony came into the family which still holds it today. 

The Tufton family were not as politically active as the Clifford’s had been and had descended from the Toketon family, who had lived in Northamptonshire during the reign of Edward III. They had worked themselves up the social scale steadily and by the mid 17th century had become peers and possessed of a sizeable estate in Kent. After Anne’s death the Barony descended to the 4rd Earl (Nicholas, the 3rd Earl had died some years previously), John, who died, without issue in year later. The title and estates then passed, in rapid succession to John’s brothers; first Richard, the 5th Earl, who died in 1683, then Thomas, the 6th Earl, who died in 1729. The Earldom and the Barony of Westmorland then descended to his nephew, Sackville Tufton, who became 7th Earl of Thanet.

It was during the tenure of the 7th Earl that a dispute arose between the tenants of the Westmoreland estate and their landlord. Sackville was unhappy with the fines paid by his tenants and demanded more but the aggrieved tenants sought legal redress. The case dragged on for almost ten years before finally being settled before a court of Chancery in 1739. At this session the tenants together produced 11 witnesses whose combined ages totaled almost 1,000 years, in a bid to show that their rights had been firmly and anciently established. The court found that for the tenants of the Barony and the included manors; ‘hold their tenements according to ancient custom of tenant rights, and as customary estates of inheritance, descendible from ancestor to heir, under ancient yearly rents, and such general and dropping fines as were then settled by arbitration, which also determined the right of tenants to get turf, peat etc, for their own use; to cut and sell underwood; to mortgage, lease or demise their tenements for any term not exceeding three years; and to exchange lands lying intermixed in common fields for lands of equal value in the same manor, without license or fine. 

By this time many of the tenants of the Barony had been enfranchised and this process continued well into the 19th century. 

The Tufton family have continued to hold the Barony of Westmoreland and today it is in the hands of their descendant, Lord Hothfield, the Vendor.

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Lot #1 of Manorial Services Auction - Winter 2021 - Stephen Johnson

The historic seaside resort

Towns and villages have prospered though history for many different reasons. Some find themselves in an advantageous place to trade, others have rich mineral wealth or are places where trade routes converge.  A few however can be said to have expanded thanks to sudden need for leisure and pleasure. Weston-super-Mare is one such place that has earned fame beyond Britain by finding itself suddenly desired for its bracing air and bathing. 

People have lived at Weston since at least the Iron age. For almost 2000 years it remained a quiet  fishing village nestled beneath the Mendips on the Bristol Channel. Unlike many towns which grew in the 19th century and for whom the Lord of the Manor was a distant memory the Lords of the Weston-superMare played a central role in its meteoric rise.  

Weston lies at the western end of a large out crop of rock known as Worlebury Hill. This was the site  of an Iron Age fort known as Worlebury Camp which was excavated in the 19th century. The surrounding  land is a largely flat and marks the limits of the Somerset Levels.

The Manor appears to have had just four familial owners in its 950 year history. At the time of  Domesday Weston received the following entry,

William holds of the Bishop of Coutances, Westone 

Algar held it in the time of Kind Edward and geld three hides 

and one virgate of land. 

The arable is three carucates. 

In demesne are two carucates and two servants and four villains and four cottagers. 

There are seventeen acres of meadow and twelve acres of coppice wood 

Pasture twelve furlongs long and two furlongs broad and six furlongs of moor 

It was and is worth sixty shillings. 

Weston was a wealthy and productive Manor with an ideal balance of arable, pasture, woods and  meadows. William was a local tenant of the Bishop of Coustance. The Bishops’ lordship appears to have  been fleeting since by the early 11th century Weston had come into the possession of the Clapton family of Clapton-in-Gordano, a few miles to the north (and now famed as a service station on the M5). The first of the family was Wido who held his land, including Weston, as part of the honour of Gloucester. It is likely  that Wido was a Saxon who managed to either retain his family lands after 1066 or had rendered some  service to the Normans. His son, Arthur, is the first noted Lord of Weston, possibly as early as 1125. He was succeeded by his son Nigel Fitz-Arthur. There is some evidence that Nigel married Adeva, daughter of  Robert Fitz-Harding, grandson of Sueno, 3rd King of Denmark, by Eva, niece of William the Conqueror and  through which union he was granted another manor, that of Kingscote, in Gloucestershire. Weston passed to  Nigel’s unnamed younger son who took the surname of Arthur. The descent of the family is uncertain until  the reign of Henry III (1216-1272) when William Arthur is recorded as Lord of Weston. He was followed by  his son Sir Richard Arthur, then Sir William Arthur, who was deputy Constable of Bristol Castle.  

In 1404 the Manor was held by Sir Thomas Arthur who was an intimate of the Lords Berkeley of  Berkeley Castle. Although their estate was not a great one the family were certainly influential in Somerset and Gloucestershire and held various official posts. The family had established themselves at Clapton, and Weston, known at this period as Weston-juxta-Mare, formed a core part their estate. At this period it was a  small fishing village and the Lord of the Manor assumed control of the sale of catch by the granting of fishing stalls. This was not always appreciated by the fishermen and in 1492 there was a protracted legal dispute between John Arthur, Lord of Weston and several locals over fishing at Birnbeck, site today of the famous pier. On 30th November Arthur and ten armed men raided the Birnbeck fisheries and are reported to have taken; 

a hundred horse-loads of Barons (sprats) 

four young tubbelyns (cod) 

three hundred haddock 

and two hundred whiting 

The fisheries consisted of nets strung across the shore and presumably Arthur considered these to be his by manorial right. Later records show that the Lords of Weston continued to grant leases to fishing stalls which usually included a small building and a parcel of land. The leases were for three lives or 99 years  depending on which was the shorter.  

The Arthur family remained as Lords of Weston-super-Mare (or merely Weston as it was known  between the 16th and 17th centuries) until the death of Edward in 1595. He had two daughters and the  Manor then eventually passed to his son-in-law William Winter of Dyrham in Gloucestershire who had married the eldest daughter, Mary. The Winter family had something of a troubled existence at Weston  during the 17th century. The family, who were based mainly at Lydney in Gloucestershire were ardent  Royalists and during the early part of the Civil War, William Winter was arrested by Parliamentary forces  despite his pleas that, unlike his kinsmen, he had not taken part in any action against Parliament. He was  imprisoned and remained so for the the duration of the war, dying whilst still incarcerated in 1649. His two  children, Henry and Grace were minors and their estate was left seemingly to the ravages of their guardians.  On attaining his majority Henry Winter set about losing what he had left on the gaming tables of London. On  his death in 1685 he had so little left that his memorial in the parish church went uncompleted. Henry’s son  and heir, also Henry, was faced with such large debt that he was forced to sell his estate and Weston-super-Mare was duly sold in 1696 to a local gentleman, John Piggot.  

At the beginning of the 19th century Weston was still a small fishing village. The Smyth-Piggot family (as they had become) had a small cottage in the village which was used as a summer retreat from their main  residence at Brockley Court. In the early years of the 19th century there was a vogue amongst the middle  and upper classes for holidays to the coast for bathing and the Smyth-Piggots realised there was potential for  development at Weston. In 1810 they secured a private Act of Enclosure of common land and it was divided  into freehold lots. At the same time they built and opened a hotel. Although it was a slow start, in the 1820s  Weston connected to Bristol by coach and since it could be reached in a couple of hours from the city it  began to attract more visitors. John Hugh Smyth-Piggot planted trees on Worlebury Hill and its slopes were  laid out with walks and private, speculative villas built below. The greatest boost to the fortunes of the town  came in 1841 when the town was connected by rail. This led to a huge rise in the number of day-trippers,  especially after a larger station was added in 1866. The growth of Weston was prodigious. In 1821 it had a  population of just 738 yet twenty years later this had reached over 4000, by the 1880s it had reached nearer  to 40,000. 

In 1883 Cecil Hugh Smyth-Piggot sold land and the beach front to Weston-super-Mare Local District  Board for the use of public recreation. Interestingly, the indenture, which is available online, reserved out  the manorial rights including that of treasure trove. The family also sold land within the manor to the local  council for the development of parks and amenities for holidaymakers. By this time Weston-super-Mare was  the largest seaside resort in the West of England and it was popular with workers from Bristol and South  Wales whilst retaining some of its earlier genteel charm. In 1904 the Grand Pier was opened adding a further  attraction and in the 20th century the town became the most popular destination in the South West of  England. The Smyth-Piggot family retains its connections to the town as Lords of the Manor.

Some famous names hail from Weston-super-Mare, including; John Cleese, Jeffrey Archer, Jill Dando and  Roald Dahl. 

There is are number of original documents associated with the Manor which form part of the conveyance. 

We will accept offers for Weston-super-Mare until 30 June, 2021. Offers starting at £20,000 

Documents associated with this manor in the public domain:

1482-1482: rental, with other manors Bristol Archives 

1555-1559: court roll, with other manors Hampshire Archives 

1690-1690: survey Somerset Heritage Centre 

1694-1694: particular 

1852-1852: ownership of land in manor 

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Lot #5 of Stanford & Son's 'Third Auction' - Sept 1964 

Westhorpe is a small village 2 miles west from Finningham and 8 north from Stowmarket. 

The Manor belonged to Ulrico Hagana at the time of Edward the Confessor and at the time of the Domesday Survey was held by Eudo, son of Spirnic. In the 13th century John de Westhorpe held the Manor. In 1323 it was held by John de Thorp and in 1338 it belonged to Matthew de Cambridge. In 1514 a grant was made to “Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, who resided with his wife, Mary Tudor, Sister of Henry VIII in the noble Mansion of Westhorpe Hall which is now demolished.” (Copinger, The Manors of Suffolk, Vol. III, p. 327). 

On 10th March, 1717, a Court was held for Maurice Shelton, his Steward being Robert Martin. On 5th June, 1733, the first Court was held of Thomas Taylor, Robert Martin continuing to act as Steward. Five years later the Manor was held by Baron Pettyman in the right of Arabella, his wife, relict of Thomas Taylor. He continued to hold it until his death in 1758, and on 30th October in that year his widow held her first Court. She appears to have died in 1761 when John Reilly appears as Lord at a Court held 10th December of that year. Neale Ward was his Steward. 

John Reilly held his last Court on 19th October, 1795 and he was followed by his widow, Maria Rebecca Reilly. Seven courts were held for her, the last on 13th June, 1808. She was followed by Thomas Reilly, whose last Court was held on 15th May, 1821. 

