BERMONDSPIT HUNDRED 



UPTON GREY 



SciATiR-BooTH, Lord 

 Basing. Urgent a saltire 

 and a border azure <with 

 a quarter ermine and 

 therein a boar's head erect 

 and razed sable between 

 three crescents or. 



three or four pollarded lime trees, is the rectory, facing 

 which is a well-kept garden. A few yards higher up 

 on the same side is the church facing an open meadow, 

 beyond which the land sweeps away west to the high 

 country round Herriard and Ellisfield. Past the 

 church the ground still rises north-west as the road 

 curves west past Upton Grey House, the residence of 

 Mr. Charles Holme, which stands on the south side of 

 theroad as it runs across the western part of the parish to 

 Tunworth. Hoddington House, a low long red-brick 

 house, the seat of Lord Basing, stands on the high 

 ground which rises imme- 

 diately south-west of the vil- 

 lage, in a fine open park, from 

 the slopes of which wide views 

 reach away west and south 

 over Herriard and Ellisfield 

 to Farleigh Wallop and Dum- 

 mer, and to the east over Long 

 Sutton and Crondall to the 

 distant Surrey hills. A road 

 rising south-west from the 

 village and skirting the western 

 boundary of the grounds of 

 Hoddington House branches 

 just beyond the grounds 

 through fine open country 

 south-east to South Warn- 

 borough and south through 



the length of the parish towards Alton. The manor 

 house is an Elizabethan structure with a finely carved 

 oak staircase and panelled rooms. For the last 100 

 years it has been used as a farm-house, but is now 

 undergoing a careful restoration. 



The soil is chalk with a subsoil of chalk, producing 

 the ordinary root crops, with wheat, barley, and oats, 

 on the 1,522 acres of arable land. Including two 

 or three small copses in the north-west of the parish 

 and in the south and south-east, there are 350^ acres 

 of woodland in the parish, while 489 acres are per- 

 manent grass. Several disused chalk-pits are scattered 

 about the parish. 



The statement that the 'Aoltone' 

 MANORS of Domesday held by Hugh de Port re- 

 presents the Upton Grey of to-day is sup- 

 ported by the fact that the De Ports and their descend- 

 ants remained the overlords of Upton Grey for several 

 centuries. In the time of the Confessor it had been 

 held by a certain Azor and was then worth 10 ; by 

 the time of the Conquest it had fallen to 8, but in 

 1086 it had risen to its former value. 1 



There are no documents to show its history in the 

 twelfth century, but in 1206 a certain Thomas de Ireis 

 quitclaimed to Robert Arundel one virgate of land in 

 Upton.* It is probable that the latter belonged to 

 the Dorset or Somerset branch of the Arundel family, 

 of whose origin there is apparently no distinct ac- 

 count nor any evidence to show how they became 

 possessed of land in Upton. In 1218 Hugh Arundel, 

 probably son or brother of Robert, with the consent 

 of William Arundel his chief lord, gave one virgate 



OOP 



of land in Upton to Peter son of Godfrey, 1 while 

 later in the same reign William Arundel made a 

 fine with Hubert prior of Merton in which he 

 confirmed the gift of one hide of land which his 

 father Hugh had made to that abbey. 4 In 1241 

 William Arundel made a promise to grant half the 

 manor of Upton to Robert Wauchan ( when the 

 term of eight years for which it was held by Hugh 

 de Cumbe should have expired) to hold until the 

 coming of age of William his son and heir, to whom 

 the half-manor was then to revert to hold with the 

 remainder of the estate. 4 William Arundel the 

 younger sold the Upton estate to John de Grey, Lord 

 of Codnor, who held it as one knight's fee of John 

 de St. John.* 



John de Grey died in 1272, leaving a son aged 

 seventeen, and the same year Lucy his widow made 

 complaint that the escheator 

 had taken into the king's hands 

 the manor of Upton, of which 

 she was jointly enfeoffed with 

 her husband. 7 From John the 

 property descended through 

 his son Henry to Richard de 

 Grey, to whom Edward III 

 granted free warren in his 

 demesne lands of Upton, 8 and 

 from him it passed in a direct 

 line to his great - grandson 

 Richard de Grey, who married 

 Elizabeth daughter of Lord 

 Bassett of Sapcote. Richard 

 died in 1418 seised of this manor, which he left 

 to his son Henry, who farmed it to Humphrey 

 duke of Gloucester.' His mother Elizabeth, who 

 survived him, held the manor in dower during 

 the lifetime of her son and minority of her grand- 

 son. 10 She died in 1451," and in 1467 Sir Henry 

 Grey and Margaret his wife sold the manor to Sir 

 Richard Illingworth, a distinguished lawyer in the 

 reign of Henry VI. On his death in 1476 the 

 manor was settled upon his son Richard, and from 

 him the property descended to his son William," 

 whose son Ralph conveyed it in 1571 to a certain 

 Ambrose Matthew." In 1606 Andrew Matthew, 

 probably son of Ambrose, and Joan his wife and their 

 son James conveyed all their right in the manor to 

 Roger and John Loker. 14 The same Roger, or pos- 

 sibly his son, died in 1629 seised of the manor, his 

 wife Eleanor surviving, while Barbara a minor and 

 daughter of his son John, deceased, was heiress to the 

 property. 15 



The manor appears to have been conveyed in 

 1631 to a certain Edmund Daniell for the use of 

 Barbara, with reservation of rents to Martha and 

 Eleanor her mother and grandmother respectively. 16 



In 1646 it was in the possession of Malachy 

 Dudeney and Barbara his wife (possibly a married 

 daughter of Barbara, and her husband), and they held 

 the manor certainly until 1 669. From them it passed 

 by marriage of their daughter Barbara to Richard 



G i T of Codnor. 

 Barry argent and azure 

 vtith three roundels gules 

 in the chief. 



1 r.CJi. Hants, i, 4823. 



* Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 8 John. 



* Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 3 Hen. Ill, 

 No. 46. 



4 Feet of F. Hants, 20 Hen. Ill No 206. 



* Feet of F. Hants, Hil. 25 Hen. III. 

 ' Chan. Inq. p.m. 56 Hen. Ill, No. 34. 



"' Col. cflnj. Hen. Ill, 276. 

 " Chart. R. 8 Edw. Ill, m. 20. 

 Close, 19 Hen. VI, m. 26. 

 w Chan. Inq. p.m. 23 Hen. VI, No. 35. 

 11 Ibid. 29 Hen. VI, No. 34. 

 a Ibid. 4 Hen. VII (Ser. 2), file 964, 

 No. 10. 



383 



18 Recov. R. Hil. 13 Eliz. m. 326. 



" Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 4 Jas. I. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 5 Chas. I (Ser. 2), 

 pt. 3, No. 67. 



16 Feet of F. Hants, East. 13 Jas. I ; 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. 5 Chis. I (Ser. 2), pt. 3, 

 No. 67. 



