Parishes: Chalton

CHALTON

Ceptune (xi cent.); Chalghton and Chaulghton (xii cent.); Chaulton, Chauton, Chaueton, and Chawton (xiii cent.); Schalston, Charlton, Chalkton, and Chalughton (xiv cent.); Challeton (xv cent.).

Chalton is a small parish with an area of 1,749 acres, (fn. 1) shut in on nearly every side by lofty downs. Consequently the roads to the village are extremely rough, and it is probably owing to this that the parish seems so desolate and remote. The population in 1881 was 208, while in 1901 it was only 202, and from the general appearance it seems likely that it will probably decrease still more. Sir Frederick Madden, in his Hampshire Collections, especially mentions Chalton as being one of the least productive parishes of the county. The village is most easily approached by a little road called Chalton Lane, which runs off south-east from the main road from Petersfield to Portsmouth, and rapidly descends the northern slopes of Chalton Down. The village itself is situated on the western slopes of a down and is seen in the distance nestling among trees with the church tower showing above. Old Farm stands at the outskirts of the village, and from it the road ascends steeply to a little green where it is met by roads from Ditcham and Rowland's Castle. It is round this little green that the village mostly lies. Here stands the old hostelry 'The Red Lion,' a picturesque halftimbered and thatched building, parts of which are said to be at least 500 years old. Opposite to it is the old grey church with its square ivy-covered tower, and next to the church is the rectory, which is a mediaeval building to which an eighteenth-century front has been added. A window, altered to a doorway in the sixteenth century, is to be seen on the ground floor. The schools are situated along South Lane, as the road is called which leads south to Finchdean and Rowland's Castle. Much of the timber used in the building of the cottages in the village is old oak ship timber, sometimes showing the form of the bows of a ship, acquired no doubt from wrecks on the south coast or brought from Portsmouth. There is a fine view at the back of the church from the Ditcham road, which looks out on the south towards the heights of Chalton Downs, on the north to the widely-stretching Ditcham Woods, and on the west towards Windmill Hill, while the road which joins the main Portsmouth road appears as a perpendicular white streak.

Chalton windmill, which stands on the summit of Windmill Hill, and has now fallen into decay, is mentioned as early as 1289, when it was worth 40s. per annum, (fn. 2) and is included in subsequent extents of the manor. Only a few place-names survive in Chalton. Netherley Farm Buildings, west of South Lane, mark the site of copyhold land called 'Netheley,' parcel of the manor of Chalton in the seventeenth century. (fn. 3) A certain William Trigge died in 1563 seised of a messuage called St. Andrew's Chapel in Chalton, (fn. 4) but there does not seem to be any trace of it now. The name John Wodecroft occurs in a dispute on the bishop's register in 1397. He probably lived at Woodcroft, which is at the present time a hamlet of Chalton at the foot of the Down near the railway on the way to Ditcham.

Windmill Down, the Peak and Chalton Down were inclosed by authority of an Act of 1812. The soil is light, the sub-soil chalk. The chief crops are wheat, barley, and oats.

Idsworth is a parochial chapelry on the borders of Sussex, in the midst of beautiful country, steep wooded hills alternating with rich park-land, where game of every description abounds. In shape it is long and narrow, being about five miles in length and not more than a mile broad at its widest point. Rowland's Castle, situated in the south, is the most populous part, and is rapidly growing, no doubt owing to the existence of its railway station, opened in 1859, on the Portsmouth branch of the London and South Western Railway. In the centre of the village is a wide green, around the north side of which are grouped various cottages, inns, and shops, constituting the older part of the village. On the west side is the Congregational chapel, originally erected in 1881. Along the south side runs a very tall old brick wall inclosing the grounds of Deerleap, the residence of Admiral George William Douglass O'Callaghan, C.B., J.P. In these grounds, between the house and the factory of the Rowland's Castle Brick and Tile Company, (fn. 5) there are the remains of a ruin covered with ivy, said to be all that is left of what was once 'Rowland's Castle.' There are but few references to this castle in documents preserved in the British Museum and the Record Office. It appears from Harleian MS. 6602 that the abbot and convent of Titchfield and their men of Wellsworth, in the time of Edward II, had common of pasture in the Forest of Bere, from a place called Meslyngforth, even to 'Rolokescastel.' (fn. 6) Another mention of it is in 1528, in which year John Byrcom was pardoned for having received certain cattle from John Yong, who on 10 September, 1523, broke into a place called 'Rowelands Castle at Warbelyngton,' and carried off the said cattle. (fn. 7) But neither of these entries throws any light on the history of the castle, which remains very obscure.

