COMPOSITION. 95 



The Tything of BURROWCLEARE. 



Mr. John Beckensall* holdeth the manor of Burro wcleare in ffarme 

 by estimacon xij yard land wherof in pasture Ixxx ac., inmedow 

 xx ac., the rest in errable, and hath wood allowed for his ffewell 

 in the Lord's woods, and charged with the payment of wheate 

 xj bun. 



The said John Beckonsall holdeth the parsonage hauing in gleebe 

 of errable land Ixxx ac., in wood ground x ac., in pasture iiij ac., 

 in medow ij ac., and is charged with the payment of wheate 

 xij buh. 



The said John Beckonsall holdeth j yard halfe, and Cosset of Copie 

 hould lande, wherof in pasture xvj ac., in medow ij ac., the reste 

 in errable, and also in purposture and woods vj ac., for the 

 whole charged with wheate j buh. 



William Cleue hath iiij yard land wherof in medow viij ac., in 

 pasture xxiiij ac., in wood j ac., and more of purposture land in 

 wood and pasture xxx ac., charged with wheate ij buh. 



* John Beckensall. This is a local rendering of Beconshaw, or Beckenshaw. 

 John Beconshaw, the first of this family settled in Hampshire, was the son of 

 John Beconshaw, of Beconshaw in Lancashire. He was resident at Hartley 

 Westpall. His second son, John, was a fellow of New College, and Professor 

 of Greek, in Paris. He died at Sherborne St John, in 1559, and was buried in 

 the chnrch there. His yonngest son, Walter, settled at Hartley Westpall. 

 John Beconshaw, of Bnrghclere, the head of the family, grandson of Edward, 

 brother to the Fellow of New College, and Walter Beconshaw, married Anne, 

 daughter to Nicholas Tichborne, by whom he had a son Peter, who is described 

 as of Burghclere William Beconshaw, son of Richard, and grandson of 

 Walter Beconshaw, by his marriage with Alice, daughter and heiress of 

 William White, of Moyles Court, M.P. for Lymington in 1589, brought the 

 Moyles Court Estate into the family. Alice, wife of Sir John Lisle, the 

 Regicide, and who swore Cromwell in as Lord Protector, as co- heiress of her 

 father Sir White Beconshaw, took Moyles Court into the Lisle family. It was 

 this Alice Lisle, n6e Beconshaw, who was brought up before the infamous 

 Judge Jeffreys on the charge of treason, for having given shelter to Hickes 

 and Nelthorpe, fugitives from the field of Sedgemoor. Her own loyalty was 

 undoubted, and she had a son in the king's army, but her husband Colonel 

 Lisle had been one of the judges at the trial of Charles I., and was shot dead 

 at Lousanne by three hired ruffians. His widow was now marked for venge- 

 ance by Jeffreys, and after a conviction, forced by the brutal judge from a jury 

 who had twice returned a verdict of not guilty, she was condemned, and 

 executed at Winchester, 2 Sept, 1685. Edward Lisle, of Crnx-Easton, the 

 author of the well-known work on Agriculture, was son of Sir W illiam Lisle, 

 a zealous royalist, with Charles II. in exile, brother to Sir John Lisle, the 

 Regicide, and father of Dr. Thomas Lisle, author of " Porsenna," who died 

 Rector of Burghclere in 1766. 



The story of Alice Lisle, a very marked episode of the rebellion, is, as is 

 well-known, the subject of a fresco in the Palace of Westminster. 



The names of John Beconshaw, Peter and Nicholas Tichborne, and William 

 Beconshaw appear in a " Catalogue of papists " in 1579, who appear to have 

 been in prison as Recusants for more than two years. 



