BRAUGHING HUNDRED 



of Bath and Wells." From Robert the fees descended 

 to his nephew Philip," and after his death were held in 

 dower by his widow Maud. 35 The overlordship then 

 probably followed the descent of Burnells in Scanstead 

 Montfitchet, which became vested in the Earls of 

 Oxford." 



Holding under the Montfitchets in the time of 

 Henry II was a family named Zoing, Szuyn or Zon. 

 In 1 1 78 Hubert le Zoing paid 100 marks for seisin 

 of Westmill, and his brother Jordan is mentioned in 

 1 1 S 3 . M In 1226 Geoffrey le Zoing received a 

 grant of a market to be held at Westmill on Friday 

 and a fair on the vigil and day of St. Lawrence. 50 

 After his death ™ his widow Amice granted the third 

 part of lands and a messuage in Westmill, which she 

 held in dower, to the Prior of Holy Trinity, London." 

 William le Zoing is mentioned as holding a knight's 

 fee in Westmill and Gatesbury in 127+." In 1284 

 John, son and heir of William le Zoing, granted the 

 manor to Sir Thomas de Leukenore, kt., apparently 

 in confirmation of a previous grant made by William. 13 

 This is probably the Thomas son of Sir Nicholas de 

 Leukenore who appears in a number of deeds con- 

 cerning lands in Westmill." After this the history 

 of the manor becomes rather confused. In 129} 

 Margery and Violet, daughters of William de Say, 

 brought an action against John de Lovetot for the 

 manor, which John claimed to hold for life of the 

 grant of Thomas de Leukenore." John de Leukenore 

 was assessed for fees in Westmill in 1 303," and in 

 1311 a fine was levied between Walter de Hunting- 

 field and John de Leukenore of 2 acres of land, an 

 acre of meadow and the advowson of the Jiurch." 

 Possibly John de Leukenore was in debt and gradually 

 parted with his lands, for in 1309 Aymer d„' Valence 

 Earl of Pembroke had a grant of free warren for 

 lands extending into Westmill,' 8 and the next year 

 Sir Walter de Huntingfield granted him pasturage for 

 three cows in the pasture of Westmill and Eraughing 

 before Sir Aymer's gate in Westmill, 'as far as the 

 river between the manors of Sir Aymer and Join de 

 Leukenore.'" It may have been the agents of John 

 de Leukenore who in 1 31 5, while the earl was 

 fighting in the marches of Scotland, broke into his 

 houses at Westmill at night and burnt them and his 

 goods, 5 * for, although the earl seems to have acquired 

 the whole manor before 1324,'' apparently John de 

 Leukenore tried to retain his hold on it. In 1328 

 he was in mercy in an action brought against him 

 by Mary widow of Aymer de Valence for two parts 

 of the manor," but after this he does not appear 

 again except as in receipt of a pension of 40;. paid 

 out of the manor." The extent of the manor as 

 held by the countess included a capital messuage, 



WESTMILL 

 dw, 16 acres of 



515 acres of land, 22 acres of meadow, ]■ 

 pasture, and a water-mill. Sl The countess at one time 

 formed a plan for settling the reversion of the manors 

 of Westmill, Meesden and Little Hormead on a 

 Carthusian priory to be founded in one of these 

 parishes, 6 ' but she afterwards altered her intention and 

 gave the reversion after her death to the Cistercian 

 abbey of St. Mary Graces by the Tower (founded by 

 Edward III in 1349),"' obtaining Letters Patent for 

 the purpose in 1376." 



Westmill remained with the abbey until 1538, 

 when it was conveyed by the abbey and convent to 

 Sir Thomas Audley, Chancellor of England, to hold 

 of the king by fealty and a rent of £} 4J.' 8 Audley 

 was the grantee of a great number of monastic lands, 

 mter alia the monastery of Walden, co. Ess;rx. In 

 1538 he was made Lord Audley of Walden, and 

 died in I 544 at the priory of Holy Trinity, London. 

 He left two daughters Mary and Margaret."* Mary 

 died unmarried, Margaret married first Lord Henry 

 Dudley, who died without issue in 1 5 57, and secondly 

 Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk, who sur- 

 vived her and held the manor until his attainder in 

 January I 5 7 1 —2 .*° Westmill came to the Crown, but 

 was restored to Thomas Lord Howard de Walden, 

 his son by Margaret, who conveyed it as the manor 

 of Westmill a/iai Westmill Bury to John Brograve in 

 1 5S3. 61 The manor has since descended with 

 Hamells in Braughing (q.v.), 



Westmill Bury has been occupied as a farm since 

 the beginning of the 1 8th century. It is a modern 

 building, but has a large barn of pre- Reformation 

 date. This barn is built of timber- framing on low 

 walls of thin bricks ; the sides are weather-boarded 

 and the roof covered with thatch. The total length 

 of the building covered by the long unbroken roof 

 is about 237 ft., but one end of it is partitioned oft 

 from the present barn, which is 30 ft. wide internally 

 and about 165 ft. in length, and is divided into ten 

 bays ; some of the timbers are carefully wrojght and 

 have splayed edges 



Another tenant holding under the Montfitchets 

 in Westmill was a certain Nicholas le Mestere or 

 Maystre, from whom the manor of MMSTERS took 

 its name. Various deeds of his of the time of 

 Henry III remain : one, by which he grants to 

 Thomas de Leukenore, son and heir of Sir Nicholas, 

 a sheepfold with threshing-floor and land by the 

 churchyard of Westmill ; another by which with 

 Amabilia his wife he granted the same Thomas a rent 

 of ior. ; and another by which he gave rent from 

 land in 'Nethcrsuhtfeld,"Mannefeld ' and Benham 

 to the Prior of Holy Trinity, London." Before 

 1303 his fee had passed to Rich.ird de Gatesbury" 