On the east side of the road going up the hill from the green to Havant is Stanstead College, which was built and endowed by Mr. Charles Dixon of Stanstead Park ('late a merchant of London'), as a house for six decayed merchants of the cities of London, Liverpool and Bristol. There is no Anglican church in Rowland's Castle itself, but the little church of St. John on Redhill, in the parish of Havant, is not much more than a mile from the green. The Castle Inn in the village has been kept for about two centuries by the Outen family. There were formerly two fairs held in Rowland's Castle—one for horned cattle on 12 May, and the other for horned cattle and hogs on 12 November—but they had become obsolete before the middle of the nineteenth century. Four good roads run in different directions from Rowland's Castle—one south-west to Havant, the second, along which several modern houses are being built, north-west uphill to Blendworth, the third south-east to Westbourne, and the fourth north-east to Dean Lane End. From Links Lane some of the finest views can be obtained of the surrounding country. Blendworth Common and the Holt lie to the west, on the east is Stanstead Forest, and on the south Havant Thicket and Emsworth Common.

The little village of Finchdean is almost in the centre of Idsworth, near the railway line, in the midst of very beautiful country. In the centre of the village is a small triangular green, near which are the smithy, the George Inn, and a small Congregational chapel. The manufacture of agricultural machines is carried on in Finchdean, and there is also a brass and iron foundry there. To the north is Idsworth House, the property of Lieut-Colonel Sir Henry ClarkeJervoise, bart., and at present the residence of Mr. John Bradley Firth. It stands in a fine park of 150 acres, commanding wide views over the surrounding country and the Isle of Wight. In the extreme north of Old Idsworth Park, a little to the east of the road from Dean Lane End to Compton, is the ancient church of Idsworth.

The soil varies, but consists principally of chalk. The subsoil is chalk. The chief crops are wheat, barley, and oats. The population in 1901 was 420, including Rowland's Castle. Idsworth contains 882 acres of arable land, 809 acres of permanent grass, and 291½ acres of woods and plantations. (fn. 8) Open fields and common lands in Idsworth were inclosed by authority of an Act of 1812.

MANORS

The manor of CHALTON, which comprised the parishes of Blendworth, Catherington, Clanfield, and Chalton, a portion of the parish of Hambledon, and perhaps the parish of Idsworth, formed part of the possessions of Earl Godwin, and on his death in 1053 passed to his son Harold. It was seized in 1066 by William the Conqueror, who granted it to William Fitz-Osbern, whom he created earl of Hereford and lord of the Isle of Wight. At the time of the Domesday Survey Roger de Montgomery, earl of Shrewsbury, was holding the manor of the gift of William Fitz-Osbern. (fn. 9) On his death in 1094, Chalton, with his other English estates and dignities, passed to his second son Hugh, called 'Goch' (the red), (fn. 10) who being shot in the eye in the invasion of the Isle of Anglesey by Magnus, king of Norway, died unmarried (fn. 11) 27 July, 1098. On his death his estates passed to his elder brother, Robert de Belesme, earl of Shrewsbury and Arundel, who, in return for a payment of £3,000, was confirmed in his brother's earldoms in 1098 by William Rufus. He, however, fortified his castles in England against Henry I, and was accordingly expelled from the country, and deprived of all his honours and estates in 1102. (fn. 12) In this way Chalton fell into the hands of the king, who granted it, as parcel of the honour of Leicester, in 1107, to Robert de Beaumont, as a reward for establishing the English rule in Normandy. (fn. 13) The manor remained in the possession of the Beaumonts, earls of Leicester, till 1204, (fn. 14) when Robert de Beaumont, fourth earl of Leicester, died without issue, leaving a widow Lauretta, the daughter of William de Braose. (fn. 15) In 1214 King John ordered the sheriff of Hampshire to cause Lauretta, countess of Leicester, to have at her manor of Chalton as much in ploughs and stock as Henry Fitz-Count (fn. 16) received in the same manor when it was committed to him by the command of the king. (fn. 17) Lauretta probably held the manor for some time after her husband's death. (fn. 18) In 1207 Simon de Montfort, the younger son of Simon count of Evreux by Amice the sister and co-heir of Robert de Beaumont earl of Leicester, was confirmed by King John in his titles of earl of Leicester and steward of England, but later in the same year he was deprived of all his English possessions. However, eight years later he was restored, Randolph de Blondeville, earl of Chester, being made custos of the fief of the earldom of Leicester. (fn. 19) Randolph seems to have been looked upon as the lord of Chalton till 1232, when the earl's youngest son, the famous Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, was confirmed in all the land held by his father in England. (fn. 20) Thus in 1224 Henry III gave Randolph, earl of Chester, permission to hold at Chalton, until his coming of age, a market every Thursday and a yearly fair on the eve and feast of St. Michael, unless such market and fair were to the damage of neighbouring markets and fairs. (fn. 21) Again in 1229 the king informed the verderers of his forest of Portchester that he had given orders to Robert de Waleton, the steward of the earl of Chester, to allow them to enter the wood of his lordship of Chalton which was in the forest, as they had been accustomed to do before the perambulation of the forest was made. (fn. 22) In 1246 Simon de Montfort granted the manor to Hereward Marsh and Rainetta his wife, to hold to them of himself and his heirs during the life of Rainetta, with immediate reversion to Simon if Rainetta died before her husband. (fn. 23) This evidently happened, as the earl was seised of the manor in 1265, when he was defeated and slain at Evesham. Hence Chalton escheated to Henry III, who gave it to his youngest son Edmund Plantagenet, (fn. 24) created earl of Leicester and steward of England 26 October, 1265, and earl of Lancaster 30 June, 1267. (fn. 25) Edmund in his turn gave the manor to Hamon le Strange (fn. 26) before 1272, in which year Hamon obtained a grant of free warren in Chalton. (fn. 27)

