A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



WAYTE. Argent a 

 che-veron gules between 

 three hunting horns table. 



Browne, junior, his son and heir." 8 The descent of 

 the manor for some time after this is uncertain, but it 

 eventually passed to William Sherrington, junior, 149 

 who died seised of it in 1 7 1 1 . A year later his 

 executors, Sir Peter Mews of Hinton Admiral and 

 Thomas Morley, sold East Hoe to Thomas Lewis, 150 

 lord of the manor of Soberton, and by this time 

 owner of nearly the whole parish. The site of the 

 manor is marked by Hoegate Farm and East Hoe 

 Common in the extreme south-east of the parish on 

 the borders of Hambledon and Soberton. 



BERE (Beere xiv cent. ; Beare xvii cent.). From 

 early times the Wayte family had a holding in the 

 extreme west of the parish to 

 the north of the Forest of 

 Bere, which they held of the 

 bishop of Winchester as of 

 his manor of Hambledon. In 

 1338 Henry Wayte dealt by 

 fine with 2 messuages, a mill, 

 2 carucates of land, 10 acres 

 of meadow, 1 2 acres of wood, 

 and 3O/. rent in Bere, near 

 Soberton. 151 Again, in 1354 

 a messuage, a mill, a carucate of 

 land, 24 acres of meadow, 30 

 acres of wood, and 1 31. \d. rent 



in Bere and Soberton were settled on Philip Wayte and 

 Isabel his wife, no doubt on the occasion of their 

 marriage. 15 ' The property is called a manor in the 

 inquisition taken in 1363 on the death of Thomas 

 de Wallop, who was said to hold meadow land in 

 Soberton of Isabel Wayte as of her manor of Bere 

 by the payment of 2t. a year. 153 In 1 449 William 

 Wayte died seised of the manor of Bere held of the 

 bishop of Winchester, leaving a son and heir Edward, 

 then aged five. 154 From Edward it passed to his son 

 Simon, who died in 1518, leaving a brother and heir 

 William, 155 who died in 1561 seised of the manor of 

 Bere alias Wayte Bere, leaving six daughters and co- 

 heirs, Eleanor wife of Richard Bruning, Mary wife 

 of William Cresweller, Honor wife of William Wayte, 

 Margaret who had married Henry Perkins, Elizabeth 

 who had married Richard Norton, and Susan wife of 

 William Wollascot. 156 Bere passed as her portion to 

 Elizabeth, and from her to her son Sir Richard 

 Norton, who died in 1612 seised of a messuage 

 called Bere alias Little Bere a/ias Wayte's Bere, 

 100 acres of land, a cottage and an acre of land in 

 Soberton and Meonstoke held of Thomas bishop of 

 Winchester, his heir being his son Richard, aged 

 twenty-six and more. 157 



From the description of the premises it is clear 

 that the manorial rights, if ever there were any, had 



by this time lapsed. The site of the manor is marked 

 at the present day by Bere Farm, Bere Copse, and 

 Soberton Mill in the extreme west of the parish. 



Another small portion of the parish of Soberton 158 

 was also included in the episcopal manor of Hamble- 

 don, and in the reign of Edward III was held by 

 Robert de Hoe and Lucy his wife, who obtained 

 from Adam bishop of Winchester a grant of two 

 purprestures in the waste by Hipley and the moor of 

 Hoe, containing 28 acres of land, and of two pieces 

 of waste land there, containing 1 4 acres, with licence 

 for them to inclose. The bishop moreover granted 

 to them common of pasture for all their beasts and 

 cattle in the waste of the manor where the other 

 tenants of the manor had it. For this holding they 

 were to pay the bishop 2 a year, with a double rent 

 by way of a relief. 159 They must have been people 

 of position, for some years later they acquired a life 

 interest in the manor of Meonstoke Waleraund. 160 



At the time of the Domesday Survey there were four 

 mills in the parish three in the royal manor 161 and 

 one in the manor held by Herbert the Chamberlain. 168 

 Two of them seem to have fallen early into decay, 

 and after the fourteenth century two mills only are 

 mentioned in the parish. There was a mill belong- 

 ing to the manor of Bere in the fourteenth century, 163 

 and a water-mill is also included in an extent of the 

 manor belonging to Richard de Winton in I383- 16 * 

 A water-mill and a fulling-mill were included in the 

 property purchased by the earl of Southampton from 

 Walter Bonham in I549, 164 and in the manors owned 

 by Humphrey Minchin in 1 79 1. 166 At the present 

 day there are two water-mills in the parish : Soberton 

 mill in the south-west worked by the Meon, and 

 Rudley mill in the south-east. 



