FAWLEY HUNDRED 



WEST MEON 



colours, and soon after appeared in a great body upon 

 the hill on the left hand, the Town intending (as some 

 prisoners confessed) to take us at church, it being the 

 Fast Day.' However, ' this godly body of Londoners ' 

 had already kept the fast on the Wednesday before 

 and were therefore ' provided to entertain ' the enemy 

 and drew their forces into a body near the town. 

 Then marching out ' in the Forlorn-Hope expecting 

 the enemy every hour to fall upon us ' they were 

 ' forced to make a stand a mile or so from the town in 

 extream danger ' till joined by Waller's forces coming 

 from East Meon. 1 



A Roman building in Lippen Wood has been ex- 

 cavated in 1905-6, and proved to be of an inter- 

 esting type. In plan it was a rectangle of 1 40 ft. by 

 60 ft., standing nearly north and south. The en- 

 trance was by a gateway on the east, opening to a 

 central courtyard, on the north side of which was the 

 dwelling-house, and on the south the outbuildings. 

 The principal rooms in the house were arranged from 

 east to west on either side of a central hall or corridor 

 1 1 ft. wide ; at the east end the corridor opened to 

 two rooms with well-preserved mosaic floors, each 

 room about 2 1 ft. by 1 1 ft. The two largest rooms 

 flanked the corridor immediately to the south of the 

 first two, and both were about 20 ft. by i8ft. 6 in., 

 but had lost their flooring. At the north-west angle of 

 the house was a room with a channelled hypocaust, and 

 opposite to it, on the south of the corridor, were two 

 small rooms. A good deal of painted plaster was 

 found, and the house was evidently one of some impor- 

 tance. The south-west corner of the courtyard was at a 

 lower level than the rest, and in it were three cham- 

 bers, two of them apsidal, with pillared hypocausts ; 

 all were probably bath-rooms. The remaining build- 

 ings, in the south-east part of the inclosure, were too 

 fragmentary to be identified. 1 * 



There are several references in the 

 MANORS Anglo-Saxon Charters to grants of land 

 ' on the river Meon to the king's 

 thegns and relations ' ; but it is impossible to identify 

 any of them with the manor of WEST MEON, which 

 was held by the bishop in 1086, and which according 

 to the Domesday Survey had always belonged to the 

 church. 1 



The manor of West Meon together with other 

 manors and lands was confirmed to the prior and 

 convent of St. Swithun, Winchester, in 1205,' and 

 by a charter of 1284 John, bishop of Winchester, gave 

 up for himself and his successors all rights in the manor 

 saving the right of overlordship.* It was numbered 

 among the St. Swithun temporalities in 1 29 1, being 

 assessed at 3 1 1 6/. 5 



West Meon was still in the hands of the prior and 

 convent at the time of the Dissolution ; and it was 

 then assessed at 65 8/. zd., more than double its 

 former value. 6 



After the Dissolution the manor with the other 

 possessions of the priory was granted in 1541 to the 

 dean and chapter of Winchester by Henry VIII r for a 

 yearly rent of 178 161. 5 $</.," West Meon, together 

 with four other manors, being charged with the 

 maintenance of six students in theology at Oxford and 

 six at Cambridge. 9 The king, however, compelled 

 the dean and chapter to surrender the five manors in 

 1545 ; and the maintenance for the students ceased. 10 

 In consideration of this surrender Queen Elizabeth in 

 1567 commuted lS 4^. <)\d. of the annual rent paid 

 by the bishop, and in 1674 Charles II for the sum of 

 2,402 9/. 8V. granted 160 i is. 8</., the residue of 

 the rent, to George, bishop of 

 Winchester." In 1544 West 

 Meon was granted by letters 

 patent to Thomas Wriothesley, 

 earl of Southampton, who died 

 seised of the manor in 1550, 

 leaving an infant son, Henry, 

 aged three years, 11 who as the 

 second earl of Southampton 

 held the manor until his death 

 in 1581. He was succeeded 

 by his son Henry, third earl 

 of Southampton, who died in 

 1624, leaving a son Thomas. 13 



Sir Thomas Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, became 

 one of the most trusted advisers of Charles II, and he 

 remained in close attendance upon him until his death 

 in 1667. 



