A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



Henry, who afterwards became Sir Henry Whitehead, 

 lived into the early part of the reign of Charles I. 

 On the marriage of his son Richard with Margery 

 daughter of John Culliford of Encombe (co. Dors.), 

 Sir Henry and Constance his wife evidently settled 

 the manor of Shirley on Margaret as dower, since they 

 had dealings concerning the same in 1621 with Frances 

 Culliford, widow of John, and her brothers Sir Thomas, 

 John, and William Freke of Shroton (co. Dors.). 48 Sir 

 Henry died in 1629 and Shirley and Hill accordingly 

 passed to his son Richard. 49 The latter was sheriff of 

 Hants in 1636 and had a hard task to collect the ship 

 money for the county. In that year he wrote to the 

 council complaining of the backwardness of the county, 

 and how a constable who had failed to duly certify the 

 defaulters, when censured by the writer, had answered 

 that the money would never be gathered during his life- 

 time. For this Whitehead had committed him to prison, 

 ' since when he has become very penitent and begs to 

 be enlarged, promising to use his best endeavours to 

 perform the service.' * During the next year White- 

 head was told that the arrears, which stood at .404, must 

 be gathered in and the service perfected, 51 but in spite of 

 his hard work the task seems to have been almost imprac- 

 ticable. 5 * Perhaps it was partly the ungratefulness of 

 this task that soured him against the king's cause and made 

 him so faithful an adherent of Parliament during the 

 Civil War. Clarendon mentions him with Norton, 

 Onslow, Jarvis, and Morley among the colonels of 

 regiments composing the Parliamentary troops of 

 Hampshire and Sussex. 53 In 1643 he was one of 

 those appointed to extort large sums of money from 

 the Cavaliers on pain of imprisonment at Portsmouth, 

 and is credited with the saying that ' he had been at a great 

 charge to build a cage at Portsmouth where many Hamp- 

 ton birds should sing very suddenly.' M Besides being 

 present at the various attacks on Basing House under 

 Waller's command, Colonel Whitehead, in the beginning 

 of 1 644, besieged Bishop's Waltham palace, and having 

 obtained its surrender with the help of the London 

 brigade under Major-General Browne, was given per- 

 mission ' to pull down the house if he chose.' 55 In 

 June of the same year he was one of those ordered by 

 the House of Commons to take steps within a month 

 for sequestration of the estates of Papists and delinquents 

 of a less value than ^12,000 within London and 

 Westminster. The proceeds were to be applied to 

 pay off arrears to the garrisons of Portsmouth and of 

 Hurst, Southsea and Calshot Castles. 56 Few facts seem 

 discoverable about the end of Richard Whitehead's 

 life or for the history of the manor of Shirley during 

 the reign of Charles II. It was probably held by his 

 son Francis, 57 but before 1684 it had come into the 

 hands of Richard Whitehead, either a son or brother 

 of Francis, who in that year, probably on the marriage 

 of his son Henry with Mary the daughter of Richard 

 Norton of Southwick had dealings with Richard Norton 

 and others concerning the manor. 58 Mary, the daugh- 

 ter of Henry and Mary, married Alexander Thistle- 

 thwayte in IJIJ, and the manor thus passed to the 

 Thistlethwaytes with whom it remained for a consider- 

 able period. 



In the middle of the nineteenth century however 

 the greater part of Shirley was sold in building allot- 

 ments, and consequently the manor ceased to exist. 



From early times the lords of the manor of Shirley 

 engaged in disputes with the mayor and burgesses of 

 Southampton as to whether 

 the east side of the manor was 

 within the jurisdiction of the 

 town or not. The point was 

 disputed as early as 1528-9, 

 the following entry occurring 

 in the steward's account for 

 that year : ' costs for the meet- 

 ing of the Town's counsel and 

 Mistress Whitehed for the 

 variance of our liberties in 

 Hill Lane.' 69 In 1596 a suit 

 was still pending in the Court 

 of Wards and Liveries between 

 Henry Whitehead and the town, 

 challenge,' say the court-leet jury, 



THISTLITHWAYTE. Or 

 a bend azure <witb three 

 fbeons or thereon. 



' He seemeth to lay 

 : unto all or the most 



part of the common pasture belonging to us and others 

 the inhabitants, leading up within our liberties and 

 perambulation towards Cut-thorn as yet time out of 

 memory ever enjoyed, held and occupied by the in- 

 habitants of Southampton without any lawful challenge 

 or impeachment.' M In 1 600 they presented that ' the 

 inhabitants on the east side of Hill Street ought to do 

 their suit and service at our Law-day.' In 161 1 Hill 

 was again stated to be ' within the liberties of South- 

 ampton,' 61 and it was not until 1713 that the form 

 ' through the village ' was dropped for ' northward 

 from the village.' 6S 



A water-mill was appurtenant to the manor of 

 Shirley and Hill from an early date, 63 but it has now 

 fallen into disuse. 



BANISTER'S COURT (Banaster Court, xv cent.; 

 Banister's Farm, xvii cent.) was from an early date 

 held by the Banisters of Idsworth in the hundred of 

 Finchdean (q.v.) 61 The mayor and burgesses of 

 Southampton long claimed that the manor was within 

 the jurisdiction of the town, and in the middle of the 

 seventeenth century, when Sir Edward Banister was 

 owner of Banister's Farm, as it was then called, James 

 Needle and James Flower, collectors of taxes in the 

 ward of All Saints Southampton levied a distress upon 

 it. 65 There is an entry in the town-book to the effect 

 that the trial of the suit was ordered to be at New 

 Sarum (co. Wilts.), the point of issue being whether 

 Banister's Farm was in the county of Hants, or in the 

 county of the town of Southampton, but nothing is 

 said as to the date or the result of the trial. 66 Banister's 

 Court and Banister's Park at the present day are in- 

 cluded in the ecclesiastical parish of Shirley. Banis- 

 ter's Court is now used as a private school, while Ban- 

 ister's Park serves as the county cricket ground. 



REDBRIDGE (Hreodbrycg) occurs as a boundary- 

 mark as early as 956 in the charter whereby King 

 Edwy granted land in Millbrook to Prince Wulfic. 67 ' 

 According to the settlement of the bounds of the port 

 of Southampton as returned into the exchequer in 

 1680, the line on the west was drawn up the stream 



Feet of F. Hants, Mich. 19 Jas. I. 



49 Chan. Incj. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccxlviii, 

 No. 92. Cat. S.P. Dam. 1635-6, p. 392. 



"Ibid. 1636-7, p. 233. 



*> See letters, ibid. pp. 217,230, 337, Sec. 



" Clarendon, Hiit. of the Rebellion (ed. 

 Macray), iii, 410. 



14 Godwin, The Civil War in Hampshire, 

 6 1, quoting from Mercurius Aulicui. 

 5S Ibid. 141, 142, quoting ut sufra. 

 66 Ibid. 157 ; Com. Journ. iii, 515. 

 "Berry, Hants Gen. 287. 



58 Feet of F. Div. Cos. HiL I & 2 Jas. II. 



59 Davies, op. cit. 42. 



43 



o Ibid. 43. n Ibid. Ibid. 44. 



Feet of F. Div. Cos. Hil. 56 Hen. Ill, 

 and Hants, Mich. 17 Jas. I. 



M Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), viii, No. 113; 

 ix, No, 32 ; ccxcii, No. 177. 



65 Davies, op. cit. 43 ; 



66 Ibid. 7 Cott. Chart, viii, 12. 



