A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



his hands by escheat or purchase. Eight of these 

 were arable and held for rent and for customary 

 works, rendered doubtless on Middleham demesne. 

 The other 9 lay in pasture with the moor.'' With 

 the exception of these I 7 oxgangs the whole vill was 

 the freehold of Robert de Mainsforth." 



During the 14th century there is evidence of the 

 existence of bondage tenements in Mainsforth,'* but 

 before the survey of 1384 the villeinage land seems 

 to have been for the most part converted into free- 

 hold. At that date two tenements were in the 

 bishop's hands for lack of tenants. The whole of the 

 rest of the vill was held by freeholders.^^ It was 

 stated that the ancient * free rent' of the vill was 

 36/. SJ., but that in 1384 the tenants, 'by the 

 collection of John de Hardwick and his fellows,' 

 rendered 34/. io</." The latter sum appears in 

 later accounts as a free rent due from land ' formerly 

 of John de Hardwick and his fellows.''* It seems 

 probable that this holding represented most of the 

 17 oxgangs originally held by the bishop's bondmen, 

 and that the other free tenants mentioned about 

 1384'" derived their interest from Robert de 

 Mainsforth. 



There is no evidence as to the heirs of Robert de 

 Mainsforth, and freeholds held in the 14th century*" 

 by persons bearing the local name were not important. 

 The chief part of his holding seems to have been 

 acquired by Peter Dautry. In 1349 John de Parys 

 had licence to enter on a carucate of land in Mains- 

 forth of the gift of Peter Dautry, and immediately 

 afterwards he granted it to Nicholas de Kellaw and 

 his daughter."" About i 360 Peter himself died seised 

 of two tofts, two crofts, 85 i acres of arable land, and 

 an acre of meadow which he held for a rent of 8/. 4a'. 

 His heir was Ralph son of Rowland Bart, a minor,^^ 

 whose lands here as in Middleton St. George (q.v.) 

 passed to William de Walworth. Walworth was the 

 famous mayor of London who in 1 38 1 killed the 

 rebel leader Wat Tyler. Thomas de Walworth, 

 William's brother, paid 8/. 6d. rent about 1384.*' 

 He seems to have sold his holding to John Lord 

 Nevill of Raby, who died in 1388 seised of two 

 messuages in Mainsforth and 100 acres of land."*^ 

 About 1 414 Ralph Earl of Westmorland paid 8/. 6J. 

 rent for the lands late of Thomas de Walworth.''' 

 He sold them with the manors of Edmondsley and 

 Hunwick (q.v.) to John de Hoton,^* and this part of 

 Mainsforth descended with Hunwick till 1575,*' 

 when Anthony Hoton sold it to Henry Hcighington.^' 

 The estate of John de Hardwick, one of the other 



free tenants of 1384, was found at his death in or 

 before 1396 to include a capital messuage with a 

 garden, toft and croft, and 24 acres called ' Boxhou^,' 

 a toft and 6 acres called ' Kellawhous ' (possibly part 

 of the holding granted by John de Parys to the 

 Kellaws), a messuage and 18 acres called ' Waytes- 

 place,' a messuage and an oxgang called ' Wattesplace,' 

 a messuage and an oxgang called ' Castelhous,' and 

 finally 16 acres of the estate of Peter Dautry."" 

 This holding descended with John de Hardwick's 

 part of the manor of Hardwick (q.v.) till the for- 

 feiture of Anthony Hebborne in 1569.*" 



Thirty acres'^' of Hebborne's land were granted by 

 the Crown to George Walters and John Williams, 

 who about 1609 sold them to Sir William Hewet and 

 John Hewet *^ ; they in 1611 conveyed this holding 

 to Henry Warde, who sold it to George Warde and 

 Felix Wilson in the next year.'' George and Mary 

 his wife and Henry Warde convej ed a messuage and 

 30 acres of arable land with 40 of meadow, moor 

 and pasture, apparently the same estate, to George 

 Wardell and George his son and heir in 1614.^'" 

 George Wardell sold it ten years later to Francis son 

 and heir of John Bainbridge, who in 1625 conveyed 

 it to Ralph Hutton and William Chaytor.*'' Ralph 

 Hutton also bought up several other freeholds in 

 Mainsforth, including that formerly held by the 

 Hotons of Hunwick. In 1577 a messuage, with 44. 

 acres of arable land, 3 acres of meadow, and 20 acres 

 of pasture, was granted by Henry Hcighington of 



Hutton. ^ert an 

 eagle or. 



