A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



supplied with water from the Test tributary. Old 

 Farm, which is probably the farm attached to the 

 original manor house, lies in the meadows east of the 

 church. Stoke Farm lies well away from the village 

 on the left hand side of the road to Winchester, 

 while across country to the west is West Stoke Farm. 



The soil of the whole parish is loam with a subsoil 

 of chalk, and the chief crops are wheat, barley, and 

 turnips. 



William Cobbett, ' the homespun politician ' of 

 Surrey, visited Stoke Charity in 1829 and in his Rural 

 Rides (1830) used ' that obscure village ' as an illus- 

 tration of the decay of parishes in the early nineteenth 

 century. ' Formerly,' he says, ' it contained ten 

 farms, but now only two which are owned by 

 Mr. Hinton Bailey and his nephew, and therefore 

 may probably become one. There used to be ten 

 well-fed families in the parish, these taking five to a 

 family made fifty well-fed people. And now all are 

 half starved except the curate and the two families ' 

 (i.e. the farmer and his nephew). The blame for this 

 miserable state he attributed not to the landowners 

 but to ' the infernal funding and taxing system which 

 of necessity drives property into large masses in order 

 to save itself, which crushes little proprietors down 

 into labourers and . . . make them paupers.' 



It seems probable that the lands which 

 MANOR afterwards became Stoke Charity parish 

 were granted as part of the manor of 

 Micheldever to Hyde Abbey by Edward the Elder in 

 904.* However, it would seem that the Abbey had 

 parted with the land by the time of the Domesday 

 Survey if the ' Stockes ' held by the bishop of Win- 

 chester and entered wrongly under Meon Hundred 

 can be STOKE CHARITY? Then of the land of 

 the manor a certain Geoffrey held four hides held of 

 him by villeins. 



By the thirteenth century the manor had passed into 

 the hands of Henry de Caritate or de la Charite and was 

 held of him by John de Windsor while only scutage 

 was owing to the bishop of Winchester.* John de 

 Windsor before his death in 1284 enfeoffed his son 

 Geoffrey de Windsor of the manor of Stoke Charity * 

 and Geoffrey in right of this enfeoffment made fine of 

 1 6 acres of land with appurtenances to Richard de la 

 Rude and Margaret his wife in 1287.* However, 

 the heirship of the manor passed to John de Windsor's 

 granddaughter Alice, daughter of his eldest son Hugh 

 who had seisin of the same when she came of age in 

 1297.' Alice married first John de Alneto, who 

 died in 1323,' and secondly John Everard. She 

 seems to have had one son at least and possibly a 

 daughter by her first husband, since in 1330 she con- 

 veyed part of the manor to Thomas de Alneto who 

 was evidently her son, and the other part to John de 

 Lutershall and Cecilia his wife, who may have been her 

 daughter, with reversion to Thomas. 8 In 1333 

 Thomas de Alneto who was about to sell the manor 



An 



recovered seisin of the same to ensure all rights against 

 Alice and her second husband John Everard, Stephen 

 son of John de Alneto, who may have been another son 

 of Alice, and John de Lutershall and Cecilia his wife.' 

 In proceedings for this purpose Alice and John Everard 

 stated that on Alice's death the manor must revert to 

 the nearest in blood to John de Windsor, that is 

 undoubtedly to Thomas de Alneto eldest son of Alice." 

 During the next year, 1334, Thomas de Alneto sold 

 the manor to John de Hampton who was knight of 

 the shire of Southampton from 1336 to 1344." He 

 was holding the manor as ' half a fee in Oldstoke ' in 

 1346," but died before October, 1357," leaving a son 

 and heir Thomas de Hampton who was also knight of 

 the shire of Southampton in 1362 and was sheriff of 

 the county from 1361 to 1365. In 1370 this same 

 Thomas presented to the living of Stoke Charity. 13 " 

 The manor passed on his death before i 384 to his son 

 and heir John de Hampton, also knight of the shire in 

 1394. In 1384 the manor was said to be held by 

 John son of Thomas de Hampton, of the bishopric of 

 Winchester by the service of two knights' fees, lsb A " 

 inquisition ad quod damnum, 

 taken in 1392, ensured the 

 right of John de Hampton in 

 the manor of ' Eldestoke,' held 

 ' of the Bishop of Winchester 

 for unknown services,' against 

 all claims put forward by Hyde 

 Abbey." This same John 

 seems to have died about 1433 

 in which year his wife Mar- 

 garet was assigned dower in 

 his lands in Stafford." His son 

 and heir John Hampton knight 

 of the shire in 1432," and es- 

 quire of the body to Henry VI 

 in 1454, was in his turn succeeded in the manor 

 by his son Thomas Hampton, but at what date is 

 uncertain. Thomas Hampton died in October, 1483, 

 and was buried in the church of Stoke Charity. 



From the effigies on his tomb in the church it is 

 evident that he and his wife Isabel, who died in 1475, 

 had eight children, two sons and six daughters, four 

 married and two unmarried as is shown by their head- 

 dress. But only the four married daughters survived 

 their father and became his co-heirs. 17 Elizabeth the 

 eldest, wife of Richard Wallop, died after her husband 

 without issue in 1505, the second daughter Juliana 

 wife of William Frost of Avington also died after her 

 husband and without issue in 1526, the third, Anne 

 wife of Morris Whitehead of Tytherley died likewise, 

 at what date is uncertain. Thus the manor came into 

 the possession of Joan, the youngest of the four, and 

 wife of John Waller. He survived her and became 

 lord of Stoke Charity, or rather Oldstoke, as it was 

 still called, in her right. He died in 15256, leaving 

 as heir his grandson Richard, the eldest son of his only 



HAMPTON. Argent a 



cheveron gulfs between 

 three cinauefoils azure 

 with three bezants on the 

 cheveron. 



1 Birch, Cart. Sax. ii, 245, 256, 260 ; 

 Liber de Hyda (Rolls Ser.), 101. Edward 

 granted the manor of Micheldever to the 

 abbey in 901, is supposed to have con- 

 firmed this grant in the Golden Charter 

 of 903, and made a further grant of lands 

 in Micheldever in 904. In this latter 

 grant the lands are said to stretch across 

 and down to the Worthies, and would 

 teem to include Stoke Charity. 



1 V.C.H. Hantt, i, 461. 



' Inq. p.m. 13 Edw. I, No. 22. 



4 Ibid. 



5 Feet of F. Hants, Mich. 15 Edw. I, 

 No. 149. 



6 Abbre-v. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 293*. 

 ' Inq. p.m. 17 Edw. II, No. 41. 



8 See Pat. 7 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 13. 

 Ibid. 

 1 Ibid. 



11 List of Members of Par!. (Parl. 

 Papers). 



la Feud. Aids, ii, 325. 



u Montagu Burrows, Tke Family of 



44 8 



Brocas, 342. Several deeds relating to 

 lands in Stoke Charity, especially a 

 meadow known as 'Brocas mede ' are 

 printed among the Brocas deeds (op. cit. 

 pp. 341-4)- 



185 Winton Epis. Reg. Wykeham, i, fol. 



3. 74- 



18b Montagu Burrows, op. cit. 307. 



14 Inq. a.q.d. 16 Ric. II, pt. I, No. 143. 



14 Inq. p.m. 12 Hen. VI, No. 8. 



18 Parl. Writs. (Rec. Com.). 



" Inq. p.m. 12 Hen. VI, No. 8. 



