~1~
HAMSEY – North End Farm P125/1
Manorial tenure: copyhold of the manor of Hamsey, quitrent 10s 0d [M505/90]
Tithe numbers [1]1840 / 153, 155, 179, 184, 185, 187, 188, 192
Descriptions of property (centred at TQ 412135)
<1631-1726 / messuage, barn, garden, orchard and 5 pieces (10a) in Hamsey
1783 / cottage and croft called Rades Croft (P125/48, tithe 179, 180 = 1a 1r 15p) acquired; according to the tithe map, cottage (180) sold off and merged with P125/2 by 1838 [2], but title deeds [8] show that the cottage and land descended together after their sale off in 1848: see P125/48
1794 / cottage and land (187, 188 and 192 = 2a 2r 30p) acquired (P125/50) [3]
1796 / toft, barn, garden orchard and three (formerly five) pieces; a leaze on Green Wood Common sold
<1838-1841+ / Cottage, farm buildings, 14a 0r 26p land [1]
1848 / Cottage and Rades Croft sold off: see P125/48
Descriptions of house (at TQ 412134)
[1752] / house on east side of road; buildings only by 1840 [7, 1]
1781-1782 / Land [2]
1783- / Land, house [2]
<1838-1841+ / Cottage on west side of road (187) [1]
Land tax assessments [2]
<1781-1782 / 6
1783-1787 / 6+2
1788 / 5+2
<1833-1840 / 2+2+5
Owners
<1631-1631+ / Joan / Lover / widow / In 1631 she surrendered to herself for life, remainder to RB [3]
1631-1642 / Richard / Beale / Admitted to reversion in 1631; surrendered out of court (W: John Winton, George Reade and Stephen Reade) to TR in 1642 [3]
1642-1651 / Thomas / Rootes / Son of William Rootes the elder; admitted 1644; death presented 1651, heriot a red cow; heir is son TR, subject to the widow’s bench of his mother MR [3]
1651-1679 / Margaret / Heward / Formerly widow of Thomas Rootes, who held for life; death presented 1679, TR’s heir is TR [3]
1679-1681 / Thomas / Rootes / Of full age in 1679; death presented 1681, heriot a sheep; heir is his only daughter Henrietta, aged 1; his widow Martha Rootes holds for life [3]
<1726-1726 / John / Jenner / In the right of his wife Henrietta Maria, daughter of TR; in 1726 they surrendered to SW
1726-1736 / Stephen / Weller / grocer / Of Lewes; by his will of 23 Jan 1731 he left this to his daughter SW [3]
1736-1796 / Sarah / Weller / Admitted 1742; she married Joseph Morris; in 1783 Morris acquired P125/48; death presented 1796, no animal; heir is youngest son JM [3]
1796-1827 / Joseph / Morris / gent / Admitted 1796 and surrendered a leaze on Wood Green Common to Thomas Partington, esq, lord of the manor; the remainder of the holding enfranchised 1796 [3]; of Lewes, gent, at this death in 1827 [6]
1827-1840+ / Benjamin / Morris / [1]
Occupiers
<1781-1827 / Joseph / Morris / [2]
1827-1840+ / Benjamin / Morris / [1]
Sources
1ESROTD 111 (Hamsey tithe map)
2ESROLT, LLT Hamsey (land tax assessments)
3ESROADA - manor of Hamsey court-books and rentals
4ESROW/A
5ESRO SHR
6TNAPROB 11/1727 (Joseph Morris of Lewes, gent, 1827)
7ESROMOB 1699
8WSROBurrell Mss 17/D/1 – deeds, 1697-1887
~2~
HAMSEY –Hamsey Place Farm/Black House/Part of Cow Lease P125/2
Manorial tenure: demesne of the manor of Hamsey, itself held of the Barony of Lewes [3]
Tithe numbers [1]1840 / 180, 181, 183, 190, 191, 276, 278, 284, 288, 310-313, 381, 384, 388, 390-401, 405, 382, 383, 371, 375, 168, 416
Descriptions of property (centred at TQ411124)
