Lordship Title of Brightwalton ID1395

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In 939 King Athelstan granted to Eadulfu 15 hides at 'Beorhtwaldingtun' which she gave to the abbey of Abingdon. Harold held BRIGHTWALTON in the time of the Confessor, and before him a thegn. Soon after the Conquest it was granted to Battle Abbey, which held in 1086. It was confirmed to the abbey by Henry I, and remained in its hands until the dissolution of the monastery in 1538. Many notices of this manor occur in the Custumals of Battle Abbey and a series of its court rolls have been published. In 1543 it was granted, in exchange for certain other manors, to Sir William Essex of Chipping Lambourn and his son Thomas Sir William died seised of it in 1548, when it passed to his son Thomas, then aged forty, whose son Thomas Essex mortgaged it in 1567 to Edward Longe. In 1571 Essex and Longe assigned the mortgage to William Chapman, citizen and ironmonger of London. Chapman apparently foreclosed and died seised of the manor in 1580. He was succeeded by his son William, then seven years of age, who in 1630, together with his son and heir Charles, conveyed it to Richard Howse or Howlse. This Richard in 1653 conveyed it to John Mundy and Matthew Marne. The purchasers seem to have been trustees for Francis Lucy, for in 1660 he and his wife Elizabeth conveyed the manor to Sir William Playters, bart., and Robert Woolrich, again apparently in trust. Francis Lucy was the sixth son of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote (co. Warwick) and was M.P. for Warwick in 1624, 1625, 1626 and 1628. He died about 1686. It is probable that the deed of settlement of 1660 was in favour of Francis Lucy's son Richard, who married Rebecca Chapman and died before his father. In that case the manor would have passed for her life to his widow Rebecca, who married as her second husband Sir Rowland Lytton, as she appears about this time as patron of the living. By 1690 the manor had passed to the daughters of Francis Lucy, for in that year Sir Philip Meadows and Constance his wife, Samuel Eyre and Martha his wife, Richard Atkins and others conveyed the manor to Francis Stamper and Benjamin Wyche. In 1690 the possessions of Francis Lucy seem to have been settled upon his daughters and this manor placed in trust for Samuel Eyre and Martha his wife. Sir Samuel Eyre was a judge of the King's Bench in 1694 and died suddenly in 1698 when on circuit. In 1700 Martha Eyre, his widow, as lady of the manor held a court leet with court baron. The parties to the Commons Inclosure Award in 1721 were Dame Martha Eyre, lady of the manor, and her son Sir Robert Eyre, chancellor of George, Prince of Wales, and afterwards chief justice of the Common Pleas. Three years later they with Robert Eyre, heir of Sir Robert, signed the marriage settlement of Robert with Mary Fellowes. Dame Martha died soon after and Brightwalton passed to Sir Robert, who as solicitor-general was manager of Sacheverell's impeachment. At his death on 28 December 1735 the manor passed to his son Robert, who by will proved 8 January 1752–3 left the manor and advowson settled on himself and his wife Mary to Elizabeth Lee, his sister, and her issue with remainder to his uncle Henry Samuel Eyre and to Samuel Eyre, eldest son of his late uncle Kingsmill Eyre, deceased. At the death of Mary about 1762 it appears to have passed to Samuel Eyre, who held a court leet there 28 April 1770. In 1776 Brightwalton was held by his daughter and heir Susanna Harriet, and in 1789 it was brought into the settlement on her marriage with William Purvis. Three years later Samuel Eyre and his wife Margaret conveyed it to William Purvis, who took the name of Eyre, and in 1796 as William Eyre, lately called William Purvis, with Susanna Harriet his wife he mortgaged the manor to James Harbert. In 1800 he sold the manor to the Rev. Philip Wroughton of Woolley Park, who held courts here in 1803 and 1810 and died on 6 January 1812, when the manor passed to his son Bartholomew Wroughton, who died without issue on 21 May 1858. Brightwalton Manor passed to his brother Philip, at whose death 28 December 1862 it came to his son Philip, who died 7 June 1910, when he was succeeded by his elder and only surviving son Mr. Philip Musgrave Neeld Wroughton, its present possessor. From 13th-century Court Rolls it appears that view of frankpledge was held at Brightwalton twice yearly. Tenants of the Abbot of Battle, living 15 miles away at Hartley and Conholt, owed suit and service to the manor of Brightwalton, and came there for view of frankpledge. The Court Rolls show also that a widow forfeited her land for unchastity, and that servile tenants were unable to obtain immunity from penance by paying fines of their chattels, as these were deemed the property of their lord. The most interesting and significant information, however, to be derived from these rolls is, as the late Dr. F. W. Maitland pointed out, that 'the villeins of Brightwaltham, men who were reckoned as personally unfree, nevertheless constituted a "communitas," which held land, which was capable of receiving a grant of land, which could contract with the lord, which could make exchange with the lord.' Two early undated deeds are of interest. In one Richard Merewold grants to Lawrence Maysselyn and Isabella Richard's daughter burgages in Brightwalton, and in the second William Dodyng grants to Richard Maydus a burgage with curtilage there. There appears to be no further evidence relating to burgages. A survey of this manor made in 1284 gives interesting details of conditions of service, some of which have been noticed in an earlier volume. It appears, for instance, that the abbot's woodward could claim pig's fry, the shepherd a fleece, and so on, in addition to their ordinary wages and allowances. In granting the manor to the abbey the Conqueror gave also extensive privileges and immunities, and the hundred rolls admit also the rights of gallows and the assizes of bread and beer and free warren. Courts and courts leet were held until the early part of the 18th century, and in a fine made in 1796 the manor is described as possessing courts baron, view of frankpledge, goods and chattels of felons, suicides, fugitives, outlaws and proclaimed persons, deodands, waifs and estrays.
Other Information:
Listed in the Domesday Book:
Yes

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