A
lease for a knight in 13th century Gloucestershire
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
Introduction
Reading medieval land
deeds offers us a snapshot into the lives of people, in many cases ordinary
people, who lived many centuries ago. These deeds can be of a common yet varied
nature such as David le Blund granting a croft for life to Richard Pointel at a
rent of 12 pence per year or Edelina le Franceys granting a messuage and
curtilage to John the tailor in free marriage with her daughter Maud.[1]
Then along comes a deed with a difference.
Lease
for a knight
Shortly before
Michaelmas (29th September) 1241 Sir Nicholas de Oxhey and
Petronilla his wife made a lease to Sir William de Putot of their part of the
arable land at Koneham (Conham in Gloucestershire, now a suburb of Bristol) which
they held in demesne. The lease was for five years at a half mark (6s 8d) per
year rent. For the lease Sir William de Putot gave Sir Nicholas de Oxhey thirty
shillings for the expenses of a knight which Sir Nicholas de Oxhey had in the
army with the king in Wales. Sir William de Putot also provided a horse and arms
to help the cause.[2]
Sir Nicholas de Oxhey
and Sir William de Putot had married two sisters, both called Petronilla.[3]
War
in Wales
In 1240 Llywelyn the
Great and Henry III embarked on three military campaigns to expand his power in
Wales. New castles were constructed and the royal lands in the County of
Chester were expanded, while in South Wales the English area of influence
gradually expanded. Dafydd, Llywelyn's son, resisted the incursions, but died
in 1246, and Henry confirmed the Treaty of Woodstock the following year with
Owain and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Llywelyn the Great's grandsons, under which
they ceded land to the King but retained the heart of their princedom in
Gwynedd.[4]
Adam
and Robert de Damneville
Adam de Damneville was
lord of Bitton and Mangotsfiled in the time of Henry II and his son Robert de
Damneville the elder was lord of the two manors in the time of Richard I and Henry
III. Robert de Damneville the elder married Petronilla, one of the three
daughters and coheirs of Roger de Croxley of Oxhey manor in Hertfordshire. They
had one son, Robert de Damneville the younger and two daughters, both called
Petronilla who married Sir Nicholas de Oxhey and Sir William Putot.[5] The
Petronilla de Damneville who married Sir Nicholas de Oxhey was the eldest
daughter of Robert de Damneville the elder.[6]
Sir
Nicholas de Oxhey
It is possible that
Nicholas de Oxhey came to Gloucestershire in the company of Petronilla de
Croxley. Little is known of his early history. Before 1229 he had married
Petronilla de Damneville. In about October 1229 Nicholas de Oxhey made a fine
with the king of twenty marks to have seisin of half the lands formerly held by
Robert de Damneville. These lands had descended to Petronilla de Damneville,
wife of Nicholas de Oxhey, as her inheritance. It would appear that her
brother, Robert de Damneville the younger was dead by 1229 so that she could
inherit half her father’s property. By the same order Nicholas de Oxhey was not
to be made a knight at that time. It would seem that Nicholas de Oxhey was not
too well known to the royal court as his name was first written as Nicholas of
Oxford before been corrected to Nicholas of Oxhey. In the same year of 1229
Nicholas de Oxhey was allowed relief on the twenty marks he owed the king for
the one knight’s fee that he held.[7]
In June 1236 Nicholas
de Oxhey and Petronilla his wife, granted one yardland in Bitton to Adam Malet
for the rent of 12d per year and doing foreign service. In February 1237
Nicholas and Petronilla de Oxhey granted another one yardland in Bitton to
Robert son of Robert of Bitton at a rent of 4s per year without doing foreign
service.[8]
In August 1241 Henry
III granted to Nicholas de Oxhey that he could pay the fine of twenty marks,
