58 Erlestoke and its Manor Lords. 



In 1227-8 the accounts of Matthew's shrievalty in Sussex were 

 rendered hy a substitute, Herbert Fitz-Walter, and the records of 

 the Pipe liolls show that he was two or three years in arrear to a 

 considerable sum, while in Hampshire he owed £36 3s. 4(1, which 

 two years later had increased to £58 10.s. lid., and his debts 

 accumulated from year to year until at the time of his death in 

 1231, the sum left to be paid by his heir was £95 8.s. 6(7. 



By Joan de Mandeville he had at least three sons, Herbert, 

 Peter, and John, who were successively owners of Erlestoke, as 

 the two first died without issue and apparently unmarried, but 

 besides these it is probable tliat there was a fourth son, of the 

 name of Manasses, a priest, who was witness to a grant to the 

 eldest son, Herbert Fitz-Matthew, of six does annually, made by 

 his uncle, Peter Fitz-Herbert, from his park at P)edliampton, near 

 Warblington,^ and his name is found as holding the advowson 

 of the church of Oakford (Devon) in the year 1260, at a time when 

 the manor of Oakford belonged to the family.- 



On the 13th Feljruary, 1231, Matthew's goods, which had been 

 seized as security for his debts, were returned to his widow by 

 order of the King, and a week later his smi and heir, Herbert, 

 having done homage, was given livery of tlie lands which his father 

 had obtained by marriage with Joan de Mandeville.^ 



In 1220, when Herbert Fitz-Matthew was still quite a young 

 man, he is found to have been personally attached to the King's 

 court and in receipt of an allowance of £20 i^r annum, and in 

 1224 he was given the large sum of £10 with which to buy himself 

 a horse and perhaps also the equipment of a knight."* The allow- 

 ance, which was considerably higher than eightpence a day, the 

 usual pay of a knight, ceased apparently in 1226, but in 1228 he 

 became the recipient of more substantial gifts. In that year he 

 was granted the wardship of the heir of William Paynell, and 

 thus obtained the several fees of Bampton belonging to that family 



' Longcroft, Tojjog. Jccount of Bos»iere, p. 89. 



Registers of the Diocese of Exeter, vol. 1257—1307, p. 160. 



^ Exc. e Rot. Fin., i., 211. 



■* Rot. Litt. Glaus., i. and \i,, passim. 



