Canterbury: Manors

Manors

THE MANOR OF THE DUNGEON, the mansion of which, situated just without the city walls, at a small distance westward from the lesser hill of the Dungeon, in the parish of St. Mary Bredin, has been pulled down for some years, and only part of the out-offices are remaining, with part of the garden walls.

This manor, now known by the name of Deanjohn farm, was formerly the property of an antient family called Chiche, one of whom, Ernaldus de Chich, was a person of principal note in the reigns of Henry II. Richard I. and king John, and the aldermanries of Burgate and Northgate, in this city, being then held as an estate in fee, did then belong to him and his heirs, and had continued for some time in his family. Thomas Chiche, who was one of the bailiffs of Canterbury in 1259, and again in 1271, was a principal benefactor to the above church of St. Mary Bre din. (fn. 1) John Chich was likewise one of the bailiffs of it in the 23^d and 26^th years of king Edward III.

In the year 1320, being the 13^th of king Edw. II. a definitive sentence was pronounced by Robert Malling, then commissary of Canterbury, on the evidence as well of antient deeds and writings as otherwise, that the hospital of St. Laurence, in Canterbury, was entitled to receive not only the tithes of this manor, but of three hundred acres of land likewise adjacent to it; in consideration of which, John Chiche, who was then lord of this manor, was to receive in autumn for his servants, five loaves of bread, two pitchers and a half of beer, and half a cheese of four-pence; and he himself was entitled to receive unum par Chirothecarum ferinarum, one pair of leather gloves, and one pound of wax in candles; and for his servants three pair of gloves. Thomas Chich, son of the above-mentioned John, was sheriff of this county in the 15^th year of king Richard II.'s reign, and kept his shrievalty at the Dungeon; and his great-grandson Valentine Chich, dying without male issue, (fn. 2) this manor was alienated by him about the beginning of Edward IV.'s reign, to Roger Brent, gent. who was of the parish of All Saints, in Canterbury, who died possessed of it, as appears by his will in the Prerogative-office, in Canterbury, in the year 1486, anno 2 Henry VII. and ordered it to be sold for the payment of his debts and legacies; (fn. 3) after which it appears by an old court-roll, that in the beginning of the next reign of Henry VIII. John Boteler, or Butler, of Heronden, in Eastry, was become proprietor of it, and he passed it away by sale to Sir John Hales, chief baron of the exchequer; (fn. 4) and when Leland visited this part of Kent in the 30^th year of that reign, he then resided at this mansion, which afterwards descended down to Sir James Hales, of the Dungeon, who died in 1665, (fn. 5) leaving one only daughter and heir Elizabeth, who carried it in marriage first to Sir Stephen Hales, K.B. of Warwickshire, and secondly to George, third son of William Sheldon, esq. of Beoly, in Worcestershire, by neither of whom she had issue. They resided at the Dungeon, where she died in 1678, and as he did a few months afterwards, possessed of this manor and seat, which his heirs alienated in 1680, to Henry Lee, esq. whose descendant Thomas Lee Warner, esq. in 1752, pulled down to the ground this mansion, then known by the name of Donjon, alias the Coventryhouse (so called from the lady Coventry's residing in it) (fn. 6) leaving only a few of the offices in the front, and the garden walls standing, and near them the farmhouse, with the buildings belonging to it. He died possessed of this estate in 1768, and was succeeded in it by his son Henry Lee Warner, esq. of Walsingham abbey, in Norfolk, the present owner of it. (fn. 7)

THE MANOR OF MORTON, alias DODINGDALE, lies in the same parish of St. Mary Bredin, about two miles south-eastward from the walls of Canterbury. It was originally called Dodingdale, from a family who were possessors of it, one of which name, Hamo, the son of Guido de Dodingdale, as appears by the records of St. Augustine's monastery, gave the tithes of his manor of Dodingdale to that abbot and convent; (fn. 8) but it seems it was but for a certain term of years, for in king Henry II.'s reign, according to the same records, Richard de Marci, who was then the possessor of this manor, granted the tithes of his lands of Dodingdale, to the hospital of St. Laurence, near Canterbury, in perpetual alms, to the intent, that the brothers and sisters of it should have these tithes in particular, to buy linen cloth on the feast of St. John Baptist; trusting that they would remember him and his in their prayers.

