10 Jul Lordship Title of Eddington or Hidden or Hudden ID1470
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The church of the Holy Trinity of Beaumont was granted 8 December 1142 by Waleran, Count of Meulan, to the abbey of St. Mary of Bec. The abbey effected an exchange with the Prior and Canons of St. Frideswide's, Oxford, in 1147, by which the priory obtained this manor. Later Robert Bossu attempted to deprive the priory of its possessions here, but, at the direction of the pope, Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to the Bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury, directing them to compel the Earl of Leicester to restore this manor to the priory under pain of anathema and interdict. The earl proved amenable to this ecclesiastical pressure and confirmed the exchange, and the manor was again confirmed to the the priory by the next earl about 1170. About the same time the burgesses of Hungerford certified that the proceeds of the view of frankpledge held annually for this manor by the bailiffs of the Earls of Leicester belonged to the priory, whose estate is then described as HIDDEN (Huden, Hudden, xii-xix cent.). King John confirmed the priory in possession of this manor in 1199, and the prior was holding the manor of Eddington and Hidden in the 13th century in frankalmoign. William Wauncy gave to the prior certain islands in the river to enable him to improve the mill, and Robert de Stutescombe gave land in Charlton for the same purpose. In 1284 the prior received a charter from Edmund Crouchback confirming him in possession of the manor of Hidden and the vill of Eddington, while in a grant of 14 September 1291 Edmund authorized the monks to hold their views of frankpledge without the assistance of his bailiff. The prior obtained a grant of free warren here in 1332, and in 1345 had licence to charge this manor with a rent of 10 marks for the chaplain of a chantry founded by Elizabeth widow of William Montagu in the priory church. John of Gaunt seems to have demanded a subsidy from this manor towards the marriage portion of his daughter, but this was disallowed by the king on 28 October 1375. The priory was suppressed on 3 May 1524, when this manor passed to the Crown. The king granted it in 1525 to Cardinal Wolsey, who gave it the following year to the Dean and Canons of Wolsey's college at Oxford. On the dissolution of that college the king granted it in 1532 to John Bishop of Lincoln, and others, to the use of the Dean and Canons of King Henry the Eighth's College. John Olyver, LL.D., the dean, with the canons of the college, leased it in December 1534 to Richard Watkyns of London, and the manor was valued the next year at £22, subject to an annual rent of 40s. to the Dean and Chapter of Windsor. King Henry the Eighth's College was dissolved in 1545 and this manor came again to the Crown. George Grymsdyche was in 1546 appointed bailiff of the manor, which was surveyed for Queen Elizabeth in 1573, and on the expiration of the lease of 1534 the manor was leased in 1588–9 to Edmund Frost. The queen sold it on 28 November 1599 for £964 10s. to James Clerke and Richard Bartlett. It is not clear what happened to it during the next few years, but in 1623 it belonged to Sir Thomas Hinton who sold it in 1633 to Thomas Hussey of Hungerford Park. By his will dated 3 July 1654 and proved 25 February 1657 Thomas left his Wiltshire manors to his son William. This manor seems to have been included with the rest of the Chilton estate in the share that was left to William, but in 1663 it was sold by his sister Katherine and her husband, Sir Robert Mason, to Sir Bulstrode Whitelocke. Sir Bulstrode, the eldest son of Sir Richard Whitelocke, was a famous lawyer and politician, and was ambassador from the Commonwealth to Sweden. In 1659 he became President of the Council and Keeper of the Great Seal. He died in 1675, bequeathing to Samuel, his eldest son by his third wife, this manor as part of the Chilton estate, which had been settled upon him in 1672. Samuel Whitelocke died before 1743, and was succeeded by John Whitelocke. The Chilton estate was sold to Governor Holwell, but the manor of Eddington seems to have been purchased by the family of James of Denford, for Walter James James was holding it in 1780. With his wife Jane he mortgaged it in 1807 to John Thomas Wasey of Newbury, and almost immediately sold it to John Pearse, who had previously purchased the remainder of the Chilton estate. John Pearse and Anne his wife settled the manor in 1835 on themselves and their son John, but later in the same year they are said to have sold it to the Rev. Sir William Henry Cooper. He, who was a Prebendary of Rochester, seems to have died soon after purchasing this estate, which passed to his widow Isabel. She died in 1855, and by her will dated 18 March 1847 bequeathed the estate to her grandson William Honywood, son of Sir John Courtenay Honywood, and Mary Anne daughter of the Rev. Sir William Henry Cooper. He served as lieutenant-colonel of the Berkshire Yeomanry, retiring as honorary colonel in 1876. He sold the manor in 1890 to Sir William George Pearce, bart., of the Inner Temple, M.P. for Plymouth 1892 to 1895 and honorary colonel of the 2nd Devonshire Volunteer Artillery. He died childless on 2 November 1907, bequeathing this estate by his will dated 3 May 1906 to his wife Caroline Eva. She died on 24 December in the same year, and on 2 July 1908 her executors conveyed the manor to Charles Crutchley and others, who sold it the following day to H. W. Henderson. He conveyed the manor in 1909 to the Hon. Jean Templeton Reid Ward, daughter of the late Whitelaw Reid, ambassador from the United States of America, and wife of the Hon. John Hubert Ward, second son of William first Earl of Dudley. A full account of the customs and services due to the priory of St. Frideswide from their tenants at Eddington is given in their chartulary, where it is stated that they had rights of infangetheof, waif, pillory and gallows. A mill is mentioned in the Domesday Survey, and land was acquired in the 13th century to improve this. A windmill is referred to in 1336–7, two water-mills in 1525, 1588–9 and 1780. There are two flour-mills at Eddington at the present day. A free fishery is mentioned as belonging to the manor in 1663, and is again referred to in 1780 and 1807, when it is stated to be in the Kennet River.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
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