I proceed now to notice the principal properties comprehended within the above mentioned tythings. It might seem that the name of Abbotstone arose from a connection with some religious house; there are, however, no traces of it in this division of the parish, and it has, probably, arisen from the corruption of Aboldstone, or Abbstone, the residence of a Saxon Chief. In ancient deeds it is frequently named Abbestone, and there seems to be no doubt but that the present word is derived from one of these terms. I have united these tythings under one division of my narrative, as their history, locality, and manorial boundaries are intimately connected.
The Normans, although they did not, in their military tenures, sweep away the more ancient divisions instituted for the peace and order of society by the wise polity of their less cultivated predecessors, yet they included them frequently in their more extensive domains; and the descent of the lands in these tythings will be more easily traced if we first inquire into the history of the ancient manor of Whelpley, whose paramountship appears to have extended over a greater part, at least, of these divisions.
The manor of Whelpley (Whelpelega, or Whelpelegh,) originally comprised a woody tract partly within the boundaries of the royal forest of Melchet, extending westward over the downs to the eastern extremity of Whiteparish to Alderbury and Downton. By an inquisition of the Hundred of Frustfield, made in the 39th Henry III [mrf 1255-6], Gilbert le Engleys was found possessed of the Wood of Whelpley, and, having committed therein waste, was fined for the transgression. At this period, or soon after, the family of Dunstanville held this manor under the King, for I find, by a deed without date, that a Gilbert le Engleis was possessed of one knight's fee at Whelpley, with the advowson of the chapel of St. Leonard's, under Walter de Dunstanville, as he himself held it of the King in chief. In the reign of Edw. I [mrf 1232-1307] Gilbert le Engleis held three parts of a knight's fee of the same land. John le Engleys presented to the chapel in 1332. In the 21st year of the reign of Edward III [mrf 1348-9] Richard le English was, by the evidences of various grants and feoffments still preserved, in possession of the manor, although the paramountship of the barony of Dunstanville was probably reserved. This Richard styles himself son and heir of Sir John le English, knight, and was probably grandson of Gilbert of the same name before mentioned. In the fourth year of the reign of Henry IV [mrf 1403-4] Margaret English, in a deed still extant, is called Lady of Whelpley. She was, I presume, the daughter of Richard, and is the last of her family mentioned in any document which I have yet seen; she married Philip Dauntesey, and presented to the chapel in 1384 with her husband, and also as a widow in 1411. It appears that immediately after her decease the manor passed by fine to Thomas Ringewood, of a family which is mentioned frequently in the visitations and public documents of the neighbouring county of Southampton. By a conveyance dated the 29th of Henry VI [mrf 1428-9] John Cooper and others, styled de Alba Parochia (Whiteparish), surrendered certain lands in that place, with the consent of Thomas Ryngewode, Esq. lord of Whelpley; and his descendants continued to inherit till the latter end of the 16th century, when Henry Ringwood, Esq. of Credelston, in the county of Southampton, and Charles Ringwood his son and heir, by indenture, made over, for 550l, the manor and estates to Roger Tichbourne, of Sherfield English, in the same county, Esq. May 28, in the 31st year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1589.
The family which succeeded, though well known to have flourished from the conquest at their ancient seat of Tichbourne in Hants, had, at a very early period, extended itself in some of its younger branches into the county of Wilts. A manor and park in Whiteparish, as we shall hereafter have occasion to shew, still bears the name; and John Tichbourne of Salisbury, in the Visitation of 1677, proves his right to the Arms of the family, with a cresent [sic] for difference as a descendant of a younger house. The purchaser, however, may probably be thus identified in the main stock of this lofty and wide spreading tree.
Family tree.
Their occupation of this manor, however, was of short date, for, in the year 1620, Roger Tichbourne conveyed it to Thomas Gawen, late of Hurdcott, and George Tatteshall, who again sold it 1623 to Thomas Cable, Gent. this possessor divided the property; in the 2d year of Charles I (1627) he disposed of that part called Whelpley farm to Joseph Stockman, of Downton, and the manor, with the remaining land, he bequeathed, by will dated the 23d of March of the same year, to his nephew James Scardivale, Esq. who was lord of the manor from the decease of Mr. Cable till the year 1655, when Giles Eyre, of Redlynch and Brickworth, in this parish, Esq. became possessed of it by purchase. In his descendants it still continues, the present Lady being the Right Honourable Frances Elizabeth Countess Nelson, daughter of john Eyre, of Landford and Brickworth, Esq. the lineal descendant and representative of the first purchaser of that name.