Shortly before this time, Sir Thomas, who left no 

 male heir, must have sold the manor of West Meon to 

 Thomas Neale, for he was holding it in i664 1415 ; and 

 in 1677 sold the manor to Isaac Foxcroft. 16 



Nearly a century later West Meon was still in the 

 possession of the Foxcroft family ; for in 1773 Henry 

 Foxcroft was holding the manor together with all 

 lands and tenements in West Meon, free warren and 

 view of frankpledge. 17 In the same year, however, 

 he sold it for the sum of 5,3 50 M to Charles Rennett, 

 who was still lord of the manor in 1802. He was 

 followed by John Dunn, formerly his steward, who 

 held the manor until the marriage of his only daughter 

 with Captain Aubertin ; and by this marriage West 

 Meon passed to the Aubertins, from whom it was pur- 

 chased in 1 894 by Mr. Henry G. Johnson, the present 

 lord of the manor. 19 



At the time of the Domesday Survey there were 



WRIOTHESLEY. Axurt 

 a cross or between jour 

 falcons close argent. 



1 King's Pamphlets, E. 40, No. i . 



la For an account of the excavations 

 ee Arch. Journ. Ixvi, i. 



V.C.H. Hants, i, 461. 



8 Cat. Pap. Letters, i, 21, 



4 Chart. R. 13 Edw. I, No. 98. 



*Poft Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.) 213. 

 Licence was granted to the prior and con- 

 vent in 1333 to impark their woods in 

 West Meon (6 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 13). 

 A licence was granted to William of 

 Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, to alien- 

 ate to the prior and convent in 1383 

 certain lands and tenements in West Meon, 

 held for the rent of one rose and the ser- 

 vice of one man working for a day in 

 autumn ; and the reversion of other lands 

 and tenements after the death of Elizabeth 



Langrish, who had held them in dower 

 since the death of her husband William 

 Atte Halle. This grant was made in part 

 satisfaction of 50 worth of land which 

 the prior and convent had licence to 

 acquire in mortmain by letters patent 

 from the late king (Pat. 16 Ric. II, pt. 3, 

 m. 7). The bishop is mentioned as hold- 

 ing West Meon for the prior and convent 

 in 1383 (Inq. p.m. 6 Ric. II, No. 

 1 60). 

 8 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), v, App. ix. 



7 Pat. 33 Hen. VIII, pt. 9, m. 34-40 ; 

 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvi, 878 (i). 



8 Pat. 21 Chas. II, pt. 2, m. 12. 



3 Winch. Cat/,. Doc. (Hants Rec. Soc.), 

 i, 171. 

 10 Pat. 21 Chas. II, pt. 2, No. 12. 



343 



u Ibid. 



" W. & L. Inq. p.m. 4 Edw. VI (Ser. 

 2), vol. 5, No. 103. 



18 Ibid. (Ser. 2), 22 Jas. I, bdle. 41, 

 No. 1 20. 



Recov. R. Mich. 1 6 Chas. II, 

 m. 102. 



15 In 1675 Thomas Neale conveyed the 

 manor to Sir John Norton, John Garrard, 

 and others (Feet of F. Div. Cos. Trin. 

 27 Chas. II) evidently as a settlement. 



18 Feet of F. Div. Cos. East. 29 Chas. II. 



W Recov. R. Trin. 13 Geo. III. m. 42 ; 

 ibid. East. 13 Geo. Ill, m. 347. 



18 Close, 13 Geo. Ill, pt. 14, m. 19, 

 No. 1 1 . 



" Information supplied by Mr. John- 