When the family of Dodingdale was become extinct here, this manor came into the possession of another family of the name of Morton. By a deed without date, Elias de Morton, who implanted his name on it, by which it has ever since been called, demised the see simple of it to Hugh Fitzvinon, a family which had large possessions at Sellinge, near Monk's-Horton; and his daughter Eugenia Fitzvinon passed it away by deed in the 20th year of king Henry III. to Nicholas de Twitham, and he immediately afterwards, by a deed not having any date, settled it on Robert de Polre, but whether his successor sold it or not to John Chich, is uncertain, as there is a chasm of this time in the private evidences of it, (fn. 9) though the records of St. Augustine make him to have some interest in this manor in the 3d year of king Edward III. anno 1330. The next that I find to have had possession of it, are Hardres and Isaac, who by joint conveyance in the 22d year of king Henry VI. conveyed it to William Say, for the use of Robert Rigden, in whom the title did not remain long, for he in the 33d year of that reign conveyed all his concern in it by sale to William Barton and John White, and they by joint consent alienated it in the reign of king Henry VI. to Richard Pargate, citizen of Canterbury, who died in the 35th year of that reign, and by his will (fn. 10) gave it, after his wife Isabel's death, to his son Edward, who was succeeded in it by his son and heir John Pargate, whose descendant Edward, in the 25th year of king Henry VIII.'s reign passed it away to Peter Bruin; and after it had remained many years united to this family, Henry Bruin dying without issue, gave it to his sister Jane Bugge, who in the 1st year of king James I.'s reign sold it to her kinsman John Bruin; and he in the 5th year of it alienated it to William Denne, who dying without issue male, Margaret his only daughter and heir carried it in marriage to Mr. Edward Hougham, after whose death it devolved to his two surviving daughters, Elizabeth, married to Mr. Edward Rose, of Chistlet, and Anne to Mr. John Bettenham, of Canterbury, who jointly possessed it in 1656, (fn. 11) at which time and perhaps for some time before, it was known by the name of Morton only. It afterwards became the property of Sawkins, from one of which name it was passed away to Mr. Wm. Hammond, of Stone-house, near Canterbury, who on his son's marriage settled it on him, and dying possessed of it in 1773, was succeeded by his son Mr. Henry Hammond, who died here on July 20, 1784, and his son Mr. William Hammond, now of Stonehouse, is the present possessor of it.

IT APPEARS by the Registrum Roffense, that Gerard de Dudingdale, gave A PORTION OF TITHES in Dudingdale, near Canterbury, to the prior and convent of St. Andrew, in Rochester; which gift was confirmed by archbishops Richard, Baldwin and Hubert. (fn. 12)

This portion of tithes, on the suppression of the priory, came into the hands of king Henry VIII. and was soon afterwards settled by him on his new-founded dean and chapter of that church, and continued with them till the abolition of bishops, deans and chapters, &c. at the latter end of king Charles I.'s reign; soon after whose death in 1649, it was surveyed, by order of the state, in order to its being sold; in which survey it was returned, that the portion of tithes called Dodingdale portion, and the protion of castle lands belonging to the above late dean and chapter, in or near Canterbury, in Thanington and Nackington, and in the parish of St. Mary Bredin, in Canterbury, consisted of all manner of tithes arising from several parcels of land in those parishes, amounted in the whole to 101 acres and three roods of land.

Also the portion of tithes called CASTLE LAND TITHES, in or near this city, all which were let by the dean and chapter, anno 6 Charles I. to Joshua Colse, alderman of Canterbury, for twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of 46s. 8d. and two fat capons; but are worth, over and above that rent, 17l. 9s. 4d. per annum. Parlimentary surveys, vol. xiv. Lambeth library. These premises returned to the dean and chapter at the restoration, part of whose inheritance they now remain. Mr. John Toker was lately lessee of them.

STUPPINGTON is a manor in St. Mary Bredin's parish, which had antiently the same owners as the adjoining one of the Dungeon, having been the property of the Chiches, and afterwards of the Hales's, one of whom, Sir James Hales, in the 15th year of king James I. appears to have suffered a recovery of this manor, with those of Nackington, Staplegate, and the Dungeon, all within the liberties of the city of Canterbury.

