A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



PLUNKINIT. Ermine 

 a bend engrailed gules. 



the younger Alan)' to the heirs of Alan de Plunkenet, 

 senior. 



Before the death of Alan de Plunkenet, junior, his 

 sister and heir Joan de Bohun, who died s.p., appears 

 to have disposed of her claim 

 to the estate to Walter de 

 Woodlock, and although she 

 attempted subsequently to re- 

 pudiate her grant the right of 

 Walter was established. 5 



Walter Woodlock was suc- 

 ceeded by his son Nicholas, 

 who held Kilmeston Plunkenet 

 in 1 346, and after his death 

 his widow Joan was seised in 

 fee tail of the manor. She 

 granted it to certain trustees 



for their lives and died leaving an infant heir, her 

 grandson Thomas.' Sir Almaric de St. Amand claimed 

 the custody of the manor and the heir on behalf of 

 the feoffees, but was success- 

 fully sued by William, bishop 

 of Winchester. 8 



From the Woodlocks the 

 manor evidently passed to 

 William Spershute or Spars- 

 holt, who was holding it in 

 1428 and 143 1, 9 but no record 

 of this transfer can be found. 



After 1431 no mention of 

 the manor of Kilmeston Plun- 

 kenet has been found until 

 the early part of the sixteenth 

 century, by which time it had 



been divided into two parts, one being in the hands 

 of the Skillings, and the other in the possession of 

 the Bengers. 



Mary Skilling was the widow of Walter Skilling, 

 of Draycott, and daughter of John Ernelay of Mar- 

 well. 10 The Ernelays had a good deal of land in 

 Sparsholt near Romsey ; it is therefore quite probable 

 that they were in some way connected with William 

 de Sparsholt or Spershute, who was holding Kilmeston 

 Plunkenet in 1431. There may have been a marriage 

 connexion, though no trace of one can be found, or 

 William de Sparsholt may have been a member of the 

 Ernelay family ; in support of this theory is the fact 

 that both William de Sparsholt and John Ernelay 

 were called 'of Marwell.' The half of Kilmeston 

 Plunkenet manor held by the Skillings was granted to 

 Richard Badger by Mary Skilling in 1570, probably 

 as a settlement, 11 and in 1585 William, Mary's son, 

 was holding half the manor and made a settlement of 

 it in that year. 1 * In 1605 William Skilling and his 

 wife Margery, Swithun Skilling his brother and his 



WOODLOCK. Sable a 

 cheveron between three 

 lions argent looking back- 

 ivards. 



ooo 



SKILLING. Argent 

 two chnjcrom gules and 

 a chief gules "with three 

 bezants therein. 



wife Jane, and Edward Skilling sold half the manor of 

 Kilmeston Plunkenet to William Lacie. 1 * From this 

 time onwards the descent of this half of Kilmeston 

 Flunkenet manor becomes the 

 same as that of the manor of 

 Kilmeston Gymming (q.v.). 

 John Benger died seised of the 

 other half of the manor of 

 Kilmeston Plunkenet in 1520, 

 leaving as his heir his grand- 

 son Richard, a boy of thir- 

 teen. 14 On the death of 

 Richard, in 1530, the manor 

 passed to his widow Katha- 

 rine, 14 and subsequently to her 

 second husband, John White, 

 and his heirs. The other heirs 

 of Richard surrendered their 



claim, 1 ' and from this time until 1660 the estate 

 followed the same descent as Southwick (q.v.). 



Richard Norton was still holding the manor in 

 1660, evidently in conjunction with the Lacies, who 

 were also holding the other moiety of Kilmeston Plun- 

 kenet and the manor of Kilmeston Gymming, 17 and 

 from this time the two moieties of the manor are re- 

 united and the whole follows the descent of Kilmes- 

 ton Gymming (q.v.), with which it finally became 

 amalgamated. 



