282 The Descent of the Manor of Stockton. 
Winchester, of the date A.D. 901, carrying back the history of 
Stockton to the days of Alfred the Great. Not long before Mr. 
Miles’s death the Canon, in company with Mr. Miles, went over a 
large portion of the boundary-line of the parish, and succeeded in 
identifying many of the places mentioned in the charter. The 
manor was held by the Bishop of Winchester, as Superior of the 
Monks of St. Swithin, and so continued till the time of the dissolu- 
tion of the monasteries. Some years after the Reformation it became 
the property of the Topp family—but its intermediate history between 
these two events, also how, and when, the Topps acquired the manor 
have not hitherto been made clear. The object of the present paper 
is to supply this missing link. 
It appears by a patent roll of the first of Edward VI. (1547), 
that the Dean and Chapter of Winchester, in consideration of the 
grant of the advowsons of various Churches in the counties of 
Somerset, Cardigan, &c., ceded to the King the manors of Overton, 
Alton, Stockton, and Patney, all in the county of Wilts. In the 
same year the King granted the manor of Stockton, with the rest, 
to Sir William Herbert, knight, in consideration of £160 paid in 
money and the gift of the rectory of Flamested, Co. Hertford. 
The two following abstracts from the rolls will give the main 
particulars of the transfer of the manor of Stockton, first to the 
King and from him to Sir William Herbert :— 
Patent Roll 1 Edw. VI., part 2, m. 9. 
Abstract. 
“For the Dean and i at The King to all, &c., Greeting. Know ye 
of Winchester, &e. that we—in consideration of a grant of the 
manors of Overton, Alton, Stockton, and Patney, and the rectories and churches 
of Overton and Alton in the County of Wilts, with their rights, members, and 
appurtenances, late parcel of the possessions of the Cathedral Church of the Holy 
and Undivided Trinity, of Winchester, being in the County of Southampton, and 
all and singular the messuages, lands, tenements, tithes, &c., made to us by the 
Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity of Winchester by 
their charter bearing date 20 June, 1 Edw. VI. Of our special grace, &c., have 
given and granted and by the presents do give to the aforesaid Dean and Chapter 
the advowson and right of patronage, &c., of the Parish Church of Grefford, 
within the Bishopric of St. Asaph and various other places in the Counties of 
Somerset, Cardigan, &c.”’ 
