Subordinate to the Barony of Castle Comhe. 275 



of Compton Basset, was then held by "Philippa, Queen of England, 

 of the inheritance of Hugh le Despenser." Philip Basset, who 

 owned this fee, had died in 1271. His sole daughter and heir, 

 Aliva, married Hugh le Despenser, who died 1265. Their son, 

 Hugh le Despenser, the elder, created Earl of Winchester, was 

 beheaded in 1326, and his estates confiscated by Queen Isabella. 

 They appear to have continued in the hands of King Edward III., 

 and probably were constituted an appanage of his queen. I find 

 her name still upon the Castle Combe Rolls as mesne tenant of 

 Compton Manor up to 1355. And writs of distringas were fre- 

 quently issued against her sub-tenants during this period for default 

 of suit and service at the Knight's Court. Sir Guy de Brian held 

 this fee in 1365; Sir Reginald de Mohun in 1377; and Roger 

 Mohun in 1476. In 1454, the widow of Robert Best, Esquire, wife 

 of John Wallop, held one of these knight's fees in Compton Basset, 

 together with that in Winterborne Basset. In 1523, the tenants 

 of John Wallop; 1547, Hugh Spenser. The two Manors of Compton 

 and Compton Cumberwell were, according to the evidence of the 

 rolls, owned by Roger Berlegh in 1370; by Thomas Beeseley in 

 1382 (his father, Roger, having enfeoffed Thomas Husee, John 

 Towprest, and Thomas Chembre in the same) ; by Thomas Earl in 

 1392; by John Baset, Chaplain, 1396-1404; Sir Gilbert Talbot, 

 1419, by inheritance from John Lord Strange; in 1429, John 

 Blount of Belton, acknowledged suit and service for it at the Court 

 of Castle Combe, and also up to 1441 ; in 1475, Simon Blount up 

 to 1476, when he died, leaving a daughter and sole heir, one year 

 old, who became a royal ward; in 1523-31, Sir John Hussye owned 

 it; in 1547, John Hussy is enrolled as doing service for two fees, 

 Hugh de Spenser for one. On the partition of the Badlesmere 

 estates, the knight's fees in Compton had been assigned to the Earl 

 of Northampton, and Elizabeth de Badlesmere, his wife. But in 

 this, as in all the other cases, suit and service were still considered 

 to be due to the original head lordship, and were not merely claimed 

 as such, but the claim was acknowledged by frequent appearances 

 and payments ; arrears, however, were not unusual. When they 

 became excessive, distringas issued ; and I have met with no instance 

 in which these writs were disputed in other courts. 



