Parishes: East Tisted

EAST TISTED

Ostede (xii cent.); Esttystede, Estistede, Thistede (xiii and xiv cent.).

The parish of East Tisted, containing about 2,648 acres of land, lies immediately south-west of Newton Valence. The main part of the village is a group of half a dozen modernized cottages on the east of the high road leading from Alton to Gosport. They lie well back from the road with front gardens stretching up to a low stone wall which runs along in front of the group. They originally stood on the other side of the road, within Rotherfield Park, but were removed by Mr. James Scott when he bought the Rotherfield estate. One of the cottages does service as the village post-office, and another as the village inn. Near the church and vicarage, which are on the east side of the road north of the village, a road branches east to Home Farm past two blocks of almshouses built and endowed for the aged poor by Thomas and Septimus Scott in 1879 and 1893. Beyond Home Farm, where the road branches to the right to East Tisted station and on to Monkey's Lodge Farm, a small spring rises which supplies the meagre village pond. On the north side of the road are two or three old cottages and several modern ones which have sprung into existence since the building of the railway station, opened on Whit-Monday, 1903. Rotherfield Park estate lies west of the village and fills up the whole of that end of the parish. The park itself covers about 300 acres, and in it on high ground stands the manor house on the original site. Surrounding the park, especially on the north and west, is well-wooded country—Plash Wood on the north and Dogford Wood and Winchester Wood on the west—reaching away almost to the outer boundary of the parish.

The soil is entirely chalk, except here and there in the valleys where the subsoil is often gravel. Hence the chief crops are ordinary cereals, but the fertility of the ground is necessarily unfavourably affected by the remarkable lack of water in the parish. With the exception of the spring that rises west of Home Farm there is no river, not even a rivulet, to break the monotony of alternation of field and woodland. There are 745 acres of arable land in the parish, 767 of pasture, and 739 of woodland and plantations. (fn. 1)