One Court only was held by the new Lord, Sir Miles Nightingale, for on 5th December, 1831, Dame Florentia Elizabeth Nightingale, widow, was Lady of the Manor, and remained so for 25 years. Her last Court was on 9th December, 1856. 

The First and only Court of Charles Tabor, of Bovingdons, Braintree, was held on 25th October, 1869. Joseph Beaumont of Coggeshall acted for him on his purchase and also as Steward. Several enfranchisements were negotiated immediately but one was as late as 11th September, 1905, and the Lords who entered into it were Benjamin Dixon Tabor and Charles Victor Tabor, both now deceased. They did not, however, hold any Court. 

This Manor is an example of a custom of descent on intestacy which was not very common, viz., Borough-English. Under this custom in certain Manors the Youngest Son succeeded as heir instead of the eldest, who was normally heir at law unless any custom to the contrary could be proved. On 8th July, 1803, William Philip Mulliner was admitted as youngest son and heir and later Jonathan Banks, Shoemaker, was admitted under the same custom. 

Fines on death and alienation of copyholds were arbitrary in this Manor, i.e., two years’ annual value of the property, as opposed to fines certain which were twice the annual quit rent, usually only a few shillings. 

Cutting down trees was a frequent offence in this Manor. At a Court held on 26th July, 1768, the Homage presented that Samuel Corke had cut down four ash trees lately standing upon the waste land of this Manor called the Brick Kiln Lies, the property of the Lord of this Manor. On 11th December, 1749, William Page, Baronet, paid to the Lord £3 3s. 0d. for felling certain timber trees off the copyhold lands of his wife, Dame Frances Page. 

At a Court held on 23rd October, 1753, it was certified by the Steward that the Lord of the 2nd Manor of this Manor of the Copyhold Tenants did grant licence to John Turner to make a ditch at Lady Willow (“parcel of the waste land of this Manor adjoining to the copyhold lands of the said John Turner”). 

There is a small village green in respect of which negotiations are in progress with the Eastern Electricity Board for the granting of wayleaves. The correspondence to date and plans will be handed to the purchaser on completion. 

The records of the Manor (insured for £300) which will be handed over on completion, are as under: 

Court Books: 1635–1691; 1705–1760; 1767–1810; 1812–1856 and 1857–1892.
12th October, 1860: Notice by Joseph Beaumont of Court to be held at Crown Inn, Westhorpe.
2nd June, 1869: Particulars of Sale by Biddell and Blencowe at Angel Hotel, Bury St. Edmunds.
12th October, 1869: Notice by Joseph Beaumont of intention to hold a Court at the Crown Inn, Westhorpe.
1951: Schedule of Courts, Lords, Stewards and Homage, 1705–1892. 

The Vendors sell as Trustees for sale and the title shall commence with a conveyance on sale dated 28th December, 1869 from the Rev. A. L. Darell Bart and L. E. Darell, to Charles Tabor of Bovingdon’s, Bocking.

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Lot #4 of Stanford & Son 'Fourth Auction' - Dec 1965

The village of Westleton is on the river Minsmere, and appears as West Ledestuna, Westletuna, and Westeltona in 1086; these names are probably a reference to its position about 3 miles west of the city and fortress of Dunwich on the Suffolk coast. The Domesday survey shows Westleton Manor as part of the lands of Robert Malet, held of him by Gilbert Blund, and it was assessed at 7½d. for Danegeld. It was later given to Sibton Abbey, the abbot of which held the manor and its advowson in 1299. The Hundred Rolls show him as holding 30 acres in Westleton of the Earl of Cornwall (Copinger, vol. II, p. 196). 

A statute of Edward I forbade the creation of new manors, but before this time the original manor of Westleton had been broken up into eight separate manors, namely, Westleton with the Members, Westleton Grange, Minsmere or Scots Hall, Lenwades or Lembalde’s or Lymbold’s, Claydons, Cleeves or Cliffs Hornehorne, Valens and Rysings. 

The earliest of the Court records consists of 16 parchment rolls, written in law-Latin, the first of which dated 1500, shows Westleton as associated with Westleton Rectory and the Abbey. After 1504, there is a long gap which covers the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary Tudor, and the first fifteen years of the reign of Elizabeth I. Fifteen Courts are enrolled from 1573 to 1612, after which no records are available until the first Court Book in 1689. The rolls are for the most part in fairly good condition, although in some places the ink has faded, making reading difficult. 

Until 1732, the proceedings are recorded in law-Latin, and from 1737 in English, the change coinciding with a change of Stewardship from William Ingham to John Ingham. The title-page draws attention to the custom of inheritance by Borough English, and states that “Filius Junior est heres”. This is followed by a note on the dower of Ann, the widow of Robert Colvett (Court of 27 September 12 Henry 8), and a statement that the youngest brother is heir (Court of 25 April 25 Eliz.). (Two cases of the operation of Borough English were enrolled in 1583.) 

The Lordship of the Manor of Westleton Grange was, for many years before the Dissolution of the monasteries, held by the Abbots of Sibton. At the Dissolution, the manor was granted, in 1536, to Thomas, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and in 1537 was held by John Soone; in 1547 it passed to Edmund Rous, who disposed of it in 1551 to John Harbotte. The Courts for the years 1597 to 1608 were those of Edward Grimston. Courts were held in 1611 and 1612 for Sir Harbotte Grimston, the father of a better-known Sir Harbotte Grimston who sat in the Parliament of 1640 as member for Colchester, and who served in the Civil War. 

The lordship was known to have been held by William Hart in 1635, and by John Fiske in 1651. Fiske was Lord of the Manor in 1661, first of the Court Books opened in 1689; the Manor was conveyed by James Fiske to Mary Woods in 1710, when she held her first Court, her son, Everard Woods, then being a minor. Everard Woods became Lord of the Manor on attaining his majority, for there are occasional references to his Lordship, and at the first Court of a younger Everard Woods in 1742, the new Lord is described as the “eldest son of Everard Woods, Gent., deceased, late Lord of this Manor”. After only two years the younger Everard Woods was succeeded by Richard Crowfoot, who held the Lordship from 1744 to 1763; following this intermission, the title was again held by members of the Woods family, in the persons of Alexander Woods, Samuel Alexander Woods, and Samuel Alexander Woods the Younger. Henry Seymour Montagu acquired the Lordship in 1852—his signature appears on the flyleaf of the third Court Book—and it was later held by Charles Henry Capon. He conveyed the Manor to George Frederick Beaumont, of Coggeshall, the trustees of whose will sold it by private treaty after the first auction of Lordships of Manors in 1954 to E. H. Roberts. 

Further records describe court proceedings, copyhold tenures, fines, stewardships, and enfranchisement activity through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including references to families such as Blois, Downing, and Robinson. 

The following manorial records will be handed over on completion: 

Court Rolls: 1500–1612 on 16 membranes. 

Court Books: 1689–1737; 1738–1837; 1839–1876. 

Minute Books: 1763–1830; 1844–1875. 

The Vendor is Mr. George Cecil Jones the Executor of E. H. Roberts, deceased, and the title shall commence with the Will of George Frederick Beaumont dated 1st June, 1928. The Vendor’s Solicitors are Messrs. Grover Smith and Moss, 18/22 Lloyd Street, Manchester, 2.

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Lot #50 of Manorial Services Auction - 2004 UNPUBLISHED/ABORTED - Stephen Johnson

With historic rights to market

At the time of the great survey of William the Conqueror, Domesday Book, in 1086, the Lordship of the Manor of Westwell was held by Odo, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The entry reads,

The archbishop himself holds Westwell.

In the time of Edward the Confessor it was measured as 7 sulungs

and now at 5. There is land for 18 ploughs. In demesne are 4 ploughs

and 81 villains with 5 borders have 12 1/2 ploughs.

There are seven slaves, and 1 mill rendering 30d

and 20 acres of meadow and woodland for 80 pigs.

Before the Conquest it was worth £17, now £24.

Westwell continued in the ownership of the priory of Canterbury after this time but it appears that is possession of it was rather precarious. A number of suits were raised to challenge their rights over it. In 1223, Peter de Bending, a local landowner, laid claim to it but was forced to acknowledge the rights of Canterbury after being paid £17 and granted their Lordship of Little Chart. Three years later Stephen Heringod revealed to chancery court that he had a writ of title to Westwell. Again he was paid off by the Archbishop with 30 marks worth of silver. This payment not only reveals how much Westwell was worth to the church, but also that they must have had doubted the strength of their title. After the death of Peter de Bending, his wife, Burga, commenced another process before the Justice Itinerant at Canterbury, for a moiety of the Lordship. In this case the prior of Canterbury Abbey, Richard de Lee, argued that the priory had received a grant of Westwell from the King’s predecessors who granted it in pure and perpetual alms. The jury, perhaps not surprisingly, found in favour of Lee and the church remained in the much quieter possession of Westwell until the reign of Edward I. 

In 1279 a right to market was granted to the Priory and weekly Wednesday market. Right of free warren was granted in 1307. Westwell continued in the possession of Canterbury priory until the its Dissolution in 1540. It was taken as possession of Henry VIII, where it remained for 4 years until being granted out to the Archbishop of Canterbury:

By agreement dated April 24th that year, granted Westwell, with its

apputenences and the land and wood in the parish commonly called

Westwell Park, the parsonage appropriate, and the advowson of the church

and the wood called Long Beech Wood in this parish and Challock, with 

the lodge builded on it, all parcel of the late priory of Christ Church, in

exchange for other premises, to Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury.

The archbishop referred to here is Thomas Cranmer, who many credit with founding Anglicanism. He was born into relatively humble origins, his father was a poor village squire at Alcaston in Northamptonshire. After receiving a rudimentary education at home, he entered Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1503. He became a fellow of the college in 1510, but was forced to abdicate that post after he married his first wife, Joan. Even at this early stage in his career Cranmer felt a growing sympathy with the continental reforms, initiated by Martin Luther. Cranmer came to prominence in the furore surrounding Henry VIII’s wish to divorce Catherine of Aragon. He publicly and theologically supported the divorce and this brought him to the King’s attention. He became an immediate favourite and was promoted to diplomatic missions to various European court. In 1533 he was made Archbishop of Canterbury and he officially dissolved Henry’s marriage. Later he helpedB preside over the trial of Anne Boleyn, the divorce from Anne of Cleves, and Catherine Howard's trial and execution some of the most profound events in English history.  In all these cases he showed complete support for the King. However he appeared to have been genuinely opposed to Henry's Dissolution of the Monasteries but could do little to halt it.