The church of ST. PETER, SOBER- 

 CHURCHES TON, has a chancel 28 ft. 6 in. by 

 1 5 ft. 9 in., with north chapel of equal 

 length and 9 ft. 6 in. wide ; nave, 42 ft. 6 in. by 

 7 ft. 6 in., with north and south aisles ; south tran- 

 sept, 1 6 ft. by 23ft. ; south porch and west tower 

 partly overlapped by the aisles, 1 2 ft. 6 in. square, all 

 measurements being internal. The chancel arch not 

 being parallel to the east wall of the chancel or the 

 west wall of the nave, the lengths of nave and chan- 

 cel here given are the mean lengths, taken on the 

 axis. 



The building shows traces of a long series of develop- 

 ments, which seem to have been somewhat as follows. 

 The first church of which any evidence still exists 

 may have been of pre-Conquest date, and in plan 

 like Boarhunt, with a chancel 146. wide, nave about 

 30 ft. by 17 ft. 6 in., and a western chamber of the 

 same width and I o ft. long. 167 To the nave of this 



148 Feet of F. Hants, Hil. 17 Jas. I, and 

 Mich. 1 9 Jas. I ; Recov.R. Hil. 1 7 Jas. I,rot. 

 31; Close, 1 7 Jas. I, pt. 7, No. 3 3 . Inthe 

 indenture of sale the premises are described 

 as follows : The manor or lordship of Hoe 

 alias Hoo, with appurtenances in Hoe, 

 Soberton, Meonstoke, Hambledon, and 

 Droxford ; waste ground called Common 

 Deane in Hoe ; waste of pasture, moor, and 

 wood called Hoe Moor, Hoe Wood, and 

 Ridley ; and common of pasture for all 

 manner of cattle, and mast and pannage for 

 hogs in the forest o. East Bere alias South 

 Bere alias Porchester. 



149 Recov. R. Hil. 9 Anne, rot. 48 ; he 

 may have inherited it from his father, 

 William Sherrington, sen. 



150 Recov. R. Mich. 1 1 Anne, m. 1 5 j 

 Feet of F. Hants, Hil. I 1 Anne. 



161 Feet of F. Hants, East. 1 1 Edw. III. 

 In the thirteenth century it was held by 

 the family of de la Bere. Richard de la 

 Bere obtained a grant of a messuage and 

 5 acres of land in Soberton in 1219 

 (Feet of F. Hants, 3 Hen. Ill) and Simon 

 de la Bere and his wife Euphemia dealt 

 by fine with a carucate of land in Sober- 

 ton in 1272 and 1279 (Feet of F. Div. 

 Cos. Hil. 56 Hen. Ill, and Trin. 7 Edw. I). 



1M Feet of F. Hants, Mich. 26 Edw. 

 Ill, and Mich. 27 Edw. III. 



168 Inq. p.m. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. 2 (lit 

 Nos.), No. 76. 



1M Chan. Inq. p.m. 26 Hen. VI, No. 9. 



264 



16 Ibid. (Ser.2), vol. 33, No. 83. 



156 Ibid. 3 Eliz. No. 181. 



157 Ibid. vol. 332, No. 170. 



158 The boundaries of the parishes have- 

 since changed, and this portion is now in 

 the parish of Hambledon. 



159 Pat. II Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 35. 

 190 q.V. supra. 



...,,. . . 



163 p eet O f p. Hants, Mich. 26 Edw. III. 



164 Inq. p.m. 7 Ric. II, No. 107. 



185 Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 3 Edw. VI. 



166 Ibid. Trin. 31 Ceo. III. 



167 The dimensions of Boarhunt are : 

 chancel, 15 ft. 3 in. by 14 ft. 6 in. ; nave, 

 27ft. by 18 ft. ; western chamber, 12 ft. 

 by 1 8 ft. 