MANOR

The first mention of the manor of EAST TISTED does not come until the early part of the thirteenth century, when in 1206 King John ordered Geoffrey FitzPeter to inquire whether certain lands in 'Dokefert,' (fn. 2) held by William Peche, belonged to the demesne of Tisted which the king had granted to Adam de Gurdon. (fn. 3) However, a hundred roll of a later date states that half a knight's fee at Tisted and Selborne, meaning the manor of East Tisted, which was evidently comprised of lands in Tisted and Selborne, was held of Adam de Gurdon by the grant of King Richard to his father. (fn. 4) In 1218 (fn. 5) a writ directed to the sheriff of Hampshire ordering him to seize the lands of Adam de Gurdon in Tisted and Selborne states that they were held by Adam of William de St. John. (fn. 6) This is difficult to explain, as in all other cases it is said to be held of the king in chief by grand serjeanty. On the death of the second Adam de Gurdon before 12 August, 1231, the manor reverted to the crown during the minority of his heir, and Henry III granted the whole to Ralph Marshall to hold during the royal pleasure, rendering 'what Ameria the wife of Adam had rendered while the lands were in her hands,' and saving to Ameria the corn which had been sown in the lands. (fn. 7) In 1233 the manor went as dower to Ameria until her eldest son should be of age. (fn. 8) Adam, her son, the famous supporter of Simon de Montfort, was of age and in possession of the manor by 1254, and by an inquisition ad quod damnum taken in that year he was allowed to hold his lands in Tisted and Selborne as half a knight's fee instead of by grand serjeanty. (fn. 9) On the hundred roll for 1275 Adam de Gurdon is said to hold half a knight's fee in 'Ostede' and Selborne of the king in chief and to have the right of free chase of wolves and hares both within and without the forest by charter of Henry III. (fn. 10) About 1305, (fn. 11) or earlier, Adam de Gurdon died seised of the manor of Tisted, leaving a daughter and heir Joan, who in 1308 settled the whole on herself for life with reversion to James de Norton and his heirs. (fn. 12) For licence to enter the manor James de Norton paid a fine of 5 marks to the crown during the next year. (fn. 13) In March, 1316, the manor was in his hands, (fn. 14) and in the May of that year he settled it upon himself and his second wife Margaret and their heirs; failing such it was to revert to Thomas the son of James by his first wife Elizabeth. (fn. 15) James and Margaret had a son John (fn. 16) who died before 1346, when the manor passed into the hands of Edmund de Kendale, Margaret's second husband, (fn. 17) in custody for John's son John, a minor, (fn. 18) who came of age in 1360. (fn. 19) This John only held the manor for ten years, dying abroad, probably on active service in the French wars in 1370, and leaving a son and heir John only three years old. (fn. 20) Before 1424 the latter conveyed the manor to trustees, who settled it in that year on his son John and Joan his wife and their heirs. (fn. 21) Richard Norton the son and heir of John and Joan died seised of East Tisted in 1503, leaving a son and heir Richard, (fn. 22) who married Elizabeth Rotherfield in 1495. He died in 1536, leaving a son and heir John (fn. 23) who died before 1564, in which year Anne his widow sought dower in East Tisted against her son Richard. She stated that she had been dispossessed by subtle practice between this her son and his uncle, who 'when the said orator was in great heaviness and sorrow for the death of her late husband came to her and brought a deed of release by which she should release unto the said Richard all right of dower in the said lands . . . while they swore to her that there was nothing in it but a note or remembrancer of such lands as her late husband held and nothing that would do her harm.' Trusting to them she signed the deed and her son seized the lands. (fn. 24) He died in 1592 while his mother Anne was still living, but the manor of East Tisted was settled on Katherine his wife. (fn. 25) Their son Richard, who was knighted in 1610, (fn. 26) succeeded to the manor on the death of his mother before that date, and held it until his death in 1612. (fn. 27) The manor then passed to his son Richard, who was several times sheriff of Hampshire, and who was created baronet in 1622. (fn. 28) The Norton family were staunch royalists and suffered heavily for their adherence to Charles. In July, 1644, Sir Richard was committed 'for maintaining the proceedings against the Parliament and for doing many disservices.' He was imprisoned in Lord Petre's house, (fn. 29) but was by order of the Committee for Prisoners discharged in August, 1644, on giving sufficient security. His estates were valued at £15,000 a year, and on admission to compound he was fined at £1,000. (fn. 30) This was reduced to £500 in March, 1645. He paid the fine, but died before August of that year, leaving his estate heavily charged, as his sons complained when they compounded for their own and their father's delinquency on his death. They stated that they had been in the king's army in Winchester garrison, and five days after its surrender had taken an oath administered by the county committee. They were now heavily burdened with their father's debts and the necessity of paying their mother's jointure, while Sir Richard the elder son had no other estate, and John the younger only a lease of £15 a year, now sequestered. In April, 1647, all proceedings against them were stayed, since they had paid £100, the sum to which their fine had been reduced in consideration of their poverty and their father's fine. (fn. 31)

The estate was not taken out until May, 1661, when, since Sir Richard had died in 1652 without male issue, it descended in tail male to his brother John as third baronet. In 1666 Sir John Norton settled the manor of East Tisted on himself and Dame Dorothy his wife and their heirs. (fn. 32) Sir John died in 1686 aged sixty-seven, and was buried in East Tisted church under an elaborate monument erected 'by the piety of his wife, Lady Dorothy.' (fn. 33) She, whom 'God blessed with a prosperous life and an easy death,' (fn. 34) survived him until 1703, but as they had no issue the manor of East Tisted seems to have passed before this to Elizabeth, the daughter of the late Sir Richard, as heiress of her uncle. Elizabeth had married Francis Paulet of Amport in August, 1674, (fn. 35) and on his death in 1695 or 1696 (fn. 36) their son Norton Paulet succeeded to the estate. The will of the latter is dated 1729, and by it Norton Paulet, his eldest son, was made sole heir and executor, and charged to pay his father's debts of £13,000. (fn. 37) Thus in 1756 he mortgaged the manors of East Tisted and Rotherfield to John Taylor, fellow of Winchester College, (fn. 38) but recovered the same before his death in 1758. (fn. 39) By his will Thomas Norton Paulet was made his sole heir after the death of his wife, Mrs. Anne Paulet, and was to have an annuity of £200 during the life of Anne. (fn. 40) Anne died about 1765, but before Thomas could enter into possession he had to prove his title against William Paulet, his father's eldest surviving brother, who denied the legitimacy of Thomas (fn. 41) and disputed the will. The depositions of the witnesses for the defendant were taken in 1766 at the 'White Swan,' New Alresford, and among the witnesses was the rector of East Tisted, who stated nothing more definitely than that the late Norton Paulet was the reputed father of the defendant. (fn. 42) The case evidently was decided in favour of Thomas, who was in possession in 1767, (fn. 43) but who sold the manor of East Tisted in 1787 to George Powlett or Paulet, the youngest but only surviving brother of Norton Paulet. (fn. 44) George Paulet as heir of Harry Paulet, his third cousin once removed, became twelfth marquis of Winchester in 1794, and on his death in 1800 the manor passed to his son Charles Ingolds by Paulet, (fn. 45) who sold it with Rotherfield and Noar in October, 1808, to James Scott. (fn. 46) On the death of the latter in 1835 the estate passed to his son James Winter Scott, who died in 1873. Archibald Edward Scott, fourth but only surviving son of James Winter Scott, holds the estate at the present day.