It was during the reign of Edward IV (1547-1553) that Cranmer began to initiate great changes in the English church and moved it away from Catholicism. In 1549 he introduced The Book of Common Prayer to a great wave of controversy. Cranmer +encouraged a more personal view of worship and pushed services in the direction of Protestantism. However he was caught between the rage of Catholics on one hand and the frustration of protestants on the other, who wanted him to quicken the pace of change.

Cranmer's brief reform movement was overturned when Mary I came to the throne in 1552. Mary, a firm Catholic, blamed Cranmer for her mother's divorce. She quickly had Cranmer tried and sentenced to death for treason. The sentence was not carried out, though, and Cranmer was tried anew for heresy. Despite recanting his views at the trial he was sentenced to death and on March 21, 1556 he was burned at the stake at Oxford.

The grant of Westwell however remained in force until 1561 when Queen Elizabeth, with a special act of Parliament, took Westwell back into her own hands. Six years later she granted it to John Fletcher and William Atkinson. It continued in their and their heirs possession until 1625 when Charles I (1625-1649) granted it to Edward Ditchfield, John Highlord, Humphrey Clark and Francis Moss for a yearly rent of £72. They immediately sold their interest to Sir John Tufton of Hothfield.  

The Lordship of Westwell has since remained in the hands of the Tufton family. The current representative of the that family, Lord Hothfield is the present Lord of the Manor of Westwell. 

The Lordship lies in the parish of the same name , which measures 5,215 acres of mainly agricultural land. It is situated about 5 miles north of Wye.

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Lot #51 of Manorial Services Auction - 2004 UNPUBLISHED/ABORTED - Stephen Johnson

THIS LORDSHIP lies in Kingsbury, a large parish, measuring some 8,000 acres. Whateley lies on the border of Warwickshire and Staffordshire, three miles south of Tamworth and ten miles from Birmingham. The River Tame runs through the area which it is noted for its hills, woods, brickfields and collieries. 

THIS LORDSHIP lies in Kingsbury, a large parish, measuring some 8,000 acres. Whateley lies on the border of Warwickshire and Staffordshire, three miles south of Tamworth and ten miles from Birmingham. The River Tame runs through the area which it is noted for its hills, woods, brickfields and collieries. 

First in the prior in the correction of the brothers and rebuking the

excesses of the same should take care to have more discretion than

he was wont lest the lukewarmness of his discipline should in the 

future increase the reason for laxity; also that none of the brothers

in the frater distribute or send out of the monastery any of the 

remains of their food to anyone, without the knowledge of the 

president, tot he prejudice of alms, nor do anything to the 

detriment of alms; also that the time of religious services

should be more properly observed by more strictly keeping silence

than is wont, according to the rule of St Augustine and to the

approved custom of the place; also the same prior of Worcester

at his visitation absolved brother Thomas de Watelye of his, who

for his disobedience and other excesses had for a long time been kept

in prison, he having shown signs of contrition.

It is interesting to wonder who Thomas of Wateleye was. He obviously had been a resident of the Lordship and was perhaps a younger son of the Bracebridge family, which continued to hold Kingsbury during this period. Wyke’s findings, that the canons were slovenly, sold food to locals and had to be physically restrained is by no means an unusual description of a 14th century priory. Not for nothing had the term ‘merry monk’ been earned. Six years later, Wyke was forced to threaten with excommunication, the cellerer, Adam Wyberd, for selling beer brewed for the canons.

Another inquiry was carried out at Studley in 1350, this time under the auspices of the bishop of Worcester and it was found that there was a great deal of waste goods produced by the canons which was not given to the poor. In 1364 John de Evesham, the prior of Worcester visited Studley but on his arrival was confronted by a group of armed canons. Eventually through threat of excommunication he was allowed to enter and allowed to exercise his jurisdiction. Why he was resisted it is, unfortunately, not recorded. For the next 175 there is little record of the canons but there seems to have been a slow decline, both in their numbers and the size and importance of their estates. They did remain as Lords of the Manor of Whateley and when the Commissioners for the Dissolution visited Studley in 1536 they valued the priory as a yearly income of £141. They found that the house contains the prior and eight canons and that ‘all priests have good conversation and lyvyng’.  

After the demise of Studley Priory the Lordship of the Manor of Whateley was granted by Henry VIII (1509-1547) to John Beaumont. Within a few months he had alienated it to Nicholas Wylson and his wife Eleanor. In 1553 they sold it on again, this time to Thomas Overton, alias, Orton, who died in 1590. From him to came down to his son Nicholas, who is recorded as holding Whateley for a fortieth of a knights fee from Queen Elizabeth. In 1604 the Lordship was settled on his son Thomas and his wife Dorothy. It then seems to have remained in this family for some time before coming into the hands of the Chetwynd’s, who were related to the Earls of Shrewsbury. The present Lord of Whateley is the current Earl, the 14th.

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Lot #3 of Manorial Services Auction - Winter 2021 - Stephen Johnson

History is never an even playing field, neither is information spread evenly and conveniently for  scholars or laymen to discover. Even in a country  as old and developed as England not everything can  be easily found nor will facts always be available.  This applies to the study of Lordships of the Manor  as much as to any other branch of history. For some  manors there are boundless sources of history  with rich and colourful details, for others, not so  much. The Manor of White Hall falls very much into  this latter category. Of all the counties of England,  Lincolnshire is one of the least written about. There  are no great Victorian tomes on its history nor are  there any parochial histories as part of the great  Victoria County History series. Many parishes in the  county have only the briefest of mentions and for  more of the manors within their boundaries many  fewer.  

What is known is that the Manor of White Hall principally lies in the parish of Kirkby le Thorpe or  Kirkby Laythorpe, a couple of miles east of Sleaford in the flat fenlands of this part of the county. The Manor has belonged for several centuries to the Hervey family, the Marquesses of Bristol and it is included in several  key documents in that family’s descent. It passed to the family on the marriage of Isabella, daughter and  heiress of Sir Robert Carr and John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol. This wedding brought Bristol a large estate in  Lincolnshire and a number of manors including White Hall. This had been in the Carr family since the early  16th century. A family document now belonging to the present Lord Bristol notes that in December 1637  Sir Robert Carr’s father settled the Lincolnshire estate on his kinsmen Robert Carr, Lord Ancram and his  sons in the event that either of the sons married Sir Robert’s daughter. This settlement was, according to the  record, supposed to be the result of some transaction at the gaming table. The contemporary title deeds listed  the Carr manors and amongst them was the Manor of White Hall. The extent of the Lordship is not given,  but its location in the parish of Kirkby La Thorpe is confirmed by a rental dating from the latter quarter of the same century, this records that you have also wood in Evedon (the neighbouring parish) contents about tenne  acres it belong to the Manor of Whitehall in Kirkobye, for yee timber thereof being olde very tall. 

Although this confirms that Whitehall, or White Hall, lies in Kirkby La Thorpe the location and extent of the manor house and land itself is not certain. A further record made in 1635 confirms this when it is described as a ‘messuage’. This implies that is was likely a manor house or large farm house with a demesne  farm attached. The record, which is a grant of tithes records an exchange of tithe between the two parish of  Kirkby and Evedon between Sir Robert Carr and the rector of Kirkby. This concerns the tithes of all corn and  hay yearly growing on 140 acres of ground in the fields of Evedon belonging to a messuage in Kirkby Laythorpe  called the White Hall, (which) have from time immemorial been taken as a portion of tithes due to the church. This  reference also obviously confirms where the White Hall was but also that part of the Manor lay in the parish of Evedon.  

There is also perhaps an unwitting clue to the eventual fate of the manor house itself in this short  record. The description notes that the manorial land of White Hall was found in the fields of Evedon. The  implication is that it was part of the complicated pattern of strips which would have divided the large open  fields of Evedon. This system was also prevalent in Kirkby. There is some evidence to suggest that the original settlement of Kirkby was further to the south of the modern village and it seems likely that the Carr family enclosed the open fields of Kirkby in the 17th century which would have effectively combined the manorial land of the parochial manor and that of Whitehall. Since Whitehall was a reputed manor - it had no manorial  tenants - there was no manorial administration. Clearly it was important to the Carr family who included it  in the terrier of 1637 and in all subsequent transfers and descents of the Hervey estates well into the latter  half of the 20th century; for instance it is included in an estate settlement made in 1802 in connection with  the marriage of Charles Rose Ellis and Elizabeth Catherine Caroline Hervey (daughter of late Lord Hervey).  It is included in a list of manors held by the 3rd Marquess of Bristol on his Inland Revenue return of 1907 and  in a list of manors held by the estate collated in 1965. The Manor is currently held by the present Marquess. 

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Lot #5 of Manorial Services Auction - Winter 2021 - Stephen Johnson

The Manor of Whiteoxen straddles the parishes  of Dean Prior and Rattery, lying a mile north of the  Great Western Railway which runs between London  and Penzance. It formed part of the Marley Estate  which was a property of the Carew Baronets until  broken up in the 1920s. Whiteoxen or Whiteoaken  as it was also known, was one of a number of manors  held by the Carews in the area. 

At the time of Domesday Book in 1086  Whiteoxen was part of the Manor of Rattery, which  was held by William de Falaise. The entry reads: 

Roger holds this of William (de Falaise) of it  

Roger has a demesne for half a plough. 

There Roger has two bordars and one serf and  

a hundred sheep and three acres 

of meadow and one length of pasture. 

The descent from this period is rather obscure but in the following century the Manor was granted  or gifted to the Abbey of St Dogmaels in Pembrokeshire, Wales by Robert FitzMartin. In 1242 it is recorded  as “Whittekesdean”, in 1285 as “Wittekesdon”and in 1305 as “Whyttokesdon”. These variations of a spelling  are entirely normal in the Medieval period when there was no standard form of written English. The name  itself derives from the Anglo-Saxon for Hwitiuc’s Hill. During the 13th century the Abbey is recorded as  holding a fourth part of a knight’s fee in Wittokesdone, of Nicholas Fitzmartin, of his Barony of Dartington. 

The Manor remained as a possession of St Dogmael’s Abbey until its Dissolution in 1536. The Abbey  had been founded between 1113 and 1115 by Ralph FitzMartin, and followed the Tironesian Order whose  founding abbey was at Tiron in France.  