imposed upon him by the justice’s itinerant when last in Gloucestershire, at a
rate of five marks per year. He could also pay the five marks in two instalments,
namely half at Easter and half at Michaelmas.[9]
About 1244 Nicholas de
Oxhey assigned a certain rent at Oxhey in Hertfordshire to the poor of that
place. The prior of Hurley disputed his right to give the rent and mortgage the
manor. In 1245 the prior recovered the mortgage on Oxhey from Elias Episcopus,
a Jew of London.[10]
Late in the reign of
Henry III Sir Nicholas de Oxhey, with the assent of Petronilla, his wife,
granted a half virgate of land in Bitton to William his Hayward for 2s rent per
year. This land remained in the Hayward family until 1338 when Mabel, daughter
and heir of Geoffrey le Hayward granted it to John, son of Edmond le Blount in
return for a house in Bitton that John built for her.[11]
It would appear that
Sir Nicholas de Oxhey and Petronilla de Damneville had no children. A person
called Richard de Oxhey succeeded to Nicholas’s land at Oxhey in Hertfordshire
but it is no clear if he was a son or relative.[12]
Petronilla de Damnevile survived her husband and granted her part of Bitton manor
near Bristol to her niece Petronilla le Blount.[13]
Sir
William de Putot
The ancestry of William
de Putot is unknown. He first appears in the late twelfth century when he witnessed
the grant of land at Wingrave in Buckinghamshire from Robert Pippard to his
brother William Pippard. Another witness was Gilbert Pippard, an adventurer in
Ireland.[14]
Early in the reign of
Henry III Robert de Damneville the younger granted one third of the manor of
Bitton, which Petronilla de Croxley, his mother, held in dower, to William
Putot.[15] Sometime
between 1207 and 1230 Robert de Damneville granted Chulrenehull in the manor of
Mangotsfield, Gloucestershire to William Putot with the marriage of his
daughter, Petronilla. The rent for this land was a pair of white gloves.[16]
In March 1231 King
Henry III released Sir William de Putot from an annual payment of 20s to the
constable of Bristol from his lands at Mangotsfield that was used to support
the garrison. By the same charter King Henry granted Sir William de Putot a
weekly market every Tuesday in the manor of Bitton.[17]
William
de Putot as sheriff of Cornwall
Sometime before 1221
William de Putot was sheriff of Cornwall. In December 1221 the new sheriff of
Cornwall was to deliver to the exchequer all arrears owed to William de Putot
when he was in office. In late 1220 William de Putot was in the service of
Hubert de Burgh, justiciar of England, and was commissioned by the king to
examine the pledges of John son of Richard. John had offered the king 1,000
marks per year for the King’s stannaries’ in Cornwall.[18]
William de Putot had briefly acquired the stannaries’ in October 1220 but the
offer from John son of Richard was too good for the crown to pass over.[19]
Berkshire
and France
In May 1224 William de
Putot and Robert of Narford stood pledges to the king for Adam son of Hervey to
pay a fine of 100s for the lands of Tidmarsh in Berkshire.[20]
Shortly after Sir William de Putot was in France and in September 1224 carried
a letter back to England from Hugh de Vivonia to Henry III.[21]
William
de Putot as sheriff of Gloucestershire
Between 1225 and 1229
William de Putot witnessed a grant of land by Osbert Giffard to the Hospital of
St. Bartholomew at Gloucester. From 1225 to 1232 Sir William de Putot was
sheriff of Gloucestershire.[22] At
the same time he was also constable of Gloucester Castle. In September 1230 Sir
William de Putot, sheriff of Gloucestershire, was mandated by the king to
receive 1,000 marks of the king’s money from Ireland from George Desafuble and
Ralph Blundas. In October 1230 King Henry III received the money from Sir
William de Putot.[23]
In that same October of
1230 Sir William de Putot was on the king’s business and was allowed not to
attend the Exchequer to settle his account as sheriff of Gloucestershire.