It is thought that Old Place Farm may have been the old manor house of East Tisted, where the Norton family lived until Richard Norton wedded the heiress of Rotherfield in the end of the fifteenth century and went up to Rotherfield.

In the basement on the north side of the house is a row of stone-mullioned windows, circa 1600, the masonry and detail being very good, and evidently belonging to a house of some importance. At the west end of the north wall are traces of a wall running northwards, part of the old house, and near it is a shed covering a well with a large wooden wheel for drawing water. (fn. 47)

The house has been patched and altered at many dates, and contains nothing of interest beyond the windows described. On a chimney stack on the south side is the date 1742.

ROTHERFIELD

ROTHERFIELD (Rutherfield, Retheresfeld, xiii cent.). The history of the manor begins in the twelfth century when it was held by Adam de Rotherfield, who rendered account for the same on the Pipe Roll for 1166. (fn. 48) In the thirteenth century Adam de Rotherfield, son or grandson of the above, leased the manor for five years to E., archdeacon of Lewes, and the king confirmed the grant in 1226. (fn. 49) In 1234 Isabel de Rotherfield, widow of Adam, was given seisin of her dower in the lands of her late husband in Rotherfield, if they had been seized by the king with the lands of Adam her son, who had forfeited the manor of Rotherfield among his other possessions for felony. (fn. 50)

The king granted the manor to Roger de Wyavill for life 'for his support in the king's service,' but in 1257 the said Roger in the king's presence restored all the land for the use of Robert Walerond, to whom the king had formerly granted the reversion of the same. (fn. 51) In 1266 Robert Walerond leased the same to his nephew Alan Plugenet, (fn. 52) and before his death alienated it to William de Lyndhurst, who died seised of the same, leaving a son and heir William, a minor, called William de Rotherfield, because he was born there. (fn. 53) In 1274 Maud, late wife of Robert Walerond, demanded a third in dower from Rotherfield, against William de Rotherfield, (fn. 54) but a memorandum was made to the effect that she was not dowered from Rotherfield. (fn. 55) William de Rotherfield's son and heir John entered without homage done and died seised, leaving a son and heir John, a minor, who died in 1369 leaving a son and heir John who was sixteen in 1371. (fn. 56) The king granted out the manor to William de Lyndhurst during the minority of the latter John, and in 1373 in an inquisition made concerning Rotherfield it was stated that a rent of 36s. had always been paid from it to the lord of East Tisted. (fn. 57) In 1379 John de Rotherfield entered into possession, (fn. 58) but as there is no inquisition on his death there is nothing to show how long he held the manor. William 'Rytherfield,' presumably his son, died in possession of Rotherfield in 1489, and on the inquisition then taken it was said to be held of Edward Lord de Duddeley, as of his manor of Alton Westbrook, (fn. 59) not, as before, in chief. William's heir Elizabeth married Richard Norton of East Tisted in 1495, and from that time the manor was vested in the same descent as that of East Tisted (q.v.). Thus in 1564 Anne Norton pleaded that her husband John Norton had left her the manor of Rotherfield as part of her dower. Within the manor was 'a great wood (fn. 60) adjoining the park pale of Rotherfield on the west side of the park containing threescore and seven acres or thereabouts . . . which hath been used time out of mind of man at the age of sixteen years growth to be lopped and sold.' Anne had therefore sent workmen to lop the trees, but her son Richard had hindered them and brought them before the King's Bench.' (fn. 61)

CHURCH

The church of ST. JAMES has a chancel with north and south chapels, a nave with aisles, and a west tower, and was entirely rebuilt in 1846, with the exception of the lower part of the tower. The chancel arch of two chamfered orders appears to be old work re-used, and the south doorway of the tower is in part of the first half of the fourteenth century. The chief interest of the church at the present day centres in the monuments of the Norton family.

