A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



Congregational chapel. In the main street are the 

 schools erected in 1855, and now capable of accom- 

 modating 190 children. 



On the south side of the road, opposite the schools, 

 is the parish church of All Saints, erected in 1836 to 

 replace the old church about a mile to the south of 

 the village, of which now only the chancel remains. 

 The Church Farm, close to the old church, is in part 

 an old timber-framed building, and has on the first 

 floor, at the back of the kitchen chimney, a large 

 smoke-room for curing bacon. 



In the north, situated near the river, is a brewery 

 belonging to Messrs. Edwards Limited, supplied from 

 a malt-house in Church Lane, on the south side of 

 the village. 



A few mud cottages on an uninclosed common, 

 tenanted by labourers and squatters, have, since the 

 inclosure of Botley Common in 1863, become the 

 populous and thriving village of Hedge End, which 

 contains the church of St. John the Evangelist, built in 

 1874, an< ^ endowed two years later by the Ecclesias- 

 tical Commissioners, a vicarage adjoining the church 

 also being built. 



The ecclesiastical parish thus formed was consti- 

 tuted a civil parish in 1894, containing 1,694 acres -* 

 Botley Grange, standing in a deer park, and Netley 

 Firs are seats in Hedge End. 



Botley Hill in the south is the seat of R. A. 

 Bayford, K.C., and in its grounds is the site of the 

 house in which Cobbett lived for many years. Steeple 

 Court, standing on some rising ground above the 

 parish wharf, once the residence of the Warners, lords 

 of the manor, is occupied by the widow of the late 

 Admiral Colomb. 



Admiral Rowley lives at Holmesland, a renovated 

 farm-house on the Swaythling road, opposite the 

 vicarage. 



The following place names occur : Mattocksford, 

 Boorley, Wildern. 



In 1889 fragments of tiles and tessellated pavement 

 were found at Fairthorn, south of Botley, pointing to 

 its having been the site of a Roman villa.' 



SOTLEf, which had been a royal manor 

 MANOR held of King Edward by a certain Cheping, 

 belonged to Ralf de Mortimer at the time 

 of the Domesday Survey, 4 and remained in the 

 Mortimer family until the early part of the four- 

 teenth century, when the overlordship rights appa- 

 rently lapsed. 6 



In the thirteenth century the manor was held of 

 the Mortimers by a family which took the name of 

 Botley. In 1263 John de Botley obtained i J vir- 

 gates of land there by a deed of gift from Thomas de 

 la Durhirde and Alice his wife, 6 John de Langrude 

 releasing to him his title to the same land, in ex- 

 change for land in Preston Candover. 7 Four years later 

 John de Botley 8 obtained a royal grant of a weekly 

 market, an annual fair, and free warren in his manor. 9 



Brian de Botley, who probably succeeded John, further 

 increased his property here in 1281 by the acquisition 

 of land and wood from Thomas le Moyne and 

 Margery his wife. 10 



Thomas de Botley, who held Botley manor with 

 its appurtenances at the beginning of the next cen- 

 tury, granted his whole estate here in 1304 to John 

 bishop of Winchester, Robert de Harwedon, and 

 Simon de Fareham, 11 probably under a trust for the 

 endowment of the chapel of Saint Elizabeth without 

 Winchester, to which, three years later, the estate was 

 conveyed (by licence for alienation in mortmain). 1 ' 



From this time until the dissolution of the 

 monasteries Botley remained in the possession a of 

 the college. 



Thomas Wriothesley, earl of Southampton, at this 

 time obtained by royal grant many of the lands 

 formerly held by the religious houses of Hampshire ; 

 among others, Botley manor and church. 14 He died 

 in 1550, leaving a son and heir Henry, then a 

 minor. 15 The latter died in I 582," when the estate 

 passed to his son Henry, third earl of Southampton, 

 who died whilst abroad on the king's service in 

 1624." 



Thomas his son and heir became Lord High 

 Treasurer in 1660, and held the manor until his 

 death without heirs male in 1667. Elizabeth, wife 

 of Edward Noel, first earl of Gainsborough, the elder 

 of his two daughters and co-heirs, inherited most of 

 his property in Hampshire, including the manor of 

 Botley. On the death of their only son without 

 issue, Botley descended to their granddaughter Eliza- 

 beth, wife of William Bentinck, first duke of Port- 

 land. 1 ' It remained in her possession until the year 

 1775, when it was sold to the Rev. Richard Eyre, 

 whose son succeeded him in 1823. Ten years later 

 the manor once more changed hands, when it was 

 purchased by James Warner, the famous agriculturist, 

 and friend of William Cobbett. 19 These two were 

 the original founders of the Botley and South Hants 

 Farmers' Club, and a statue to the memory of the 

 former stands in the Market Hall of Botley. 10 On 

 the death of James Warner the manor passed through 

 the Warner family to Mr. J. C. Warner, solicitor, of 

 Winchester, who now holds it.' 1 The market, fair, 

 and right of free warren, granted to John de Botley 

 in the thirteenth century, were confirmed to St. Eliza- 

 beth's College later in 1447, by Henry VI, and at 

 the Dissolution were granted with Botley manor to 

 Sir Thomas Wriothesley," and the market held until 

 recently on every alternate Monday was a survival of 

 the ancient grant of Henry III. Record is found of 

 certain holders of small portions of land in Botley 

 in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,' 3 but none 

 attained to any importance, and it is impossible to 

 identify these small holdings at the present day. A 

 messuage called ' The Sign of the Swan,' with land 

 in Botley, formed the subject of a Chancery suit in 



3 Information supplied by Rev. R. E. 

 Payne, vicar of Hedge End. 



V.C.H. Hants, i, 310. 



4 Ibid, i, 4901. 



6 Chan. Inq. p.m. II Edw. Ill (ist 

 Nos.), 49 ; ibid. 21 Edw. Ill, No. 57; 

 ibid, 22 Ric. II, No. 34. 



Feet of F. Hants, 47 Hen. Ill, No. 



533- 



^ Ibid. No. 546. 



8 Tata de Nrvill (Rec. Com.), 233*. 



9 Chart. R. 51 Hen. Ill, No. 7. 



10 Feet of F. Hants, 9 Edw. I, No. 62. 



11 Ibid. East. 32 Edw. I. 



13 Cat. of Pat. 1307-13, p. 20. 

 18 Feud. Aids, ii, pp. 318, 351. 

 " Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. 9, m. 6, 7. 

 15 Chan. Inq. p.m. 4 Edw. VI, pt. I 

 (Ser. 2), No. 103. 



Ibid. 24 Eliz. pt. I (Ser. 2), No. 46. 



V Diet. Nat. Biog. 



18 Ibid. See also Titchfield Manor. 



466 



19 Information supplied by Mr. J. C. 

 Warner. 



*> Certain manorial rights have now 

 been virtually given over to the trustees 

 of the Market Hall. 



41 Information received from Mr. J. C. 

 Warner. 



23 Pat. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. 9, m. 6 and 7. 



38 Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 3 Edw. II ; 

 ibid. Trin. 5 Hen. VI ; ibid. Mich. 

 1 1 Hen. VI. 



