Alderstone Manor and Tithing, shown in Blue
with the three Cowesfield manors (orange, red, pink) and Blaxwell manor (pale green) between the two parts
A Whiteparish local history page from younsmere-frustfield.org.uk
Alderstone Manor and Tithing, shown in Blue
with the three Cowesfield manors (orange, red, pink) and Blaxwell manor (pale green) between the two parts
Alderstone was one of the four Whiteparish Tithings of
The Hundred of Frustfield also included Landford, with the five tithings covering the area of the Hundred.
A tithing or tything was a legal, administrative or territorial unit that came to represent the area served by a church or chapel within which people payed a tenth of their agricultural produce to the church. The last tithes were commuted to money payments by the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836, resulting in the Whiteparish Tithe Commutation Map of 1842 and its associated list of the owner, occupier, use and area of each parcel of land. This Tithe Map, and the invaluable detail it provides, is widely quoted and referred to within this website. See Wikipedia Tithing for background of the origins and development of the tithing through the years.
Alderstone Tithing covered the same area as Alderstone Manor, shown in blue on the map above, and Whiteparish church served as its chapel. The other three tithings in the parish/Hundred had their own chapels and chaplains. Tithes would originally have been paid to the Rector of Whiteparish, appointed by the Patron, who was the Lord of the Manor of Alderstone until about 1361. The Bishop of Salisbury made the appointments in 1361 and 1365, presumably as part of the change that followed. In 1366 the manor was granted to the Provost of St Edmund's College in Salisbury (see details below), who then became the patron. Earlier rectors had appointed a vicar to do the work for them, certainly from 1305 onwards, and the granting of the manor to St Edmund's College meant that Whiteparish no longer had a Rector after that date. Tithes had been due to the Rector and were subsequently paid to St Edmund's College, the purpose of the donation of the manor being to supply them with this income. See the Patrons, Rectors and Vicars of All Saints Church, Whiteparish for the detailed list of patrons, rectors and vicars from shortly before 1297. In this list the term prepositus (praepositus) is the head of the College, in this case the Provost. As a result of the Dissolution of the Monasteries the College and its properties were sold by Henry VIII in 1562 to William St Barbe, who as Lord of the Manor became the Patron, and from then the Lords of the Manor appointed a vicar directly. I assume that the advowson* must have passed to the Bishop of Salisbury and the Diocese at a more recent date, the 1903 appointment of Charles Frederic Metcalfe as vicar being the last definitely recorded as being made by the Lord of the Manor [follow up this detail].
This college was founded in 1269 by Bishop Walter de la Wyle as a college and to serve the parish of St Edmund with priests. It was intended to have a Provost and 13 priests. Funding was a problem in the early years and grants in 1339 of the advowson and rectory of Alderstone (worth about £20) and of land in Alderstone, probably the manor, in 1347, were part of a campaign to put the funding on a secure footing. See the Victoria County History of Wiltshire volume 3 account at british-history.ac.uk for full details.
As related by Matcham page 6, Robert Woodford, a citizen of Salisbury, bought the advowson of the church of Alderstone and "procured it to be appropriated to the provost and fellows of that foundation" by the Bishop of the time, Robert Wyvil. Matcham also records details of the conveyance: the advowson was conveyed directly from William, the son of William of Sparsholt, to Peter de Wymborne, Provost of the College, and confirmed by royal signature on the 11th of October 1338.
After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, St Edmund's College and its possessions were seized in King Henry VIII's name in 1546, and were sold to one of Henry's Gentlemen of the Privy Council, William St Barbe. William sold the College and its other properties, but retained Alderstone and the two remaining free chapels of St James, Moor, and St Leonard, Whelpley with their land, thus becoming Lord of the Manor of Alderstone. See St Barbe Family and Alderstone St Barbe Manor House for further details.
* Advowson - the right in English law of a patron to present to the diocesan bishop a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesidasical benefice.