The manor was held of the earls of Lancaster and Leicester from the time of Edmund's grant to Hamon until in 1350 (fn. 28) it became part of the duchy of Lancaster, (fn. 29) when Henry Plantagenet earl of Lancaster and Leicester was created duke of Lancaster, (fn. 30) and was merged in the crown (fn. 31) when Henry Plantagenet, duke of Lancaster, ascended the throne as Henry V. (fn. 32) Hamon le Strange, while in the Holy Land, granted the manor to his brother Robert, who held a court there, and remained in possession till Hamon's death, when he was ejected by the sheriff of Hampshire, (fn. 33) Edmund the king's brother being appointed at will to the custody of the manor. (fn. 34) An inquisition was held early in 1275 to discover what right Robert had to the manor, (fn. 35) and in July of the same year the sheriff of Hampshire was ordered to cause Robert to have such seisin of the manor as he had before it was taken into the king's hands. (fn. 36) Robert was not seised of Chalton long, for in September, 1276, the king ordered the sheriff to cause Eleanor widow of Robert to have £30 yearly of land in the manor of Chalton, until dower should be assigned to her. (fn. 37) Robert's heir was still a minor in 1281, for in that year John de Aese, vicomte de Tartase, obtained a grant of the manor of Chalton, extended at £40, (fn. 38) to hold during the minority of Robert's heir. (fn. 39) John son of Robert died seised of the manor in 1289, his heir being his brother Fulk, (fn. 40) to whom Edward I in 1294 granted licence, since he was going on the king's service to Gascony, to sell, cut down, and carry away timber to the value of £40 out of his wood of Chalton, which was within the metes of the forest of Portchester, in those places where it would be to the least damage of the forest. (fn. 41) Fulk served his king well in Gascony, and obtained as a reward quittance from a debt of £24 which his uncle Hamon had owed at the time of his death for 'many defaults of the time when he was sheriff.' (fn. 42) He died seised of the manor in 1324, leaving a son and heir John. (fn. 43) While John was lord of the manor of Chalton, Richard de Hangleton, who was lord of the neighbouring manor of Catherington, encroached upon Chalton manor, and disseised him of 300 acres of wood in Chalton and two pieces of land in Catherington. By an indenture dated at Winchester on the Wednesday after the feast of St. James the Apostle, 1334, it was agreed that Richard should surrender the said wood and lands to John for ever, and should only claim reasonable 'housbote' and 'heybote' for the tenement which he inherited in Catherington, to be taken in the part of the wood called 'Estrenche' by view of John's bailiffs, together with common for his beasts in the said wood. (fn. 44) John held the manor until his death in 1349, (fn. 45) when it passed to his son and heir Fulk, aged nineteen, (fn. 46) who died the same year, leaving as his heir his brother John, aged seventeen. (fn. 47) The latter died before 1361, for in that year Ankarette wife of John le Strange died seised of the manor, held in dower, leaving a son and heir, John, aged seven, (fn. 48) whose wardship was granted to Richard earl of Arundel. (fn. 49) John died on 3 August, 1375, before he reached the age of twenty-one years, (fn. 50) and left the manor in dower to Isabel his wife, with reversion to his only daughter Elizabeth. The latter became the wife of Thomas Mowbray, earl of Nottingham, but died without issue in 1383. Isabel, who had married William Ufford, earl of Suffolk, as her second husband, died seised of the manor 29 September, 1416, when it passed to Sir Gilbert Talbot, son and heir of Ankarette, sister of John le Strange. (fn. 51) But shortly before Isabel's death Sir Gilbert had granted the reversion of the manor to trustees, (fn. 52) and died 17 November, 1418. (fn. 53) On 4 May, 1426, the executors of Sir Gilbert granted the manor to Sir John Montgomery of Faulkbourne (co. Essex) and Elizabeth his wife, (fn. 54) and on 12 October, 1448, the manor was settled upon Sir John and Elizabeth and their issue. (fn. 55) Nine months later Sir John died seised of the manor, his heir being his son John, aged twentythree. (fn. 56) This John must have died before 1465, for in the inquisition taken after his mother's death in that year, it was stated that her heir was her son Sir Thomas Montgomery, aged thirty and