1237 / dispute between the owner William de Say and his overlord William Earl Warenne concerning fishing-rights settled by final concord: WS acknowledged the fishery of ‘the water of Hamsey’ to be the right of WW and released all rights of chase in the wood of Cleres [probably an all-purpose term for waste within the Rape of Lewes] and in all WW’s warrens in Sussex; WS nor his heirs may enclose their wood of Hamsey nor hunt in it nor make a park there; WW releases all the right which he has in the water of the Ouse (Midewinde) as the water stretches between the lands of WS without the raising of any weir, reserving the fishery where the land of WS lies on one side but not on the other; WW releases all right in the warren (cunicularia) which is enclosed within the site of WS’s manor (curia) of Hamsey [28]
1272 / 140a arable on which wheat and barley can be sown; 80a arable on which oats can be sown; 25a meadow fit for mowing; 100a pasture, both open and woodland, of which 30a is wood in which the timber is now destroyed and none can be sold, but there is pannage for 40 pigs; a park which can provide pannage for 20 pigs and the pasture of it is worth 5s 0d; 17 free tenants paying £9 13s 5d; two free tenants at Lewes paying 2s 0d; 11 villeins who pay 14s 6d and perform works (specified); five hold virgates and six hold half-virgates; 12 cottars who pay 7s 1d and perform works (specified); there is a water-mill which would be worth £4 5s 0d a year if the flow of the water were put right; the mill and mill-race could be mended and diverted for £11; advowson of the church, worth £12; rent of the fishery = 500 eels; there is a fishpond worth about 20 shillings a year, which cannot be valued exactly on account of its size; curia and garden; the whole worth £31 15s 0d a year if the cost of the mill is included [10]
1552 / common recovery records sale of part of the manor, described as 120a land, 25a meadow, 100a pasture and 50a wood in Hamsey, to John Cook, but this was perhaps an enfranchisement [22]
1594 / 1manor of Hamsey
2Okeley, Stonefeld, Challoners Field, The Old Park, Parkfield, Upland Wish [388], Whapney, The Cowbrook [398-9], Catcham [?397], The Thackbrook, The Hogbrook [392], Little Colts, Great Colts, Hardings Wish [?175], The Knolls [314] Milford, The Cowles [166-7], Lames Wish [120], Hewenstreets, Oxenwish [160], Horsebrook [142] and Mowen Wish in Hamsey and Offham
3the advowson of Hamsey [22]
1633 / The Link, and 2¼a in the Long Furlong, purchased from P125/40 [3]
1667 / the estate described in a marriage settlement as:
11the manor of Hamsey, and the following demesne lands:
2messuage where John Winton formerly lived with the stables, barns, buildings, dovehouses, gardens and orchards and 147a land called The Millfield, The Jermans Furlongs, The Long Layne, The Great Layne, The Lynke near the Down, The Pickle, The Ridges, The Droveway, The Downe, The Knowle, The Great Hogge Brooke, The Little Tottes, The Dovehouse Croft, The Lynke Croft, The Thacke Brook, The Upland Wish, the after pasture of 7½ acres of the Upland Wish, The Lynke adjoining to Youngs Lynke, The Three Acres in the Long Furlongs, occupied by Samuel Midmore
