A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



the profits of his wood at Whaddon. And these 

 privileges and quittances in the wood of Whad- 

 don, together with all the assarts of the monks 

 in his wood of Horwood, were confirmed to 

 them about a century later by William de 

 Humetis, 67 Constable of Normandy, to whom 

 the manor of Whaddon, detached from the 

 honour of Giffard, had been granted. As part 

 of the land of the Normans Whaddon came to 

 the king's hands in the reign of King John, but 

 was soon granted to William D'Albini. 68 On 

 the accession of Henry III William Marshall 

 for a time retained Whaddon, but it was ulti- 

 mately restored on his death to the earl of 

 Arundel, passed in natural course to his brother, 

 Hugh D'Albini, and on his decease in 1241, 

 since he was the last male heir of the grantee, 

 again reverted to the crown. 



The woodland and wild heath appendent to 

 the manor of Whaddon were at this time part " 

 of the royal forest of Buckinghamshire, which 

 had been extended to cover nearly the whole of 

 the county. In the year following the death of 

 Hugh D'Albini the manor of Whaddon with its 

 woodlands was granted to John Fitz Geoffrey, a 

 son by his second wife of Geoffrey Fitz Peter, 

 late earl of Essex. 60 The coveted game pre- 

 serves were now vested in a subject, but as we 

 learn from an argument 6l in a lawsuit of the 

 following reign certain incidents of forest law 

 still remained : 



King Henry granted and gave it to us to hold it as a 

 chase in the same manner as he held while it was a 

 royal forest ; and we have three swainmotes yearly 

 for searching and enquiring whether any one puts 

 more beasts therein than he ought to put. 



There is also ample evidence M that the business 

 of this court was by no means confined even at 

 a very much later period to merely regulating 

 the rights of common. 



John Fitz John, son of the grantee of 1242, 

 seems to have still further enlarged the borders 

 of the chase by acquiring from the abbot of 

 St. Albans his hunting-rights in Abbot's Wood 

 in Little Horwood, lander the reservation that 

 the abbot should be free to hunt in this wood on 

 four days in the year, namely, two at Holy Rood 



67 Round, Cal. Doc. France, 78. 



58 He was remembered there as having granted half 

 a virgate in almoin to the hermit of Codemor, Hund. 

 R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 3 3 63, and a meadow at Whad- 

 don was known in 1318 as the ' Heremitesmede ' 

 (Cart, of Snellshall, B.M. Add. MSS. 37068, fol. 

 38<3 1 .). In Tudor times one 'walk' or section 

 of Whaddon Chase bore the name of Codemore 

 Quarter. 



" Year Books 0/21, 22 Edw. I (Rolls Ser.), 622, 

 et seq. 



60 Ibid. ; cf. Plac. De Quo Warr. 94, 95. 



61 Tear Books, ut sup. ; cf. Turner, Select Pleas of 

 ike Forest (Selden Soc.). 



65 Ct. R. P.R.O. bdle. 155, No. 29. 



Day, and two at Candlemas. 63 It is possible 

 also that the woodland of Great Horwjod 

 granted to St. Faith's, Longueville, and attached 

 to its cell, the alien priory of Newton Long- 

 ville, were also claimed at this time by the lord 

 of Whaddon as in some sort a parcel of the 

 chase. 64 



The importance of Whaddon as a hunting 

 centre is borne out by certain of the tenures 

 met with both on it and the adjacent manors. 

 The custody of the chase of Whaddon was held 

 in fee by the Giffard family. Early in the reign 

 of Edward I Robert Giffard is returned 65 as 

 holding i virgates by petty serjeanty ' per quam 

 custodit silvam domini,' paying 3^. a year and 

 rendering certain customary services. He has 

 also housbote and heybote in the lord's wood, 

 and his beasts (averia) go with his lord's to 

 pasture ' exceptis parco et prato non falcato.' 

 Here we have perhaps the earliest mention of 

 the lord's park as distinct from the chase gener- 

 ally. Again, in a deed 66 of 1318, we hear of 

 John Giffard, keeper of the chase of Whaddon 

 (custodi chacie de Whaddon)^ in connexion with a 

 certain ' placea vasti infra chaciam ' granted and 

 leased to him by Robert de Montalt and the 

 Lady Emma his wife, who held the chase in 

 dower as the widow of Richard 67 Fitzjohn. 

 The right of Giffard to inclose this land saepibus 

 et baits is conceded by the prior of Snelshall, 

 who probably had some claim to common therein. 

 The custody of the chase remained with the 

 Giffards till the second half of the fifteenth 

 century, when an heiress carried it in marriage to 

 Robert Pigott, who is said to have been a York- 

 shireman and a follower of Queen Margaret. 68 



Besides the keeper of the chase other tenants 69 

 held land in Whaddon by services in connexion 

 with its woodland during the thirteenth century, 

 while one tenement, which early in the reign of 

 Edward I had escheated to Richard Fitzjohn, 

 had formerly been enjoyed by Ralf le Appelgart 

 by the service of holding a leash of greyhounds 

 when the lord of Whaddon wished to hunt. 

 Even Sir John Passelewe held half a virgate in 



65 Hund. R. ii, 3 3 83. 



M Cf. Hund. R. ii, 338, liber am chaciam inHorewood. 

 In the late fifteenth century this claim was set up by 

 the lord, but the swainmote juries denied it and 

 asserted that the Prior's Wood (then belonging to New 

 College) was purlieu. 



"Hund. R. ii, 3 3 6b. This Robert Giffard was 

 the son of Geoffrey. Both father and son witness a 

 charter of Paul Peiuere to John, prior of Snelshall, 

 and his monks, about the middle of the thirteenth 

 century. B.M. Add. Chart. 53786. 



66 Cart, of Snelshall, B.M. Add. MSS. 37068, 

 fol. 38^. 



67 Brother of John Fitzjohn. The reversion was 

 vested in Richard de Burgh, earl of Ulster and lord 

 of Connaught. Cart, of Snelshall, ut sup. fol. 3 8 a 1 . 



69 Lipscombe, Hist, of Bucks, i, 405. 



69 Richard de Admodesham and Hamo le Blake. 



138 