After this and some intermediate owners, it became vested in later times in the family of Toker, of whom Mr. Stephen Toker resided here, and at his death was succeeded in it by his son John, who married Bennet Blaxland, by whom he had five sons and one daughter; of the former, Mr. Stephen Toker, the eldest, possessed this estate, but dying unmarried, he devised it by his last will to his nephew Edward, eldest son of his fourth brother, by Margaret Ford his wife. (fn. 13) He afterwards resided here, and in 1795, conveyed this estate, consisting of the mansion with out buildings, gardens, and part of the lands, to Mr. Allen Grebell, who now possesses them; but the other part of the lands to the westward of the house, called Wellclose and Stuppington hill, were sold in 1798 to Mr. Joseph Royle, who is the present owner of them.

THE MANOR OF CALDICOT, lying within the borough of St. Martin, eastward from Longport, was part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury; as such it appears to be described as follows in the general survey of Domesday, taken in the 15th year of the Conqueror's reign, under the title of the lands of the archibishop.

Ipse Archieps ten villa quæ vocat. S. Martin & ptin ad Estursete. & jacet in ipso hund. & defd. l^e p. uno solin & dim. Tra. e… In dnio sunt. 2 car. & 36. bord.

Ad banc tra ptin. 7. burgenses in Cantuaria. reddtes 8. sol. & 4. den. Ibi 5. mold. de. 20. sol. & parva silva.

In hac villa ten Radulf. dim. solin de Archiepo. & ibi ht. 2. car. in dnio & 5. villos cu. 3. bord. bntes 2. car. & dimid. T. R. E. valeb. 7. lib. dim solin. S. Mart. & alind dim solin val. semp. 4. lib.

Which is: The archbishop himself holds the ville, which is called St. Martin, and it belongs to Estursete, and lies in that hundred, and was taxed at one suling and an half. The arable land is. … In demesne there are two carucates and thirty six borders.

To this land there belong seven burgesses in Canterbury, paying eight shillings and four pence. There are five mills of twenty shillings and a small wood.

In this ville Ralph holds half a suling of the archbishop, and there he has two carucates in demesne and five villeins, with three borderers having two carucates and an half. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, it was worth seven pounds; half a suling of St. Martin and another half suling, were always worth four pounds.