At the east end of the south aisle is the canopied altar-tomb of Richard, ob. 1556, and Elizabeth Norton, erected before the death of either, about 1530. The canopy is formed by a four-centred arch with a panelled soffit, under a cornice on which are three shields bearing respectively (1) the Norton coat, (2) the same impaling Rotherfield, and (3) Rotherfield. In the spandrels of the arch are shields with RN and EN. On the upright back of the tomb beneath the canopy are brasses representing the Resurrection of Christ, with Richard Norton and eight sons kneeling on the right hand, and Elizabeth and ten daughters on the left. Over both groups are scrolls, one illegible, the other, on the left, having JHU [christe] FILI DEI MISERERE MEI. The base of the tomb is panelled and bears three shields with the same coats as those on the cornice, but set in early Renaissance ornament. An inscription in black letter is painted on the cornice and base of the tomb, as follows:—

Richardus Norton armiger et Elizabeth uxor ejus filia et heres Willī Retherfield ac cõsanguinea et una heredū Willī dawty . . . de f . . . ele qui quidem Ricūs obiit . . . die . . . Anno dni M CCCCC . . . et dicta Elizabeth obiit . . . die . . . Anno dni M CCCCC . . . Qiū a[nimabus] [pro]piciet' de' Amen.

Above the tomb is a panel with the Norton coat under a round arch with Renaissance detail, rather later in style than that on the tomb itself.

In front of the tomb lies an early fourteenth-century coffin lid, having a cross with a sunk quatrefoiled head in which is the bust of a woman holding a heart in her hands, and at the foot is a trefoiled arch beneath which appear the feet of the figure resting on a dog.

Against the north wall of the north aisle is a tall monument of the second half of the sixteenth century to John Norton, who died before 1564, and his wife Anne (Puttenham), with a pediment carried by two Ionic columns, resting on a panelled base. Beneath the pediment are two small figures of an armed man and a lady kneeling on either side of a prayer desk, with a strapwork panel behind them. On the base of the tomb are three shields in wreaths and strapwork borders, the first bearing the Norton coat, impaling Puttenham. The second has Norton impaling Rotherfield, and the third the Norton coat. The third shield also occurs in the pediment, with helm and mantling and the crest of a Saracen's head, and again above the pediment, held by a small figure.

At the east end of the north aisle is the recumbent armed effigy, in white marble, of Sir John Norton, 1686, resting on a white marble base with a large gadrooned cornice and a long inscription. Behind the effigy is a black marble frame, and above it a cornice on which is a shield with crest and supporters, bearing the Norton arms impaling March.

Two small brass plates are fixed in the north wall of the tower in memory of two vicars, Richard Burdon, 1615, and Thomas Emes, 1663, the date on the latter being given in a chronogram:

DeCeMbrIs 29^to soLe non orto pIe eXpIrabat.

In the tower is a panel with the Royal Arms, dated 1706. The woodwork in the church is modern, but in the vestry is a seventeenth-century communion table. On the pulpit are figures of the evangelists, the work of a local carver and of modern date, but curiously like seventeenth-century work.

There are three bells, the treble by Ellis Knight, inscribed: 'Let your hope be in the Lord. E. K. 1623'; the second, 'Prayse ye the Lorde 1590,' and the tenor, 'Honnor the King, 1635.'

The plate consists of a silver cup, paten, and almsdish of 1702, the cup being inscribed D. N, and the paten and alms-dish L N, for Lady Dorothy Norton, widow of Sir John Norton, and Lucie, daughter of Sir Richard Norton; a chalice, paten, and flagon of 1898, and a pewter flagon dated 1702 and inscribed 'Ye parish of East Tisted in ye County of Southampton.'