Brickworth, for more than two centuries the seat of a branch of the family of Eyre, is parcel of the manor of Whelpley, in the tything of Abbotstone. In ancient deeds this property is denominated Brecore, Bricole, afterwards Bretton and Brickhouse; and Mr. Wyndham, in his valuable translation of Domesday, has assumed its identity with the Brecheord of that survey, but I venture to dissent from his authority because its extent not only seems inconsistent with the description given of the ancient Brecheord, but also because that place, the presumed Brickworth, was part of the possessions of the Church of Malmesbury; and there are no traces of property being held at any time by that foundation in this parish.
I am confirmed in this opinion by the authority of my learned friend Sir Thomas Phillippa, who, on being consulted after the above observations were written, replies, "your doubts are very justifiable; the Brecheorde of Domesday is Brinkworth, in North Wilts, which always belonged to Malmesbury. The abbey had Brinkworth in 1065, witness the Charter of Edward the Confessor; and, in 1081, William the Conqueror confirmed to it all the donations of his predecessors; and the Charter of Matilda the Queen is decisive; by which she gives Garsden to the Monks, and states that 'it is surrounded on all sides by the possessions of the monastery.' Brinkworth is an adjoining parish to Garsdon; the point, therefore, is settled." It is, however, to be observed that Brinkworth has been applied by Mr. Wyndham with sufficient propriety, so far as the names correspond with the Brenchwrde of Domesday book (xxix), and the latter place in that record is stated to be held by Humphrey of Milo Crispin. But if the names of these places be transposed, and Brechord instead of Brenchwrde be assigned to these last mentioned persons, assuming that the proprietor mentioned be the Humfrey de Lisle recorded in Domesday as holding many manors in Wiltshire, we here find in possession the undoubted ancestor of Adeliza de Lisle, the heiress of her family, whose grandson and representative Walter de Dunstanville held, as has been shewn, the paramountship of Whelpley, (of which Brecore or Brechord is parcel,) in the reign of Henry III. From the preceding statement there is, I think, as Sir Thomas Phillipps suggests, every reasonable probability that a mistake has been made in the appropriation of these two properties, and that it has arisen from the Surveyors of the Conqueror having erroneously inserted the names of the places, the one for the other. The description of the presumed real Brecheorde in Domesday book is as follows:-
"Humfrey holds Brenchewrde of Milo. Tochi held it in the reign of the Confessor, and it was assessed at 5 hides. Here are three ploughlands. Four hides are in demesne, where is a ploughland; 8 borderers and 8 cottagers occupy 1 ploughland. Here are 24 acres of meadow and 3 acres of pasture. The wood is half a mile square. It was and is worth 50 shillings. This Tochi could remove whither he pleased."
But after this disposal of the monastic estate, and the proof that has been adduced that it was not situated in this Hundred, an objection may still be taken to the appropriation of the Brenchewerde of Domesday to our present subject, notwithstanding the probable identity of proprietors; because the estate now called Brickworth contains no population at all equal to that described, and its contents, which may extend over 500 acres, are scarcely commensurate with the lands there stated; the character of this district being also more uniform and open that that which we find described in the record. It may, however, I think, be satisfactorily observed in reply, that the account of Frustfield, under that name in Domesday book, is, as compared to its present designation, slight and inadequate; the name of Whiteparish (and its synonyms Blanche paroche and Album Monasterium,) was, it will be remembered, unknown before the erection of the church in the 13th century, and the Manor of Whelpley itself, of which Brickworth is only a parcel, is not noticed by name in this record. the accumulation of land in one family would necessarily reduce the population, whose homesteds in time must disappear. An argument ex absurdo may, perhaps, be added; for, if the real Brecheorde (for which Brenchwrde seems substituted) applies not to this place, a name cannot apparently be found to answer to it within the county. The result of these observations would, consequently, seem to be, that in the Brenchwrde of Domesday we find a description of the vill which was in part the parent of our present village; a portion of which is still within the boundaries of the Manor of Whelpley; that it included the present farms of Whelpley and Brickworth, and that as, perhaps, the Church attracted a greater proportion of the population round its present site, and it became literally a parochia, the name of Becheord, or Brecore, indicated a more circumscribed boundary, and was subsequently confined to the designation of a particular estate and the common fields of several copyholders, all of which ultimately merged in the possessions of the Eyre family.
The name is probably derived from that of an original Saxon possessor, for, in the inquisition of the Hundred of Frustfield the property of Isaac Breck here is still mentioned; the "worth" is merely the Saxon term for dwelling.
