A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



ASKE. Or three ban 



' divers treasons made, perpetrated, and committed ' by 

 Robert Aske the leader of the Pilgrimage of Grace." 

 In May, 1537, Robert Aske wrote to Cromwell beg- 

 ging him to petition the king for the payment of his 

 debts, among which came the 

 ' board of my workmen at Im- 

 bishot about 30^. and work- 

 men 3O/. These may be paid 

 out of my goods that my soul 

 abide no pain for the satisfac- 

 tion hereof, for at my coming 

 to London I intended to have 

 paid.' Moreover he asked that 

 his lands in Hampshire might 

 revert to the right heirs, ' for 

 I only had them for life, and axure. 

 yielded 8 a year to my bro- 

 ther.'" However in 1537 Empshott was granted 

 to Sir William Sandes, Lord Chamberlain of the 

 Household, 2 * who within the next few years con- 

 veyed the same to Sir William Fitzwilliam. Sir 

 William Fitzwilliam conveyed Empshott by fine in 

 1 548 to John Norton, the lord of East Tisted, 84 who in 

 1560 died seised of the manor, which from this time 

 followed the same descent as that of East Tisted 

 (q.v.) until sold by Norton Poulett to John Butler of 

 Bramshott in 1750." In 1762 John Butler by will 

 devised the manor to his eldest son John, who died 

 without issue, leaving the estate to be divided among 

 his two brothers James and Thomas and his sister 

 Ann. 86 In 1792 Ann and her husband, John New- 

 land of Petworth, Sussex, conveyed their third in 

 the manor to John Butler of Havant," and in the 

 same year Thomas Butler conveyed his third to 

 the same, while in 1 794 James Butler conveyed his 

 third. 19 In 1805 Col. John Butler, who served in 

 the Indian Mutiny, was still lord of the manor. 

 After his death his widow Henrietta Butler and his 

 brother Thomas Butler held the courts of the manor 

 as trustees for his son Frederick John Butler, the 

 present lord of the manor. 1 * 



The courts of the manor have always been held in 

 Grange Farm, which was originally the manor house, 

 and in a conveyance of the farm made in 1792 a 

 special provision was made that John Butler and his 

 heirs and assigns, being lords of the manor of Emp- 

 shott, should hold courts for the said manor ' in that 

 part of the manor house where courts have usually 

 been held.' The customs are for the most part quite 

 ordinary, except that, according to the court book, all 

 the tenants are supposed to purchase the timber on 

 their estates. 



The church of the HOLT ROOD 

 CHURCH has a chancel 24 ft. 6 in. by 14 ft. 9 in., 

 with a modern south vestry, nave 

 43 ft. by 23 ft., and west porch, with a wooden bell- 

 turret over the west end of the nave. A chapel at 

 the north-west of the chancel, and north and south 

 aisles to the nave, formerly existed. In 1860 the 

 east wall of the chancel and its windows were repaired, 

 and in 1868 the rest of the chancel, a new roof and 

 south vestry being added. The bell-turret and walls 

 of the nave were repaired in 1884. 



The chancel is the oldest part of the building, and 

 was begun soon after 1 200, the north-west chapel 

 being contemporary with it. The work was carried on 

 slowly, the chancel arch and north arcade of the 

 nave being next built, and then the south arcade. 

 There is no evidence that a west tower was ever con- 

 templated, and the east wall of the nave has been 

 thickened on the west side, probably to carry a bell- 

 turret on the gable above. By the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century the church seems to have fallen 

 into bad repair, and the date on the screen at the 

 west end of the nave, 1624, is probably that of the 

 alterations which have brought the building to its 

 present shape. The north chapel has entirely dis- 

 appeared, and the outer walls of the aisles have been 

 rebuilt close to the nave arcades, leaving a space of 

 barely two feet between them. A wide arched open- 

 ing has been made in the west wall of the nave, and 

 the screen before noticed set across it, with a porch 

 forming the main entrance to the church at the west. 

 The chancel has three lancets in the east wall, with 

 keeled rolls on the inner heads and jambs, having 

 bases at the level of the sills, and labels with dogtooth 

 over the arches. Modern cinquefoiled heads have 

 been inserted in the lights. The side walls of the 

 chancel have been pushed outwards, whether by a 

 roof or failure of foundation, and the gap between 

 them and the east wall bonded with ashlar masonry. 

 Each wall has two modern buttresses. In the north 

 wall is a lancet window, in which at the glass-line 

 have been inserted small half-shafts and capitals of 

 twelfth-century style, with a round arch. East of 

 the window is a modern recess with the Ten Com- 

 mandments, and below it a shouldered locker. The 

 arch formerly opening to a north-west chapel is of 

 one square order, pointed, with a moulded string at 

 the springing on the east side, and three moulded 

 corbels at the west, the jamb on this side being set 

 back six inches from the soffit of the arch. Over the 

 arch is a label with dogtooth, partly overlapped at the 

 west by the west wall of the chancel, which is cut 

 back to expose it. The arch is blocked with a thin 

 modern wall in which is a cinquefoiled light. 



The south wall has at the east a modern recess like 

 that in the north wall, and to the west of it a tall 

 lancet, which seems to have been widened. Near the 

 west end is a plain round arched opening 6 ft. 8 in. 

 high, in which is a pointed arch, apparently modern, 

 opening to a modern vestry. All the original masonry 

 in the chancel has diagonal tooling. 



The chancel arch is pointed, of two chamfered 

 orders, with a label having a line of dogtooth and 

 clustered responds, with foliate capitals and moulded 

 abaci and bases. On its west face an arch of some- 

 what higher pitch has been built over it, projecting 

 one foot, and overlapping the labels of the nave 

 arcades ; it is clearly an afterthought, and its jointing 

 does not range with the responds of the arcades or 

 chancel arch. The tooling on the chancel arch is 

 vertical. 



The nave arcades are of four bays, and though not 

 far apart in date, differ considerably in detail. The 

 north arcade has pointed arches of two chamfered 



M Exch. Inq. p.m. 29 Hen.VIII (Ser. 2), 

 file 988, No. 8. 



L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xii (i), 563. 

 On 1 6 Jan. 1531, Robert Aske, father of 

 the rebel, had settled the manor on Robert 



his second son for life instead of on his 

 elder son and right heir John (Exch. Inq. 

 p.m. 23 Hen. VIII (Ser. 2), file 983, 

 No. 4). 



88 L. and P. Hen. fill, xii (2), 404. 



18 



44 Feet of F. Mich. 2 Edw. VI. 



26 Deeds, ptna Mr. A. E. Scott. 



26 Ibid. ' V Ibid. 



28 Ibid. 



29 Ibid. 



