ONGAR HUNDRED 



ABBESS RODING 



remained attached to the manor. It is probable that 

 Eudo's manor was that which later became known as 

 Berwick Berners. When Eudo founded the abbey of 

 St. John, Colchester, about 1096 he gave the monks 

 the tithes of Roding.*^ The same tithes are probably 

 referred to in a later confirmation of the abbey's pro- 

 perty by the Bishop of London, in which they are 

 described as the tithes of Fulk dapifer in Roding 

 Abbess.'-' Fulk dapifer does not occur in Domes- 

 day but is found as a tenant of Eudo in the reign of 

 Henry I.*'' 



Eudo dapifer died without heirs in 1 1 20. The king 

 later restored to Eudo's widow Rose the lands which 

 her husband had given her in dower.*' These included 

 'the two Rodings'. In 1142 the lands of Eudo were 

 granted by the Empress Maud to the notorious 

 Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex.** This grant 

 did not become completely effective, for many of 

 Eudo's manors never seem to have belonged to 

 Geoffrey or his heirs.*' Berwick Berners, however, 

 probably did pass to the Mandevilles. In 1 166 

 Geoffrey's son of the same name, also Earl of Essex, 

 was tenant in chief of lands in Essex which were held 

 of him by Adam son of Fulk for \\ knight's fee.*' 

 Early in the 13 th century William son of Geoffrey de 

 Roinges (Roding) son of Adam son of Fulk made a 

 grant of an acre of land in a field called Merefeld to 

 St. John's, Colchester.*' A William son of Geoffrey 

 was holding land in Roding in 1 240,"' but before this, 

 in 1220, the manor of Berwick was in the hands of the 

 Berners family, from which it took the second part of 

 its name. In that year Beatrice widow of William de 

 Berners was granted dower by Ralph de Berners in 

 Berwick and elsewhere." In 1166 an earlier Ralph 

 de Berners had held 4 knights' fees of the Earl of Essex, 

 and also \ fee of Henry Fitz Gerold as of the fees of 

 Eudo dapifer. The successor of the first Ralph was 

 apparently William de Berners.'^ The tenancy in 

 demesne is thus doubtful up to 1220. It may have 

 passed from Fulk dapifer to Adam son of Fulk, to 

 Geoffrey son of Adam, and William son of Geoffrey 

 or it may have been acquired by Ralph de Berners in 

 the middle of the 1 2th century. The tenancy in chief 

 is not so obscure. In 1297 the manor was held of 

 Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Essex, the descendant 

 and heir of the Mandeville earls. '3 It subsequently 

 descended with the earldom of Essex until the death 

 in 1397 of Thomas of Woodstock, Earl of Essex, and 

 Duke of Gloucester.''* In 1400 Berwick Berners and 

 other manors were assigned by the king to Edmund, 

 Earl of Stafford and his wife Anne, eldest daughter 

 and coheir of Thomas of Woodstock and of Eleanor 

 his wife, eldest daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl 



" Cart, of St. John's Abbey, Colchttttr 

 (Roxburghe Club), 3. 



«3 r.C.H. Essex, i, 492a (n.). 



'* Ibid.; Farrer, Hons. and Knight's Fees, 

 iii, 166—7. 



" Farrer, op. cit. iii, 273. 



»» J. H. Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, 



•67. '73- 



" Farrer, op. cit. 168. It is curious that 

 Farrer does not mention the grant to 

 Geoffrey de Mandeville. 



M Red Bk. of Exch. 345. 



<>» Cart, of St. John's Abbey, Colchester, 

 242. 



'" Feet of F, Essex, \, 129. 



" Ibid, i, 58. 



'^ Farrer, Hons. and Knight's Fees, iii, 



214- 

 '3 Cal. Inq. p.m. iii, p. 273. 



ofEssex(d. I373).'5 In 1 421, however, a new partition 

 was made of the Bohun inheritance, by which the king 

 received the fee of the earldom of Essex.'* Berwick 

 Berners was thus merged in the Crown. In 1623-4 

 it was annexed to the Duchy of Lancaster." 



