274 



History of the Wiltshire Manors 



subsequently to the sale of the entire fee to Lord Badlesmere by 

 William de Montfort, their last heir. Madox asserts that in no 

 instance within his knowledge was " Seisin of an Honor obtained 

 by purchase or contract made with a subject." And hence perhaps 

 it is that after this sale in 1300, we see no further mention of any 

 titular Baron of Castle Combe. But the rents and services due to 

 the superior lord, or the compositions fixed in lieu of them, were 

 certainly in this instance exacted from the various mesne lords, who 

 held their manors under him by knight service, down to a much 

 later period, in several cases, as has been shown already, to the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century. The holding of the Knight's 

 Court of the barony was, however, at length gradually disused. 

 The fees or fines payable in lieu of suit and service having been 

 fixed at an early period, were so small (2s. for each fee) as not to 

 pay for the cost and trouble of recovering them, and before long 

 these and many other useless or vicious feudal superiorities and 

 privileges were abolished, through the stringent process of the 

 great Rebellion. 



As the history of the descent of the Manor and Lordship of 

 Castle Combe has been fully given already, nothing more need be 

 said upon it in this place. 



I now come to the manors which were held at the time of the 

 great survey by various mesne lords under Humphrey de l'Isle, the 

 possessor of the entire baronial fee. These were — ■ 



11. Contone, Compton Basset. — It was held temp. Domesday 

 by Pagen. In the Feoda (1230-72) Reginald de Mohun is said to 

 hold one knight's fee in Cum'ton of Walter de Dunstanville, Fulk 

 Basset another, and Philip de Cumb'well a third, of the same lord 

 paramount. These three fees are distinguished throughout the 

 period over which the Castle Combe Court Rolls extend; and, no 

 doubt, correspond with three separate manors in the parish of 

 Compton. The last of the three still goes by the name of Compton 

 Cumberwell. 



In the Partition Roll of 1340, mention is made of two knight's 

 fees in "Comb'vill and Compton," as held together, by Reginald 

 Darell, of the value of 11/. 13s. 4d. The third knight's fee, that 



