262 History of the Wiltshire Manors 



barony, and the De Dunstanvilles were thence styled Barons of 

 Combe Castel or Castle Combe. 



In the year 1313 (as has been shown in a previous paper) Bar- 

 tholomew Lord Badlesmere — known as "the rich Lord Badlesmere 

 of Leedes," his Chief Castle in Kent — became possessed of the barony 

 by purchase from the last heir of the De Dunstanvilles, William 

 de Montfort ; and on the partition of his great estates among his 

 four daughters and coheiresses, a.d. 1340, the several manors and 

 knight's fees composing the Barony of Combe were distributed in 

 separate portions among some of the greatest families of the time 

 — those of De Vere, Arundel, Boos, Mortimer, Bohun, and Tibetot. 1 

 The disjointed fragments were still, however, held as " parcels of 

 the Barony of Combe." And even to a late date in the sixteenth 

 centiny, homage and service, wardship and marriage, with the 

 other incidents of feudal superiorities, continued to be claimed and 

 rendered for them, by pecuniary compositions paid by the mesne 

 Lords at the Knight's Court (Curia Milituni) of the Lords of Castle 

 Combe. The Rolls of these Courts are still preserved, giving the 

 names of the persons from whom this service was due, and thus 

 afford evidence of the successive owners of these several manors, 

 which is not, in many cases, otherwise obtainable. It is with the view 

 therefore of offering some data towards the history of these manors, 

 that I proceed to give what I have been able to gather relating to 

 them from these documents, and others in my possession, adding 

 also the testimony afforded by the list of knight's fees belonging to 

 the great barons of the time of Henry III. (1250-1272), known as 

 the Liber Feodorum, or Testa de Nevill. 



The twenty-seven vills or manors named in the great Norman 

 survey as composing the seignory of De Insula are perhaps not in 

 every instance to be identified with complete certainty. There 

 may be a question as to two or three, from the imperfect spelling 

 of the original record. But the subsequent evidence of the Castle 

 Combe Court Rolls scarcely leaves any of them doubtful. It will 

 be seen that they were scattered over the entire county. But 



1 The original deed of partition is preserved at Castle Combe. 