Soon after which this manor appears to have been appropriated to the use of the archbishop's table, in which state it continued till the time of archbishop Walter Reynolds, who, in the year 1326, at the earnest desire of the monks, with both the king's and pope's consent, gave it, together with the wood of Thorholt adjoining, then of the value of ten pounds, to the prior and convent, to be for ever appropriated to their use, inasmuch as it was a convenient place for them to retire to, and recreate themselves when they were wearied out and tired, it being at no great distance from their monastery. (fn. 14) After which there were continued disputes between the prior and convent, and the mayor and citizens, concerning their respective rights and jurisdictions within this manor, all which were compromised and settled, among other matters of dispute of the like sort between them in and about the city, by an indenture in the 7th year of king Henry VII. in which, as to this manor, there was a clause, saving to the prior and convent all liberties, privileges and franchises, which they had or ought to have within the borowe of St. Martyn's and the manor of Calcott, not hurting the mayor and commonalty of a fine or rent of xii pence yearly of the said borowe, nor of any liberty, franchise or privilege they had or ought to have in it, or any parcel of the same, to which the prior and convent had title. To explain which, a schedule was annexed to the indenture, for the clause being so general, and not rehearsing what the manor was in quantity, nor the privileges and liberties specially, there might arise in time to come, for want of such plain declaration, great variance between them again; therefore it was agreed, that the manor of Calcott contained in demesne land 318 acres, within the following metes and boundes, that is to say, from the hed of the conduyt of the prior and convent toward the north, between the pond of the cundyt towards the east, and the bank and dyke of the Barton felde on the west, unto a lane which extended westward from the second pond there, unto the waye leading unto Fordwich, the which waye so extended north-east directly unto a crost, called Gallowhell crost, dividing Bishopsfyld, Shepecroft, and two crofts, pertaining unto the monastery of St. Austin's on the north-west, and the lands pertaining unto the manor of Calcot, called Hedgecroft, Bryan's croft, and Turrolt downe on the south-east part, and so from the said way to the hed of Gallowhill crost towards the south east, unto the end of the hedges of Gallowhill croft, and so by the side of that crost castward unto a croft called Hentye, and so from the south side of Gallowhill crost, southward, unto the street called Fordwyche waye, and so over that street south. ward, and so down by the hedge of a croft of the prior and convent, called Toult croft, eastward, by the said street unto a crost called Borstall, and so from the street by the said crost southward to Toult wood, and the wood of the heirs of Thomas Southland, and so including Toult wood as marks and bounds appeared, by the lands of the manor called the Mote, and of the pryor and convent on the east part and Toult leaze on the west part and so southward by the lands of Richard Luckyn, sometime John Barlowe, unto the hyghte streete leading from Canterbury to Sandwyche, and so there westward by the said street leading from Sandwyche unto Mellefylde, and so northward along by Mellefylde, unto the north corner of it, sometyme leading from Fordwyche to Canterbury, and unto Toulte downe and so southward by the oulde street to the hedd of Culverhouse crost, and so from oulde street westward, by the hedd of Culverhouse crost unto Caponlongate, and so from thence unto the Oulde sole adjoining unto the fylde of the monastery of St. Austin, called Pauverage and unto St. Martyn's peices, and so from St. Martyn's peice westward under the hedge of Pauverage aforesaid, unto the end of that land, and so directly from thence by a aright line unto the aforesaid cundyt of Christchurch —but the said manor extended further more in three pieces of land lying at St. Martyn's, not being within the boundes aforesaid, whereof the limits and boundes follow hereafter; first, one of the said three pieces of land is called Bromedowne, and unto seventeen acres of land lying between the lands of the monastery of St. Austin's, called North home, towards the weste, and the said lands called Paveredge towards the north and east, and the second peice was called Printkelham, and contained three acres and lay adjoining unto the lands of Bromedowne towards the east, and the land called North-home towards the south, and to the lands of the prior and convent called Barton felde towards the west and north; and the third peice contaiced three yards and lay between the church-yard of St. Martyn's and the parsonage of the same church towards the west, and the lands called Bromedowne toward the north, and the lands of Thomas Gylbert toward the east and south; within which limits and boundes and burrowe before rehearsed, the said pryor and convent and their successors without interruption or let of the mayor and commonaltie, their heirs and successors, should have the view of frank pledge with all the articles and things thereto pertaining, weiffe and strayes, and also the said pryor and convent and their successors, should have of their men and tenants, and in all their fee within the said limits and burrowe insangtheff, outfangtheff, warren, goods, weyfed goods of condemned men for felony, and fugitives for felony, goods of outlawed men and goods of felons themselves, the year and day and waste, deodands. … … … and all manner of amerceaments of their men and tenants in all the kynges court, the yssues and fines before the mayor and commonaltie in the court of the said cytie excepted; and it was furthermore agreed between the said parties, that the pryor and convent should have unto them and their successors for ever, the like libertie, privilege and franchise in a parcel of land of the said pryor and convent, called Polder's leaze, lying within the parish of St. Martyn, and in all such lands and tenements as be holden of the said pryor and convent, as by reason of the said manor as they by this agreement should have within the limits, boundes and burrowe aforesaid; and the pryor and convent and their successors should not let, ne interrupt the mayor and commonaltie, their heirs ne successors, of any libertie, franchyse or privilege, within the lymits and boundes of the said manor and burrowe, ne in the said other lands and tenements, other than be conteined in the articles before rehearsed; and to this indenture both parties interchangeably set their respective seals.

After this the manor of Caldicot, or Calcot as it was more usually called, continued in the possession of the prior and convent till the final dissolution of that monastery in Henry VIII.'s reign, when it came into the king's hands, who settled it, among other premises, by his dotation charter in his 33d year, on his new founded dean and chapter of Canterbury, part of whose possessions it still continues. A court baron is held for this manor.

THE MANOR OF THE MOAT, aliasWYKE, is situated likewise within the bounds of the city's liberty, in the parish of St. Martin, at the eastern extremity of it. The mansion of it stood almost close to the north side of the road leading to Littleborne, in the midst of a park, the wall of which bounded to it, but the house has been pulled down some few years ago.