Instead Peter of Badgeworth was allowed attend on William’s behalf. If the
Exchequer were not pleased with Peter’s account then the Exchequer could not
proceed against William until William personally attended the Exchequer.[24]
In July 1232 Wiliam de
Putot received a further 1,200 marks from Ireland and at first stored it at
Bristol until told to take it to Gloucester. Later that July King Henry III
received the money from William de Putot.[25]
In June 1232 William de
Putot was with the king and remained with the king for much of the year.
Because of this William de Putot was not able to attend the Exchequer and
settle his account as sheriff of Gloucestershire for the Easter term. It was
therefore permitted that Oliver, clerk of William, could attend the Exchequer
and settle the account.[26]
With his work as
sheriff of Cornwall and of Gloucestershire along with his association with
Hubert de Burgh, Sir William de Putot had built up a good relationship with
King Henry III. In July 1236 Henry III described Sir William de Putot as his
“beloved and faithful” friend. For this friendship Sir William de Putot could
pay the ten marks he owed the king in two instalments, namely half at
Michaelmas and half at Easter 1237. The sheriff of Gloucestershire was informed
of these term less he attempt to recover the full account in one go.[27]
William
de Putot and the Berkeley family
Sir William de Putot
had a long association with the Berkeley family of Berkeley Castle. In
1219-1220 William de Putot and Ralph of Norwich were to account at the
Exchequer for twelve cows and monies from the lands of Robert de Berkeley. In
July 1220 William de Putot and Ralph of Norwich were to deliver lands at
Gossington and Hurst in the Honor of Berkeley to the Bishop of Winchester. In
August 1220 William de Putot and Ralph of Norwich stood in mainprise to deliver
to the king the monies owed by Thomas de Berkeley to the king.[28] In
1236 Sir William de Putot was a witness to a settlement between Sir Thomas de
Berkeley and the Abbbot of St. Augustine’s Abbey concerning tithes and land. The
final agreement relating to this was made on 4th September 1237 at
St. Peter’s in Gloucester and witnessed by William de Putot.[29]
Sometime between the
years 1220 and 1243 Sir William de Putot was the first witness to a grant of
rents to Augustine Abbey by Thomas de Berkeley. In 1243 Sir William de Putot
was also first witness to a grant of rents to Augustine Abbey by a tenant of
the Berkeley family and confirmed by Maurice de Berkeley.[30]
In August 1220 William
de Putot and Ralph of Norwich were to account to William Brewer for the tallage
they imposed on the lands of the late Earl of Hereford and to account for their
keeping of Caldecot Castle.[31]
Mayor
of Bristol
In 1241 William de
Putot was mayor of Bristol. In that year, Eleanor, the King’s cousin was in the
custody of John Fitz Geoffrey in Bristol when she died. The Abbot’s of St.
Augustine’s and Keynesham along with William de Putot, mayor of Bristol, and
other dignitaries accompanied her body to the church of the Priory of St. James
in Bristol.[32]
In the absence of any other high ranking person called William de Putot in the
Bristol area in the first half of the thirteenth century it must be supposed
that it is the same William de Putot of this article.
Other
property interests of William de Putot
Sir William de Putot
had other property interests in Gloucestershire beside the Damneville
inheritance. Previous to August 1230 Sir William de Putot had received 101
acres of land sown with winter corn in the manor of Slaughter in
Gloucestershire at the same time that Ralph Musard had granted the manor to
Thomas Basset. But Thomas Basset didn’t like Sir William de Putot having an
interest in the manor and successfully complained to the king. Thus in August
1230 Henry III allowed Thomas Basset to have the corn.[33]
Although elsewhere
Henry III described William de Putot as his “beloved and faithful” friend it
was in keeping with the character of Henry III to sometime penalised his
friends and reward his enemies. And having given offence to his friends the
king would shortly after change his mind again. In November 1232 Henry III
instructed the Exchequer to give respite to Sir William de Putot for the
arrears of the farm of Slaughter manor until the king next arrived in London.[34]
Sir William de Putot
appears not to be without blame in the foregoing. Elsewhere William had a habit
of entering upon the property rights of others. Sometime long before 1236
William, Earl of Gloucester, granted fishing rights on the River Avon to
Keynesham Abbey which was quitclaimed by Robert de Damneville. But William de
Putot and Petronilla de Damneville entered the fishery and took some fish.
John, abbot of Keynesham took William to task with the result that William
quitclaimed the fishery to Keynesham.[35]
Outside of
Gloucestershire William de Putot held some property interests. In September
1230 he was granted by the king the hundreds of Bedminster, Hartcliffe and
Portbury in Somerset for as long as it pleased the king. These lands were
formerly held by Maurice de Gant from Thomas de Berkeley.[36]
The
family of William de Putot
Sir William de Putot
and his wife Petronilla had a daughter called Petronilla who married firstly to
John de Vivonia (also named as Hugh de Vivonia who was killed in Wales in 1257)
and had a son called John de Vivonia (died without issue).[37] Another
source says that Petronilla de Putot married about 1248 to Hugh de Vivonia, son
of Hugh de Vivonia (seneschal of Gascony) and that William de Putot offered the
manor of Selling as her marriage portion.[38]
Bitton in the 1930s
Petronilla de Putot married
secondly to David le Blount by whom she had a son called David le Blount.[39]
Early in the reign of Henry III Sir William de Putot granted to Gilbert son of
John Sigges, once reeve of Bitton, a croft at Bitton which was held by John
Thortemein and Gunnilda his wife. This grant was with the consent of William’s
daughter Petronilla de Putot and was on the occasion of the marriage of Gilbert
with Eve, servant of Petronilla. This croft was still remembered in 1407 as
that granted to Gilbert son of John Sigges.[40]
When William de Putot
married Petronilla de Damneville he received half the manors of Btton and
Mangotsfield. But not all of his property in Mangotsield came from the
Damneville inheritance. In 1239 he received one ploughland in Mangotsfield by
grant of Hamon son of Richard to hold by the service of half a knight’s fee.
For this ploughland William de Putot paid forty marks.[41]
In 1257-8 Petronilla de
Vivonia quitclaim Bitton to David le Blount and his wife Amabel. David and Amabel
le Blount were active in Bitton in the 1270s.[42] In
1293 the lands of David le Blount at Bitton and Mangotsfield were worth £15 per
year.[43] In
May 1304 King Edward I granted pardon to David and Amabel le Blount for
acquiring Bitton without licence from Petronilla de Vivonia.[44]
The Blount family held
Bitton and Mangotsfield until the end of the fifteenth century when Margaret le
Blount, daughter and heir of the last Blount, Simon le Blount, married John
Hussey. His son William Hussey sold the manors to Robert Dormer who in 1519-20
sold both manors to Maurice (VI) Lord Berkeley (d. 1523). By this descendent
the lease granting Koneham to Sir William de Putot in return for funding a
knight in the Welsh wars of 1241 came to Berkeley Castle. The lease is still
persevered among the muniments at Berkeley Castle, one of the largest medieval
archives in private hands.[45]
=============
End of post
============
[1]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle (2 vols. Bristol &
Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 2004), Vol. 2, pp. 843, 846
[2]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 848
[3]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 835
[5]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 835
[6]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 840
[7]
Paul Dryburgh & Beth Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the fine rolls of the reign of Henry III (3 vols. Boydell Press &
National Archives, 2008), Vol. 2, 1224-1234, nos. 13/407, 434
[8]
C.R. Elrington (ed.), Abstracts of feet
of fines relating to Gloucestershire 1199-1299 (Bristol &
Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 2003), nos. 259, 309
[9] Paul
Dryburgh & Beth Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the fine rolls of the reign of Henry III (3 vols. Boydell Press &
National Archives, 2009), Vol. 3, 1234-1242, no. 25/629
[11]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, pp. 840, 841
[13]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 835
[14]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 629
[15]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 836
[16]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 849
[17]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 837
[18]
Paul Dryburgh & Beth Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the fine rolls of the reign of Henry III (3 vols. Boydell Press &
National Archives, 2007), Vol. 1, 1216-1224, nos. 4/284, 6/64
[19]
Nicholas Vincent, Peter des Roches: An
alien in English politics 1205-1238 (Cambridge University Press, 1996), p.