It is likely that that the Crown held onto the Manor for some time after the Dissolution as there is  little evidence that it was disposed of in the immediate aftermath of the seizure. By the 17th century it had  passed to the Palk family.The Palks were local gentry and first recorded in the person of Henry, who was Lord of the Manor of Ambroke during the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509). On the marriage of Elizabeth Palk,  heiress of her father, Walter, to Sir Henry Carew, the Manor of Whiteen, with the rest of the Marley Estate,  passed to this ancient family who could claim to trace their ancestry back to the Anglo-Saxon, Ortho, a thegn  of Edward the Confessor. The family were established at Ottery Mohun, in Devon by the time of the birth of  Sir Peter Carew in 1514. Sir Peter was an independently minded man. He was educated at Exeter Grammer  school, but angered his tutors through frequent truancy. On one occasion he escaped lessons by climbing  a turret of the city wall and threatening to jump down if his master followed. For this he was punished by  being led back to the school on a leash like a dog. At sixteen his prowess in riding and other exercises led him  to be noticed by Henry VIII and he was taken to Hampden to be a gentleman on the court. He spent time  travelling with the King, and was sent by him to fetch Anne of Cleves, the King’s fourth wife from Germany in  1539. In the war with France, which began in 1544, he joined Henry’s forces with one hundred foot soldiers  dressed in black, at his own expense. A year later his brother, Sir George Carew was captain of the Mary  Rose, Henry’s flag ship, which floundered in Portsmouth harbour on its way to attack the French fleet. In the last year of Henry’s reign, 1547, Sir Peter was made sheriff of Devonshire, and on the death of Henry’s son,   Edward in 1553 was publicly opposed to the installation of Lady Jane Grey as monarch, instead proclaiming  Mary, as Queen. His loyalty was vexed with Mary’s proposed marriage to Philip of Spain and he conspired  to stop it. His intrigue was discovered and he fled to Italy, before being arrested and returned to England to be confined in the Tower. On the accession of Elizabeth in 1558, he returned to royal favour and retired to his Irish estates. Later members of the family included Sir Thomas Carew, who was made a baronet in 1661  and Sir Henry Carew, Bart, who was Lord of the Manor in 1822. The last member of the family to hold  Whiteoxen was Sir Rivers Carew. 

Whiteoxen remained a part of the Marley Estate until 1925 when the farm was sold with the rest of  the freehold land but the manorial titles were retained. The manor house of Whiteoxen, still stands today and  although not included in this sale can be visited as a bed and breakfast destination. It had a number of tenant  occupiers but the Palk family themselves did not live there but instead shared their time between their main  residence at Haccombe and nearby Marley House. In 1839 it is noted in an estate terrier that the occupier  was James Easterbrook. At the end of the 19th century it was tenanted by Richard Andrews. 

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Lot #1 of Manorial Services Auction - Spring 2020 - Stephen Johnson

Windermere is one of the most famous places in Britain, certainly one of the most visited. It is, of course, the  largest lake in England and one of the most popular destinations for tourists from Britain and around the world. It is  the location of countless films and television programmes and forms one of the most well loved vistas in the British  Isles. The area became famous through the work of the lake poets, William Wordsworth, Robert Southey and Samuel  Coleridge. Windermere was the settung for Wordsworth poem, There Was a Boy; 

There was a Boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs 

And islands of Winander! many a time, 

At evening, when the earliest stars began 

To move along the edges of the hills, 

Rising or setting, would he stand alone, 

Beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake; 

And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands 

Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth 

Uplifted, he, as through an instrument, 

Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls 

That they might answer him.—

And they would shout 

Across the watery vale, and shout again, 

Responsive to his call,—with quivering peals, 

And long halloos, and screams, and echoes loud 

Redoubled and redoubled; concourse wild 

Of jocund din! And, when there came a pause 

Of silence such as baffled his best skill: 

Then, sometimes, in that silence, while he hung 

Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise 

Has carried far into his heart the voice 

Of mountain-torrents; or the visible scene 

Would enter unawares into his mind 

With all its solemn imagery, its rocks, 

Its woods, and that uncertain heaven received 

Into the bosom of the steady lake. 

The history of the manor is long and detailed and  can be traced to the Norman Invasion of 1066 and the struggle to capture the Lake District for the new rulers of  England. After William had subdued most of England the  North remained a problem for a number of years into his  reign. In order to try to subdue it a huge swath of land  from Northern Lancashire and what was the county of  Westmorland was granted to Ivo de Talebois, a powerful  Norman nobleman who had besieged and captured the  rebellious Hereward the Wake, at Ely in 1071. Ivo was  granted this estate as long as he could subdue it and  his grip was strengthened after the accession of William  II in 1087. The territory eventually became the basis of  the feudal Barony of Kendal and Windermere, otherwise  known as Undermillbeck, and was included in the baronial  extent. The descent of the barony is shown in this history.  It passed from Ivo to Eldred, to Ketel and thus to Gilbert.  The historian William Farrer noted that at this time the  parishes of Windermere and Grasmere were “forest. Down to  a comparatively recent period, there were no freeholds in these  parishes except the Fleming estate in Rydal and Loughrigg. 

After the death of Gilbert the estate passed to his son, William, who took the name de Lancaster. Although Windermere was considered his manor at the time, for much of this period of the 12th century it was controlled by  Scottish kings. It was not until the reign of Richard I (1189-99) that the Barony of Kendal was formerly erected in favour  of Gilbert Fitz-Reindred, the son in law of William by his daughter Halwise. Gilbert’s seal can be found on Magna  Carta and he was one of the barons who rebelled against the rule of King John. He was succeeded early in the reign  of Henry III by his only son William de Lancaster (III) who was the last true Baron of Kendal. At his death the barony  was divided between his two sisters, Helwisia and Alice and it was divided into three fees, Richmond, Marquis and  Lumley, a division which remains until the present day. Windermere/Undermillbeck formed part of the Richmond Fee  along with Grasmere, Langdale, Loughrigg, Ambleside, Troutbeck, Applethwaite, Crossthwaite and Lyth, New Hutton,  Casterton, Strickland Ketel and Helsington, Thornton, Westhouse and Maysinghill. This passed to Alice and thence to the family of her husband, William de Lindesay,

Several generations of William de Lindesays followed. At the death of the third William, in around 1386 it was  noted at the time of his death that he was Lord of Richmond Fee which included the manors of Grasmere, Langden,  Troutbeck Forest, Applethwaite, Wynandermere, Eclesall. Skandall, Lyith, Crosthwaite, Skirkland Ketell, Kirkeby, Helsington and  Horton in the Hay. Of his son and heir one historian of the Barony noted that we find nothing in particular, save only that  he died without any male of his body. The manor thus passed to his brother, Christian who obtained a charter of free  warren in the manor from Edward III. He was married to Ingelram de Guisnes, Lord of Coucy in France. The couple  lived there and their son and heir, William was classed as an alien and unable to inherit. Windermere, along with the  rest of the Richmond Fee manors was therefor escheated to the Crown. 

In 1347 Edward III granted Windermere and the other Richmond Fee manors to John de Coupland. He was a relatively lowly squire from Northumberland who had the wit and skill to capture the Scottish king David at Battle of  Neville’s Cross on 16 October 1346. Coupland was knighted by the king and granted land and position. The grant of  the Richmond Fee was one of a number of such gifts. John was infamous in the North of England and Scotland for his  brutality and was killed in December 1363 by 20 men whilst he crossed Bolton Moor in Richmondshire. Despite three  subsequent inquiries the murderers were never found nor arrested. The estate remained in the possession of his wife,  Johan or Joanna and at her death in 1375 it was found at her inquisition that she held the manor of Wynandermere, with  its members and appurtenances. The manor then reverted to Ingelram de Courcy and then to his daughter, Phillipa,  the former wife of Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford. She died childless in 1413 and Windermere then reverted to The  Crown for a second time. 

The Lordship of Windermere was granted by Henry IV to his third brother, John Duke of Bedford, in whom it remained until his death in 1436. Henry VI then granted it to John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset but he died childless  and the king regranted it to his daughter, Margaret, who was Countess of Richmond in her own right. Born in 1443 she  was descended from John of Gaunt, fourth son of Edward III, a lineage which gave her royal claim. As a young teenager she was placed under the protection of Henry VI’s own half-brothers, Edmund and Jasper Tudor. This arrangement was  made specifically to marry her off to Edmund, which she duly did in 1455. Only a few months after her marriage the  12 year old girl became pregnant. This was as a result of a rather brutal act on Edmund’s part and was a ritual known  as the ‘courtesy of England’. By making her pregnant Tudor secured a life’s interest in Margaret’s estates, which were  worth £1,000. Even in the 15th century this was considered too young an age to conceive and she seems to have  suffered considerable internal damage and had no further children for the rest of her life. Tudor, however appears to have received no censure for his actions save perhaps a divine one, since after just six months of his wife’s pregnancy  Tudor was killed by the plague. Fortunately she carried her child to term and gave birth to a son, Henry. This act alone  embroiled her in the internecine struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster, which was now raging across  England. Within a year she had married Henry Stafford, second son of the duke of Buckingham.

The history of her son Henry at Bosworth in 1485 brought triumph for the family. At the first Parliament of  the new regime she was declared femme sole, a woman in law capable of actions independent of her husband and  in 1487 she was granted a huge landed trust for the monarchy including, of course, Windermere and her portion of  the Barony of Kendal. In 1492 a survey was conducted of her estates and it was found the the manor of Windermere,  here noted as Undermillbeck, owned a yearly rental of £8 10s 6d. Margaet died in 1509, a few weeks after seeing  her grandson crowned Henry VIII. His lands and estates came to the Crown and Henry granted Windermere to his  illegitimate son, Henry, Duke of Richmond, who died in murky circumstances aged just 17 in 1536. 

The Lordship of Windermere or Undemillbeck remained in the hands of the Crown for the next 150 years.  It was granted to various members of the Royal households to provide an income and, as part of the Richmond Fee,  developed a rich and efficient system of tenancy and administration. The final royal holder of the Manor was Catherine  of Braganza, wife of Charles. A survey of her estate in 1677 found that the annual value of Windermere had increased  to £13 8s and consisted of 81 tenements. Fishing in Lake Windermere alone netted £6 per year. After her death in  1705, the Lordship and the Richmond Fee were granted to the Lowther family. William Lowther had been appointed  steward of Richmond Fee in 1662, a position he inherited from his father, Sir John Lowther. It was therefore a natural  step to award this long established Yorkshire family the actual estate.  

