300 



Erlestoke and its Manor Lords. 



also a chapelry of Melksham, is spoken of in Testa de Ncvill 1 ( circa 

 1242) as a member of the manor of Melksham, and was held of 

 the King by John de Cherbourgh 2 ; and in the same record Erlestoke 

 and Seend are classed together, apparently by a printer's error, at 

 the end of a list of fees of the Abbot of Malmesbnry. 3 In the 

 description of Melksham, whose name occurs twice in Domesday 

 Book, there is nothing by which Erlestoke can be separately 

 identified, nor does the description contain any name of which 

 even an echo remains in any of the local place-names, and the 

 only statement that can be applied directly is that it was in the 

 hands of the King, and had been held by Earl Harold in the time 

 of Edward the Confessor. It is proved by records of a later time 

 that Erlestoke remained a royal manor until the reign of Henry I,, 

 but this is all that is known positively of it until the reign of 

 Stephen, Henry's nephew, who usurped the throne in the place of 

 of Maud, Henry's only surviving child and his acknowledged heir, 

 the wife of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. 



After Domesday Book the most valuable source of information 

 in regard to the early history of manors is found in the cartularies 

 of religious houses, in which were preserved copies of the charters 

 by which their lands and other property had been granted to them, 

 for these charters often contained important details as to the 

 family and. property of the benefactor. 



THE DE MANDEVILLES, 1100 — 1200. 



Tims it is in the case of Erlestoke, for (from the cartulary 

 of the Cluniac Priory of Montacute (Somerset) we learn that 

 one Eoger, the son of Stephen de Mandeville, held the manor 

 of Erlestoke, of the King in chief, at the middle of the twelfth 

 century. The information comes from a charter of Boger de 

 Mandeville by which he granted to the Priory : " for the soul of 



1 p. 154, b. 



2 p. 142. 

 3 p. 157, b. 