more. (fn. 57) This Thomas was one of the most eminent men of his time, standing high in the favour of Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII. He made his will at Faulkbourne 28 July, 1489, (fn. 58) and died seised of the manor of Chalton in 1494, his heir being his sister Alice, the wife of Edmund Wiseman. (fn. 59) In 1496 Anne Montgomery, widow, probably the widow of Thomas, but possibly the widow of his brother John, released all her interest in the manor to Sir Reginald Bray, Sir John Norbury, and others for purposes of settlement on her sister-in-law Alice. (fn. 60) In 1505 Edmund Wiseman and Alice his wife, and John Fortescue and Philippa his wife, who was the granddaughter of Alice (fn. 61) by her first husband, Clement Spice, granted the manor to George earl of Shrewsbury, (fn. 62) whose title was confirmed in 1506 when Sir John Norbury and Joan his wife surrendered all their right to the manor, (fn. 63) and again in 1524, when Sir Edward Bray and Joan his wife renounced all their claim to it. (fn. 64) In 1532 the earl sold the manor to Margaret countess of Salisbury, (fn. 65) on whose attainder and execution in 1539 the king granted it to William Fitz-William, earl of Southampton, to hold for seventyone years at a rent of £75 0s. 4½d. (fn. 66) In 1542 the manor was settled upon the earl in tail male with contingent remainder to William, Lord Herbert, son and heir apparent of Henry earl of Worcester, in tail male. (fn. 67) The earl of Southampton died without issue less than a year later, (fn. 68) and in accordance with the settlement the manor reverted to William, Lord Herbert, who succeeded to the peerage as earl of Worcester 26 November, 1549. (fn. 69) He died seised of the manor in 1588, his heir being his son Edward, Lord Herbert, (fn. 70) who, shortly after succeeding to his inheritance, engaged in fierce disputes with William, Lord Sandys, the lord of the adjoining manor of Catherington, concerning his right to the common called the East Heath, which he declared to be parcel of the manor of Chalton, and with Robert Paddon and Arthur Swayne, lords of the neighbouring manor of Hinton Daubnay, concerning their right to the parcel of waste called Woodcrofts. (fn. 71) The earl died seised of the manor in 1628, and was succeeded by his second but eldest surviving son Henry, Lord Herbert, aged forty and more. (fn. 72) Henry was a zealous supporter of the royal cause, raising and supporting two armies from 1642 to 1646, and being lieutenantgeneral of the forces in Monmouthshire. On 1 December, 1645, the Commons, in drawing up the peace propositions to be offered to the king, resolved that an estate of £2,500 a year should be conferred on Cromwell, and that the king should be requested to make him a baron. After the failure of the negotiations an ordinance of Parliament settled upon him lands to the value named, taken chiefly from the property of the marquis of Worcester, (fn. 73) and the king was forced by letters patent to grant to his 'beloved Oliver Cromwell,' his heirs and assigns, the manor of Chalton, 'which manor was lately the hereditament of Henry earl of Worcester, Edward, Lord Herbert, and Sir John Somerset, which earl, Edward and John, are recusantes papistici. (fn. 74) Oliver Cromwell was seised of the manor till his death, when it passed to his eldest son Richard. (fn. 75) After the Restoration the manor was restored to Edward Somerset, marquis of Worcester, son and heir of Henry Somerset, earl of Worcester. He died seised of it in 1667, (fn. 76) and was succeeded by his son and heir Henry Somerset, marquis of Worcester, who petitioned Charles II for a grant of the reversions remaining in the crown of the manor of Chalton, in order to enable him to raise money to discharge the debts contracted by his father, which much encumbered his estate. (fn. 77) This petition was granted 26 December, 1667. (fn. 78) The marquis was created duke of Beaufort in 1682, and died seised of the manor in 1699. (fn. 79) Chalton continued to be the property of the duke of Beaufort (fn. 80) until about 1780, (fn. 81) when it was purchased by Jervoise Clarke-Jervoise, who in 1789 bought up the neighbouring manor of Idsworth (q.v.). His son, the Rev. Samuel Jervoise Clarke-Jervoise, was created a baronet 13 November, 1813. (fn. 82) Lieut.Colonel Sir Henry Clarke-Jervoise, bart., grandson of the latter, is the present lord of the manor.

