10 Jul Lordship Title of Boxford ID1389
Posted at 20:03h
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The chroniclers of the abbey of Abingdon claimed that lands at Boxford and elsewhere in Berkshire had been granted to them by King Ceadwalla, and they cited a charter of Kenwulf, dated 821, in which he confirmed these gifts. This charter in the form that has come down to us is probably spurious, and if the abbey actually received a grant of lands here at that early date it must have lost them later. In 958 King Edred granted 10 mansac at BOXFORD to his servant Wulfric, which, though forfeited shortly afterwards, were restored to him in 960. These lands he conveyed to the abbey of Abingdon. Again in 968 King Edgar granted 10 mansae to another servant Elfwin, who also handed them on to the same abbey. Thus at the date of the Domesday Survey the whole manor had come into the hands of the abbey, which held it as a member of their adjoining manor of Welford. The Domesday Survey says that in the time of Edward the Confessor the manor was held of the abbey by a reeve of the abbot's, but afterwards by Berner, and the Abbey Chronicle gives the name of Raimbald as the military tenant in the time of William Rufus. Raimbald held also Sunningwell, and it may be that it was a descendant of his, Geoffrey of Sunningwell, who held 2 hides here of the abbey by military service a century later. Between 1175 and 1190 only 1 hide 1 virgate and 1 cotsetland out of the 10 was held by the abbey in demesne, and there were twelve tenants, having holdings varying from 2 hides to 1 virgate, besides fifteen cottagers who performed services and fifty more who paid rent; twenty-six others occupied land outside the demesne and paid rent, and some of them services in August in addition. The customs regarding pannage and common pasture were the same as for the tenants of Welford. The 2 hides which were held by military service continued in the same family, for at the time of the Testa de Nevill Nicholas de Sunningwell was the tenant, though according to a later entry the holding had passed into the hands of Robert de Wyleby. In 1392 the abbey added to its holding by acquiring land here from Thomas Crook, parson of Milton, and it is mentioned as holding this manor of the king by barony in 1401. No further mention is made of military tenants holding land under the abbey in Boxford, but in 1517 Thomas Hill was seised in demesne as of fee of one messuage and 40 acres of arable land there, which he inclosed, pulling down the house and rendering six people homeless. At the dissolution of the abbey in 1538 Thomas the abbot surrendered the manor of Boxford. The woods of the abbey in Boxford and Welford were surveyed in 1538. In 1590 the manor was granted to Thomas Parry, son of Sir Thomas Parry, who already held the manor of Welford, and since that date it has descended with the Welford estate (q.v.). Certain lands in Boxford were held in 1217 together with lands in Benham and Greenham by Ralph Musard, lord of one of the manors of Winterbourne, which adjoins Boxford on the east. In 1374 Bartholomew Blaket of the county of Oxford released to Aumary de St. Amand and others all right in these lands, then called the manor of Winterbourne Mayne, and in all lands which the said Aumary held in Chieveley and Boxford.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes