A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



William Stoner brought an action against Thomas 

 Dormer for entering into his closes and house at Nurs- 

 ling Beaufo. 68 



On the death of Sir William in 1494 Nursling 

 Beaufo passed to his only son and heir, John Stoner, 

 aged ten and more at the time of his father's death. 59 

 John Stoner died young without issue soon afterwards, 

 and then there was ' great dyscencyon, dyscorde, and 

 varyaunce moved and styred between Sir Adrian 

 Fortescue and Dame Anne, daughter and heir-general 

 of Sir William, and Thomas Stoner brother of Sir 

 William,' M the said Thomas claiming certain manors 

 by virtue of gifts of entail made to his ancestors and 

 their heirs male. However Nursling Beaufo was not 

 among the disputed manors, 61 but passed quietly to 

 Anne and her husband Sir Adrian. The latter is a 

 picturesque figure of the period, a warm supporter of 

 Henry VII, by whom he was knighted on Bosworth 

 Field, and a faithful servant of Henry VIII, who re- 

 warded him, as so many others, by execution on a 

 charge of high treason non proven. 63 



In 1506, six years after the last attempt made by 

 Thomas Dormer to regain it, 63 Sir Adrian Fortescue 

 had alienated the manor to Edmund Dudley, 61 the 

 well-known colleague of Richard Empson, a grasping 

 minister of a still more grasping king, whose 

 miserliness may be justified but cannot be excused. 

 Henry VIII on his accession brought his father's 

 unpopular ministers to trial, and they being found 

 guilty were beheaded on Tower Hill in I 5 id. 65 Thus 

 Nursling Beaufo, among the other forfeited estates of 

 Edmund Dudley, came into the hands of the king, 66 

 and was granted in the next year to Francis 

 Cheyney. 67 



However, by the earnest petition of Edward Guild- 

 ford, guardian of the young John Dudley son of 

 Edmund, the attainder was reversed in 1513, and by 

 special Act of Parliament John Dudley was restored 

 in name, blood, and degree to inherit his father's 

 lands. 68 John Dudley, who in 1525 was knighted by 

 Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, general of the 

 English army in France, 69 was sent in 1527 in the 

 train of Cardinal Wolsey on an embassy to France. 70 

 In the same year he alienated the manor of Nursling 

 Beaufo to John Mill," to whom in 1545 the king 



granted the manor of Nursling Prior (q.v.), and 

 from this time the two manors have followed the same 

 descent. 



The early history of GROPE PLACE? which was 

 a member of the manor of Southwells," is obscure. 

 It was probably granted to the dean and canons of 

 St. George's Chapel, Windsor, by Edward III, who in 

 1344, according to Froissart, endowed them with a 

 good and liberal revenue. 74 In 1442 John Grene- 

 feld was tenant of Grove Place. In his will dated 

 8 June, 1448, he styles himself of ' Southwelles in 

 the county of Southampton, gentylman,' and especially 

 gives to Ingram Huet, 'farmer of Southwellys,' his 

 furred gown, and to John Huet, ' my farmer of the 

 Grove,' his black gown." In 1480 John Hammond 

 was lessee of Grove Place. 76 Thirty-three years later 

 the dean and canons granted a forty-five years' lease to 

 the abbess and convent of Romsey. 77 In 1536 the 

 latter granted the remainder of the term to John 

 Uttoft or Huttoft and Bridget his wife, 78 who at the 

 dissolution of the monastery took another lease of 

 fifty years. 79 In 1561 the dean and canons granted 

 a lease for eighty-one years to James Pagett of Poulton 

 (co. Wilts.) and his son-in-law William Paulet. 8 * 

 The latter by indenture of 1 5 90 made over the 

 remainder of the term to Sir Richard Mill and Mary 

 his wife, 81 who were already lessees from the dean and 

 canons of another tenement in Nursling called Grove 

 Place with a garden containing 6 acres, 81 which in a 

 document of the early seventeenth century is described 

 as a capital messuage called the old farm of Nursling. 85 

 According to the statement of the plaintiffs in the 

 Chancery suit, of which mention has already been 

 made, Sir Richard often declared that on his death 

 Grove Place was to go to his sister Anne with remainder 

 to her son Sir Thomas Bilson in tail, but like the rest 

 of the property it passed to Sir Thomas Savage. 84 

 From this date the leasehold estate remained with 

 the lords of the manor of Nursling, but on the 

 reversion of it to Sir Richard Mill, bart., in 1752, by 

 the death of Robert Knollys without issue, there is 

 evidence to show that the tenancy of the mansion with 

 88 acres became separated from that of the farm-lands, 

 the latter being retained in the Mill family under a 

 succession of seven years' leases till the death of Sir 





58 De Bane. R. East. 17 Hen. VII, m. 



315 </ 



59 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ix, No. 91. 