IDSWORTH

IDSWORTH is not mentioned in Domesday Book, and at the time of the Survey was probably included in the manor of Chalton, then held by Earl Roger of Shrewsbury. (fn. 83) It is probable that it was separated from Chalton when, on the rebellion of Robert de Belesme, third earl of Shrewsbury, in 1102, his lands were forfeited to the crown. (fn. 84) Then, when Henry I granted Chalton, as part of the honour of Leicester, to Robert de Beaumont, that part of Chalton which was afterwards known as Idsworth was evidently detached from the main manor, and was afterwards held by a certain Norman, William de Ferrers, directly of the king. (fn. 85) In 1204, King John ordered the sheriff of Hampshire to deliver up to Henry Hoese the land of Idsworth which had belonged to William de Ferrers, together with the stock of that land and seed to sow it. The corn, however, he was to retain to the king's use. (fn. 86) Henry held the manor for about eighteen years of the gift of King John. (fn. 87) In 1222, however, King Henry III granted it to one of his crossbowmen, Brito by name, to support him in the royal service, and Henry Hoese was ordered to surrender it to him. (fn. 88) This he did not do immediately, whereupon the sheriff of Hampshire was ordered to force Henry to give up the manor to Brito with all the profits therefrom since the king's grant to Brito. (fn. 89) Brito held it till 1226, when the king ordered the sheriff to cause Reynold de Bernevall to have full seisin of the land of Idsworth, saving, however, to Brito all his chattels found in that land. (fn. 90) Brito died less than a year afterwards, and the sheriff was commanded to give up to his widow Edelina all the corn, which he had caused to be sown in Idsworth, in order to support her and her sons. (fn. 91) The manor was next granted to the king's messenger William Blome, who held it for nearly thirty years. (fn. 92) On his death the king granted the reversion of the manor, valued at £16 a year, after the death of William's widow Alda, to his yeoman Herman de Budbergh, as a reward for his services. In the grant it was specially stipulated that Herman and his heirs should not alienate the land to any but the king without his special consent. (fn. 93) Herman, some time afterwards, granted the manor to Queen Eleanor, who, in her turn, with the consent of her husband, granted it in free alms to Tarrant Nunnery (co. Dors.), (fn. 94) a house to which she was so great a benefactress that it was sometimes styled in records 'Locus benedictus reginae' or 'Locus reginae super Tarent.' (fn. 95) Her gift was confirmed by Henry III in 1271, (fn. 96) and by Edward I in 1280. (fn. 97) In 1281 Iseult the abbess of Tarrant granted the manor of Idsworth to Henry de Bonynges and Isabel his wife to hold of the abbess and her successors for the rent of a penny at Christmas and by suit at the hundred court of Wollesthorn every three weeks. (fn. 98) From this time the abbess and her successors were overlords of the manor of Idsworth, (fn. 99) and as late as 1606 the manor was said to be held of Sir John Portman as of the site of his abbey of Tarrant. (fn. 100)

From Henry de Bonynges and Isabel his wife the manor passed to John Romyn, who was holding it in 1316, (fn. 101) and remained in the family of Romyn until 1419, (fn. 102) when John Romyn died without issue, his heir being his distant kinsman Thomas de Wintershull, (fn. 103) lord of the manor of Wintershull in Bramley (co. Surr.). (fn. 104) He died without issue in October, 1420, leaving two sisters and co-heirs, Joan the wife of William Catton, and Agnes the wife of William Basset, (fn. 105) who, in 1431, released all right in the manor to Nicholas Banester and Isabel his wife, (fn. 106) the widow of the John Romyn who died in 1419. (fn. 107) The manor remained in the family of Banester for over two centuries, (fn. 108) passing at length into the family of Dormer by the marriage of Mary daughter of Edward Banester with Robert Dormer, third son of Sir Robert Dormer first Lord Dormer of Wyng. (fn. 109) Their grandson, Charles, fifth Lord Dormer of Wyng, was seised of it in 1723, (fn. 110) and it was held successively by the Rev. Charles Dormer, sixth Lord Dormer, who died in 1761, John, seventh Lord Dormer, who died in 1785, and Charles, eighth Lord Dormer. (fn. 111) The last named sold the manor in 1789 to Jervoise ClarkeJervoise, (fn. 112) whose great-grandson, Lieut.-Colonel Sir Henry Clarke-Jervoise, bart., (fn. 113) is the present lord of the manor.

At a short distance south-west of Idsworth church is the site of the old Idsworth House, but nothing remains of the building except some garden walls.

WELLSWORTH (Walesworthe, Welesworth, xiii cent.; Waleswith, xv cent.; Wallysworth, xvi cent.). In the reign of Henry II the manor was held by William de Say, and on his death passed to his daughter and co-heir Maud wife of William de Bocland, who was holding it by right of inheritance towards the end of the twelfth century. (fn. 114) On her death without issue it passed to her heir Geoffrey Fitz-Piers, the husband of her sister Beatrice, (fn. 115) who was created earl of Essex for his service to King John on the day of his coronation. On Geoffrey's death in 1213 the manor passed to his son and heir Geoffrey, who assumed the name of Mandeville. (fn. 116) He did not hold it long, however, for he was slain in a tournament in London, 23 February, 1216, and his estates passed to his brother William de Mandeville, earl of Essex, who gave it within a few years to Sir Geoffrey de Lucy for saving his life in a tournament at Lincoln. (fn. 117) Geoffrey de Lucy in his turn sold it to Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester, (fn. 118) who soon afterwards granted it in free alms to the abbey of Titchfield which he had founded in 1233. (fn. 119) Henry III confirmed Wellsworth to Titchfield, and granted in addition that the abbot and the canons should have thol and theam, infangenthef and utfangenthef, and many other privileges in Wellsworth, and also that the lands of Wellsworth, which were within the bounds of the royal forest, should be for ever quit from waste, regard, view of foresters, etc. (fn. 120) In 1280 the abbot of Titchfield being summoned to show by what warrant he claimed to have pillory and the assize of bread and beer in Wellsworth, produced the charter of Henry III and the case was dismissed. (fn. 121) Again he produced the charter in the same year when he was summoned to show why he should not permit his villeins of Wellsworth to make suit at the king's hundred-court of Portsdown, (fn. 122) and the case was decided in his favour. In 1294 Edward I by charter granted to the abbot and convent free warren in Wellsworth, (fn. 123) and this grant was confirmed by Henry VI in 1424. (fn. 124) In the reign of Edward II, William de Cleydon, the deputy of Lord Hugh le Despenser, the justiciar of the forest 'citra Trentam' ordered the warden of the forest of Bere to allow the abbot and convent of Titchfield and their men of Wellsworth to have common of pasture in the said forest for all their animals except goats from a place called 'Meslyngforth' even to 'Rolokescastel,' according to charters of the kings of England. (fn. 125) The abbot and convent of Titchfield held Wellsworth until the dissolution, (fn. 126) when it was granted by the king to Thomas Wriothesley, earl of Southampton. (fn. 127) The manor remained the property of the earls of Southampton (fn. 128) until about the middle of the seventeenth century, when it was bought up by Richard Norton, (fn. 129) after which it followed the descent of the manor of Southwick, (fn. 130) in the hundred of Portsdown (q. v.).

