North Erpingham Hundred

NORTH ERPINGHAM HUNDRED.

The Conqueror, at the time of the survey had the soc and sac of this hundred, except the land which Siward Bar held in the time of the Confessor, in Beckham.

In the 34th of Henry III. the hundred was valued at 8l. per ann. and in the 3d of Edward I. Hugh de Parker farmed it of Queen Alianore. The gallows for this hundred (and every hundred had one belonging to the lord of it,) was at a place called Starts Heg. In the 15th of that King, he granted to the Queen all fines and amercements belonging to it, and ordered them to be paid to John de Berewyk, his beloved clerk, keeper of the Queen's (auri) treasury, who was prebend of Holme in 1294, and after of Fenton in the county of York.

William de Cursoun of Carleton in Norfolk, accounted for 34l. and half a mark arrears of the farms of Aylsham, Causton, and Hobois manors, and the hundreds of North and South Erpingham; and in the 4th of Edward II. Walter de Bermingham had a grant for life, of these two hundreds. In the 32d of Edward III. Isabel Queen-dowager of England, died possessed of them; after this, King Edward III. settled them on his son John Duke of Lancaster, and so they became part of that dutchy, which being in the Crown on the accession of Henry IV. so remain at this time.

King Edward IV. in his 15th year, settled them on his Queen.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it appears that every hundred had a particular place to preserve and keep safe the military stores, belonging to it, and that this hundred had then in store 400lb. of powder, 600 of match, 270 of lead, 30 pickaxes, 30 shod shovels, 30 bare shovels, 9 axes, 300 baskets, and 5 betels. The hundred court seems to have been held at Guneby-Gate, probably near Gunton town; William de Valentia, lord of Matlask, was sued in the 52d of Henry III. for withdrawing a suit of court a Gunegate, to the King's hundred of North Erpingham.