3messuage near the church of Hamsey called The Old House, the Mill House with 105a land called The Upper Katham, The Plashett, The Lower Katham, The Cowch Hay, The Court Garden, The Great Totts, The Horse Brook, The Spittle Acre, The Cowbrook, The Roundbrook, The Lynke, The Old Green, The Hop Garden, The Churchyards, The Cheese Fold and The Bowling Green, occupied by Samuel Midmore, late his father Samuel Midmore deceased
4The Upper Cowleaze and The Cowlstock Cowleaze ([blank] acres), and meadow and brookland called The Cowleaze, Mounten Wish, Mowen Wish, The Horsebrook ([blank]) acres, also occupied by Samuel Midmore, late his father Samuel Midmore deceased
6East Park Field and The Great Mead (36a) in the Hewen Streets (SW: land occupied by John Reynolls), occupied by Robert Fivens
7Park Wood (18a), The Round Brook and The Long Brook (3a), occupied by John Smyth, clerk
8The Chantlers Mead, Stonefield, Whapney, Wougham Fields, Bramblefield and about one acre in the Nick of the Knowle, The Oakly Wood, The Hardings Wish, The West Park Field and The Broom otherwise Furze Field in the Hewen Streets, occupied by Edward Manfield
9chalk-pit occupied by Edward Manfield
10messuage, garden, orchard, barn and 10a arable called [blank], occupied by Edward Manfield
11The Horselane Field, The Furzie Field, The Birchett Field, The Horse Field, field called Fox Earth occupied by Mark Knight
12The Inner Cowleaze, occupied by John Smyth and Charles Smyth, gent
13The Compes and Birchettes (16a), occupied by Edward Raynes, gent
14The Northends (10a), occupied by William Wymark
15the advowson of the rectory and church of Hamsey
16the manor of Offington in Broadwater, Goring and Bramber [7]
1752 / estate shown on map as a house, three barns and 708a 0r 7p, including Hamsey Place Down (214a 3r 18p) and three pieces of isolated woodland north of Hamsey Common called Bush Woods [8]
c1765 / the owners of this estate complained of damage to his land by a timber-wharf run on land [tithe 412, P125/21] owned by the Coombe Place Estate; a 21-year lease of a right of road was granted, which had expired by 1788, when a new lease was executed [25]
1766 / sale of The New Inn at Offham Street [?P125/64] to the Coombe Estate [P125/22]
1776 / land sold off to P125/15: three fields called The Knole otherwise The Knowle, The [blank] afterwards called The Fourteen Acres and [blank] afterwards called Offham Field, which now and for sometime past have been inclosed with a pale fence and called The Paddock [7]
1777 / the estate as sold in 1777 consisted of:
11-14 above
270a land and wood called Hewen Streets with a barn thereon erected, formerly occupied by Edward Raynes, gent
3all GWL’s other land in Hamsey and Barcombe occupied by Joseph Mighell, Richard Knight, William Pannett, John Cheesman, <John Bridger, kt> and Richard Hollingdale [7]
1780 / the lordship of Hamsey, a house and 186a 2r 24p sold to T W Partington [see P125/15-16]
c1780 / purchased part of P125/80 [2]
1789 / advertised in the Time between 10 and 26 June 1789: manor of Ham Place (good farmn house, offices, gardens outhouses, barns) and 470 acres rich arable, meadow and pasture, 220a sheepdown; a new navigable canal passing throught the centre of the estate; two distinct farms called Great and Little Hewen Street Farms and Hewen Street Woods (300 acres) with all their requisite buildings and outhouses and also a small brick-kiln, bounded on one side by a fine trout stream; a person attends at Ham Place who will show the estate [27]