The Lordship of Windermere remained in the hands of the Lowther family for the next 30 years. They  became one of the leading landowners in the North of England and possessed over 80,000 acres of Westmorland and  Cumberland alone. The family were raised to the peerage in 1696 when John Lowther was created Viscount Lonsdale.  After this line became extinct in 1751 the estate was settled on a cousin, when Sir John Lowther was created Earl of  Lonsdale. The Lordship remained in the hands of the Lowther family until the late 1980s when it was purchased by the  family of the present Vendors.  

Bowness is the main town in the manor and this became a major tourist destination at the beginning of the  19th century when the wilds and mountains of the Lake District began to be celebrated and the upper classes were  cut off from Europe by the Napoleonic Wars. Bowness itself dates to at the least the 8th century.

Documents in the Public Domain Associated with this Lordship:

1441-1443: court rolls The National Archives 

1505-1507: ministers’ accounts 

1603-1605: estreats 

1619-1665: rentals 

1624-1641 estreats 

1615-1616: minister’s accounts Duchy of Cornwall Office 

1550-1550: jury charge Cumbria Archive Centre, Carlisle 

1614-1614: boundary riding 

1652-1683: court rolls 

1654-1679: verdicts 

1669-1672: estreats 

1670-1670: court papers 

1696-1696: court book of admittances 

1752-1804: call books 

1800-1946: call book 

1831-1839: notices and perambulations of boundaries 

1878-1891: fines, fees, admittances, accounts and valuations 

1925-1931: stewards’ papers 

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Lot #52 of Manorial Services Auction - 2004 UNPUBLISHED/ABORTED - Stephen Johnson

WINTON IS A large and pleasant township lying the extensive parish of Kirby Stephen. In itself it is one of the largest townships in the area, covering almost 5,000 acres, incorporating Winton Fell in the Pennines. It derives its name from a battle which must have taken place here in the Saxon period. Other places in England, such as Winchester, Winwick and Winthorpe commemorate battles so it is thought Winton must also. Unfortunately the details of the battle have long been lost to history. 

The history of the Lordship of Winton corresponds very closely with that of the Barony of Westmoreland and was considered, originally, to be a parcel of the Lordship of Brough. After the Norman invasion it was granted to Ralph Meschines, earl of Chester and from from his family is passed to the Morvilles, the last of which was Hugh, one of the four knights who murdered Thomas Becket at Canterbury cathedral in 1170. Winton was seised by the Crown and granted then to Robert de Veteripont. It remained in this family until the male line became extinct and it passed to the Veteripont heiresses, Isabella and Idonea. At the inquisition to determine the division of the Veteripont estate between the two sisters it was found that each of them held a moiety of the Lordship of Winton and the value of the two together was £48 4s 6d. This was a sizable sum for the 13th century.

Winton then descended to the family of Isabella’s husband, Roger de Clifford. In 1315 the following was recorded, after the death of Robert de Clifford.

Held at Winton one capital messuage, worth yearly 1s, 100 acres of demesne

land, worth yearly 6d per acre; 20 acres of demesne meadow, worth 1 s an

acre yearly; that he had also foreland and waste worth yearly 5s;

28 oxgangs of land at 5s a year each; 10 messuages of cottages, worth each

by the year 1s; on water mill burnt, worth yearly £ 4 and there were also

free tenants there, who paid yearly 6s and that Henry de Warthcop held

certain marshy grounds, for which he paid yearly 8s

It is interesting to note both the fall in value of the Lordship since the ownership of the Veteripont sisters. A clue to this can be gleaned from the fact the ,ill is described as burnt. This indicates that the land at Winton had suffered from a Scottish attack, which were certainly common. Given the year, 1315, this probably occurred in the previous year after the English had been defeated at Bannockburn.

This destruction of the manorial lands was repeated during the reign of Henry V. At an inquisition into the death of John de Clifford it was found that on the day he died 20 messuages at Winton, worth nothing in all issues above reprises, by reason of the destruction made by the Scots.

The Cliffords held Winton for three centuries until is passed from the last of the family, Anne, Countess of Pembroke, to the Tuftons, the earls of Thanet. The Tufton’s have continued to hold it until today and the current Lord of the Manor is the present representative of the family, Lord Hothfield. There was a manor house at Winton and this was known as The Hall. It never seems to have occupied by the Cliffords or the Tuftons and at an early time was in the hands of the Scayfe family, who were perhaps the main manorial tenants. During the reign of Edward II (1307-1315) John Scayfe served as a Member of Parliament as a burgess for Appleby. In 1344 his son Thomas also represented Appleby at Parliament. The family continued in the area for many years. During the Commonwealth (1649-1660) the Hall was occupied by a Major Scaife, who appears to have been a prominent local Roundhead. The Hall was later sold to the Andrews family.

Winton was the birthplace of two distinguished 18th century men of letters. John Langhorne was well known and respected poet in mid 1700s . Born around 1730 he trained as priest and was appointed to the rectory of Blagdon in Somerset. He held this position for most of his life and died in 1779. Though his fame during his life time was for his poetry, especially The Country Justice, a Plea for the Neglected Poor, and The Fables of Flora, these are now largely forgotten. What has survived however it his translation of Plutarch’s Lives. This was published in 1770 and had never really been superseded and is considered to be the definitive translation in English. Winton was also the birthplace of Richard Burn, who with Joseph Nicholson, wrote the History of Cumberland and Westmorland (1777). This is one a number of tremendous topographical works published during the later half of the 19th century.

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Lot #2 of 'Beaumont Collection' Auction - Nov 1954

(Located in the parishes of Wivenhoe, Elmstead, Arlesford, and Greenstead)

Wivenhoe lies 4 miles South East of Colchester and was described by Morant as standing "for the most part, high and pleasant; and the rest upon a gentle declivity; and commands a  handsome prospect down the Colne-water. The fish brought hither, especially the soles, are reckoned the best in the Kingdom. Here there is only one Manor." In old records the variation in spelling include Wienhou, Wyneho, Wyenho, Wyfenho, Wyvenho, Uvenha, and Wivenhoo. Hoo is supposed to be taken from the Saxon word Hou, denoting a rising or hilly ground, but it is uncertain what the first syllable, Wiven, meant. 

At the time of the Domesday Survey, the Manor belonged to Robert Gernon, whose seat was at Stansted Mountfichet, and later through the Sutton, Walton and Howard families to John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, of whom Morant says: 

"Becoming possessed of the Manor of Wivenhoe, he cast an envious eye upon the fishery, and noble royalty, belonging to the Corpoation of Colchester, in the river Colne running by his Manor and Demesnes, and granted by the Charter of King Richard the First to the Burgesses of Colchester, and got a grant of it from that weak Prince, King Henry the Sixth, 4th march, 1446. A case was brought against him and it was only after three trials that he was forced to relinquish his claim. For too zealously supporting the Lancastrian cause he was beheaded on 26th February, 1461 and his Estates were confiscated by the Crown and given by Edward IV to his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester." 

In follows from the above quotation that there are no rights of fishery over the River Colne included in the present sale. 

Henry VII, succeeding to the throne after the Battle of Bosworth, 1485, restored John de Vere, second son of the beheaded Earl, to his inheritance. The Estate remained with the Oxfords for four generations before it was sold to Roger Townshend who distinguished himself at sea and was knighted for valour after the Armada. His heirs held the Estate until the middle of the 17th century when Sir Horatio Townshend sold it to Nicholas Corsellis, a merchant of London, whose family retained it until the end of the last century. It was sold by Ernest S. Beard (who bought it from the Corsellis family) in 1899 to George Frederick Beaumont whose first General Court Baron is recorded as having been held on 23rd November, 1899 at the Rose and Crown. 

Morant mentions "the ancient and singular custom" of a father, wishing to marry his daughter to any man who was not of the Manor, having to "make his peace" with the Lord of the Manor. How much was required to keep the Lord peacefully disposed we are not told, but we can imagine a fair source of income developing from the successful wooing of a number of gallants "extra Villam". (See Merchet in Glossary)

There are many entries of customs and plans of properties affected by transactions in the Lords' Courts recorded in the Court Rolls. One cannot do better than quote from an article entitled "A Note on the Manor of Wivenhoe" written by that great antiquarian, the late William Chapman Waller, F.S.A. of Loughton, in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, Vol. X, Part 4. Space does not permit of a reproduction of the whole article but the first part of it cannot be omitted as it refers to the destruction of the Manorial Documents during the Peasants' Revolt. It reads: 

"The records of two courts held on January 8th and May 1st, 1381 (4 Ric. II) indicate that everything was going on as usual; the next, that of 'the first court held after the burning of all the rolls of the court and of account', is dated January 8th, 1382, and contains re-grants to the number of seventy-two." 

Later the following statement is enrolled:

"Whereas the tenants of the said manor holding native tenements, with other evil-doers and adherents, maliciously burnt and caused to be burnt both the rolls of this court and the extracts of the rolls of account, and claim to hold the said tenements at their own will, freely, and not at the will of the lord as they did before, to the disinheriting of the lord, wherefore all the said lands and tenements were seized into the lord's hands as forfeited, and now the said lord, of his special grace, has regranted all the said lands and tenements to the different tenants, to be held at the will of the lord in bondage, by the ancient services and customs, as will be evident below." 

"We have here," Mr. Waller points out, "no line drawn between innocent and guilty, as was the case at Wethersfield; all were guilty and all, apparently, were received into grace again, no fines being paid, and no free-will offering made, so far at least as the roll shows." 

One other extract from Mr. Waller's article is too interesting to omit: "In 1393," he writes, "Custumpottis to the value of 20d. are then brought into account, as from a given date; and in 1399 twenty-eight Custumpotts, to the value of 2s. 4d. were said to have accrued to the lord since the date of the last court." These, he suggests, may have been rendered by an ancient pottery within the limits of the Manor.  

Through the kindness of the Essex County Archivist, Mr. F. G. Emmison, F.S.A., F.R.Hist. S, F.R.G.S., it is possible to give the following translation by Canon J. L. Fisher, F.S.A. of an entry in the Court held on the Wednesday after Epiphany, 1404, which reads: 

"Sword on oath (twelve jurors) that no widow who holds a tenement as her free bench after the death of her husband may keep that tenement after "visitatu vel violata fuit" (?committing adultery, etc.) according to the custom of the Manor, and they say that Margery of Peter atte Cleve gave birth to a son out of wedlock. Therefore she shall lose the tenement with its appurtenances in Eldebethe called le Cleveland and le Newemelleland which she held as free bench. And on this came William atte Cleve and sought to be admitted to the same as heir, and this was granted." 

