SPELTHORNE HUNDRED 



there seems to have been a preceptor/ of the 

 order at Hampton as early as 1180, when the 

 sisters of the order were removed from their several 

 commanderies to Mynchin Buckland in Somerset- 

 shire. ' Sister Joan ' is mentioned in the Mynchin 

 Buckland charter as the sister from ' Hampton in 

 Middlesex.' " 



In 1250 Henry III made a grant to the prior 

 and brethren of free warren ' in their manor of 

 Hampton,' which was confirmed by Edward I in 

 iz8o. 94 



Nevertheless, in 1292, Sabine of Durham 

 claimed the property as the heiress of her grand- 

 father Henry of St. Albans, 95 disputing the right 

 of the then prior, Brother Peter of Hagham, to the 

 manor, saying that her grandfather had been 

 unjustly disseised of the property. The pleading 

 of the prior is curious, as he denies that Henry 

 ever was in seisin of the said manor, and the jury 

 found that the prior and his predecessors continu- 

 ally held it 'for fifty years past and more.' The 

 actual sale, which seems to have taken place when 

 Henry quitclaimed his rights to the prior and his 

 successors for 1,000 marks, is not mentioned, and 

 eventually as a compromise Sabine agreed to accept 

 loo marks, and quitclaimed for herself and her 

 heirs ' all her rights and claims in the said manor 

 to God, St. John the Baptist, the prior and 

 brethren of the hospital and their successors.' 96 



Henry of St. Albans had a son William, who is 

 mentioned, with his wife Alice, in 1 2 3 2, as hold- 

 ing a messuage at Newton in Middlesex, but he 

 and his heirs never seem to have claimed Hamp- 

 ton.* 7 The only other person who is mentioned 

 as having held the manor ' for her life ' before the 

 Knights Hospitallers sold it to Wolsey, is Joan, the 

 widow of Robert de Grey, kt. Tanner and 

 Dugdale have both made the mistake of supposing 

 that Joan de Grey was herself the donor of the 

 manor of Hampton to the Knights Hospitallers. 9 * 

 What really happened seems to have been that 

 Joan de Grey inherited the manor of Shobington 

 in Buckinghamshire from her father Thomas de 

 Valognes, it having been part of the dowry of her 

 mother Joan de Valognes. This manor in 1 298-9 

 Joan de Grey granted in mortmain to the Knights 

 Hospitallers, but with their permission retained 



HAMPTON 



her life interest in it, and at the same time had 

 granted to her by them a life interest in the manors 

 of Hampton in Middlesex and of Raynham in 

 Essex, possibly in return for or in acknowledge- 

 ment of the actual gift which she had made to 

 them of Shobington." 



There is record of two further gifts of land in 

 Hampton to the Knights Hospitallers. In 1303 

 Walter de Wyke and Maud his wife granted them 

 a messuage, 100 acres of arable land, I acre of 

 meadow, and zos. rent. 100 Christine Haywood 

 also gave them 60 acres of land with appurtenances 

 in Hampton, and the ' Wike ' (Hampton Wick.) 101 



In 1338 the report of Prior Philip de Thame 

 to the Grand Master of the Order gives an account 

 of the ' Camera ' of Hampton as comprising a 

 messuage with a garden, a dovecote, and 840 

 acres of land, chiefly pasture, yielding altogether 

 83 I3/. \od. annually. 10 ' The house was evi- 

 dently small, as the total expenses, including the 

 stipends and clothing of the brother in charge, 

 ' a chaplain to serve the Chapel,' a corrodyman of 

 the king, and other members of the household, 

 were only 30 //. zd. per annum. A charge of 

 zos. a year is mentioned for maintaining a weir, 

 which was used for fishing, and farmed at a rent 

 of 6. There is also a yearly charge of 68/. 4^. 

 arising out of a composition for tithe made with 

 the vicar of Hampton, 11 " and further expense 

 seems to have been incurred by the 'entertainment 

 of guests going to and coming from the Black 

 Prince's house, either at Sheen, or more probably 

 at Kempton (Kennington), about a mile from 

 Hampton Court. 104 There are few further refer- 

 ences to the house before it became the property 

 of Cardinal Wolsey. Fox, Bishop of Winchester, 

 in a letter to Wolsey, mentions that Henry VII had 

 used it as a ' cell ' or subsidiary house to his neigh- 

 bouring palace of Richmond. 105 The manor was 

 leased in 1505 for ninety-nine years at 50 a 

 year, to Giles, Lord Daubeny, Chamberlain to 

 Henry VII, 106 who died in 1508, leaving in his 

 will the remainder of the lease to his wife, who 

 survived him, 107 but this agreement is not men- 

 tioned in the lease granted to Wolsey in 1514. 



