THE HUNDRED OF BISHOP'S SUTTON 



CONTAINING THE PARISHES OF 



BIGHTON BRAMDEAN ROPLEY 



BISHOP'S SUTTON HEADLEY WEST TISTED 1 



At the time of the Domesday Survey the hundred of Bishop's Sutton 

 was known as the hundred of Esselei, and comprised the following places : 

 West Tisted, Bishop's Sutton (which included Ropley), and Bramdean. The 

 amount of the land assessed was 18 hides i virgate. 2 Headley, which was 

 included in Bishop's Sutton hundred in 1831, and is now in Alton hundred, 

 was entered under Neatham hundred, but was said to be reckoned as part of 

 Esselei. 3 Bighton at the time of the survey was included in Chuteley 

 hundred. 4 Ropley is not mentioned, but was most probably included in 

 Bishop's Sutton. The land in Headley and Bighton was assessed at 12 hides, 

 so that the total hidage of the land afterwards comprising Bishop's Sutton 

 was about 30 hides. It is not possible to find out when the name of 

 * Esselei ' disappeared and that of Bishop's Sutton was substituted. From 

 1 207, the date of the earliest court-roll, the hundred was known as Sutton, 

 and in 1316 included the vills of Ropley, Headley, West Tisted, Bramdean, 

 and Bighton, and the borough of Alresford. 6 The last-named was a liberty 

 in 1831, but at what date it became so is uncertain. 8 The court-rolls 

 show that the bishops of Winchester were lords of the hundred from 1207 

 onwards, and held a tourn at Bishop's Sutton at Hock-tide and Martinmas. 

 In a book of the customs of Sutton of the time of Henry III, there is 

 a reference to a rather unusual service, apparently relating to the Alresford 

 ponds. The text runs as follows : ' Item homines dicunt quod nihil debent 

 cariare de instrumentis piscatoris quia vivarium non pertinet hundredo de 

 Sutton immo hundredo de Alresford.' 7 At the time of John Poynet's acces- 

 sion to the see in 1551, when the episcopal manors were exchanged for a 

 fixed rent, 8 the hundred of Bishop's Sutton, being in the king's hands, was 

 granted to Sir John Gate. 9 It was, however, restored with the other 

 episcopal property in i558, 10 and continued to be held by the bishops of 

 Winchester until 1869, when the lands of the bishop of Winchester were 

 taken over by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The parish of Headley was 

 removed from the hundred of Bishop's Sutton to that of Alton between 1831 

 and 1841." 



1 The extent of the hundred as given in the Population Returns of 1831. 



' y.C.H. Hants, \, 463, 477, 503-4. Ibid. 477. 4 Ibid. 471. 



5 Feud. Aids, ii, 3 1 5. 6 See hundred of Fawley. 



7 Duchy of Lane. Rentals, bdle. 8, No. 26. 



8 f.C.H. Hants, ii, 66. ' Pat. 5 Edw. VI, pt. 5, m. 20. 



10 Pat. 4 and 5 Phil, and Mary, pt. 7, m. 24. " Cf. Population Returns of 1831 and 1841. 



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