A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



CHILWORTH 



Celeworda (xi cent.), Cheleworth (xiv cent.), 

 Chylworth (xv cent.). 



The parish of Chilworth, covering about 1,540 

 acres, with a population of 245, is situated in the New 

 Forest division of the county, about five miles north 

 of Southampton. 



Tanners Brook is the only natural waterway in the 

 parish, and forms part of the western boundary. The 

 land, which has an average height of 150 ft., slopes 

 up gradually to the centre of the parish, which is 

 200 ft. above the ordnance datum. It is fertile and 

 densely wooded. Lords Wood in the south and 

 Chilworth Common in the south-east cover a con- 

 siderable portion of the parish. There are 785 acres 

 of wood, 312 acres of arable, and 287 acres of per- 

 manent grass land. 1 



The soil is loam or sand, the subsoil gravel, and that 

 portion which is cultivated yields rich crops of wheat, 

 barley, and oats. It is, however, especially favour- 

 able for the production of oak, which here grows in 

 great luxuriance. 



The village of Chilworth is very small, and con- 

 sists of a few thatched cottages and barns in a little 

 hollow, on the main road from Romsey to Botley. 

 The small parish church stands to the north of the 

 village on higher ground. The children from this 

 village attend the schools at North Baddesley. 



In the south of the parish, towards Southampton, 

 are Chilworth Manor, owned by Mr. J. E. A. Willis 

 Fleming ; Chilworth Towers, which belongs to 

 Miss Fortescue ; and Ingersley, the property of 

 Mr. H. E. Sugden. Near Chilworth Court, the 

 residence of Mr. C. Simpson, is an old gravel-pit, 

 but this, like the clay-pit in the east, is now disused. 



At the time of the Domesday Survey 

 M4NOR CHILWORTH belonged to Bernard 

 Pauncefoot, to whom it, with four other 

 manors in Hampshire, had passed from Earl Godwin. 

 Then, as in the time of King Edward, it was assessed 

 at two hides, and amongst its appurtenances were three 

 houses in Southampton.' 



The overlordship of the manor passed from the 

 crown to the Bohuns, earls of Hereford and Essex, 

 before the middle of the thirteenth century, 3 and re- 

 mained in that family until the end of the succeeding 

 century,* after which no trace of their retaining any 

 title to Chilworth is found, and it seems probable 

 that their rights had lapsed. 5 



Agnes Peverel was holding lands in Chilworth 

 as early as 1230, when a dispute concerning the 

 boundary between her estate and that of the abbot of 



Hyde in North Stoneham was settled by a perambu- 

 lation. She still held the same, for half a knight's 

 fee, in 1270,' and her son Thomas, who died in 

 1306, left Chilworth to his 

 grandson and heir, William 

 Peverel. 8 



William's property in Chil- 

 worth is described in the in- 

 quisition taken at his death in 

 1337 as a manor, which de- 

 scended to his son Henry. 9 

 He died in 1363,' and two 

 years later Chilworth Manor 

 was sold by his son Thomas 

 to Thomas Tyrell, knt., of 

 Essex," who prior to the year 

 1372 conveyed it to John 

 Daccombe, 1 * in whose family the manor remained 

 for the next century. It was held by Thomas Dac- 



B o H u N. Azure a 

 bend argent edited or be- 

 tween six lions or. 



combe 



1477," and sixty years later it was 



purchased from his son John by John Dowse, 14 who, 

 dying in 1558, left it to his youngest son Thomas, in 

 tail-male. 15 During the latter half of the sixteenth 

 century Thomas and Richard Dowse, grandsons of 

 John Dowse, succeeded in recovering a sum of 300 

 from John Daccombe, which they claimed under the 

 agreement made between John Daccombe and John 

 Dowse at the date of the sale of the manor. 16 



Richard, who in 1602 succeeded to the Chilworth 

 estate on the death of his father," shortly afterwards 

 conveyed the estate to John More, serjeant-at-law, 18 

 who died in 1620." His son and heir survived him 

 only a few months, and Chilworth passed to a younger 

 daughter, Anne wife of Edward Hooper, of Hum 

 Court, 80 and from them to their son Sir Edward 

 Hooper, who held the manor in 1676," the entail 

 having been barred in l6ji. n Before 1714, how- 

 ever, the manor, with the advowson, had passed to 

 Gilbert Serle, 23 probably by purchase, although the 

 exact date of the transfer cannot be found. The 

 Series continued as lords of the manor for the next 

 century." Peter Serle, who succeeded his father Peter 

 in 1782, was a philanthropist who endowed many 

 charities in the parish of Chilworth and the surrounding 

 districts, and rebuilt the church in 1812. 



In 1825 he conveyed the Chilworth estate to John 

 Fleming, who was to enter into possession on Peter's 

 decease, subject to the payment of a jointure of 600 

 to Charlotte Malazena Serle. 15 Mr. Fleming obtained 

 the manor in 1827, and it is now in the possession 

 of his grandson, Mr. John E. A. Willis-Fleming. 



1 Statistics from Bd. of Agric. 1905. 



a V.C.H. Hants, i, 4910. 



8 Testa de Ne-vill (Rec. Com.), 231. 



4 In 1 306, however, it is stated in an in- 

 quisition taken at the death of Thomas 

 Peverel that Chilworth was held of Robert 

 de Hauvile (Chan. Inq. p.m. 34 Edw. I, 

 No. 51), and in 1337 Chilworth was held 

 of Robert's son Alan de Hauvile. 



6 Chan. Inq. p.m. 46 Edw. Ill, No. 792. 



8 Cal. of Close, 1227-31, p. 407. 



' Testa de Ne-vitt (Rec. Com.), 231. 



8 Chan. Inq. p.m. 34 Edw. I, No. 51 ; 

 Feud. Aids, ii, 318. 



9 Chan. Inq. p.m. 10 Edw. Ill, No. 43. 



' Ibid. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. 2 (ist Nos.), 24. 

 11 Close, 38 Edw. III,m. 32, 28. 

 19 Chan. Inq. p.m. 45 Edw. Ill (2nd 

 Nos.), 48. 



18 Feet of F. Hants, East. 16 Edw. IV. 



14 Ibid. Mich. I Edw. VI. 



15 Chan. Inq. p.m. i & 2 Eliz. (Ser. z), 

 vol. 999, No. 30. 



18 Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), bdle. 52, No. 

 n. Between 1560 and 1591 there are 

 several documents recording settlements 

 of the manor by Thomas Dowse ; Recov. 

 R. East. 3 Eliz. rot. 621 ; ibid. 5 Eliz. 

 rot. 740 ; Feet of F. Hants, East 10 Eliz. ; 

 ibid. 16 Eliz. 5 ibid. 33 Eliz. 



468 



W Chan. Inq. p.m. 44 Eliz. pt. 2 (Ser. 

 2), No. 105. 



18 Feet of F. Hants, Trin. 7 Jas. I. 



19 W. and L. Inq. p.m. 18 Jas. I (Ser. 

 2), bdle. 31, No. 31. 



"0 Ibid. 19 Jas. I (Ser. 2), bdle. 33, No. 

 87 ; Lay Subsidy Rolls, 1 5 Chas. II, ^jj ; 

 Recov. R. East. 22 Chas. II, R. 168. 



" Close, 27 Chas. II, pt. 15, No. 23. 



M Ibid. 22 Chas. II, pt. 18, No. 

 19. 



28 Feet of F. Div. Cos. Mich. 12 Anne. 



94 Ex inform. F. H. T. Jervoise ; Recov. 

 R. Mich. 12 Geo. II, rot. 16. 



96 John Fleming's Estates Act, 1854. 