The tenancy in demesne of the manor descended in 

 the Berners family like Barnston and Berners Roding 

 (Essex) and West Horsley (Surr.)." In 1336 Berwick 

 Berners was conveyed by John son of Edmund de 

 Berners to John son of Ralph de Berners." In 138 1-2 

 it was being administered by the bailiff of Sir John de 

 Gildesburgh.*" The net value of the manor was then 

 ,^1 10/. i\d. It had been granted to Gildesburgh for 

 life by Sir John de Berners.*' Sir John's son Sir James 

 de Berners, a knight of the king's chamber, was executed 

 in 1388 as an evil counsellor of Richard 11.*^ In 1389 

 Anne widow of James was granted the manor for 500 

 marks.*' Like West Horsley it passed with Anne to 

 her second husband John Bryan and subsequently to 

 her son Richard de Berners.** Richard died in 14 17 

 and was succeeded by his daughter Margery, who 

 married as her first husband John Fereby.*' John and 

 Margery were holding manor courts at Berwick 

 Berners in 1427-40.** After John's death Margery 

 married John Bourchier, who was later summoned to 

 Parliament as a peer and is thus held to have become 

 Lord Berners.*' Berwick Berners passed to Bourchier's 

 grandson and heir John, Lord Berners, who was hold- 

 ing it in 1 508.** Soon after this the manor apparently 

 passed to Sir William Capel who by his will dated 

 1 5 1 5 left it to his son Sir Giles Capel.*' Courts were 

 held in 1 520 for the manor of 'Berwick Capel'.'" The 

 manor descended in the direct male line to Arthur 

 Capel, created Baron Capel of Hadham in 1 64 1 , who 

 was one of the royalist garrison of Colchester which 

 surrendered on 27 August 1648. He was beheaded in 

 the following year." In 1653 his son Arthur, Lord 

 Capel, conveyed Berwick Berners to Robert Abdy,'^ 

 who was later created a baronet and died in 1670. He 

 was succeeded as 2nd baronet by his son John.'^ In 

 1690 Abdy conveyed the manor to John Brand, mercer 

 of London.'* Brand was lord of the manor in 1698." 

 By 1 708 he had been succeeded by Thomas Brand, who 

 held courts at Berwick Berners in 1708-12.'* Thomas 

 was dead by 1720, when Margaret Brand, widow, 

 held the court as guardian of her son Thomas Brand." 



Thomas Brand the younger was holding the manor 

 court in 1741.'* He died in 1770 and was succeeded 

 by his son Thomas who in 1771 married Gertrude 

 Trevor Roper, suo jure Baroness Dacre." According 

 to his biographer this last Thomas Brand was 'a very 

 celebrated and expensive commoner whose hospitality 

 exceeded his means'.' His seat was at Hoo in St. 



'♦ Complete Peerage, v, 136. 



" Cal. Fine R. 1 399-14.15, 72. 



" Complete Peerage, vi, 476. 



" DL/30/74/915. It was then said to 

 be held as of the Honor of Clare. 



78 Farrer, Hons. and Knight's Fees, iii, 

 214-16; V.C.H. Surrey, iii, 353-4. 



" Feet ofF. Essex, iii, 39. 



8» E.R.O., D/DHf M45. 



»■ Cal. Pat. 1388-92, 150. 



82 A. Steel, Richard II, 143, 157, 161. 



83 Cal. Pat. 1388-92, 150. 

 8* Feet of F. Essex, iii, 238; cf. F.C.H. 



Surrey, iii, 354. 



85 E.R.O., D/DHf M30, 31; F.C.H. 

 Surrey, iii, 354. 



86 E.R.O., D/DHf M30, 31. 



87 Ibid. M32; y.C.H. Surrey, iii, 354; 

 Complete Peerage, ii, 153. 



88 Complete Peerage, ii, 153; CP25(2)/ 

 51/369. 



8» C142/109/23. 



«» E.R.O., D/DP M1024-6. 



9' W. Minet, 'The Capels at Rayne', 

 E.A. T. N.s. ix, 243-72 : Complete Peerage, 

 iii, 5-6. 



»2 CP25(2)/55oB Trin. 1653. 



93 G.E.C. Complete Baronetage, iii, 34; 

 E.R.O., D/DHf M38, 39. 



94 CP25(2)/827 Trin. i Wm. & Mary; 

 cf.E.R.O., D/DHf M39. 



95 E.R.O., D/DHf M40. 



96 Ibid. M41. 97 Ibid. 



98 Ibid. His mother had held it as late as 

 1731. 



99 Ibid. ; T. Wright, Hist. Essex, ii, 343 ; 

 Complete Peerage, iv, 1 7. 



' Complete Peerage, iv, 17. 



191 



