A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



There are five bells, the ring having been recast 

 from four old bells into five by Samuel Knight in 

 1701. The tenor bears the inscription : 

 John Gilberd did contrive 

 To cast from four this peale of fife. 

 John Gilberd was evidently the foreman in charge of 

 the work. The fourth bell was recast by Robert 

 Catlin in 1 749, and the third is now cracked. The 

 bell frame was made new at the general recasting, and 

 is inscribed IG TO 1701. 



The plate consists of a silver communion cup and 

 cover paten of 1 592, two flagons of 1714, and a paten 

 of 1715. 



The registers are complete from 1538, the first 

 book running to 1675, the second to 1704, and the 

 third to 1783, with marriages to 1753 only. The 

 fourth contains the marriages 17551804, the fifth and 

 sixth respectively the baptisms and burials, 1 783-1 8 1 2, 

 and the seventh the marriages 1804-37. 



During the reign of Henry III 

 ADyOJfSON there appears to have been some dis- 

 pute in connexion with the chapel of 

 Ropley. 3 * In 1241 the sheriff of Southampton was 

 ordered to remove the lay force by which the men of 

 the prior of Merton were being obstructed, so that 

 they might have free entry to the chapel. The sheriff 

 was further commanded to attach Master Aubrey, the 

 official of the archdeacon of Winchester, to answer for 

 his action in collating and instituting to the chapel 

 contrary to the claim of the king, in whose hands the 

 right of presentation had devolved by reason of the 

 voidance of the see of Winchester. 



The chapel seems soon afterwards to have been an- 

 nexed to the parish church of Bishop's Sutton, and 

 from this time the descent of the advowson was iden- 

 tical with that of Bishop's Sutton till 1882, when by 

 an Order in Council of August, 1882, Ropley became 

 a separate civil parish. Since that date the advowson 

 has been in private hands, the living, which is a 

 vicarage of the net yearly value of 160, being at 

 present in the gift of the Rev. E. J. Woodhouse. 



The rectory, tithe-barn, and tithes of Ropley be- 

 longed to Merton Abbey until its dissolution, and 

 were farmed out by the abbot for varying terms of 

 years. John Pynke, who was the farmer early in the 

 reign of Henry VIII, was succeeded by Robert Bul- 



becke, who gave up his right to William Wygmore. 14 

 On the dissolution of the abbey Henry VIII granted 

 a lease of twenty-one years to William Wygmore, who 

 sold his right to William Marten. Queen Elizabeth 

 granted to the latter a lease of twenty-one years in 

 return for ^48 to hold by the annual payment of 

 jl2. 35 At the expiration of that term the queen 

 leased the rectory, tithes, and tithe-barn to Humphrey 

 Aplegarth for the term of the lives of the said Hum- 

 phrey, Helen his wife, and their son William by the 

 annual payment of 12, and on the deaths of Hum- 

 phrey, Helen, and William, 2O/. in name of a heriot.** 

 They were to keep the chancel of the parish church 

 of Ropley in good repair, but were to be allowed to 

 take timber for that purpose, also 'housebote,' 

 ' hedgebote,' ' firebote,' ' ploughbote,' and ' carte- 

 bote ' from the premises thus let to them. 37 In 

 1 606 William Aplegarth granted the reversion of the 

 tithe-barn and rectory after the death of his mother, 

 Helen, to Thomas Albery and Oliver Drawater, 38 but 

 he still seems to have been holding them in l6z(). 3 ' 

 Sir Berkeley Lucy dealt with the grange and rectory 

 by indenture in l693, 40 and was the impropriator in 

 I7o6. n The tithe-barn is still standing. 



In 1875 Henry Joyce Mulcock by 

 CHARITIES will left 500 to be invested and the 

 income applied in the distribution of 

 meat and other gifts to the poor at Christmas and other- 

 wise for the benefit of the poor, the charity to be called 

 'The Ropley Trust Fund.' The legacy is invested 

 in $28 I5/. consols, held by the official trustees of 

 charitable funds, who also hold a sum of 5 1 1 1/. I \d. 

 like stock, under the title of ' Charity for Poor,' arising 

 from investment of the proceeds of the sale of cottages 

 built on waste land granted by the lord of the manor 

 in 1 849, the dividends upon which are under a scheme 

 of 31 January, 1890, applicable in augmentation of 

 Henry Joyce Mulcock's Charity. 4 ' 



In 1890 Mrs. Rosa Anna Onslow, by will proved 

 this date, gave to the rector and churchwardens 300 

 to be invested in government securities and the income 

 applied for the benefit of the parish in such way as 

 they and their successors should consider most ex- 

 pedient. The legacy, less duty, was invested in the 

 purchase of 273 it. (>d. consols with the official 

 trustees. 43 



WEST TISTED 



Ticcestede (x cent.) ; Tistede (xi cent.) ; Westy- 

 stude, Ticestede, Westistede, and West Stisted (xiii 

 cent.). 



West Tisted is a small triangular-shaped parish 

 with an area of 2,356 acres lying on high ground 

 between 500 and 600 ft. above the sea level, and 

 comprises 944 acres of arable land, 935 acres of per- 

 manent grass, and 167 acres of wood and plantation. 1 

 The parish is but thinly populated, and the village, 

 which lies in the centre of it, seems almost deserted. 

 It is approached by four rough narrow roads or lanes 

 between high banks of ferns and hedge growth. The 



schools are situated to the east of the road from 

 Privett village, while the smithy stands at the junc- 

 tion of this road with that from Privett station on 

 the Meon Valley Branch of the London and South- 

 western Railway, which lies about a mile off to the 

 east. A steep road leads thence, through the pine- 

 trees with which the whole parish is studded, to the 

 church, vicarage, and manor house, standing close to- 

 gether a little way back from the road. The vicarage 

 lies to the south-east of the church, and hard by is a 

 field where stands the oak in which, according to 

 tradition, Sir Benjamin Tichborne hid himself after 



88 Abbrcv. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 113. 

 M Pat. 3 Eliz. pt. it, m. 16. 

 86 Ibid. 



88 Pat. 27 Eliz. pt. it, m. 8. 

 * Ibid. 



88 Close, 4 Ja. I, pt. 14 ; Add. MS. 

 33278, fol. 176*. 



89 Eccl. Com. Ct. R. 



40 Recov. R. Mil. 5 and 6 Will, and 

 M7)-, m. i J. 



41 Stowe MS. 845, fol. 59. 



42 Char. Com. Rep. xlvii, 458. 



43 Ibid. Ixv, 376. 



1 Statistics from Board of Agriculture 