By an indenture dated ll January 1514-15, 

 Sir Thomas Docwra, Prior of the Hospital of St. 



98 Chart. R. I John, m. 17 ; Thos. 

 Hugo, Hist, of Mynchin Buckland, 8, 9. 

 It is said in the charter that the listers 

 were all removed to Mynchin Buckland 

 in 1 1 80, but there is a grant in the 

 Chart. R. of 1227 to the prior and 

 brethren of 'the right of having their 

 dogs unlawed in their house in II. un- 

 tonet in the King's warren of Stanes 

 in which house the sisters of the said 

 order dwell.' Cal. Chart. R. 1226-57, 

 p. 30 (Mar. 1227). 



94 Chart. R, 8 Edw. I, no. 73 ; vide 

 Cal. Clou, 1279-88, p. 515, &c. 



95 Sabine was the daughter of John 

 Vyel, sen., and Margery daughter of 

 Henry St. Albans. Sabine married 

 William of Durham, mercer and citizen 

 of London. Both Vyel and Durham 

 were well known, and had considerable 

 property in London. John Vyel was 

 sheriff 1218-20; R. R. Sharpe, Cal. 



Litter Bks. of LinJ., F. p. 277. William 

 of Durham was sheriff in 1252 (ibid. 

 p. 279), alderman in 1277; ibid. A, 

 p. 15 j Stowe MS. 942, no. 6406 ; Cal. 

 of MM. Wills, i, 66 ; Anct. D. 

 (P.R.O.),C 2890, C 1910 ; Cott. MSS. 

 Nero, E vi, fol. 26, 27. 



96 Assize R. Midd. 544*, d. (1292-3). 



97 Cal. Close, 1231-4, p. 133. 



9S Dugdale, Mon. vi, 802, 832 j 

 Tanner, Not. Mon. Midd. ii. 



99 Inq. a.q.d. 27 Edw I, F. 29, no. 

 16; Cal. Clou, 1307-13, p. 491; 

 Feet of F. Div. Co. 27 Edw. I, no. 45 ; 

 28 Edw. I, no. 51 ; De Banco R. 

 Mich. 3 Edw. Ill, 279, m. 18 d. It 

 seems impossible to trace that Joan had 

 any hereditary claim on the manor, as 

 has been suggested. Her mother Joan 

 de Valognes may have been the daughter 

 or granddaughter of Henry of St. Al- 

 bans, but this is only conjecture. 



3 2 S 



100 Cal. Pat. 1301-7, p. 157 ; Inq. 

 a.q.d. file 43, no. 26 (31 Edw. I) ; Cal. 

 Inj. p.m. (Rec. Com.), i, 185. 



Wl Dugdale, Mon. vi, 832. 



i"" Larking, The Knights Hospitallers 

 in Engl. (Camd. Soc.), 127. 'Report 

 of Prior Philip de Thame for A.D, 

 1358.' 



03 Larking, op. cit. 128. 



104 Ibid. ; Lysons, Midd. Parishes, 271; 

 Law, op. cit. i, 13. 



'< L. and P. Hen. VIU, iii, 414 

 (1519). Elizabeth of York went there 

 in 1503 for a week, to pray for her 

 safe delivery, just a month before her 

 child was born and she herself died. 

 Nicolas, P ivji Purse Expense* of Elix, of 

 Tork, 94, 95 ; Law, op. cit. i, 14. 



106 Cott. MSS. Claudius, E vi, fol. 46. 



W Will, Somerset House, P.C.C. 

 Bennet, 16 ; Diet. Nat. Biag. ' Giles, 

 Lord Daubeny.' 



