COMPOSITION. 93 



Thomas Hellyer, j yard land and dim. enable. 



Walter Holdwaye, xx ac. of purposture,* wherof j ac medow and 



j ac. of wood. 



John Walter hath xx ac. of purposture. 

 John Neale hath v ac., of errable and in medow j ac. 



Sum of wheat in Ashmansworth - viij buh. 



The Tything of HIGHCLERE AND HAWCLERE. 



Mr. Richard Knight t holdeth the manor of higholere ffarme by 

 estimacon x yard land errable, and hath for his pasture xlij, 

 cattell going in the parke, and is charged with wheat vj buh. 



* Purposture, i.e. Pnrprestme. Is the making of buildings and enclosures 

 within the limits of a forest. The Crown would sometimes give license of 

 purpresture ; and sometimes a title by long prescription to enclosures which 

 must have been originally purprestnres, though no one could prove when the 

 appropriation of the land had taken place. So in course of time the forests 

 got very much encroached upon. Purprestnre here appears land enclosed from 

 the waste, and seems to include not only land wrongfully so enclosed, but such 

 as was separated with the consent of the owner. 



f The Knight family were not only lessees of the manor of Highclere, but 

 also of the Great Tithes of Kingsclere, in which parish they also held consider- 

 able other property. A family of the name possessed the manor of Crookham, 

 on the Hampshire border, and in 1548 John Knight, gent., of Newbury, had 

 considerable grants of property belonging to the dissolved chantries attached 

 to the parish church there. But the North Hampshire branch of this wide- 

 spreading family, which held considerable property at Highclere, Kingsclere, 

 and neighbouring parishes appears to have sprung from the Knights of 

 Chawton, near Alton, of which we append a short sketch of descent : 



William Knight, of Chawton =Agnes, 1525. 

 John Knight, 1546. 



John Knight=Matilda 1547. 



Nicholas Knight=Elizabeth 1574. 



Joni 



in Richard =Elizabeth, da. of Mary=... Martin, Sir = Mary, 

 Knight Knight J. Fielder, Esq., of Chrirtophflr nttot of 



of Enstone, Lewknor, .Smith. 



"Barrow-court," co. Ozon. Recorder 



oo. Berks, 1637. of 



Chichenter, 



(2nd hua- 



band). 