SuBTf.ES. Ermine a 

 quarter gules 'with a 

 •u i d e d scutcheon or 

 therein. 



Fishburn to William Heighley of Woodham and his 



son Thomas. '* They in 1581 conveyed this holding 

 to Ninian Heighley of Whorlton,'' who sold it in i 598 

 to Robert Robson of Little Chilton.*' From Robson 

 it was purchased by Ralph Hutton in 1628.'*' Two 

 oxgangs of land in Mainsforth which in the 13th 

 century had been granted to the chantry of St. Mary, 



^ KC.H. Dur. i, 330. 



" Ibid. 



" Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 12, fol. 61 d., 

 I49d. 



'« Hatfield's Surv. (Surt. Soc), 178-9. 

 Mainsforth was not represented at the 

 Middleham halmotcs after 1384. 



" Ibid. 178-9 ; cf. ibid. 236. 



»* Eccl. Com. Rec. 188880, 18S895. 



'' Hatfield's Sur'v. loc. cit. 



'" Margaret widow of Robert son of 

 Thomas de Mainsforth died about two 

 years later seised of two tofts and 18 acres, 

 of which she held one toft and 6 acres of 

 Thomas de Mainsforth and the rest in 

 chief (Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. lod.). 

 Sec also ibid. fol. 1 1 d. Thomas de Mid- 

 dleham, who died in or about 1334, had 

 two messuages and 39 acres. His heir 

 was Julia, his daughter (ibid. fol. 5 d.). 



" Ibid. no. 12, fol. 31, 31 d. 



" Ibid. no. 2, fol. 65. 



" Hatfield's Sur-v. (Surt. Soc), 178. 



" Dur. Rec. cl. 3, no. 2, fol. 1 10. 



" Eccl. Com. Rec. 188880. 



*^ Dur. Rec. cl. 3, R. 3;, m. 14. d. 



*' Ibid. R. 58, m. 5 ; files 174, no. 6 ; 

 '77. no. 52. 



"Ibid. R. 157. 



" Ibid. no. 2, fol. 126. 



«> Ibid. fol. 133, files 16+, no. 88 ; 

 169, no. 51 ; no. 6, fol. 54 ; Eich. K.R. 

 Misc. Bks. ixiviii, fol. 228-30. 



^' This probably represents the arable 

 land only. 



^* Surtees, op. cit. iil, 18. 



" Ibid. 



"■> Dur. Rec. cl. 12, no. 2 (3). 



" Surtees, Inc. cit. ; cf. Dur. Rec. cl. 3, 

 R. 101, no. I 39. In 1628 Robert Robson 



208 



and Elizabeth his wife, George Wardell 

 sen. and Christian his wife and George 

 his ion conveyed four messuages and 

 some 400 acres of land in Mainsforth to 

 Ralph Hutton and Sir William Chaytor, 

 kt. (Dur, Rec. cl. 12, no. 41 [2]). 



" Surtees, loc. cit. ; Dur. Rec. cl. 3, 

 file 191, no. 143. 



'' Dur. Rec. cl. 3, file 191, no. 143. 



*' Surtees, loc. cit. 



'" Surtees lays in 1625 (ibid.), but 

 there is a conveyance in 1628 to Ralph 

 Huttnn and Henry Chaytor from Robert 

 Robson and Elizabeth his wife, George 

 Wardell, sen., and Christiana his wife, 

 and his son George Wardell, jun., of four 

 messuages, two tofts, one dove-houie, 

 380 acres of arable land, meadow, pasture 

 and moor in Mainsforth (Dur. Rec. cl. 3, 

 R. 106, no. 17). 