1789 / the Foreright Cow Brook (11a 2r 18p) sold to Christopher Spencer [P125/33]; perhaps this was the only lot to sell in response to the advertisement [27]
1791 / in 1791 the estate granted a 99-year lease of the site of a windmill on Hamsey Place Down, for which see P125/54
1792 / before the mortgage (next cell) Great and Little Hewen Street Farms and woods (299a 3r 22p) contracted to be sold to Richard Jay [P125/23]
1792 / estate described in a mortgage as 678a in all, called Hamsey Place Manor Farm [7], described in detail as:
1messuage where John Winton lived, now called Hamsey Place, occupied by James Andrew, before by JM, with stables, barns, buildings, dovehouses
2land called The Further Bushy Wood (6a 0r 35p), The Middle Bushy Wood (13a 2r 5p), The Hither Bushy Wood (6a 0r 38p), North End (8a 2r 4p), Pond Field (12a 0r 38p, Nineteen acres (21a 1r 24p), two acres in Stevengate Brook (1a 1r 30p), more in same (8a 0r 0p), Oxen Wish (14a.2r 9p), Lower Ten Acres (12a 1r 36p), Upper Ten Acres (12a 1r 9p), The Dyers Mead (4a 2r 37p), Cow Lease mead (7a 2r 22p), part Bonton’s Wish (3r 24p), Gatefield (23a 2r 8p), Hearndens Wish (8a 1r 4p), Lower Little Horse Brook (1a 2r 6p), Middle Little Horse Brook (3a 1r 29p), Upper Little Horse Brook (2a 2r 7p), Upper Horse Brook (4a 1r 27p), Great Horse Brook (22a 1r 28p), 2a in Long Furlong (2a 0r 5p), Further Ox Brook (15a 0r 38p), Hog Brook (18a 1r 29p), The Links (3a 2r 28p), Hamsey Place (1a 3r 10p), The Warren (9a 3r 8p), Church Banks (9a 2r 8p), Ox Brook (13a 3r 6p), Lower Ham (17a 2r 2p), Gate Ham and Blackbird Lane (26a 3r 5p), Upper Cow Brook (12a 0r 16p), Lower Cow Brook (7a 2r 14p), Uplands Wish (17a 3r 33p), Lower Mill Field (10a 1r 4p), Upper Mill and Germany Field (22a 3r 3p), Ridges Mead (2a 2r 11p), Great Laine (26a 3r 26p), Long Laine (28a 2r 36p), Upland with lots (5a 3r 7p), The Drove (8a 1r 10p), The Mawshams (4a 1r 11p), The Housefield (4a 1r 4p), The House and Yard (2r 29p), Four acres and The Pith (3a 3r 32p), The Rosefield (6a 2r 38p), The Beachfield or Eight Acres (9a 0r 32p), The ½ acre in the Long Furlong (2r 1p) Hamsey Place Down (214a 3r 18p).
3barn, close, orchard and piece of land (3a) in Hamsey, lately occupied by [blank] Kemp
1796 / land sold to the River Ouse Navigation Company released from mortgage:
2a 1r 13p arable in The Cottery in Hamsey, occupied by JM; 8a 0r 29p meadow and brookland, part of The Upland Wish Meadow, The Three Corners Brook, The Cow Brook, The Links, The Hogbrook, The Oxbrook, The Horsebrooks, The Cowlease Mead and Ringmer Neck in Hamsey and Ringmer
taken by them in extending and improving the river through those pieces of land [7, 25]
1808 / sale included 29a 2r 24p formerly part of New House Farm occupied by William Knight under a lease from George Wenham Lewis, and not sold with that farm in 1780 but retained and are now occupied with HPF by John Guy:
the Mawkhams otherwise Balcombes (4a 1r 11p), The Housefield (4a 1r 1p), the house and yard (1a 2r 9p), The Four Acres and The Pitch (3a 3r 32p), The Rosefield (9a 0r 32p) and the Half Acre in the Long Furlong (2r 1p) [this = P125/81]
reserves: land called The Further Bushy Wood (6a 0r 35p), The Middle Bushy Wood (13a 2r 5p), The Hither Bushy Wood (6a 0r 38p)
[these last said to have been sold in 1780, so ?]
