BISHOP'S SUTTON HUNDRED 



WEST TISTED 



the battle of Cheriton. 1 North of the church on a 

 moated site is the picturesque manor house of red 

 brick and stone formerly belonging to the Tichbornes, 

 but now a farm-house. It dates from c. 1 600, and 

 has a central hall with a large fireplace and a fine 

 panelled room on the ground floor of the east wing 

 with a tall chimney-piece of very good style. From 

 the top of the hill wide views can be obtained of 

 Privett and the neighbouring country. In the north- 

 east of the parish is the wild expanse of West Tisted 

 Common, north of which is the steep road lined with 

 pine-trees leading to Ropley and Alresford. 



The soil is clay and chalk, the subsoil chalk. 

 The chief crops are wheat, barley, turnips, and oats. 

 The population in 1901 was 239. 



The following place-names are found in the 1 3th 

 century : ' Trendelcrofte and Rykemannesdone.' 3 



WEST TISTED. King Edmund 

 MJNOR granted 7 hides in TISTED to his 



faithful thegn Ethelgeard in 941, and 

 confirmed this grant two years later. The boundaries 

 are given in detail, and seem to prove that the land 

 thus granted to Ethelgeard was situated in the parish 

 of West Tisted. 4 At the time of the Domesday 

 Survey West Tisted belonged to the bishopric of 

 Winchester, and was held by Ranulf of the bishop.* 

 The manor was held of the bishop of Winchester 

 until the beginning of the thirteenth century, when 

 Richard de Ilchester, bishop of Winchester, who had 

 two illegitimate sons, Herbert le Poor, bishop of 

 Salisbury 1 194-1217, and Richard le Poor, bishop 

 of Salisbury 1217-28 and bishop of Durham 

 1228-37, granted it to Herbert, treating it as 

 though it was his personal property. 6 On Herbert's 

 death it passed to his brother and heir Richard, who 

 succeeded him as bishop of Salisbury. Peter des 

 Roches, bishop of Winchester, however, realized that 

 unless measures were taken West Tisted would be 

 irretrievably lost to the bishopric, and accordingly 

 he took proceedings against Richard, and between 

 1217 and 1228 recovered seisin of it. 7 The manor 

 was held directly of the bishopric until the beginning 

 of the fourteenth century. 8 In 1323, however, an 

 inquisition was held on the petition of Femmota the 

 widow of Robert de Tisted, 9 who complained that 

 whereas her former husband had held the manor of 

 West Tisted of John de St. John, the guardian of the 

 bishopric of Winchester, 10 asserting that the manor 

 was held of the bishopric by knight's service, had 

 taken it into the king's hands by reason of the 

 minority of the heir. By the inquisition it was 



ascertained that Robert de Tisted had held the manor 

 of John de St. John, who held it of the bishopric by 

 knight's service," and the keepers of the bishopric 

 were consequently ordered to intermeddle no further 

 with the manor, but to restore the issues thereof." 

 After Edmund de St. John's death, without issue, in 

 1 347," the overlordship passed to his sister Isabel, 

 the wife of Luke Poynings, and remained in the 

 family of Poynings until Sir Thomas Poynings' 

 death in 1428, when it was assigned to Alice the 

 wife of Sir Thomas Kyngeston, one of his three 

 granddaughters and heirs. The manor was held 

 successively of their son Thomas Kyngeston and of 

 his kinsman and heir John Kyngeston, as of the 

 manor of Warnford." John's brother and sister both 

 died without issue, 15 and accordingly the manor of 

 West Tisted, for want of an heir, escheated to the 

 bishop. In an inquisition of 1555 it was stated 

 that the manor was held of Stephen bishop of Win- 

 chester as of his bishopric of Winchester by the ser- 

 vice of one and a half knight's fees. 16 



With regard to the actual holders of the manor, 

 various members of the family of Limesi held lands 

 in West Tisted in the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 

 turies. Towards the end of the twelfth century 

 Richard de Limesi died seised of one hide in West 

 Tisted, leaving a son and a heir Henry." As he was 

 in debt to the king his lands were confiscated, but 

 they were released to Henry on his petition in 1203, 

 to hold from year to year as the farmer of the king, 

 until the debt was paid in full. 18 Some thirty years 

 later Roger de Limesi, who was also in debt to the 

 king, was slain, and in 1234 the sheriff was ordered 

 to deliver his chattels to any lawful man of the 

 county who would be responsible to the king for 

 part payment of the debts. 19 Roger's heir was a 

 certain Adam de Limesi, who seems to have taken no 

 steps in this direction, but alienated all his property 

 to the priories of Newark and Selborne, apparently 

 in order to shift the responsibility of payment from 

 his own shoulders to theirs. Thus in 1242 he 

 granted half a carucate in West Tisted* to the prior 

 of Newark in frankalmoign in return for two corrodies 

 in food and drink during his life : a canon's corrody 

 and a groom's corrody at Newark.* 1 About the same 

 time he granted two messuages and lands in West 

 Tisted to the prior and canons of Selborne to hold 

 of him and his heirs by the annual payment of a 

 pound of cummin.** As Adam had foreseen, King 

 Henry III demanded the payment of Roger de 

 Limesi's debts from the priory of Newark, and an 



a There was a good deal of fighting in 

 this district during the Civil War. A 

 skirmish took place on West Tisted 

 Heath, and the mound by the side of the 

 road which cuts through West Tisted 

 Common still marks the graves of those 

 who fell in battle. 



8 Selborne Chart. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 



*3- 



* Birch, Cart. Sax. ii, 495 and 529. 



For instance 'clincanleage' and 'Hatan 

 hammas ' are mentioned. The former 

 is probably represented by the modern 

 Clinkley Road, and the latter by the 

 modern Hatman Wood, both of which 

 are situated in the north-west of the 

 parish of West Tisted. 



V.C.H. Hants, i, 463. 



6 Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 4 John ; 

 Chart. R. 5 John, m. 19. 



7 Selborne Chart. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 2; 

 Feet of F. Hants, East. 17 Hen. III. 



8 Inq. p.m. 43 Hen. Ill, No. 28. 



9 Ibid. 17 Edw. II, No. 112. 



10 Rigaud de Asscr held this dignity 

 but for a very short period ; and dying at 

 Avignon, where the pope's court was, in 

 1323, John XXII, who was then pontiff, 

 exercised his privilege of nominating as 

 his successor, at the recommendation of 

 Walter archbishop of Canterbury, John de 

 Stratford, archdeacon of Lincoln and canon 

 of York. As the king had endeavoured 

 to get his chancellor, Robert Baldock, arch- 

 deacon of Middlesex, appointed bishop he 

 ceased not to harass Stratford, outlawing 

 him and seizing upon the temporalities 

 of his see (Dugdale, Alan, i, 197). This 

 explains why tie manor had been taken 

 into the king's hands. 



59 



11 The manor was held by the service 

 of 2(/. a year and scutage for all services 

 and demands, free from heriot, relief, 

 wardship and marriage. 



la Close, 17 Edw. II, m. 13. 



13 Inq. p.m. 21 Edw. Ill, No. 57. 



14 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxvi, No. 



'3- 



18 Vide manor of Warnford in hundred 

 of Meon Stoke. 



16 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cvi, No. 

 58. 



" Abkre-v. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 42. 

 W Ibid. 



19 Excerpt, e rot. fn. (Rec. Com.), i, 



*57- 



20 This was afterwards called the manor 

 of Merryfield. See Merryfield below. 



81 Feet of F. Hants, Mich. 26 Hen. III. 

 M Selborne Chart. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 31. 