The title to the present Manor "Wivenhoe with its Members" indicates subsidiary manors. They are the Manors of Cockayne, which extended into Elmstead and Alresford, with 78 acres of heath (part or all of Elmstead Heath) according to the survey made in 1500, and Kelars or Rebandshide (later called Battels in Elmstead). Wright (Vol. i.p. 396) states that the court rolls of these two Manors were held separately from those of Wivenhoe in the reigns of Henry VII and VIII and that extents of the Manors in 1367 and 1595 set forth the tenants and estates of each Manor. 

From the above it is clear that there were formerly extensive heaths in these Manors, but the enclosures (especially that of Elmstead Heath) made throughout the country during the last century have resulted in their almost complete elimination. Only at Elmstead is there any sign that there was ever any common land. 

Fines on death or alienation were arbitrary, some properties were subject to heriots, and the custom of descent on intestacy was Borough-English (see Glossary for these terms). 

As the question of the discontinuance of the Ferry between Wivenhoe and Fingringhoe is of topical interest it might be mentioned here that a document dated 1612 has recently been found amongst the old manorial records, reading as under: 

"To the Ryght Worshipfull Sir Robt. Townsende Knight Lord of the Manor of Wevenhoe,

We whose names are here under wrytten doe humblye intreate you that you will be pleased to nominate and appointe this yerre one man Rycharde Qucklye to be your ferryeman for the ferrye of Wevenhoe and to have the keeping and custodye thereof as yt hath bene heretofore...and accumsomed." 

This petition has seven signatures, some of which are difficult to decipher, btu two of them are James Payne and Tho. Cross. Possibly the latter is an ancestor of Mr. Harold Cross of the printers of this Catalogue. This document will be handed to the purchaser on completion. 

Morant speaks of the Manor House, Wivenhoe Hall,  and of the other mansion, Wivenhoe Park, in the following words: "Wivenhoe Hall stands pleasantly, at the upper end of the Town. Whilst it belonged to the Earls of Oxford, who sometimes made it the place of their residence, it was a large and elegant seat, having a noble gate-house, with towers of great height, that served for a sea-mark. There is, partly in this parish, and partly in that of Grinstead, an estate, formerly belonging to the Beriff family. It hath been for some time converted into a park and belongs to Isaac Martin Rebow, Esq. who hath lately built a very good house in it, within the bounds of Wivenhoo Parish."

Wivenhoe  Hall was demolished some years ago; Wivenhoe Park is now the residence of Mr. C. M. D. Gooch. His father, Charles Edmund Gooch, was a copyhold and freehold tenant of the Manor and the last Court Book shows his admission on 7th December, 1902 before the late George Frederick Beaumont, Lord oand Steward of the Manor, to extensive holdings in the parish of Wivenhoe (including Thurstons and Perrymans and part of the waste land "upon the south side of the road leading from Colchester to Elmstead and adjoining the brook which divided the parish of Elmstead from Wivenhoe" containing 17 rods. Mr. Gooch paid a fine, based upon the annual value of the lands to which he was admitted, of £110 on this transaction. He also acknowledge that he held certain lands "freely by deed fealty suit of Court and the annual rent of two shillings and he paid the Lord a relief of nine shillings and ten pence for the same." The lands held freely were Little Readings, otherwise Readles, and a piece of land formerly part of the waste called Rebandyshatch. By an enfranchisement deed dated 4th November, 1903, the manorial incidents were extinguished for a sum not much short of £1,000. 

Mr. Arther Eade, father of Mr. Charles Eade, Editor of the Sunday Despatch, was a copyhold tenant of this Manor, being admitted on 9th January, 1909 to a property described as "All that messuage or tenement with the piece of waste land containing 8 rods, more or less situate lying and being in the parish of Wivenhoe," and this property was enfranchised on 2nd February 1909. Mr. Eades's grandfather and great-grandfather were copyhold and freehold tenants in the Manor of Great Bromley, Lot 3. 

The records (insured for £400 premium £1 p.a.) to be handed over probably constitute one of the finest collections in the country. They are as under: 

• Court Rolls: 1381-99; 1399-1412; 1422-60; 1488-1509; 1558-79; 1650-60; 1662-69; 1670-74; 1675-77; 1688-99; 1712-21; 1722-25; 1725-1731; 1731-41; 1732-34; 1742-47; 1747-57; 1758-65.
• Draft Court Rolls: 1452-1547; 1454-60; 1507; 1539; 1541; 1513-47.
• Extent: 1366
• Rental: 1475; 1500; 1743-45
• Survey: 1584. This is on parchment with three columns, the first contracted Latin, the second Latin extended and the third an English translation. 
• Petition: to appoint ferryman 1612
• Bailiff's Account: 1307-8; 1309-10; 1310; 1315-16; 1317-18; 1320-21; 1321-22; 1324-25; 1325-26; 1326-27; 1328-29; 1330-31; 1341-42; 1425-26; 1426-27; 1427-28; 1428-29; 1455-56; 1463-64; 1470-71; 1492-93; 1501-2; 1509-34; 1588-94; 1597-98; 1598-99; 1599-1600; 1603-05; 1613-19; 1621; 1624-25; 1631; 1652; 1678-79; 1682-84; 1688; 1700-01.
• Court Books: 1734-44; 1744-51; 1752-63; 1764-76; 1776-87; 1788-99; 1800-10; 1811-31; 1832-51; 1852-64; 1865-78; 1879-95; 1895-1930.
• Surrenders, Licenses to demise, etc.: 1729-41; 1742-54.
• Drafts of Courts: 1678-93; 1692-1705.
• Sundry Papers: Including rentals, drafts of admissions surrenders, enfranchisements deeds, etc.

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 Lot #1 of Manorial Services Auction - July 2022 UNPUBLISHED - Stephen Johnson 

With the Historic Right (Grand Serjeanty) to Perform Service at the Coronation and Accompanying Regalia

The Descent of the Title

Worksop lies in the northern part of Nottinghamshire, close to the borders of Yorkshire  and Nottinghamshire. It is a busy market town of 40,000 inhabitants.  

The name, Worksop, is thought to derive from the Anglo-Saxon Weorc hop meaning  the ‘valley of Weorc’. The latter is a name and is possibly that of a woman named Verca. In  Domesday book it is referred to as Werchesope. When it was recorded it was one of the largest  villages in the county and was comprised of two manors. After the Norman invasion the whole  of the area was given to Roger Busli, or de Bully and Worksop was tenanted by one Roger. As a  reward for endeavours in helping conquer England he was granted swathes of land throughout  England but especially in Nottinghamshire where he became the largest landholder. As well  as the manor of Workshop he possessed the manors of Clifton, Egmanton, Boughton, Eaton,  Loudham, Holme Pierrepont, and Thrumpton among a host of others. He had manors in many  other counties, including Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire as well as Somerset, where he  made his home, at Sutton. It is possible that his surname gave rise to the word we associate with  intimidation today though there is little record of his nature nor activities which could be used  to verify this. The surname itself is obviously Norman in origin since his family were seated at  Bully in Normandy and there are a multitude of variations to the spelling; Buslei, Busli, Builli,  Buulli, Boulli, Bulli, even Busliaco. It is supposed that Roger was very close to William and the  king is recorded as witnessing a charter for the sale of the abbey of the holy Trinity of Rouen by  Bully. He was also thought to have been allied with Count e’Du, who was his brother in law.  Like most men of his calibre, Bully balanced a military outlook with the need to enhance his  prospects in the after life and, together with his wife Muriel, he endowed the monastery he had  founded at Blyth with two tithes of the hall at Lowdham. Other than this we know little of Bully,  or his tenants who operated the Lordship for him.  

It appears that Busli was likely the overlord of Worksop  since the manor itself descended with the family of his tenant,  Roger. He was succeed by his nephew, Richard de Lovetot and  from him it passed to William de Lovetot, Lord of Hallamshire  and the founder of the city of Sheffield. William de Lovetot  died in 1181 and his large estate passed to his seven year old  daughter, Maud, who was made a ward of Henry II. In 1199  Richard I gave permission for the marriage of Maud to Girard  de Furnival, whose father had served him on Crusade. Furnival  was a keen supporter of King John, and entertained him at  his castle in Sheffield. He was also a fervently religious man,  not unusual in the 13th century certainly but he died whilst  on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1219. His son, and successor  as Lord of Worksop, Thomas, also died in the Holy Land, at  the hands of Saracens, his body being brought home by his  brother and buried at Worksop. His son Thomas was the first  to be summoned to Parliament as a Baron by writ, in 1294. He  attended the Parliaments of Edward I, II and III and fought  in the Scottish wars of Edward II, being appointed Captain- General of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. As Lord of the Manor of Worksop, Thomas was  granted a charter of market and fair by Edward I in 1296 to be held at the manor. The market  was to be held on Wednesday, and the fair on the eve, the day and morrow of the Feast of St.  Cuthbert, (the patron saint of the Priory) in March.  

On his death in 1332, Thomas Furnival was succeeded by his son, also Thomas (II), but he  died not long afterwards. The estate then passed to his step-mother, Elizabeth, who died in 1354  and is buried at Christ’s Church, Oxford. Worksop eventually passed to Thomas’s son Thomas  (III) who was a benefactor of Worksop Priory, the historian Robert White notes; 

Which Thomas, sterne and right hasty man 

The hasty Fournivall, but he was good founder 

To the place of Wyrksoppe. 

Thomas died in 1366 and is memorialised in alabaster in Worksop Priory church. Thomas  was succeeded briefly by his brother William and after his death in 1383 the estate passed to  Thomas’ daughter Joan and hence passed to her husband, Thomas Nevill, brother of the 1st  Earl of Westmoreland. Nevill was summoned to Parliament by Richard II as Lord Furnival but  fell in with the company of Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. After  Bolingbroke became Henry IV, Funival was made Treasurer of England. He died in 1407, aged  around 45 and bequeathed his body to Worksop Priory to be buried without great pomp. A part  of his alabaster memorial is said to remain in the church, his wife buried with him on his left  side.  

