10 Jul Lordship Title of Barkham ID1363
Posted at 20:03h
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In the time of Edward the Confessor BARKHAM was in the tenure of Ælmer, who held it of the king. The Domesday Survey records that William I held it in demesne and that it was assessed at 3 hides. It was possibly granted with Earley to the family of Earley, for the Testa de Nevill gives it as held of the fee of Henry de Earley. The immediate tenants in the 13th century were a family of Barkham. John de Barkham held the fee under Henry de Earley. He forfeited about 1249, but was apparently restored before 1253, when John, called son of Robert de Barkham, levied a fine of lands in Barkham. Before 1279 the manor had been acquired by Thomas Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, who in that year granted it to his servitor William de Nevill. In 1316 the manor was held by John Botiller, against whom in 1327 an action for waste was brought by Agnes daughter of Thomas de Nevill, who claimed that John held the manor for life of her inheritance. She recovered seisin of 200 acres of wood, parcel of the manor. In 1330 Philip and Henry Botiller, sons of John, who had recovered the 200 acres of wood against Agnes de Nevill, conveyed the manor to John Maltravers, jun. He was summoned to Parliament as Lord Maltravers in 1330, and in the same Parliament was condemned to death for his responsibility in connexion with the death of Edmund Earl of Kent. He escaped the sentence by flight to Flanders, and was restored on his return to England in 1345. During his forfeiture judgement was given in an assize of novel disseisin brought by Agnes de Nevill against John Maltravers and Philip and Henry Botiller, and by this judgement (given in 1334) she obtained possession of the manor. By a subsequent settlement the manor was entailed on John Bullock and his heirs, a life interest being reserved to a certain Agnes Ganefield, against whom a suit for dower was brought by Agnes widow of John Maltravers in 1368. The manor came subsequently to the Bullocks of Arborfield. The name of Thomas Bullock appears in the Domesday of Inclosures of 1517 as owning 100 acres of land and a house in Barkham which had been occupied as a farm until 1514, from which time he had allowed the house to remain in disrepair. In his will of 1557 he gave his wife the choice between certain rooms in the manor-house of Arborfield and the farm of Barkham 'to inhabit there or not.' He left to the church a pair of white satin vestments 'with crosse redde velvett.' With Arborfield the manor was sold in 1589 to Edmund Standen, and was in the Standen family (see Arborfield) as late as 1700, when Edward Standen suffered a recovery of it. It is found soon afterwards in the possession of the Waterman family, who are said to have bought it from the Standens. John Waterman presented to Barkham Church in 1739. He married Penelope daughter of Sir William Kingsmill by his second wife Rebecca. In 1755 William Waterman suffered a recovery of the manor, and again in 1757 with Esther his wife. The manor apparently passed by settlement to Elizabeth Brice, daughter of Frances Cory, daughter of Sir William Kingsmill by his first wife. She with her husband Robert Brice levied a fine of it to Sir Samuel Fludyer, bart., and his brother Sir Thomas Fludyer in 1763 and again in 1766 to Thomas Ward. In 1821 Samuel Fludyer, son apparently of Sir Samuel Brudenell Fludyer, bart., suffered a recovery. What interest the Fludyers had in the manor is not clear. According to Lysons the manor passed to the Pitts and Fonneraus. William Pitt presented to the church in 1768 and John Pitt in 1782, but the ownership of the rectory seems to have become distinct from that of the manor about this date, for the rectory is mentioned with the manor in 1757, but is not included in the deed of 1763. The manor-house also at this date was held separately from the manor. Possibly there has been a confusion between the different estates. It seems, however, that the manor was purchased by Lady Gower, the third wife of John first Earl Gower, about 1783 from the Pitts. She died from injuries received in a fire on 19 February 1785. After her death her step-son claimed this estate and Bill Hill, Hurst, the family seat, and a lawsuit followed, resulting in a decision that as the property was purchased with Lady Gower's own money it should descend to her own son, the Hon. John Leveson-Gower, Admiral of the White. The family resided at their seat Bill Hill, in the parish of Hurst, but their family vault was at Barkham. Admiral the Hon. John Leveson-Gower was succeeded by his son General Leveson-Gower, who died in 1816, and was succeeded by his son John. During his minority the trustees sold the manor of Barkham to Henry Arthur Broughton. It was then sold to Henry Clive, second son of George Clive of Wormbridge, co. Hereford. He was at one time Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, and married Charlotte Jane Buller of Morval, Cornwall, leaving no children. Dying in 1848 he left the manor to his widow for life and the remainder to his nephew, George Clive. Mrs. Clive died in 1874, and immediately after her death Mr. George Clive sold the manor to the late John Walter of Bear Wood. His son Arthur Fraser Walter inherited the property in 1894 on his father's death. Mr. A. F. Walter died in 1910, and his son Mr. John Walter is now lord of the manor, and until recently owned almost all the land in the parish. Several farms were sold in 1912, when one of them was bought by the War Office for its army remount dépôt here.
Other Information:
Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes