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In an Inquisition Post Mortem held at
Wilton on 8th January 1324 there is a description of the
manor of Wilton. The jurors would have been local men - at
least six of them were Welsh -
Nicholas ap Cradoc, Jevan ap Jorwerth,
William ap Griffith, Meredith de Martinstowe, Meuric ap
Knaython and Adam ap Cradoc. Philip Goch is also likely to
have been Welsh.
Inquiry held before John de Hampton,
the lord King’s escheator for the counties of Herefordshire,
Gloucestershire Worcestershire, Shropshire and
Staffordshire, at Wilton on the 8th day of
January in the 17th year of the reign of King Edward son of
King Edward [1324] according to the tenor of the lord king’s
writ sewn to this inquisition, by the oaths of
Philip Goch
Mathew de Gosebroke
Nicholas ap Cradoc
Jevan ap Jorwerth
William ap Griffith
John de Gosebroke
William le Bature [?]
Meredith de Martinstowe
Roger de Gosebroke
Meuric ap Knaython
Walter Sholda et
Adam ap Cradoc
who say under oath that John de Grey was seised on the day
of his death of the manor of Wilton upon Wye in the County
of Hereford and that he held the said manor by the service
of 2½ knights’ fees of the king in chief
And they say that there is there a
certain castle with an outer court with two gardens, one
courtyard and one pigeon house which are worth per year 16s
8d
Item: they say that there are there
360 acres of arable land which are worth per year £4 10s
which is 3d per acre
And there are also 90 acres of meadow
which are worth 40s per year which is 18d an acre
And there are there 18 acres of
pasture which are worth 9s per year [6d/acre]
Item: there are there 4 acres of
under-wood worth per year 3s 4d [10d/acre]
and there are two water mills upon the
Wye worth per year at 60s and there is there a third part of
one water mill value per year 8s.
Item: there are there two fulling
mills worth per year 40s
and there are there two fishponds and
they are worth per year 6s 8d
and there are there a fishery with a
weir which are worth per year 13s 4d
and there is the assized rent of the
free tenants worth £36 1s 11½d per year, that is at the
feast of St Andrew [30th Nov] 101s 7½d, at the
feast of the annunciation of the blessed Mary [25th
Mar] £9 16s 6½d, at the feast of John Baptist [24 Jun] 103s
7½d and at the feast of St Michael [29th Sept]
£16 0s 1¾d
and there are there of rent of assize
at the feast of the birth of St John Baptist [24th
Jun] the heads of 24 barbed arrows price 12d
Item: one ferry across the Wye 100s
per year
Item: there is there of the rent of
customary tenants at the feast of the invention of the Holy
Cross [3 May] 24s
Item: of their rent at the feast of St
Michael [29th Sept] 35s 8½d
Item: of their works from the feast of
St Michael [29th Sept] until Christmas 27s 8d.
Item: of their works from Christmas
until the annunciation of the blessed Mary [25th
Mar] 29s 3d
Item: of their works from the
annunciation of the blessed Mary [25th Mar] until
Lammas [1st August] 38s 8d
Item: of their works from Lammas [1st
August] until the feast of St Michael [29th Sept]
32s 9d
Item: of their rent 19 geese at the
same term price 4s 9d [=3d each]
Item: there are there of their rent
one cock and two chickens price 4d
Item: they say that the pleas and
profits of court there are worth 40 s per year
Item: they say that the said John de
Grey holds nothing of others in the said county except of
the King as is aforesaid
And they say that Henry de Grey son of
the said John de Grey is the next heir of the same John and
that the said Henry was aged 41 years at the feast of the
apostles Simon and Jude last past [28th Oct 1323]
In testimony whereof the said jurors
have appended their seals to this inquiry.
translated from Latin by Rebecca
Roseff and David Lovelace
The de Greys
held the manor until 1578 when Arthur de Grey gave the manor
to Charles Brydges. Charles was the second son of Sir John
Brydges, Baron Chandos of Sudely. During the reign of Philip
and Mary, Charles Brydges had been cup bearer to King Philip
and had been deputy lieutenant of the tower of London to his
father when the warrant for the execution of the Princess
Elizabeth was received there. His delay in obeying this meant
that her life was saved and that she succeeded to the throne. The Chandos title passed to
Charles' great grandson James when the line descending from
the older brother died out.
Charles Brydges himself died in 1619 and the manor passed to
his son Giles who married the sister of Viscount Scudamore of
Holme Lacy.
Their son John married Mary, daughter and sole heiress of
James Pearle of
Dewsall whose dowry included
Aconbury Court
and much land. On the death of Pearle the manor of Dewsall
passed into the Brydges family.
Sir John Brydges died in 1651and was succeeded by his son
James who inherited the Chandos title and died while the
patent creating him Viscount Wilton and Earl of Caernarvon was
in progress in 1714. Sir James was succeeded by his son, also
called James received these titles which were superceded by
the higher ones of Marquis of Caernarvon and Duke of Chandos.
James Brydges
was known as
the Princely Chandos because of his love of conspicuous
expenditure. His lavish family home, Cannons, was satirised by
Alexander Pope in his
1731 poem Epistle to Burlington (Moral Essay IV)
At
Timon's villa let us pass a day
Where all cry out, "What sums are thrown away!
"So proud, so grand of that stupendous air,
Soft and agreeable come never there.
Greatness, with Timon, dwells in such a draught
As brings all Brobdingnag before your thought
To compass this, his building is a town,
His pond an ocean, his parterre a down:............"
In 1731 also James Brydges, sold all the family's Herefordshire
estates to the Governors of Guys Hospital.
The story of this manor is told in A History of the
Manor of Wilton and the parish of Bridstow, Herefordshire
by R A Hart, 1994 while that of the river crossing at Wilton
is reported in A History of the River Crossing at
Wilton-on-Wye by Heather Hurley, 1993. Both of these are
published by the Ross-on-Wye and District Civic Society. |
