BISHOP'S SUTTON HUNDRED 



BIGHTON 



WRIOTHESLKY. Axure 

 a cross or between four 

 falcons close argent. 



convent, distinct from the abbot's portion as a pre- 

 bend, should on voidances of the abbey be exempt 

 from seizure." The manor of Bighton was assessed 

 at 14 161. \d. in izgi.* 8 It was worth almost 

 twice as much in the reign of Henry VIII. 89 After 

 the dissolution of the abbey the king granted it to a 

 Venetian, Dr. Augustine de Augustinis, physician to 

 the king, Cardinal Wolsey, and Cardinal Campeggio, 

 to hold for the term of his life,* but in July, 1545, 

 Augustine received a grant of the reversion for a rent of 

 2 iSs. $\d. 31 Three months later Augustine and 

 Agnes his wife by fine granted the manor to Thomas 

 Wriothesley and his heirs.** 

 On the death of Thomas, 

 Bighton was one of the manors 

 assigned to his widow Jane as 

 dower. In 1581 Henry earl 

 of Southampton died seised of 

 the reversion of the manor 

 of Bighton, which Jane was 

 holding for the term of her 

 life.* 3 His heir was his son 

 Henry, aged eight, who seven- 

 teen years later sold the manor 

 to John Wither of Manydown 

 (co. Hants).* 4 The property 



was then settled for life upon the wife of John Wither's 

 eldest son William as a marriage-portion.* 5 Three 

 years after her death in 1632 William Wither and 

 his eldest son Paul sold the 

 manor to Robert Eyre, Giles 

 Eyre, and William Eyre. 36 

 William Eyre was still lord of 

 the manor in 1665, for he 

 then presented to the living 

 which went with the manor." 

 The descent of the manor 

 has not been discovered from 

 this date* 8 till 1692, when Sir 

 Robert Worsley, bart., pur- 

 chased it from John Pathurst,* 9 

 and presented to the living 

 in 1701." In 1726 Edward 

 Stawell, George Pitt, and Sir John Cope, bart., 

 bought the manor from Sir Robert Worsley and 

 Frances his wife, 41 and they presented to the living in 

 I732. 4> They were probably trustees for Frederick 

 Tilney of Tilney Hall in the parish of Rotherwick. 

 Frederick's heir was his daughter Anne, who married 

 William, Lord Craven. On the death of Anne in 1730," 

 her only daughter having predeceased her, the manor 

 passed to Dorothy wife of Richard Child, Viscount 

 Castlemaine, only daughter and heir of John Glynne 



Argent a 

 between 



three crescents sable. 



and Dorothy his wife, the niece of Frederick Tilney. 

 On his wife's succeeding to her inheritance Richard 

 Child assumed the name of Tilney, and in 1731 was 

 created Earl Tilney. The manor in 1734 was settled 

 upon the Hon. John Tilney, Lord Castlemaine, the son 

 and heir of Earl Tilney and Dorothy his wife, and his 

 heirs and assigns. 44 From him it passed into the 

 possession of Christopher Eyre, one of the pre- 

 bendaries of Winchester Cathedral. 46 Christopher 

 died in 1743, and was succeeded by his eldest son 

 Philip Eyre, 46 who on his own petition presented 

 himself to the living of Bighton in 1767." On his 

 death without issue the manor went to his brother 

 Joseph Eyre, who in 1770 settled it on himself and 

 his son and heir John and their heirs and assigns for 

 ever/ 8 From the Eyres it passed by purchase into 

 the possession of James Brydges, duke of Chandos, 

 whose only daughter and heir Anne Eliza married 

 Richard, Earl Temple, in 1 796. The latter being 

 seised of the manor in right of his wife, dealt with it 

 by fine in 1 809," and pre- 

 sented to the living in 1811, 

 and again in 1827 under the 

 title of duke of Buckingham. 50 

 It was in the latter year that 

 the duchess built the schools 

 at a cost of 100." On the 

 duke's death in 1839 the 

 manor passed to his son and 

 heir Richard Plantagenet, se- 

 cond duke of Buckingham and 

 Chandos, who sold it in 1841 

 to the Rev. John Thomas 

 Maine." It remained in the 

 latter's possession for over thirty 



years, 63 being sold on his death to Mr. Lee Lee of 

 Dillington Park, Ilminster, Somerset, whose descendant, 

 Col. Edward Hanning Hanning-Lee, is the present 

 lord. 



A portion of the parish of Bighton, equal in value 

 to the manor of Bighton held by the abbey of Hyde, 

 still formed part of the bishop of Winchester's lands 

 in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and was 

 held of the bishopric by the family of Gervays. In 

 1263 William Gervays granted the third part of a 

 virgate of land to John de Bonehetone and Agnes his 

 wife, to hold to them and their heirs of William and 

 his heirs for the rent of a pound of cummin at 

 Michaelmas. 64 William's heir was another William 

 Gervays, who in 1332 obtained a grant of land in 

 Bishop's Sutton and Ropley from Robert le Botiller. 65 

 On William's death his property in Bighton passed to 

 his son Roger, who was holding it in 1 346. 66 Roger's 



BRYDGF.S, Duke of 

 Chandos. Argent a cross 

 sable 'with a leopard's 

 head or thereon. 



V Pat. 12 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 26. 



K Pope Nich. Tax, (Rec. Com.), 213. 



29 Dugdale, Mon. ii, 449. 



*> L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvi, 718. 



81 Pat. 37 Hen. VIII, pt. 3, m. 39. 



M Feet of F. Div. Cos. Mich. 37 

 Hen. VIII. Thomas was created earl 

 of Southampton three days before the 

 coronation of Edw. VI. 



88 Chan.Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxcvi, No. 46. 



M Feet of F. Hants, Hil. 40 Eliz. 



83 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccclxxxii, 

 No. 25. 



86 Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 1 1 Chas. I. 



7 Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). 



38 In 1687 Thomas Mompesson pre- 

 sented to the living (Inst. Bks. P.R.O.). 



He may have purchased the manor from 

 William Eyre, but there seems to be 

 no record of the sale. If he did, he 

 must have sold it to John Pathurst be- 

 fore 1692. 



89 Recov. R. Trin. 6 and 7 Geo. II, 

 m. 13, 14, and 15. 



40 Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). 



41 Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 13 Geo. I. 

 Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). 



48 Warner, Hist, of Hants, i, 158. 



44 Recov. R. Trin. 6 and 7 Geo. II, 

 m. 13, 14, and 15. 



45 Close R. 10 Geo. Ill, pt. 13, m. 24. 

 Ibid. 



Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). 



48 Recov. R. East. loGeo. Ill, m. 582. 



39 



Joseph Eyre and John Eyre presented to 

 the living in 1770 (Inst. Bks. P.R.O.), 

 and Warner gives them as patrons in 

 1795 ; Hist, of Hants, ii, 236. 



49 Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 49 Geo. III. 



60 Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). 



sl Sumner, Conspectus Dioc. of Win- 

 chester, 4. 



M Close, 1841, pt. 86. 



68 His only sons, Henry Cracroft 

 Maine and Arthur Francis Maine, pre- 

 deceased him, dying respectively in 1864 

 and 1854. There are tablets to their 

 memory in Bighton church. 



64 Feet of F. Hants, East. 47 Hen. III. 



ss Ibid. Mich. 5 Edw. III. 



56 Feud. Aids, ii, 334. 



