A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



ROWNER 



Ruenore (xi cent.) ; Rowenor, Revenore, Rugen- 

 ; hore (xiii cent.) ; Rouwenore (xivcent.) ; Roughner 

 (xvii cent.). 



The parish of Rowner, containing 1,245 acres, 

 -of which two are covered by water, is situated in 

 the exteme south of the county, the most southern 

 point of the parish being about half a mile from 

 the Solent. In this connexion it is interesting to 

 note that Henry I was detained in ' the town that is 

 called Rowner ' in 1115 while waiting for a fair 

 wind to carry him across to France. 9 * There is 

 no actual village, only a number of old cottages 

 scattered over a long narrow strip of land, the 

 southern and eastern portions of which have been 

 bought by the War Office for the land defences 

 of Portsmouth, and the forts of Rowner, Brock- 

 hurst, and Grange, now obsolete and turned into 

 barracks, lie to the east and south of the parish. 

 Most of the cottages are very old and still bear the 

 names of former occupants, although in many cases 

 the families have been extinct for generations. The 

 soil is loam on clay. In the south-east of the parish 

 there are several disused gravel pits and also the site 

 of an old windmill, probably the one belonging to 

 the Grange Farm of Chark, at which the monks of 

 Quarr were permitted to grind their corn in the 

 twelfth or thirteenth centuries. The Grange Farm 

 in the south of the parish is an old house of some 

 interest. There are 506 acres of arable land, 653 of 

 grass, and only three of wood. 10 The sole industry 

 is agriculture, the crops being chiefly grain. There is 

 a recreation ground in the centre of the Government 

 land, but no parish land or commons. An offshoot 

 of the main road from London to Gosport divides 

 the parish into two nearly equal parts. The River 

 Alver enters Rowner to the east of Chark Common 

 in the neighbouring parish of Crofton, and after 

 forming for a short time its south-western boundary 

 passes out of the parish in a south-easterly direction. 

 The land skirting the river is low and subject to 

 floods. The church is in the centre of the parish, 

 .and near it on the south-west are the very scanty 

 ruins of a building supposed to have been the old 

 manor house of the Brune family. The nearest 

 station is Brockhurst, where the London and South 

 Western line joins the Lee-on-the-Solent Railway. 

 Some field-names are : Hangmans Coppice, Great 

 Whores, and Conygar. 10a 



At the time of Domesday the manor 



M4NOR of ROWNER was held by William 



Mauduit." The family of Mauduit 



seems to have been of considerable importance at this 



time as the possessor of large estates in Hampshire, and 

 its members were among the chamberlains of Henry I 

 and II, William Mauduit, who died in 1171, being 

 made Chamberlain of the Exchequer by grant of the 

 king. 12 In what way the manor passed from the 

 Mauduit family does not appear, but in 1240-1 Elias 

 de la Falaise held 3 J virgates and 63 acres of land 

 in Rowner which he had exchanged with the prior 

 of St. Swithun's for 30 acres of land in the same 

 parish, and which may probably be identified as 

 part of the knight's fee which William de la 

 Falaise was holding as early as 1187." Seven 

 years later Elias made a grant of 5^ virgates of 

 land from the manor of Rowner to the abbot of 

 Quarr, which grant was confirmed by Henry III in 

 1266. At his death in 1254 Elias was holding the 

 residue of the manor of the king in chief by 

 serjeanty, providing one armed man for forty days 

 every year in time of war, for the defence of 

 Winchester Castle. 14 In the same year William de 

 la Falaise, his brother, died seised of land in Rowner 

 which he held by the same service, though by a fine 

 made by his brother Elias he rendered 40^. yearly to 

 the exchequer for alienation of the serjeanty, his brother's 

 widow, Lady Ida, holding dower in the estate. 15 Be- 

 fore 1277 the property had escheated to the crown by 

 the felony of William de la Falaise, grandson of Wil- 

 liam, and was granted in that year to Sir William le 

 Brune, chamberlain to the king, to hold jointly with 

 his wife Isolde, a lady of the household of Queen 

 Eleanor, by the yearly payment of 40*. to the king's 

 exchequer in lieu of service, 16 and seven years later 

 William le Brune was granted free warren in his 

 demesne lands. 1 ' William died in I3OI, 18 and the 

 estate was then held by Isolde until her death in 

 1307, when it passed to Maurice her son and 

 heir. 19 William son of Maurice succeeded to the 

 property in 1 3 5 5, 20 and in 1358 obtained a licence 

 to convey the manor to his daughter Joan and her 

 husband, Thomas de Overton, in tail. 21 William 

 died between 1360 and 1370, and in 1371 Joan 

 released all her right in the manor to her mother and 

 her husband, Sir Robert de Marny, and to her brothers 

 Ingram and Richard." Sir Robert de Marny and his 

 wife transferred the manor to Ingram Brune between 

 1390 and I392, 23 and he died seised of the same in 

 1400, when the property passed, under a settlement 

 made in 1392," to his wife Elizabeth, in tail male 

 with remainder to William de Marny, son and heir 

 of Robert de Marny. 2 * Elizabeth held the manor 

 in dower during the minority of her son till her 

 death in 1403. Her son Maurice came of age in 



91 Angl.-Sax. Cbron. 335. 



10 Statistics from Board of Agriculture 

 (1905). 



10a Ordnance Map. 



11 V.C.H. Hants, i, 4923. 

 "Add. MS. 33284, fol. 198. 



18 Feet of F. 25 Hen. Ill, No. 252 5 

 Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), i, 68. 



14 Chan. Inq. p.m. 39 Hen. Ill, No. 3. 

 'The land is here described as * one hide 

 of land in Rowner.' A later inquisition, 

 taken at the instance of the abbot of 

 Quarr, who complained that the land 

 granted to him in free alms had been 



taken into the king's hands, states that 

 the manor consisted of a messuage and 

 garden 2s. ; meadow 21. ; wood 21. ; 1 10 

 acres : total value with advowson of 

 chapel $ 121. 8</. 



16 Ibid. No. 34. 



16 Chart. R. 5 Edw. I, No. 70 ; Pat. 5 

 Edw. I, m. 22 ; Cart. Antiq. R. G. 3. 



W Chart. R. 1 1 Edw. I, No. 76. 



18 Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Edw. I, No. 44. 



19 Ibid, i Edw. II, No. 64. 



80 Ibid. 29 Edw. Ill (ist nos.) No. 38. 



M Ibid. 32 Edw. Ill (2nd nos.), No. 



53. The manor then consisted of a 



2l8 



capital messuage with garden, yearly 

 value 31. ; rent of five tenants with the 

 work of the same ^4 8j. yd. ; 160 acres 

 of arable land at \d. an acre ; 30 acres of 

 pasture 51. ; 3 acres of meadow 6s. ; 10 

 acres of wood 2s. 6J. Pleas and per- 

 quisites of court ;j. brought the annual 

 value up to 8 31. i id. The liberty of 

 Crofton also belonged to the manor. 



32 Close, 45 Edw. Ill, m. 36. 



38 Feet of F. (Div. Cos.), 12, Ric. II 5 

 Close, 16 Ric. II, m. 15 d. 



* Close, 1 6 Ric. II, m. 15 d. 



25 Chan. Inq. p.m. I Hen. IV, No. 39. 