This manor was formerly possessed by a family which gave name to it, one of whom, Stephen de Wyke, possessed it in the 20th year of Henry III. as appears by Testa de Nevill, and he paid respective aid for it at the marriage of Isabel, that prince's sister; (fn. 15) but it appears by the book of aid, anno 20 king Edward III. for making the black prince a knight, that this family had then but a small interest in it, for it is there entered, that the heirs of John Tancrey, Stephen de Wyke, (fn. 16) and Richard Betts, for the heirs of John Taylor, paid respective aid for it, as the fourth part of a knight's fee, which the heirs of John Taylor before held at Wike of the archbishop. But before the beginning of king Richard II.'s reign, their concern here was no more, for by the court rolls of it of that time, Sir Richard de Hoo (fn. 17) and Richard Skippe were become possessed of it, and they about the latter end of that reign conveyed it by deed to Simon Spencer, who a few years afterwards alienated it to John Standford, gent. and he suddenly afterwards passed it away to Richard Smith, with whom it had not long continued before it was conveyed to John Eastfield, esq. son of Sir William Eastfield, K. B. and lord mayor of London in the year 1438, anno 16 Henry VI. from whom it passed by sale to William Rogers, and he by fine levied in the 33d year of that reign conveyed it to Philip Belknap, esq. of Canterbury, mayor of that city in the year 1458, and sheriff of the county of Kent in the 34th year of Henry VI.'s reign, at which time he resided and kept his shrievalty here, at his mansion called the Moat. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Woodhouse, esq. by whom he had issue Alice, his only daughter and heir, who married Henry Finch, esq. of Netherfield, the father of Sir William Finch, banncret, who in his mother's right to the right hon. John, lord Finch, cremanor of the Moat, and from him it devolved by successive right to the right hon. John, lord Finch, created baron of Fordwich by king Charles I. (fn. 18) when he was lord keeper of the great feal of England. (fn. 19) He resided at this seat, of which he died possessed, with the Heath or Hoath farm adjoining, in 1661, without male issue, and the title became extinct. (fn. 20) He devised this manor and estate to his kinsman Heneage, earl of Winchelsea, (fn. 21) whose grandson Charles, earl of Winchelsea, alienated it to William, lord Cowper; afterwards created earl Cowper and viscount Fordwich, (fn. 22) whose grandson George, earl Cowper, pulled down the antient mansion of the Wike, for many years past known by the name of the Moat-house. He died in Italy in 1789, and was succeeded by his eldest son George-Augustus, earl Cowper, on whose death unmarried in 1799, it came to his brother the present right hon. Peter Lewis Francis Clavering Cowper, earl Cowper, who is the present owner of this estate, but it has long since lost even the name of having been a manor. (fn. 23)

On Thursday evening, Dec. 27, 1770, by the moon light, was shot by Mr. John Austen, of St. Martin's hill, in the Mote copse, near Trendley, within the park wall, a large yellow eagle, of the same kind as that in the tower. It measured from wing to wing when expanded, seven feet and two inches, and from the head to the tail three feet and one inch.

THE MANOR OF LITTLE BARTON, called in the survey of Domesday, NORTHWOOD, lies about a quarter of a mile northward from the suburbs of Northgate, on the north side of the public highway leading to the Isle of Thanet, and almost adjoining the river Stour.

It formerly was part of the possessions of the priory of Christ-church, to which it was given by the name of Barton, in the year 832, and it continued part of them at the taking of the survey of Domesday, in which it is thus entered, under the general title of their lands.

In Cantuarie hund.

Ipse Archieps ten Nordeude. puno solin se defd. Tra. e. … In dnio I. car & dim. & 7. villi cu 26. bord. hnt. 2. Car. Huic m ptinent in civitate Cantuaria. 100. burgses. 3. min'. reddentes 8. lib. & 4. sol. Ibi. 8. mold de. 71. sol. & 24. ac pti. Silva 30. porc. In tot val & valuit. 17. lib.

Which is: The archbishop himself holds Nordeude. It was taxed at one suling, the arable land is .… In demesne there is one carucate and an half and seven villeins, with twenty six borderers, having two carueates. To this manor belong in the city of Canterbury one bundred burgesses, three less, paying eight pounds and four shillings. There are eight mills of seventy one shillings, and twenty-four acres of meadow; wood for the pannage of thirty hogs. In the whole it is worth and was worth seventeen pounds.

It was known by the name of the manor of Barton, in the 10th year of king Edward II. for in that year the prior of Christ-church obtained a grant of the liberty of free-warren, for this their manor of Berton, near Canterbury, among others belonging to them. (fn. 24)

The manor of Little Barton, of which mention has already been made before, was late the property of Mr. Allen Grebell, who some years ago built here, almost adjoining the east side of the mills, a handsome house, in which he resides. This estate pays a yearly fee farm rent of 2l. 13s. 4½d.