By W. L. Barker, Esq. 143 



grants, and are now properly divisible. The manor demands our 

 primary consideration. At a ver}' early period it was the property 

 of Robert Fitz-Parnel, Earl of Leicester, and Sayer de Quincy, Earl 

 of Winchester. In 1297 it was granted by King Edward I. to 

 Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, from whom it descended to John 0. 

 Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster ; and his son Henry, before his accession 

 to the throne, being then Duke of Lancaster, granted it to Sir 

 Walter Hungerford, who died possessed of it in 1448. 



During the wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, the 

 manor was seized by the Yorkists, and became the property of 

 Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who when he ascended the throne 

 gave it to John, Duke of Norfolk, who fell at Bosworth Field. 

 Reverting again to the Crown, it was given by Edward YI. to the 

 Duke of Somerset, after whose attainder it again lapsed to the 

 Crown. Queen Elizabeth owned the manor, and in the 11th year 

 of her reign (1569) instituted a suit in her Duchy Court of Lan- 

 caster, for the recovery of part of the corporate rights, viz., of 

 the Free Fishery, as Part of the Manor. The suit was resisted in a 

 most spirited manner; many witnesses were examined on both 

 sides, and the case ultimately ended in favor of the town. It may 

 not be uninteresting to note a few of the chief points proved on 

 the occasion. The witnesses proved that " Hungerford is an ancient 

 Town, and time whereof the memory of man is not to the contrary, 

 there hath been a Corporation of a Constable and Burgesses of the 

 Town." It should here be observed that in legal parlance, the 

 phrase "Time whereof the memory of man is not to the contrary," 

 refers to the reign of Richard I., A.D. 1189. The witnesses also 

 proved that the fishery belonging to the Corporation was a "Royal 

 Fishery" and a "Free Fishery," i e. (an exclusive right of fishing 

 in water running over the soil of other men's land) from a spot 

 called Elder Stump near Littlecote, to a spot called Irish Hill 

 beyond Kintbury ; " excepting the seven several mill-pounds " 

 within the distance, which mill-pounds were the right of the 

 owners of the adjoining mills. That the Commoners of Hungerford 

 had a right of free fishing in the river three daj's a week, viz. Wed- 

 nesday, Friday, and Saturday, of custom and by right of a Charter 



