62 Bradford-upon-Avon. [The Manor. 
who exercised a similar jurisdiction in various parts of the manor. 
Those who held lands immediately under the Abbess as tenant ‘ in 
capite,’ by degrees granted out portions of them to inferior persons, 
and so,—as they became /ords with respect to these under-tenants, 
though still themselves tenants with regard to the chief lord,—they 
were called mesne (i.e. middle or intermediate) lords. In course of 
time, nearly every one of the tythings into which Bradford was 
divided had its Lord of the Manor, each of whom held his court, at 
which the various tenants were required to do suit and service. 
We often meet in old deeds with references to “the court of An- 
thony Rogers, Esq., at Holte.”” In one of the documents found 
at Kingston House, an account of which was given in this Magazine 
(vol. i. 290), of the date 1545, by which one ‘Richard Drewis of 
Holte’ has certain lands ‘in the Parke, Lowsly and Holes in Holte, 
and also a tenement in Little Holte’ granted to him by lease, it is 
expressly added,—“‘to sue (i.e. to do swit) at Roger’s Court at Holte.” 
To this day, moreover, there is a payment due annually from the 
proprietor of the Manor House at Winsley, with which is held the 
Lordship of that Tything, of twenty-five shillings and eight-pence, to 
the Lord of the Manor of Bradford, a traditional acknowledgement 
of ‘the suit and service’ owed by him, as well as by all mesne lords, 
to the chief lord. 
But besides these mesne Lords of Manors in the Hundred of Brad- 
ford, there were others who, though not exercising any jurisdiction 
within the Hundred demanded fealty, and perhaps rather more 
substantial acknowledgements, from some of the tenants within the 
domain of our Abbess. The Manor of Cumberwell, for example, was 
held under the Barony of Castle Combe, and Humphrey de Lisle 
(Hunfredus de Insula) the Lord of that Manor claimed from the 
tenant at Cumberwell—(in early times one named Pagen)—suit and 
service for the same. The Prior of Monkton Farleigh, moreover, 
who held the Lordship of that Manor, claimed payment for lands 
in this parish :'—there is in existence a deed (of the time of Edward 
I.) by which Walter Fayrchild of Wroxale grants to Alice la Loche, 
1 As early as 1397, we find Sir Thomas Hungerford giving to Monkton Far- 
leigh Priory ‘a house and two ploughlands at Bradeford.’ 
