North Erpingham Hundred: Thorp-Market

THORP-MARKET.

William Earl Warren was lord, and Ralph held of him at the survey, 2 carucates of land, which a freeman of Stigand the Archbishop held in the reign of the Confessor, and was deprived of at the conquest, 4 villains, 24 bordarers, and one servus belonged to it, there were 2 carucates in demean, 3 among the tenants, and paunage for 40 swine, 2 acres of meadow, 2 mills, one skep of bees, 2 runci, 3 cows, 20 goats, &c. and 5 socmen with 32 acres of land, and a carucate; also a church endowed with 10 acres, valued in the whole, then, at 40s. but at the survey at 8l. The said Earl had also here and in Mundesley and Trunch, 19 freemen, 3 of which were only under protection or commendation, but the rest all paid customary dues in King Edward's time, and R. Mallet laid claim to these men. (fn. 1) Pauline Peyver was lord, and a judge in King Edward the Third's reign; built at Tuddington in Bedfordshire a magnificent manor-house, &c. of stone, with a park, garden, &c.

The family of de Peyvere were enfeoffed of this lordship, under the Earl Warren; it appears by an original receipt of Sir John de Grey, lord of Wrast in Bedfordshire, dated 1257, that he had the wardship and marriage of John Peyvere, son and heir of Lord Pauline Peyvere, and Mr. Peter Peyvere, one of Pauline's executors, paid then to Sir John, 100 marks, (a very great sum at that time) by way of release of the said wardship and marriage, and for certain goods and chattels, late Pauline's.

This family of de Peyvere descend from Roger, the great Bishop of Salisbury, in the reign of King Stephen, who had a son by Maud de Ramsbury, his harlot, called Roger de Paupere Censu, chancellor of England, whose son, Sir Walter, was lord of Odington, in Oxfordshire, —Kennet's Parochial Antiq.

Sir John having married to his 2d wife Joan, widow of the said Pauline, by whom he had no issue; (fn. 2) but by his first wife he had a daughter, afterwards married to John de Peyvere the minor. The said Pauline died in the aforesaid year; he was lord of Wendlebury in Oxfordshire, and one of the King's justices in the 33d of Henry III. when a fine was levied before the King in person present, Ralph Fitz-Nicholas, John de Lexington, Pauline Peyvere, seneschal, Henry de Bath, Jeremy de Caxton, and Henry de Bracton, the King's justices which Henry was author of the famous treatise—De Consuetudinibus Anglicanis.

William de Peyvere, a younger son (as I take it) of Pauline, was lord; and in 52 of Henry III. recovered damages of the bailiff of Gimmingham, for distraining in this town, and in Roughton, which lordship he held in demean; in the 3d of Edward I. he claimed royal privileges, a gallows, assise, a mercate and a fair, and died before the 20th of that King, when Margaret his late widow, then the wife of Gilbert Hacon, claimed her third's in this town.

John was son and heir of William, who in the 30th of the aforesaid King, granted by deed, on Tuesday next after the feast of the nativity of the blessed Virgin Mary, to Sir Walter de Norwich, some pasture ground, by way of exchange, and in 31st of that King, a piece of land called Bygot's in Thorp, for 30l.

In the 30th of the said King, John de Broghton, by a fine levied at York, passed to the said Walter, 12 messuages, 57 acres and an half of land, 2 of meadow, 5 and an half of wood, 4 of pasture, and 59s. 1d. ob. rent in Thorp Mercate and Bradfield, with 2s. rent out of the profits of the mercate. This was a distinct lordship from that of Peyvere's, but held of the Earl Warren, and in the 5th of Edward II. Sir Walter had a grant of free warren.

In the 16th of Edward II. 2 parts of this manor were settled on William de Peyvere, and Hawys his wife, by their trustees, with a mill; in the 30th of Edward III. Richard de Kent, and Isabell his wife, convey the 3d part of this manor to Sir John Repps; and in the 3d of Henry IV. Edmund Reedesham, John de Repps, &c. held the manor of Thorp Market, by the service of one fee of the heirs of John Peyvere, and he of the Lord Say, who held it of the dutchy of Lancaster; and John Repps of Hering fleet had the 3d part of it in 1473, from whom it came to his son Henry, as in South Repps.

Sir John Heveningham, and Elizabeth his wife, settled by fine, 1441, on Robert Rands, and Cecilia his wife, the 3d part of the manor of Redesham, in this town. This Elizabeth was daughter and heir of Sir John Reedesham, by Alice, daughter and coheir of Sir John de Repps; after this, it came to the Greshums, and Sir John Gresham, Knt. and lord mayor of London, in 1547, died seized of it, October 23, 1556; he was son of John Gresham of Holt, Esq. by Alice his wife, (daughter of Alexander, and heir to her brothers John and William Blith of Stratton in Norfolk, and John was son of James Gresham, Gent. of Holt, by Margery, daughter of William Billingford, Esq. of Blackford-Hall, in Stoke, Norfolk; and John Gresham, Gent. of Gresham in Norfolk, was father of the said James. Sir John, by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Thomas Ipswell, had several children, and left this lordship to Edmund his 3d son, who died lord in 1586, whose son, Sir Richard Gresham, by Joan his wife, daughter of Augustine Hind, alderman of London, inherited it, who married Ann, daughter of Thomas Crofts, Esq. of Saxham Parva, in Suffolk, whose sons dying without issue, Elizabeth their sister and coheir, brought it by marriage to Henry Page, Esq. of Saxthorp in Norfolk, councellor at law, whose son John Page, Esq. was lord in 1695, and at his death, left it to his son, Gresham Page, Esq. of Saxthorp.