Once more the Manor of Worksop passed to a female. Maud, the only surviving child of  Thomas and Joan inherited his estate and on her marriage to John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury,  it passed into the possession of this ancient family. Known as the ‘English Achilles’, John was  the fourth son of Richard, Baron Goodrich and one of the most famous of all English warriors.  Born in 1387, John’s life was one of battle, he fought in Wales as teenager and by 1413 he had been made Lieutenant of Ireland by Henry V. In 1419 Talbot travelled to France, fighting at the  sieges of Melun and Meaux, and later, after warring with his adversary in Ireland, the Earl of  Ormonde, he returned to France where he took part in the siege of Orleans. His fame and repute  as a warrior was such that Joan of Arc was said to have believed that Talbot led the English  forces. He was later captured by the French at Patay where he had fought against overwhelming  odds. He remained a prisoner until 1433 when, on his release he joined forces with the Duke  of Burgundy. He remained in France and is considered to have done much to keep Normandy  in English hands. In 1442 he was created Earl of Shrewsbury and made Constable of France.  The next year he finally returned to England and was made, for the third time, Governor of  Ireland, as well as receiving the Earldom of Waterford and the Hereditary Lord Stewardship  of Ireland. In 1452, as the French threatened Calais, Shrewsbury was sent to France to serve as  Lieutenant of Aquitaine, with almost regal powers. After a bloody campaign Shrewsbury made  a stand with his English and Gascon troops at Castillon. Despite a brave charge from his men,  to cries of ‘Talbot, Talbot, St George’ the battle was lost and Shrewsbury killed. Despite this loss  Shrewsbury remained one of the most famous warriors of his age, on both sides of the channel. 

Shrewsbury reserved a particular regard for his manor of Worksop, so much so that he  built a house there. It later served as a temporary prison for Mary Queen of Scots in 1568 and  was rebuilt in 1580. In 1603 King James stayed there on his procession south to be crowned king  of England and held court there on his birthday, 19 June.  

His son and heir as Earl of Shrewsbury and Lord of Worksop was his son John who was  knighted as a young man in 1426 and married Elizabeth daughter of James Butler, fourth earl of  Ormond. In 1445 he was made Chancellor of Ireland, a post he held until 1451. In the political  turmoil of the 15th century, Talbot gave only tepid support to the Duke of York and was careful  never to offer his full support to any one camp. Instead he attached himself to Queen Margaret  in 1456, who was opposed to York and this may explain why he was made Lord Chancellor at  that time. When Civil war broke out in 1460 he fought for the king against the Yorkists at the  Battle of Northampton on July 10 1460 and was killed in the battle.  

Worksop then descended to his son John, the third Earl, who died in 1473 and in turn he was  succeeded by his son George, the fourth earl of Shrewsbury. He was a minor at his father’s  death, and his wardship was granted to Edward IV’s favourite, William, Baron Hastings. He  fought at the battle of Stoke in 1487 on behalf of Henry VII , after which he was made a knight  of the Garter. In 1494 he was present at the creation of Prince Henry as duke of York in ‘so  well horssed an soo richely ... that it was a tryhumphant sight’. On the accession of Henry VIII in  1509, Shrewsbury became involved in diplomacy and travelled to Spain as well as being at  the king’s side at his meeting with the king of France at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520.  During the revolts of 1536 Shrewsbury personally raised a force of 3,654 of his own men to assist  the king in Lincolnshire. When the Northern Catholic rising, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace  broke out a few weeks later, Shrewsbury moved swiftly, if somewhat rashly to try to defeat the  rebels. Though he failed, he did manage to stall their advance and Henry was grateful for this.  Shrewsbury showed little sympathy for Protestantism but was loyal to his king and his influence  in the Midlands, especially in Staffordshire, prevented any serious disturbances there. He died  in 1538 and was succeeded by his son Francis. He was a supporter of Edward Seymour, Duke of  Somerset, who ruled as Protector during the first years of the reign of Edward VI. He was also  one of the peers who welcomed the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. When Elizabeth came to  the throne in 1558, Francis found it difficult to fully accommodate his Catholicism with the new  regime. He died in 1560.  

 George, the sixth Earl of Shrewsbury, became Lord of Worksop at his father’s death. In  1553 he had signed the instrument, settling the Crown on Lady Jane Grey but was later pardoned.  During the reign of Elizabeth he was selected for the Order of the Garter and although he  dominated local politics he never established himself on the national scene. He is perhaps best known for his marriage to Elizabeth St Loe, best known as Bess of Hardwick. She had been  married three times and was regarded as something of a ‘gold-digger’. Despite an early warmth  in their relationship, Shrewsbury soon soured towards his wife, describing her as ‘my wyked and  malysyous wyfe’. Since he was one of the richest men in England it was assumed that she had one  eye on his fortune in order to repair her own. The couple soon separated and there followed a  lengthy legal suit to settle their affairs. In the later 1560s , Shrewsbury was made custodian of  Mary Queen of Scots and she was delivered to him at his castle at Tutbury as well as at Worksop Manor.   

Worksop descended with the Earls of Shrewsbury until the death of Gilbert, the seventh Earl,  who died in 1616. The Manor of Worksop passed to Alethea, daughter of the 6th Earl, who  was married to Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, and so passed into another of the illustrious  families of English History. Thomas was the 14th Earl and scion of the family which had been  disgraced during the reign of Elizabeth. He acted as a diplomat for James I and entered the  Church of England in 1615, an act which would ultimately enable him to enter the House of Lords  and become Earl Marshal in 1630. He died in 1646 having spent a vast fortune on supporting  the Royal cause during the early years of the Civil War. His son, and successor to the Manor of  Worksop, Henry, played less of role in public life but spent time petitioning for the restoration of  the Dukedom of Norfolk. This was duly granted to his son and heir, Thomas, who became the  5th duke in 1652 but died childless. His brother, Henry, became the sixth duke in 1677. Worksop  remained in the hands of the Dukes of Norfolk until 1815 when the 12th Duke gifted the Worksop  Manor Estate to his son, the Earl of Surrey. By this time the splendid manor house built by  the Shrewsbury family had burnt down (in 1761) and been replaced with a Georgian house. In  1838 Surrey sold the whole estate and the Lordship of Worksop to the Duke of Newcastle for  £375,000. Sadly the new owner blew up the manor house, having stripped it bare and sold the  lead from the roof. He used the money to further develop his estate at Clumber Park a few miles  south of the town. The Lordship remained in the hands of the Dukes of Newcastle until 1994  when it was sold by the Trustees of the 7th Duke to the family of the present Vendor. 

The Historic Right to Support the Sovereign’s Right Hand at the Coronation 

This historic right, which is carried with the Lordship of Worksop, actually originated  with another manor, that of Farnham (Royal) and Cere, in Buckinghamshire. At the time of  Domesday this manor was held by Bertram de Verdun. According to A Genealogical History of The  Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerage of the British Empire by Sir Bernard Burke (1866 p  547) Verdun held the manor by grand serjeanty: viz by the service of providing a glove on the day of the  king’s Coronation for his right hand; and of supporting the monarch’s right arm during the ceremony, so  long as he bore the royal sceptre.  

On the death of Theobald de Verdon in 1316 The Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem Volume 6,  Edward II 1316-1327) it was found that he was seized of The manor and hamlet of Sere . . . held of  the king in chief by service of finding a glove or his right hand on the day of the king’s Coronation for  supporting the king’s right arm with the said gloved hand whilst the king shall hold his sceptre (regalem  virgam).

According to Chronicon Angliae 1328-1388 (London 1874) Richard II received a red glove at his  Coronation from William de Furnival as Lord of Farnham and this is also recounted in the Close  Rolls for 1377 - William Furnival tenant of the manor of Farnham with the hamlet of Cere. Petition to find  a glove for the King’s right hand, and support the king’s right arm so long as he should hold the rod. Claim  admitted, the said William first taking the order of knighthood , which he did at Kenyngton on Tuesday  before the Coronation. Service performed.  

In 1541 King Henry VIII exchanged with the Earl of Shrewsbury, the property confiscated after  the dissolution of Worksop Priory, which, as has been noted, was considerable, for the manor of  Farnham and Cere. The King included with this grant the historic right which had descended  with the ownership of Farnham Royal and became attached the manor of Worksop. In the grant  the land is recorded as the late manor or priory of Worksop. 

The constitutional historian, J Horace Round notes in The King’s Serjeants & Officers of State:  Kings & Sergeants (1911 Page 376 ) that the 7th Earl of Shrewsbury performed the service at the  Coronation of James I by right of being Lord of the Manor of Worksop. Once the manor had  passed to the Howard family the Dukes of Norfolk continued to perform service at subsequent  Coronations. 

At the Coronation of James II The then Lord Thomas Howard (second son of the late Duke of Norfolk)  pursuant to his Claim, as Lord of the Manor of Worksop in Nottinghamshire, presented His Majesty  with a Rich Glove , which the KING put on HIs Right Hand, immediately before He received the Scepter;  and His Majesty still sittining in His Chair, the Archbishop took the SCEPTER; with the  Cross, and put it into the KING’S Right hand, saying - Receive the SCEPTER, the ENSIGN of KINGLY  POWER and JUSTICE - Whereupon the Lord Thomas Howard, before mentioned, in further pursuant of  his Claim, supported the KING’S right arm, or held the sent Scepter for His Majesty, as occasion required.  (Sandford 1687) 

At the Coronation of George III the Marquis of Rockingham, acting as a deputy to the Duke of Norfolk,  as Lord of the Manor of Worksop, next presented the king with the right hand glove, who putting it on,  received from the Archbishop the Sceptre with the Dove and that surmounted with a Cross. (Thomson  1820) 

Robert Huish, notes in An Authentic Description of the Coronation of George IV (1821 p39) that the  claim of the Duke of Norfolk to present the glove was allowed at that event. 

At the Coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, Then the Duke of Norfolk, who holds a manner by service  of presenting the monarch with a right-hand glove on the day of Coronation, handed to Her Majesty a pair  of gloves embroidered with his arms, and these being put on the Archbishop delivered the sceptre and cross  into the Queens right hand saying - “Be so merciful that you be not too remiss; so execute justice that you  forget not mercy.” (Bussey & Reid, 1879) 

On the death of Victoria, Henry, the 8th Duke of Newcastle, asserted his right as Lord of Worksop  to perform the service of the glove at the Coronation of Edward VII in 1902. This claim was  contested by Henry, 20th Earl of Shrewsbury and Waterford, Earl Talbot, and the counterclaims  were referred to the Court of Claims, a court preside over by High Court Judges before every  Coronation. Lord Shrewsbury argued that it was his right by blood, claiming descent from the  Verduns and not alienation or transfer although none of his predecessors since the 7th Earl had  claimed the right. The court found that the Manor had been alienated on numerous occasions in  the past, most pertinently the exchange with Henry VIII, and that Lord Shrewsbury’s ancestor  had passed it to his daughter. The judgement was in favour of the Duke of Newcastle because  the Lords of the Manor of Worksop had performed the service on many occasions. The 7th Duke  of Newcastle duly performed the office at the subsequent Coronation of George V and Queen Mary.  