 6I > See Stat. of the Realm, 28 Hen. VIII, 



cap. 36. 



' L. and P. Hen. PHI, x, 1091. 



62 For an account of his life see 

 Archdall Lodge, Peerage of Ireland, iii, 



345- 



68 De Bane. R. East. 17 Hen. VII, m. 

 315 </. 



"Ibid. 21 Hen. VII, m. 152. See 

 also the will of Edmund Dudley, where 

 tfie Hampshire manor mentioned as 

 purchased of Sir A. Fortescue is evidently 

 Nursling Beaufo (L. and P. Hen. fill, 



> '79)- 



65 Dugdale, Bar. ii, 2 1 8. 



66 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), Ixxviii, 

 No. 75. 



67 Pat. 3 Hen. VIII, pt. 2, m. II; 

 and pt. 3, m. 7. 



68 L. and P. Hen. nil, i, 2082, 3687. 



69 Burke, Extinct Peerage. 



70 L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (2), 3216. 



71 Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 19 Hen. 

 VIII. 



78 Much of this account is taken from 



a paper read at a meeting of the Hamp- 

 shire Field Club, 8 May, 1895, by Mr. B. 

 W. GreenBeld, M.A., F.S.A. 



78 In 1 860 this manor consisted of Scuda- 

 more Farm, Lee, part of Toothill Street 

 Meadow, North Romsey, Osborne House, 

 Church Street, Romsey and Grove Place, 

 house and premises, and covered an area of 

 444 a. 2 r. 1 5 j p. (Proc. Hants Field Club, 

 iii, pt. 2, 126). 



7* Proc. Hants Field Club, iii, pt. 2, 1 1 5. 

 The archives of the dean and canons have 

 been examined regarding Grove Place, but 

 the librarian at Windsor cannot discover 

 how they became its possessors, as the 

 Court Rolls date only from 1442. 



76 P.C.C. Will 35, Luffnam. In 1489 

 his widow Alice claimed dower from the 

 manor, but apparently with no success 

 (De Bane. R. Trin. 4 Hen. VII, m. 102.) 



7" Proc. Hantt Field Club, iii, pt. 2, 115. 



77 Ibid. 



78 Mins. Accts. Hants, No, 135,111. 60, 



79 Proc. Hants Field Club, iii, pt. 2, 115. 



80 Chan. Enr. Dec. R. 1286. James 

 Pagett is described as of Grove Place 

 in a Chancery proceeding of 1561 (Chan. 

 Proc. Eliz.). 



43 6 



81 Ibid. James Pagett'i second wife 

 Bridget was only daughter of John Mill, 

 and consequently aunt of Sir Richard 

 Mill. 



82 So described in the paper in the 

 archives of the dean and canons of 

 Windsor, dated 6 July, 1560, reciting 

 a former paper of 1523, which contains 

 the following item : ' Thomas Mylle 

 generosus tenet unum tenementum in 

 parochia de Nurslinge vocatum Grove 

 Place cum domibus et edcrtciis eidem 

 tenemento pertinentibus cum curtilagio 

 et gardino continente per estimationem 

 VI acras.' Doubtless this was the old 

 manor-house pulled down during the 

 seventeenth century, the site of which has 

 been traced to the south-west of the 

 present mansion between the lime-tree 

 avenue and the railway. But for some 

 time the two tenements called Grove 

 Place, distinguished sometimes as 'the 

 New House' and 'the Old House,' 

 existed side by side, as the probability is 

 that the present mansion was built by 

 James Pagett between 1561 and 1581. 



83 Chan. Enr. Dec. R. 1286. 

 Ibid. 



