A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



Moundsmere Farm, lying on the downs in the 

 north-east, is the most interesting spot in the parish. 

 When the property of Southwick Priory, including 

 the manor of Moundsmere, passed to Winchester 

 College by exchange with Henry VIII in 1543, 

 the farmstead was in the very next year used as a 

 sick-house for the Winchester scholars who were 

 stricken down by the plague that visited Winchester 

 in 1544. Thus new buildings appear to have been 

 run up round the farm-house during that year, and 

 a number of scholars were sent there both in the 

 autumn and winter terms. 1 In 1554, on the occasion 

 of another outbreak of the plague, scholars were again 

 sent to Moundsmere, and, probably by means of a 

 certain sum over from Queen Mary's largess given 

 on her bridal visit to the college, ' the chyldren's 

 hows at Mouseberie (sic) for their comfort in tyme of 

 siknes' was repaired and the barn was fitted with 

 bed-places and windows for their reception. 1 Mr. 

 Kirby, in his Annals of Winchester College? quotes an 

 interesting clause inserted after this date in all suc- 

 cessive leases of the demesne land of the manor, re- 

 serving to the college ' the new buildings adjoining 

 the manor house ' with all new rooms that might 

 hereafter be built for such time only as the warden, 

 scholars, schoolmasters, clerks, or servants of the 

 college should ' resort, come, and remain there for the 

 avoiding of the plague or any such pestilential sick- 

 ness.' But although the tenant of Moundsmere Farm 

 was thus obliged to receive sick scholars at any time, 

 when the plague of 1666 made its appearance in 

 Winchester the sick scholars instead of being sent to 

 Moundsmere were sent to a farm-house at Cranley, 

 and presumably from that time the tenant of Mounds- 

 mere escaped his obligation. 4 



Cobbett, in his Rural Rides;' mentions the avenue 

 of yew trees which runs east of the road south of the 

 village at Preston Candover, estimating it as probably 

 a mile long, ' each containing as nearly as I can guess 

 from twelve to twenty feet of timber.' Chalk, as he 

 says, is the favourite soil of the yew tree, and chalk 

 composes both the soil and subsoil of Preston Can- 

 dover. Thus on the 2,498^ acres of arable land the 

 usual crops of wheat, turnips, and oats are grown. 

 Preston Down in the south-east of the parish, with 

 the downs in the north round Moundsmere, make up 

 the greater part of the 985 acres of permanent grass. 



There are numerous small copses in the west of 

 the parish Lilley's Copse and Preston Copse with 

 the small Upper Barn Copse and Furze Yard Copse, 

 and these with Inham Copse near Axford and the 

 large stretch of woodland known as Preston Oak Hills 

 Wood which fills up the north-east corner of the 

 parish, make up the 405! acres of woodland included 

 in Preston Candover. 



In PRESTON CANDOVER at the 

 MANORS date of the Domesday Survey there were 

 six separate estates, five of which were 

 owned by the Conqueror's followers who had re- 

 placed the Saxon owners, whilst the sixth was still 

 held by a Saxon priest, the pre-Conquest owner. 

 Of these estates William Mauduit had one which in 

 the Confessor's time had been held as two manors ; 

 Ralf de Mortimer and his under-tenant Oidelard held 

 the second which had before belonged to Cheping ; 

 Hugh de Port, whose under-tenant was Anschitel, 

 held the third which had been a portion of the 

 possessions of Earl Godwin ; clerks, or priests, had 

 the fourth which had been the land of Alvric ; Chep- 

 ing had the fifth which was before held by Sberne 

 of Queen Edith ; and lastly, Edwin the priest held 

 the sixth of King William as he had held it of King 

 Edward. 6 



No connexion can be made out between these 

 separate owners and the overlords or owners of the 

 various manors found later in the parish, and any 

 attempt to discover one must be conjectural, except 

 in the case of the lands of William Mauduit which 

 by the twelfth century were in the hands of Robert de 

 Pont de 1'Arche/ and in the case of the Mortimer pos- 

 sessions, which remained to that family, Roger de 

 Mortimer and his son Edmund holding in Candover 

 before 1398 and 1424 a fee worth ioo/. 8 



Upon the Pipe Roll of 1 1 66 an assessment for 

 CANDOfER SCOTLAND was given as half a mark. 9 

 This was evidently the manor that, in the thirteenth 

 century, Jordan and William Eschotland held. 10 No 

 further trace of the Eschotland family or their manor 

 can be found unless it can be identified with the 

 manor of Preston Candover, which appears for the 

 first time in the reign of Edward III held by the 

 Hoyvilles. 



