MICHELDEVER HUNDRED 



MICHELDEVER 



ten hides at Micheldever and fifty more at Waltham and 

 Micheldever. 1 * These were not all of the abbey's 

 possessions there, for under Edward the Confessor 

 Micheldever was assessed at 106 hides. 14 



Micheldever manor was the ' caput ' of the abbot's 

 barony, the undertenants owing suit of court there for 

 their holdings. 



In 1226 there appear the first signs of a contest 

 between the abbot and the monks as to the tenure 

 of the manor. Abbot Selid, looking upon it as 

 parcel of the abbot's temporalities, had granted a 

 virgate of land there to Ralph le Clauer without the 

 consent of the convent, and in this year an assize was 

 held as to whether Ralph's son Walter should hold 

 the land of the abbot and his church or of the abbot 

 in demesne ; " it was finally decided late in the four- 

 teenth century that Micheldever with its members 

 pertained to the office of abbot, 16 and the manor was 

 therefore seized into the king's hands on the voidance 

 of the abbey." The manorial lands were split up 

 into numerous small holdings held of the abbot by 

 free service. 18 Among the profits of the manor the 

 underwood cut in Micheldever Wood was of some 

 importance. In 1300 the king granted licence to 

 Hyde Abbey to inclose 60 acres of the wood, for 

 though it lay within the bounds of Pamber Forest 

 wild beasts did not repair there much, 19 and in 

 1328 the abbey was granted free warren in its demesne 

 lands at Micheldever. 80 A few years later Richard 

 Edmund of Micheldever was fined ^20 for having 

 entered the abbey's warren and caught and carried 

 away hares and rabbits to the value of loos.' 1 In 

 1421 the crown attempted to claim certain services 

 from the abbey, stating that Henry I gave the monks 

 Micheldever manor on condition that they should 

 sing for his soul and those of his successors, and fur- 

 nish a ' meete of kenettes or racches ' to hunt wolves, 

 wild cats, and other harmful animals. The abbot in 

 reply asserted that the abbey had held the manor in 

 frankalmoign from time immemorial. 81 Some years 

 before the surrender of the abbey, which took place in 

 1538, the site of the manor with a dove-cote and a 

 rabbit warren called Godwynesdowne was leased to 

 John Smyth, his wife Joan and their son John for thirty- 

 five years on condition that they should provide the 

 abbot's steward and clerk with meat and drink and 

 fodder for their horses twice yearly when they held 

 courts there, and should give the steward and bailiff 

 breakfast when they held the hundred court." In 

 1538 the manor was taken into the king's hands on 

 the dissolution of Hyde Abbey, and was purchased 

 from the crown in 1544 by Thomas Wriothesley, 

 afterwards earl of Southampton, soon after his appoint- 

 ment as Lord Chancellor." Wriothesley already held 

 the site of the rectory under a lease from the abbey, 

 and also had some land called Butlers in the parish. 

 He held the manor jointly with his wife Jane, and 



died seised of it in July, 1550, when his son and 

 heir Henry was only three years old." This 

 Henry died in 1581, leaving a young son and heir of 

 the same name, 86 who was attainted in 1601 for his 

 share in the insurrection of the earl of Essex, but was 

 restored to his honours in l6o3. 87 His lands, includ- 

 ing Micheldever, which had been forfeit to the crown, 

 were restored at the same time, and in 1607 the king 

 granted him return of writs, waifs and strays, and 

 goods of felons, treasure-trove, assize of bread and ale, 

 court leet, freedom from juries and assizes, and also 

 that his tenants on the lands which had belonged to 

 Hyde Abbey should be quit from pleas, tallage, aids, 

 geld and scot, and should be exempt from shires, 

 ward, and hundred-penny. 88 In 1624 he died at 

 Bergen-op-Zoom of the pestilence, and was succeeded 

 by his second son Thomas," 

 who was an ardent Royalist, 

 and was rewarded with the 

 office of Lord High Treasurer 

 at the Restoration. After his 

 death in 1667 his estates were 

 divided among his three daugh- 

 ters, Micheldever being as- 

 signed to the second, Rachel 

 Vaughan, 30 who afterwards 

 married William Lord Russell, 

 executed in 1683 as being 

 concerned in the Rye House 

 Plot. Micheldever manor de- 



RUSSELL. Argent a 

 lion gules and a chief 

 sable with three scallop: 

 argent therein. 



scended to her grandson, Wriothesley, who inherited 

 the title of duke of Bedford.* 1 He was succeeded by 

 his son John,* 8 whose widow Gertrude held courts 

 there during the minority of the heir Francis,* 3 eighth 

 duke of Bedford, who in February, 1801, sold 

 Micheldever to Sir Francis Baring.* 4 He was suc- 

 ceeded by Sir Thomas Baring, 

 in whose name courts were 

 held at Micheldever in No- 

 vember, l8n.* 4 His son and 

 heir Sir Thomas Baring was 

 created Baron Northbrook in 

 1866, the title being taken 

 from the tithing of that name 

 in this parish. His son Tho- 

 mas George Baring was viceroy 

 of India from 1872-6, at the 

 end of which period he was 

 created earl of Northbrook. 

 The estate has remained with 

 his direct descendants, the 

 present earl of Northbrook being lord of the manor. 



The tithing of WEST STR4TTON, consisting of 

 some picturesque cottages and farm-buildings, lies west 

 of the main Winchester to London road, and of the 

 parish of East Stratton, and north-east of Michel- 

 dever village. It is approached by a narrow lane 



BARING. Azure a 

 fesse or and a bear's head 

 in the chief tvith a golden 

 muzzle and ring. 



18 Kemble, Codex Dipt. 642. 



" V.C.H. Hants, i, 469*. These, how- 

 ever, included the above-mentioned lands 

 at Cranborne and elsewhere, which Hugh 

 de Port and his descendants held by 

 knight's service. 



15 Bracton's Note Bk. 1727. 



"Harl. MS. 1761, fol. 177. 



? Ibid. 175*. 



18 Testa de Ne-vill (Rec. Com.), 239. 



19 Inq. a.q.d. file 33, No. 3. Michel- 

 dever Wood had been afforested by Hen. II, 

 but in 1228 the sheriff was ordered to ex- 



clude it from the ancient forest. Cat. Close, 

 1227-31, pp. 102-3. 



Chart. R. 2 Edw. Ill, 17; ibid. 

 3 Edw. Ill, 1 6. 



al Harl. MS. 1761, No. 109. 



M Ibid. fol. 1 4. 



88 Mins. Accts. (Hants), 30-31 Hen. 

 VIII, R. 135, m. 30, et seq. 



" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xix (2), 690 (19). 



85 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vol. 92, 

 No. 78. 



* Ibid. 24 Eliz. pt. i (Scr. 2), No. 46. 



27 Pat. I Jas. I, pt. 2, m. i. 



39 1 



38 Ibid. 5 Jas. I, pt. 15, No. I. 



*> Feet of F. Hants, Mich. 5 Chas. I. 



Ibid. Div. Cos. Hil. 20-21 Chas. II ; 

 Recov. R. East. 21 Chas. II. 



81 Her son Wriothesley who succeeded 

 his paternal grandfather as duke of Bed- 

 ford died during her lifetime. 



M Feet of F. Hants, Hil. 4 Gco. III. 



88 Ct. Bk. of Micheldever penes Lord 

 Northbrook, fol. 86 et seq. 



84 Information kindly supplied by the 

 earl of Northbrook. 



35 Ct. Bk. fol. 113. 