The Romyns also had a tenement in WELLSWORTH, which followed the descent of the manor of Idsworth, passing with it to the Banesters. It was probably in origin the two messuages, 18 acres of land and 1 acre of wood in Chalton, granted to Henry Romyn and Joan his wife by Richard Baldwin of Wellsworth and Agnes his wife in 1345. (fn. 131) Henry Romyn died in 1349 seised of the following tenements in Wellsworth:—A messuage, 105 acres of land worth 26s. 3d. per annum, a dovecote worth 6s. 8d. per annum, and 17s. 5d. rents of free tenants and others—held of John Romyn by money-rent and suit of court. (fn. 132) His son and heir was Edmund, aged six, who probably died while under age, when the tenement reverted to John Romyn the overlord. It seems only to be called a manor in one document— the inquisition taken after the death of Edward Banester in 1606—when it is described as situated in the vill of Idsworth, and of the annual value of 10s. (fn. 133) It has continued to form part of the Idsworth estates, and is at the present day represented by the farm of Little Wellsworth.

CHURCHES

The church of ST. MICHAEL, CHALTON, has a chancel 32 ft. long by 18 ft. 3 in. wide, a nave 46 ft. by 21 ft. 8 in., with a north porch, a south transept 12 ft. 8 in. north to south by 12 ft. 2 in., and a west tower.

The chancel is the oldest part of the building, a fine and well-proportioned piece of mid-thirteenthcentury work, with an east window unfortunately reset in a very clumsy manner at an early Victorian 'restoration.' It has four main lights uncusped, with two quatrefoils over them, and a cinquefoil in the head. In the north wall are three tall lancets, the first two set near each other, with a greater space between the second and third or western lancet, the sill of which is lower than those of the others. On the south side are three lancets similarly placed, with a blocked priest's door (fn. 134) between the second and third. The latter is only visible on the outer face of the wall, being blocked, and is much shorter than the others, having below it a wide low side window of two lights with shouldered heads, which seems to be part of the original work. It has lost its central mullion and, like the window over, is blocked, its iron grate remaining in the blocking, and the hooks for the shutters being still in position. At the southeast of the chancel is a double piscina with trefoiled arches, and under the east window in the north wall a locker. There is no chancel arch. In the nave the earliest feature is a two-light window in the south wall with a trefoiled circle in the head, of late thirteenth-century date; but with this exception everything appears to belong to the first quarter of the fourteenth century. The east window in the north wall is of this date, with two trefoiled lights and a quatrefoil in the head, and on either side of the plain north doorway is a tall trefoiled single light. In the south wall, west of the opening to the transept, is the two-light thirteenth-century window already noted, and west of it is a plain south doorway and a trefoiled light like that on the north. The transept, whose north arch is completely blocked by the organ, is of about the same date as the fourteenth-century work in the nave, and has a square-headed east window of two trefoiled lights, and a south window, also of two trefoiled lights, with a quatrefoil in the head. The nave roof preserves some old timbers, but the tiebeams are cased with modern boarding, and the chancel roof is modern. The north porch has been much repaired, but its main timbers are of fifteenthcentury work. The tower, which is entered from the church by a plain chamfered doorway, has a plain blocked west doorway, and standing near the western boundary of the churchyard whence the ground falls rapidly, shows signs of failure, its upper stages being patched with brick and bound with iron tie-rods. The belfry windows have therefore lost their original detail, and the whole is very plain, but is of much the same date as the nave.

The font stands at the west end of the nave, and is octagonal, with quatrefoiled panels on the bowl inclosing alternately blank shields or paterae carved with heads or foliage. Its date is c. 1400, and it closely resembles the font at Idsworth a few miles away. Both fonts have also been broken at the base of the bowl, by tradition in the civil wars.