In 1368 John de Hoyville, son and heir of William 

 de Hoyville, granted to William de Wykeham, bishop 

 of Winchester, the manor of PRESTON CANDOfER 

 and lands in ' Candeveresden.' " In the reign of 

 Richard II the bishop granted this manor to Thomas 

 Warenner and his wife Joan." The only child of 

 Thomas Warenner and Joan was Agnes, to whose 

 husband, Sir Walter Sandys, the manor descended in 

 the reign of Henry IV." 



The manor remained in the Sandys family " until 

 some time in the latter part of the sixteenth or early 

 part of the seventeenth century, when it seems to 

 have been alienated to a man of the name of Guye, 

 since in 1636 James Guye, yeoman of Preston Can- 

 dover, sold for 1,110 the manor of Preston Can- 

 dover with all manorial rights to George Long. 15 



The new owner, a stout adherent of the Parlia- 

 ment, lived in London during the Civil War, and 



1 For accounts, &c. proving this see 

 T. F. Kirby, Annalt of Winchester College, 

 259. 



2 See Compotus Roll quoted by Mr. 

 Kirby as above. 8 Op. cit. 260. 



* T. F. Kirby, op. cit. 355. 



5 Wm. Cobbett, Rural Rides, 18, 22. 



6 V.C.H. Hants, i, 477^, 482*, 490^, 

 493*, 504*, 5050. 



7 'Robertas Mauduit tenuit feodum 

 unius militis et mode Robertus de Ponte 

 Arche ' (Red Bk. Exch. i, 206). 



8 Chan. Inq. p.m. 22 Rich. II, No. 34 ; 

 ibid. 3 Hen. VI, No. 32. The earl of 

 Arundel also held, in 1166, a knight's 

 fee in Candover ; Red Bk. Exch. i, 202. 



Pipe R. 1 3 Hen. II. The early over- 

 lordship of this property is not known, 

 but in the fifteenth century Walter 

 Sandys held it of the abbey of Hyde, 

 and his successors Thomas and Sir Wil- 

 liam Sandys held of Richard Brun and 

 Sir Thomas Brun ; Feud. Aids, ii, 364 ; 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. 20 Hen. VI, No. 35 ; 

 ibid. II Hen. VII, No. no. 



10 Add. MS. 33180. Another varia- 

 tion of the name occurs as Candover 

 'Scudland.' A bull of Pope Alexander 

 confirmed the chapel of ' Candveura Scud- 

 land ' to Southwick Priory, which had 

 been granted ' in elemosinam' by Jordan 

 Eschotland ; ibid. 



372 



11 Clo.e, 4 z Edw. HI, m. i6</. 



la Feet of F. Hants, East, z Ric. II. 



18 Chan. Inq. p.m. 9 Hen. IV, No. 27 ; 

 Feud. Aids, ii, 344. 



14 Chan. Inq. p.m. 20 Hen. VI, No. 

 35 ; ibid. 24 Hen. VI, No. 40 ; Feet of 

 F. Hants, East. 9 Hen. VII ; Chan. Inq. 

 p.m. 1 1 Hen. VII, vol. 1 1, No. 1 10 ; ibid. 

 2 Eliz. pt. i, No. 143 ; Feet of F. Hants, 

 I Edw. VI. In the reign of Henry VI 

 the manor seems to have comprised a 

 manor-house, five other houses, and 1 60 

 acres of arable land, 1 1 acres of meadow, 

 150 acres of pasture, 20 acres of wood, 

 and rent of various free tenants. 



u Close, 1 2 Chas. I, pt. 6. 