Coxford-Priory Manor.

This was given to the priory on the foundation thereof, by Sir John de Cheney, the founder. In the 9th of Edward II. the prior sued persons for fishing here; the temporalities in 1428, were valued at 106s. 4d. At the Dissolution it was granted by King Henry VIII. on May 9, in his 29th year to Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk; Edmund Gresham died seized of it, as was found by an inquisition taken at Norwich, June 7, ao. 29 Elizabeth, and of the manor of Thorp Mercate and Bradfield, with the manors of Sandersted, and Wallingham in Surry.

Sir Thomas Richardson afterwards possessed it, and sold it to Sir Thomas Rant, who married —, daughter of — Burwell of Rougham in Suffolk, and dying without issue, it came to William Rant, M. D. whose son, Sir William Rant, held it in 1692; he married Elizabeth, daughter of William de Grey of Merlon, Esq. and left 2 daughters and coheirs, Elizabeth and Jane; Jane married to Harbord Cropley, Esq. and Elizabeth, to Robert Britiff, Esq. councellor at law, at Norwich.

In Thorp, Robert Grenon, had at the survey, 40 acres of land and one of meadow, of which 7 freemen were deprived, and Osbert held it under Robert, with 40 acres of land, one acre of meadow, and one carucate, valued at 12s. (fn. 3)

The Church is dedicated to St. Margaret, was a rectory, and being granted to the priory of Coxford, by Jeffrey Lord Say, who married Alice, one of the daughters and coheirs of Sir John de Cheney, the founder, was appropriated to it, and a vicarage settled; the rectory was valued at 18 marks, the vicarage at 15s. and paid Peterpence, 9d.; the vicar had a manse with 3 acres of land, and the rectory 13 acres; the present valor of the vicarage is 5l. 11s. 1d. ob. and is discharged.

Vicars.

Walter Atte Strete occurs vicar in the 16th of Edward I.

1324, Richard de Rudham instituted, presented by the prior of Coxford.

1356, Bartholomew de Norton. Ditto.

1361, Bened. de Kempston.

John Baldwyn, vicar.

1368, Jeffrey de Toftrys.

Richard Mason, vicar.

1381, Edmund Heyford.

1391, Robert Stanhow.

1400, Stephen Honyter.

1401, Thomas Hildebrond.

1405, John Benet.

1411, John de Mateshale.

1417, Robert Ware.

1422, Thomas Brightmer

1430, John Hert.

1432, John Grane.

1437, Roger Hawe.

1459, Robert Keson.

1536, William Munds.

Robert Barton, vicar.

1555, Cuthbt. Dales, by the Bishop, a lapse.

Bernard Hargar, vicar; in 1603, he returned 64 communicants.

1603, Edmund Bury, by the Bishop, a lapse.

1608, Richard Youngsband, by Bartholomew Thompson, and Thomas Woorts.

1615, William Comfort. Ditto.

1625, Edward Hall, by the Bishop, a lapse.

1626, Robert Chawmer, by Edward Tompson, and Richard Wiggot.

1634, Thomas Colby, by Roger Wiggot.

John Dibald, vicar.

1680, Jos. Ward, by Sir William Rant.

1690, John Oliver. Ditto.

1692, Michael Hart, by Sir William Rant.

1700, Thomas Martin Ditto.

1705, Samuel Salter. Ditto.

1709, Theoph. Rice. Ditto.

1748, Thomas Woodger, by Sir William Harbord.

On a large black marble tomb-stone,

This stone covers the dust of William Rant, Dr. of physick, and fellow of the college of Physicians in London, who after that he had there exercised his art with much honour and success for full 20 years, upon the 15 day of September, 1653, and in the 49 year of his age, finished the race of his life at Norwich, where he first took breath to run it.— Under this stone also do lye the ashes of his dear wife Jane, 3d daughter of Sir John Dingley, Kt. of Wolverton in Hampshire; she ended this life on the 11th of June, 1656: they left issue, William and Jane.

A grave-stone with a brass plate,

For Edmund Gresham, Esq. who died August—, 1586.

In the church these arms; azure, on a chevron, gules, three boars heads couped, between three cross crosslets, fitchée, or, Butrey; impaling, sable, a chevron, between three dolphins, ermine, Damme,

John Buttry of London, gent. and Elizabeth his wife, daughter of —Damme of Susted, were here buried; he died July 30, 1488.

Hetherset, impaling Berningham, gules, a maunch, ermine;—Hetherset, impaling Rands, sable, a chevron, ermin, between three cross crosslets, fitchée, argent; and Peyvere, azure, a maunch, gules, in a bordure, argent. Here was the guild of St. Margaret.

It was decreed in the dutchy of Lancaster, in the 36th of Henry VIII. that the King's tenants of his manors of Gymingham, Antingham, Thorp, Bradfeld, Trunch, and South Repps adjoining to the common, should have their accustomed right in the commons between the said towns, and that Sir John Gresham, and his tenants of Thorp, should have but 300 sheep on the common called Oldfield Heath, &c.

The tenths were 4l. 1s.