The most interesting monument in the church is that of Richard Ball, rector, who died in 1632. It is on the north wall of the chancel close to the east end, and shows a figure kneeling at a desk in the gown of a bachelor of divinity of Oxford, beneath a level cornice carried by Corinthian columns. On the underside of the cornice and in a frame above are the arms of Ball; argent a lion sable, on a chief sable three mullets argent. In the pavement at the southeast angle of the nave is part of a fifteenth-century slab with incised black letter inscription. In the south-east window of the chancel are a few fragments of late mediaeval glass, worked in with other pieces of eighteenth-century date, several other pieces of the latter occurring elsewhere in the church and the north porch, and in the cinquefoil in the head of the east window of the chancel.

The plate consists of a communion cup and paten of 1568, the cup having two bands of incised ornament, a circular saucer with embossed ornament of 1662, a cup of 1725, and a small paten of 1794. There is also a modern plated flagon. The Elizabethan paten and the saucer are not used, but kept for safety in a London bank. There are three bells— the treble of 1674, with the name of John Fleet, churchwarden, and the founder's initials W. E., the second blank, and the tenor a mediaeval bell by Roger Landon, inscribed Sancta Maria Ora Pro Nobis, with Landon's lion's face, founder's shield, groat, and cross.

The registers might serve as a model for many parishes. All are carefully and strongly bound up, with a transcript in the same cover, and an index of contents. The first book runs from 1538 to 1653, with a gap 1641–7, the second from 1684 to 1746, and the third, dealing with burials in woollen, from 1678 to 1746. The entries for the years between the first and second volumes, 1653–84, are in a separate book. The fourth and fifth books contain baptisms and burials from 1747 to 1807, and marriages to 1753, the sixth is the printed book of marriages 1754–1812, and a seventh has the baptisms and burials to 1812.

The small church of ST. HUBERT, IDSWORTH, stands in the middle of a field, at some distance from the nearest road, and separated from it by the shallow grass-grown channel of a periodical stream known as the Lavant.

It has a chancel 20 ft. 2 in. long and 16 ft. 2 in. wide, and a nave 33 ft. 8 in. by 20 ft., with a wooden bell-turret over the east end of the nave, and a west porch of brick and flint. The north and west walls of the nave are of twelfth-century date, and the chancel, whose north wall is continuous with that of the nave, is probably of the thirteenth century, having been built round the twelfth-century chancel. The width of the nave and chancel thus became equal, and remained so till the nave was widened southward in the sixteenth century, throwing the west doorway and chancel arch out of centre with it. A curious feature is the small twelfth-century arch, only 21 in. wide, at the east end of the north wall of the nave, and now blocked up. Its inner face is hidden by the pulpit, which stands in the north-east angle, and its original purpose can only be guessed at, though it must have opened to some small building, whether turret, porch, or chapel, set against the north wall of the church. (See Hamble for a similar feature.)

The east window of the chancel has lost its tracery and is filled with a wooden frame, but the jambs and rear arch are old, and are covered with fourteenthcentury paintings, figures of St. Peter and St. Paul on the jambs, and two angels on the soffit of the arch. In the south wall is a square-headed door, of no great age in its present shape, and on the outer face of the north wall a window of two uncusped lights is to be seen, anciently blocked, as on the inner face of the wall where it should show is a large late thirteenthcentury wall painting in two tiers, the upper representing St. Hubert taming the Lycanthrope, a manheaded monster, and the lower the story of the death of St. John the Baptist. On the lower parts of the painting are a number of scratched inscriptions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, among others the name of St. Hubert and a Latin inscription of several lines to our Lady. The chancel arch is pointed, of one order with a chamfer on the edge. The have is lighted from the north by two 'churchwarden' windows with wooden frames, and from the south by two square-headed sixteenth-century windows, each of two four-centred lights without cusps. In the west wall, set centrally with the nave before its southward enlargement, is a pointed doorway, probably of the fourteenth century, and over it a small eighteenthcentury porch of flint and brick. Externally there is little detail. The earliest walling on the north side of the church is of regularly-set flintwork, the sixteenth-century masonry on the south side being of coarser rubble with sandstone quoins, on one of which is an incised sun-dial. The roofs are red-tiled, and the bell-turret has a short spire finished with a copper ball. The church is ceiled on the underside of the rafters, the tie-beams being cased with eighteenth-century boarding. There is a west gallery to the nave, and the seating remains much as it was at the end of the eighteenth century, with high boxpews at the east end of the nave, and narrow upright benches of the most uncomfortable description towards the west. Below the bell-turret the nave is ceiled at the level of the tie-beams, access to the loft thus formed being by a trap-door at the south end, but whether this arrangement is as old as the widening of the nave is not clear. (fn. 135) The pulpit is of early seventeenth-century date, with arched panels and scrolled brackets to the book-board, but it has been repaired in the eighteenth century, and the tester above seems to be of this date, as well as other details. The font is octagonal with quatrefoiled panels on the bowl, exactly like that at Chalton, and doubtless of the same date. In the turret is one bell, uninscribed.