A croft of 7 acres, called Brech, was surrendered by Thomas Sampson in the 21st Henry VII to the lord of the manor of Whelpley. the appellation of Brechore, as I before observed, appears in very early times to have been given to a vill, of which portions were held by several proprietors in free soccage. In a deed, without date, but probably about the reign of Edward II, William de Pollesdon granted his lands in "Villa de Brecore" to Richard atte Hull, and the latter conveyed his lands here to Robert Fraunces, in the 19th of Edw II; John atte Hull, the son and heir of Richard, yielded to John Gawen a croft, called Polesden's croft, at Brecore, in Whiteparish; in the 3d year of the reign of Richard II John Fraunces gave to Nicholas and Petronella Fraunces all his lands in Brecore, and Petronella Lye, the daughter of Robert Fraunces, granted to -- Lye, and his wife Joanna, his estate here in the 14th of Edward IV. this family of Fraunces appears to have held considerable possessions in Whiteparish during these reigns. John Kirkebye, of Stanbridge, in the 1st of Henry IV, made over all his lands in Whiteparish, Deane, More, Pensworth, &c to Robert Fraunces and Joane his wife. It afterwards seems to have merged, by the marriage of the daughter Petronella, in the house of Leigh, or Lye, of Corsley, and of Landford in this Hundred.
A principal part of Brickworth, now probably occupying the site and surrounding the present mansion house, was conveyed May 15, 1605, by Richard Plott, of Wantage, co. Berks, Gent. and John Lamb, of Coulston, in Wilts, Gent. to Gyles Eyre, of Redlynch, for 950l, who, in 1615, purchased various copyholds here, particularly of the family of Stylleman. In 1628, William, son of Thomas Eyre, of New Sarum, granted to his brother, the above mentioned Giles Eyre, all his lands in Brickworth field; and, in 1657, Giles Eyre, the son of the purchaser of that name, bought other lands in Whiteparish and Brickworth common field for the sum of 225l. from james Scardivale, of Coulston, Esq. But a branch of the family of Eyre was connected with this tything in much earlier times. the conveyance of lands here is attested by Thomas le Eyre in the reign of Edward II; and four years afterwards in the Nomina Villarum his name is returned as one of the three proprietors in this tything of Abbotstone.
Brickworth House stands in a small deer park, well wooded, and intersected by an avenue of large and wide spreading elms. Its erection is ascribed by the family to Giles Eyre, the purchaser, and although modernized in the heavy uninteresting style prevalent at the beginning of the last century, it bears indications of a date as early as that of the reign of James I. Its form was originally square, turreted at the angles, with walls of singular thickness; and, when ornamented with gables and large mullioned windows, must have formed an interesting object to the neighbourhood. Even now, although to the eye of an antiquary "shorn of its beams," it cannot but attract the notice of the passenger by its truly respectable appearance. Some pleasure grounds and terraces on the eastern side of the house, although in the formal style of gardening so much reprobated by subsequent taste, have been judiciously preserved as suitable to the general character of the place.
Account of Family of Eyre, of Brickworth here.
Whelpley Farm
Whelpley Farm, which is in the division of the estate I mentioned as having been sold to William Stockman, continued in the family for some years. Constance, the daughter of Joseph Stockman, before the year 1678 married Thomas Chettell, of Blandford St. Mary's, in the county of Dorset, Esq.; and in the first year of William and Mary they obtained an Act of Parliament for the sale of this and other estates. Whelpley Farm, including what is now called Street Farm, was consequently sold to the trustees of Henry Seymour, Esq. and Elizabeth his wife. Their son Edward Seymour of Woodlands succeeded to the property; but, dying without issue in 1760, his nephew Sir Henry Munro, of Foulis, in the kingdom of Scotland, Bart. became entitled to the estate as the son of Mary Seymour, the daughter of the purchaser and wife of Sir Robert Munro. In 1767 Sir Henry sold the farm of Whelpley, with other property in this parish, to Henry Dawkins, of Standlynch, Esq. and upon his death in 1813 it was sold by his executors to Robert Cooper, of Winterslow, Esq. whose son now resides upon his estate, and cultivates the property.
In the schedule of Mr. Chettle's estates, Whelpley farm is stated to contain 297 acres; but the adjoining farm, called Street, for the most part formed a portion of the original demesne.
Street Farm, the other property purchased at the same time by Mr Cooper of the executors of Henry Dawkins, Esq. contains 191a. 1r. 13p.
The house, situated in a little dell at the entrance of the village of Whiteparish, with its low but substantial gable and ample casements, is an interesting relic of the old yeoman's establishment, suited to that rank in life which was the envy of the noble Falkland, and which he aptly described as "above the office of Constable, and below that of a Justice of the Peace."
To the northward of Whelpley and the Street Farms lies Sansom's Down, containing about 250 acres. It is now the property of Charles Baring Wall, Esq., and appears for the most part to have always been parcel of the estate of Dean. the heirs of Waleran, the lord of Dean, are frequently mentioned as possessors of lands in this parish, and it is probable that they were part of Sansom's down. Its name, derived from an old yeomanly family in the district, arose, I presume, from their occupation of the premises, or their possessions of a part, or from some rights of pasture which they might have had there.
Copyright 27.12.7