The earliest parish register is a parchment book beginning with the baptisms from 1561 to 1623. On the first page dated 1538 is an account of the proclamation by which the keeping of parish registers was made law. The next section gives the marriages between 1538 and 1594, and then from 1604 to 1654. After this come the baptisms between 1624 and 1679, then the marriages from 1657 to 1678. These are followed by the first entry of burials from 1670 to 1679, with one or two marriages in 1678 and 1680. Then the book ends with another entry of burials between 1562 and 1669. The second register, a parchment, leather-bound book, gives the baptisms and marriages; the baptisms from 1680 to 1812, and the marriages from 1688 to 1758. Inside the cover is a notice of inductions to the rectory between 1680 and 1767. The third is a register of briefs and burials between 1683 and 1812. The fourth register is a paper book giving the marriages between 1761 and 1811.

The overseers of the poor accounts start in 1742. They call up the most graphic picture possible of the life of the parish in the years following. A sparrow club evidently existed quite early, since in the first year of the accounts there is an entry of 7s. 9d. paid for thirty-one dozen sparrows, and like entries follow in every year. For forty years or more a certain William Chitty, who seems to have been the village idiot, was clothed, and fed, and shaved. In one year (1763) they gave him 'skins for the pockets of his coat' besides his ordinary clothes, and in another year (1771) made him a 'hop surplice.' He died in 1781, for there comes an entry 'Paid Mr. Wilmott for 3 gals of beer when Chitty was bored and shaving Chitty 5s. o.'

In 1763, in spite of the triumph of Lord Bute's peace policy in the preceding year, is an entry 'Paid for Hirein a substitute in the Militia £4 14. 6,' and again in 1765 'Paid for substitute for Warren and expences £2. 13. 5.' The first idea of an organized system of housing the poor comes in 1771 with the entry 'Spent at Vestry about a poor house 1s. 6d.' In the next year is the 'Account of Arthur Kelsey and Thomas Eames, disbursments for Tisted poor house 1772.' The house was built for about £69, £10 was given by Winchester College, £15 by Magdalen College, Oxford, the timber by Thomas Norton Paulet, lord of the manor, £10 10s. was advanced out of the year's accounts, and Widow Eames lent £33 on note of hand. In 1780 the house had to be mended and thatched. These are but a few typical entries, but they serve perhaps to show something of the parish life in the eighteenth century.

ADVOWSON

The advowson of the church was always held by the lords of the manor of Rotherfield (fn. 62) (q.v.), passing from the Rotherfield family to the Norton in 1495, and from the Nortons to the Paulets in 1687. From the Paulets it passed to the Scotts, (fn. 63) and is held at the present day by Archibald E. Scott, the lord of the manor. (fn. 64)

On the confiscation of Adam de Rotherfield's lands for felony about 1234, when the advowson of East Tisted was granted in reversion to Robert Walerond, (fn. 65) the latter evidently leased the same to the abbot of Hyde, since in 1263 the abbot had dealings concerning the advowson with Adam de Plugenet, (fn. 66) nephew of Robert, to whom Robert himself leased the advowson in 1266. (fn. 67) It was afterwards alienated to William de Lyndhurst, (fn. 68) and from that time was appendant to the manor of Rotherfield. John son of John de Rotherfield, while a minor, presented one Ralph Rande to the church, (fn. 69) and a presentation made by his son, John de Rotherfield, is recorded in 1387. (fn. 70)

CHARITIES

(i) The Rev. Philip Valois, rector, who died in 1760, gave to the incumbents of East Tisted and five other parishes £300 secured on the tolls of the turnpike between Basingstoke and Winchester, the annual interest to be paid to a master and a mistress for teaching children of this parish, the boys to read and write, and the girls to read, write, and sew. The legacy is represented by £376 15s. 8d. consols held by the official trustees of charitable funds. (fn. 71)

(ii) The Rev. John Williams, rector, who died in 1822, gave £400 consols to the incumbents of East Tisted, Newton Valence, Colemore, Faringdon, and Chawton, in trust for the benefit of the charity school of East Tisted, subject to the condition that, in default of a regular school, the benefit might be claimed successively by each of the four other parishes. This trust fund consists of £354 12s. 9d. consols also held by the official trustees. (fn. 72)

The incomes of these charities are expended in the general maintenance of the national school.