The manor of KILMESTON GTMMING was 

 apparently granted at an early date by the bishop of 

 Winchester to the Gymming family, from whom it took 

 its name, for in 1282 Nicholas de Gymming died seised 

 of half the manor of Kilmeston leaving a son and heir 

 John, aged eighteen. 18 In 1 307 a licence was granted 

 to Simon de Fareham and Robert de Harvedon, who 

 were evidently trustees for the Gymming estates, to 

 alienate the manor of Kilmeston Gymming in mort- 

 main to Richard de Bourne, provost of the chapel of 

 St. Elizabeth at Winchester, 19 and the manor remained 

 in the hands of the provosts of this chapel until the 

 Dissolution, after which it was granted (in March, 

 i 544) to Thomas Wriothesley, together with all cus- 

 tomary services ; * it was held by him until the follow- 

 ing June, when he conveyed it to Anthony Cope," 

 who received licence in 1579 to alienate the manor 

 to John Tichborne and his heirs." A little later in 

 the same year John Tichborne conveyed the manor to 

 William Lacie, in whose family it remained for 1 60 

 years." William Lacie died in 1595 seised of the 

 manor of Kilmeston Gymming charged with annuities 

 to Nicholas and Henry Tichborne. He left a son 

 William, who died in 1614." 



William Lacie son of the last William ** was se- 

 questered in i645,* 6 but he recovered his estates and 

 his family held the manor for nearly another century. 



4 Feet of F. Hants, Hil. 23 Edw. I. 



5 De Banco R. No. 270, m. 96 d. 

 There were several tenants holding small 

 pieces of land in Kilmeston about this 

 time. The most important of these was 

 John de Inkepenne, who died seised of land 

 there in 1374 (Inq. p.m. 35 Edw. Ill, 

 No. 123). Walter Woodlock evidently 

 granted the manor of Kilmeston Plunke- 

 net to Roger de Heywood, who conveyed 

 it back to him by fine in 1 340, probably 

 as a settlement. (Feet of F. Hants, Mich. 

 14 Edw. III.) Feud, Aids, ii, 334. 



7 Wykeham't Reg. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 



i'.537- 



8 De Banco R. Mich. 3 Hen. IV, m.2oi. 



9 Feud. Aids, ii, 357, 362. John de la 

 Bere sued William Spershute for the manor 

 of Kilmeston Plunkenet in 1429, as the 

 great-great-great nephew of Alan de Plun- 

 kenet, senior, who had granted the manor 

 to Alan de Plunkenet, junior, in 1295 

 with reversion to himself and his heirs ; 

 but he failed to win the case, as William de 

 Spershute was still holding in 1431. (De 

 Banco R. Mich. 8 Hen. VI, m. 241.) 



> Sir T. Phillipps, Visit, of Wilts. 



Feet of F. Hants. Hil. 12 Eliz. 



" Ibid. Div. Cos. East. 27 Eliz. 



Ibid. Hants. Hil. 3 Jas. I. 



14 Chan. Inq. p.m. 1 1 Hen. VIII 

 (Ser. 2), vol. xxxiv, No. 29. 



3 2 4 



Ibid. 21 Hen. VIII, (Ser. 2), file 982, 

 No. 3. 



16 Feet of F. Hants, Mich. 38 Hen. 

 VIII. 



*! Recov. R. Trin. 12 Chas. II, m. 122. 



18 Inq. p.m. 10 Edw. I, No. 53. 



19 Cal.ofPat. 1307-13, p. 20. 



Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. 9, m. 7. 



21 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xix (i), 811 

 (114). 



22 Pat. 21 Eliz.pt. 6, m. 41. 



23 Feet of F. Hants, East. 22 Eliz. 



34 Chan. Inq. p.m. 2 Jas. I (Ser. 2), pt. 2, 

 No. 65511 Jas. I (Ser. 2), pt. iii, No. 56. 

 Ibid. 

 26 Petty Bag Cert. No. 4. 