ADVOWSONS

The advowson of the church of CHALTON probably belonged to the various lords of the manor of Chalton until 1102, when Robert de Belesme earl of Shrewsbury and Arundel was expelled from the country and deprived of all his honours and estates. As has been shown above, Henry I granted the manor as parcel of the honour of Leicester to Robert de Beaumont, but retained the advowson, which remained with the crown until the reign of Henry II, who granted it to the 'abbey which Robert earl of Leicester had made and founded at Eiton' (Nuneaton, co. Warw.). (fn. 136) From this time the prioress, prior, and convent of Nuneaton were patrons of the church, (fn. 137) and received from it an annual pension of 9 marks. (fn. 138) After the dissolution the advowson remained the property of the crown (fn. 139) until 1613, when, on the death of Thomas Nevill, Edward earl of Worcester presented Richard Ball, alleging that the advowson had been included in the grant of the manor made by Henry VIII in 1542 to William earl of Southampton in tail male with contingent remainder to William, Lord Herbert, (fn. 140) who succeeded to the peerage as earl of Worcester in 1549. The king presented William Todd the same year, and on the bishop's refusal to admit him brought a quare impedit against the bishop, the earl, and Richard Ball for preventing him from presenting to the church. The following year, however, he unaccountably stayed all proceedings, and by letters patent confirmed the estate which Richard had in the church. (fn. 141) The title of the earl was confirmed in 1618, when James I granted the advowson to him and his heirs and pardoned 'all intrusions, invasions, and ingresses of, in, or on it, made heretofore by him or William, Lord Herbert, without legal right or title.' (fn. 142) On the death of Richard Ball in 1632, Godfrey Price was presented by Charles Jones and William Morgan, to whom the earl had granted the next voidance of the church by a deed dated 1626. (fn. 143) Charles I, however, presented William Todd, and while the case was proceeding between him and the earl the living was served by two curates appointed by the bishop, whose wages were paid by the sequestrators out of the corn from the glebe-land. (fn. 144) Ultimately Dr. George Gillingham, the king's chaplain, made a private arrangement with Godfrey Price, and recovered the king's right to the rectory from 'the hands of a powerful adversary,' for which service he was promised the nomination of his successor. (fn. 145) In 1645 the advowson was granted to Oliver Cromwell, (fn. 146) who deprived Dr. Gillingham of the rectory and presented John Audley in his stead. Dr. Gillingham was persecuted from place to place and took shelter for some time at Southampton, but was at last driven thence likewise. However, he outlived his troubles, and at the Restoration was reappointed; 'John Audley, intruder, being turned out.' (fn. 147) On his resignation in 1668 Charles II presented Dr. Gillingham's son-in-law. Dr. Barker, in answer to his petition. (fn. 148) In the same year Henry marquis of Worcester petitioned for a regrant of the advowson, (fn. 149) but did not obtain it until 1670, in which year the king settled it on him and his heirs for ever after the death or removal of Dr. Barker. (fn. 150) The advowson then followed the descent of the manor until early in the nineteenth century, (fn. 151) when Jervoise Clarke-Jervoise sold it to King's College, Cambridge. The latter sold it towards the end of the last century, and it is at present in the gift of Mrs. Pearson Strange.

IDSWORTH was originally a chapelry dependent on the mother-church of Chalton. Hence a dispute concerning the advowson arose in 1275 between Henry de Bonynges, lord of the manor of Idsworth, who claimed it as an appurtenance of Idsworth manor, and the prioress of Nuneaton, who made good her right as patron of Chalton church, and therefore of the appendant chapel. (fn. 152) The rectors of Chalton were bound from very early times to find a chaplain at the chapel of St. Peter Idsworth (fn. 153) to say mass on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and on double feasts throughout the year, and to administer the sacraments and other rites (except the burial of the dead) for the inhabitants of the hamlets of Idsworth and Dene (Horndean, or perhaps Finchdean). (fn. 154) Sir William Haughe, rector of the church of Chalton, discontinued this practice in 1394, and accordingly proceedings were taken against him in the Court of Arches by Richard Romyn, lord of Idsworth manor, and the rest of the inhabitants of the two villages before Thomas Stowe and Adam Uske, who decided that the rector was liable by custom to find a chaplain to minister in Idsworth Chapel. This sentence was published by the bishop of Winchester on 1 May, 1398, and confirmed by the prior and chapter of Winchester on 3 June following. (fn. 155)

In early times there was a chapel in Wellsworth. It is included in a list of churches and chapels in Hampshire made while Wykeham was bishop, was then not assessed proper exilitatem, but was burdened with a pension of 8s. 9½d. to Southwick Priory. (fn. 156)

CHARITIES

Stanstead College, which was founded by Mr. Charles Dixon, of Stanstead Park (Suss.), by deed 1852, for the support and benefit of decayed merchants of London, Liverpool, or Bristol, being members of the Church of England, is situated in this parish. The college is regulated by schemes of the Charity Commissioners, dated 24 December, 1875, and 8 May, 1877. The official trustees hold the trust funds, which consist of £2,098 18s. 1d. bank stock, £9,000 colonial securities, and £4,000 Indian railway securities, producing an annual income of £588 16s. 10d.