The following is extracted from the service used at the Coronation of King Edward the seventh  and shows where the glove is presented by the Lord of the Manor; 

Then the Officer of the Jewel House delivers the King’s Ring to the Archbishop, in which a Table  Jewel is encased; the Archbishop put it on the fourth finger of his Majesty’s Right Hand and  saith, 

RECEIVE this Ring, the ensign of Kingly Divinity, and of Defence of the Catholic Faith; and  as you are this day solemnly invested in the government of this earthly kingdom, so may you  be sealed with that Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of an heavenly inheritance, and  reign with him who is blessed and only Potentate, to whom the glory forever and ever. Amen. 

Then the Dean of Westminster brings the Sceptre with the Cross and the Sceptre with the Dove to  the Archbishop. 

The Glove, presented by the Lord of the Manor of Worksop, being put on, the Archbishop delivers  the Sceptre with the Dove into the King’s Right Hand. 

RECEIVE the Royal Sceptre, the ensign of Kingly Power and Justice. 

And then he delivers the Sceptre with the Dove into the King’s Left Hand and saith, 

RECEIVE the Rod of Equity and Mercy: and God, from whom all holy desires, all good  counsels, and all just works to proceed, direct and assist you in the administration and  exercise of all those powers which he has given you. Be so merciful that you be not too remiss;  so execute Justice that you forget not Mercy. Punish the wicked, protect and cherish the just,  and lead your people in the way where they should go. 

The Lord of the Manor of Worksop supports his Majesty’s Right Arm. 

When George VI was crowned in 1937 Henry, Earl of Lincoln performed the service as a deputy  to his father, the 8th Duke Of Newcastle. A copy of a letter from the Office of the Earl Marshal  to the Earl on 9 April 1937 can be found with this history.  

At the Coronation of the present Queen, the 9th Duke of Newcastle was living in the United  States and the office was deputed to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Viscount Woolton. 

Intending purchases should note that all claims to service office and the next Coronation must be submitted to the Court of Claims which will be convoked shortly before. Claimants  to any of the many Coronation duties - whether a Duke or a commoner and whether served  for generations or not - must be approved by the special court. No one can prejudge the court,  but it tends to follow precedent. 

The Regalia

The purchaser of the manor of Worksop will also receive regalia previously belonging  to the Dukes of Newcastle and which was likely used at the Coronation of Edward VII and  Queen Alexandra in 1902. 

The Coronation Robes - made of crimson silk velvet with a cape of ermine and four rows  of tails to denote a duke. There is a white fur collar and white fur edging. The robe is lined with  white silk. 

The Duke’s Undercoat - made of crimson velvet, lined in white silk and edged with white fur 

The Ducal Coronet - made from silver guilt stamped with alternate oval and  lozenge shaped jewel mofits. Above the upper band are nine strawberry-leaves to signify a duke.  There is a band of white fur and contained within the circlet is a cap of crimson silk velvet. 

Blue Velvet Cushion and Page’s Costume - with silk brocade. This was carried by the  Duke’s Coronation page who’s blue costume coat is also included. This is made from blue silk  velvet, ivory silk velvet and silver lace. This was worn at the Coronation of George V in 1911.  There is an ivory silk satin waistcoat with silver lace; also breeches, stockings and gloves. The  page’s sword and scabbard are made from engraved steel, with ivory hilt and gilt brass, with a  cipher of the king on the blade. There is a tricorn hat of blue silk satin and ostrich feathers. 

Documents associated with this manor in the Public Domain:

1636-1636: survey of manor, Sheffield City Archives 

1638-1638: survey of manor and demesnes of the lordship of Worksop 

1639-1641: suit rolls 

1669-1693: pains, with verdicts and other court papers 

1670-1670: survey (3) 

1672-1681: suit roll 

1673-1673: enrolled accounts 

1698-1719: suit roll 

1699-1721: pains, with verdicts and other court papers 

1700-1800: observations on matters taken from court rolls 

1700-1800: extracts from court rolls 

1721-1734: jury lists 

1734-1772: pains, with verdicts and other court papers 

1734-1766: suit books  

1736-1754: court books  

1736-1744: estreat books  

1736-1749: suit rolls  

1750-1750: steward’s commonplace book Arundel Castle 

1763-1763: map Nottinghamshire Archives 

1775-1775: map 

1812-1812: perambulation verdict Nottingham Uni Library, Dept of Manuscripts and Special Collections 

1840-1840: valuation of estate 

1895-1919: appointments of stewards 

1901-1901: map of the manor 

There is a map of the manor held at Nottinghamshire Archives. 

The details are as follows; MP/WS/13/1-6/  

Worksop manor: map showing Worksop town and adjoining areas in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire 

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Lot #8 of Stanford & Son's 'Third Auction' - Sept 1964 

Worlington is a small village on the south of the River Lark, one mile west of Mildenhall. 

According to the Domesday Book the only holding at that place when it was surveyed was that of Ormer, and consisted of 60 carucates of land, 16 villeins, 6 bordars, 2 serfs, 2 plough-teams in demesne and 4 belonging to the men, 12 acres of meadow, 2 fisheries and a mill. There was also a church without land, a horse, 20 beasts and 80 sheep (which were increased to 100). The value was formerly £6 and at the time of survey £8. It was 11 quarentens long and 6 broad and paid in a geld 20d. The Domesday tenant was Frado, the Abbot’s brother. (Dom. 11, 355.) 

According to Copinger (Vol. IV, p. 215) after Ormer the Manor was vested in Agnes de Revell, from whom it passed in the time of Henry II to her daughter and heir, Agnes. She was married to Roger de Scales, fourth Baron. He was in the expedition into France in 1372 and upon the breaking out of the insurrection under Jack Straw he was one of the persons whom the insurgents seized and compelled to march along with them. 

In the 15th Century the Scales possessions were divided and this Manor was allotted to Sir William Tyndall, hence its alternative name. By an inquisition taken in 1568 it was found that Henry Payne, late of Nowton died seized of the Manor. 

The earliest of the records to be handed over to a purchaser on completion shows a General Court Baron held on 5th June, 1733 for Bernard Bolen, his Steward being John Turner. The custom of descent on intestacy in this Manor was to the eldest son and the fines payable by a tenant on alienation, or by a successor under his will, were “arbitrary”, i.e., two years’ annual value as opposed to “fines certain”, which were based on twice the annual quit rent. The tenant John Godfrey, under the will of his father, was £33 10s. 0d. The entry also records that: “Because the said John Godfrey was within the age of 21 therefore the Lord of this Manor did by the hands of the said Steward commit the guardianship of the said copyhold lands and tenements to Vine Godfrey, his mother, as well as of the person of the said John Godfrey until he shall attain the age of twenty-one years.” 

On 10th October, 1745, was held the General Court Baron of John Swale, his deputy Steward being James Goodall. At a Court held on 2nd October, 1759, the Stewardship had passed to Thomas Swale Junior. In September, 1772 John Swale Junior had become Lord of the Manor and his Steward was John Swale Senior. There was another Court in 1775 when the Lord and Steward were the same. This curious change of Lord and Stewardship was possibly the result of a family arrangement. 

At a General Court Baron held on 31st December, 1810, at which William Isaacson was Steward and William Poulter and William Ship were the Homage, the third proclamation was made for the heirs of Francis Diggons whereby “the Lord of the Manor was then without a tenant for the said copyhold premises therefore a warrant of Seizure was ordered to the Bailiff of this Manor and Minister of this Court to seize the said lands of the said Lord as forfeited for want of a tenant”. Very often, at the next Court, it was recorded that there was a regrant to the tenant of the seized land when payment of the fines and fees were properly payable. 

On 7th November, 1821, was held the first General Court Baron of George Gataker before Cotton Isaacson. At this Court it appeared that at a Court held on 30th March, 1758, Joseph Taylor had been admitted under the surrender of Martin Challis to “All those 3 acres of customary arable land lying in six several pieces in the small Common fields of Worlington aforesaid formerly Webbs…” and also other lands and tenements in Bernars Common rights in Warblington and in the Cow Heath, Heath Leys and common pasture. In the meantime the said Joseph Taylor had been entitled to an Act for dividing and allotting the whole year of common, half year and shack lands, common meadows, Heath, Warrens and Waste within the parish of Worlington in the County of Suffolk. 

At a General Court Baron of George Gataker held on 21st November, 1825, before Wootton Isaacson it was recorded that Henry Coats and John Copping were sworn Constables of the Parish of Worlington until the next General Court Baron or until others should be appointed. 

At a Court held on 4th November, 1839, Samuel Ricke was appointed Pindar and duly sworn in open Court accordingly. Enrolled, or rather pasted on the fly-leaf of the Court Book for the period 1733–1839 is a Perambulation of the Fishery which appears to have belonged to the Manor since the Domesday survey. It reads as under: 

27th May, 1822 

We the undersigned did on the above Day with George Gataker Esquire Lord of the Manor of Worlington Scales alias Tyndalls, go to the Boundary of the Fishery belonging to the said Manor, beginning at a Ditch dividing Worlington and Freckenham boundaries about 333 yards beyond West Row Ferry, such Ditch being in line with a Plantation called Worlington Hare Park—and proceeding upwards through the Staunch called the Great Staunch to a Ditch dividing the Grounds of the Lord of the Manor and the parish of Barton. 

Signed, 

Will. Isaacson
Richd. Warren
Saml. Watson

There was a second Manor in Worlington which went by the name of Worblington Abergavenny alias Bergavenny and in 1853 it was vested in the Marquis of Bristol. 

The records to be handed over on completion are as under: 

Court Book, 1733–1839 (Suede bound).
Court Book, 4th November, 1839–20th October, 1886 (Vellum bound).
12th November, 1873: Enfranchisement Agreement between Richmond Tupper and James Reeve. 

The Vendors will convey as Trustees for Sale, and the title shall commence with a mortgage dated 8th April, 1907.

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