197
[20]
P. Dryburgh & B. Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the fine rolls of Henry III, Vol. 1, 1216-1224, no. 8/191
[21]
Rev. Walter Shirley (ed.), Royal and
other historical letters illustrative of the Reign of Henry III (Longman,
Green, Longman & Roberts, London, 1862), Vol. 1, p. 238
[22]
W.H. Stevenson (ed.), Calendar of the
Records of the Corporation of Gloucester (1893), no. 218, note 2
[23] H.S.
Sweetman (ed.), Calendar of Documents
relating to Ireland (5 vols. Kraus reprint, 1974), Vol. 1, 1171-1251, nos.
1851, 1856
[24]
P. Dryburgh & B. Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the fine rolls of Henry III, Vol. 2, 1224-1234, nos. 15/316, 317
[25]
H.S. Sweetman (ed.), Calendar of
Documents relating to Ireland, Vol. 1, 1171-1251, nos. 1965, 1968
[26]
P. Dryburgh & B. Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the fine rolls of Henry III, Vol. 2, 1224-1234, no. 16/135
[27]
P. Dryburgh & B. Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the fine rolls of Henry III, Vol. 3, 1234-1242, nos. 20/372, 373
[28]
P. Dryburgh & B. Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the fine rolls of Henry III, Vol. 1, 1216-1224, nos. 4/196, 207, 232
[29]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 1, p. 93; David Walker
(ed.), The cartulary of St. Augustine’s
Abbey, Bristol (Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society,
1998), no. 159
[30]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 1, pp. 180, 231; David
Walker (ed.), The cartulary of St.
Augustine’s Abbey, Bristol, no. 160
[31]
P. Dryburgh & B. Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the fine rolls of Henry III, Vol. 1, 1216-1224, no. 4/217
[32] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III,
1232-1247, p. 256
[33]
P. Dryburgh & B. Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the fine rolls of Henry III, Vol. 2, 1224-1234, no. 14/428
[34]
P. Dryburgh & B. Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the fine rolls of Henry III, Vol. 2, 1224-1234, no. 16/10
[35]
C.R. Elrington (ed.), Abstracts of feet
of fines relating to Gloucestershire 1199-1299, no. 270
[36]
P. Dryburgh & B. Hartland (eds.), Calendar
of the fine rolls of Henry III, Vol. 2, 1224-1234, nos. 14/454, 455
[37]
Rev. H.T. Ellacombe, A memoir of the
Manor of Bitton, Co. Gloucester (Westminster, 1869), p. 2
[38] Calendar of Patent Rolls, Henry III, 1247-1258,
p. 30
[39]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 835
[40]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 840
[41]
C.R. Elrington (ed.), Abstracts of feet
of fines relating to Gloucestershire 1199-1299, no. 321
[42]
Bridget Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of
the medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 835
[43]
Sidney J. Madge (ed.), Abstracts of
inquisitions post mortem for Gloucestershire in the Plantagenet period, Part IV
20 Henry III to 29 Edward 1, 1236-1300 (British Record Society, 1903), p.
163
[44] Bridget
Wells-Furby (ed.), A catalogue of the
medieval muniments at Berkeley Castle, Vol. 2, p. 837
[45]
Bridget Wells-Furby, ‘Tenants of the Lordship of Berkeley in the Late Middle
Ages’, in Archives & Local History in
Bristol & Gloucestershire: Essays in Honour of David Smith, edited by
Joseph Bettey (Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 2007), p.
42
