06 Nov Lordship Title of Melchbourne ID13902
Posted at 09:26h
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In 1338 the Knights Hospitallers owned in Melchbourne 633 acres of arable land, 60½ acres of meadow, several pasture worth 40s. and common pasture worth 20s. They had two windmills worth 40s. and a dovecote worth the rather unusually high amount of 10s. There were 26 customary tenants on the land. The total profits and rents of the manor amounted to £79 9s. 0½d. A grant of free warren to the knights by Henry III was confirmed by Edward I in 1279–80. In 1292–3 a licence that sounds curiously modern was given to the prior—namely, to lay an underground conduit for water in Melchbourne, and to take up the road to repair the pipes when necessary. In 1345 a certain John le Barkere protested against the manorial right by which the Prior of the Knights Hospitallers claimed 3 gallons of beer from everyone who brewed and sold. John had not given the beer, and the prior had seized his horse. The protest, however, was ineffectual, and the prior's right to distrain in cases of default was confirmed. Two windmills are mentioned in the 14th-century extent of the lands of the Hospitallers. There were also two mills in the parish in 1594. Courts leet and baron and a free fishery were parcel of the manor in 1755.
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Listed in the Domesday Book:
No