1810 / estate shown on map of this date, by which time Drove Cottages at tithe 313 have been built [9]
<1838-1841+ / House buildings, 3 cottages: land 500a 0r 37p land including Hamsey Sheep down, gardens and plots [1]
1871 / land sold to enlarge Hamsey churchyard [7]
Descriptions of house (at TQ 412123)
1321 / on 14 Mar 1321 Sir Geoffrey de Say contracted with John Rngwyn of Offham, mason, to build a large stone hall at the manor of Hamsey; Sir Geoffrey was dead by 3 Mar 1322 and it seems unlikely that the hall was ever built, indeed it seems likely that it owes its survival to the process of dealing with his estate [18]
1667 / settlement of the estate shows two houses, one [Hamsey Place] occupied by Samuel Midmore, late John Winton, and the other ‘near the church’ [the former manor house?] occupied by Samuel Midmore, late his father Samuel Midmore [7]; Samuel Midmore had been assessed for 16 flues in the Hearth tax of 1662 [24]
1752 / map shows house and buildings on present site and a barn and yard west of Hamsey church [8]
1792 / messuage where John Winton lived, now called Hamsey Place, occupied by James Andrew, before by JM, with stables, barns, buildings, dovehouses [7]
<1838-1841+ / house and buildings (391), 4 cottages (180, 190, 313, 371) [1]
1855 / two leazes on Hamsey Common sold to Edward Partington [P125/15] for £42 [26]
1856 / exchanges with P125/43
Land tax assessments [2]
1808 - 1840 / £198 15s
Owners
<1066 / Wlfgifu / she held of King Edward for 25 hides; of which 11 were in the Rapes of Pevensey and Arundel by 1086 [11]
<1086-1086+ / Ralph / de Chesney / Hamsey formed the head of 14 fees; passed to his son RC [11]
c1100 / Ralph / de Chesney / [11]
<1146-1149 / John / de Chesney / his three sons died without issue and the estate passed to his two daughters [12]
<1168-<1199 / Alice
Emma / de Chesnay / before 1168 Alice married Geoffrey son of William de Say, Emma married Michael Belet; the whole inheritance passed to de Say [12]
<1199-1214 / Geoffrey / de Say / from which Hamsey acquired the second element of its name; acquired the manor by marriage with Alice de Chesney; died 1214, to their son GS [11, 14]
1214-1230 / Geoffrey / de Say / died in Poitou in 1230, and buried at Dover [14]; to his son WS [11]
1230-1272 / William / de Say / kt / in dispute with Earl Warenne about the fishery of Hamsey in 1247; at the battle of Lewes on the king’s side [14]; inquisition on his death held Feb 1272; heir WS [10]
1272-1295 / William / de Say / aged 19 in Feb 1272 [10]; wardship granted to the king’s merchant Pontius de Mora, in discharge of the king’s debts to him; by Sep 1273 WS had bought the custody of the lands [14]; died 1295 [11]
1295-1322 / Geoffrey / de Say / Lord Say [11, 14] in 1314 he settled Hamsey on himself and his wife Idonea (daughter of William de Leyburn), and to his heirs; at his death his manors in Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Sussex and Kent were worth at least £122 13]; his widow assessed for the subsidy at Hamsey in 1327 and 1332 [19]
1322-1359 / Geoffrey / de Say / Lord Say [14], entry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; aged 17 on 30 May 1322 [13]; on 11 Jan 1323 John Triple, citizen of London, bought his wardship and marriage from the king for £200; in June 1326, having proved his age, he received seisin of his father's lands; fought at Crecy; had numerous creditors, most notably William Clinton, earl of Huntingdon, to whom he owed £666 from 1344 until at least 1352, when Say mortgaged his manor of West Greenwich to Huntingdon until the sum was paid off; died on 26 Jun 1359, when the rental value of his property was probably a little over £130; before 1340 he had married Maud, daughter of Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and in 1341 settled the manor of Hamsey on them and their heirs male by fine; she received his Sussex property as jointure and his Kentish manors as dower, and died in 1369 [15]
1359-1375 / William / de Say / kt / Lord Say [14]; born at Birling in Kent in 1340; in 1359 his wardship and marriage given to Queen Philippa; came into possession on the death of his mother in 1369; died 1375, when the estates passed to his son JS
1375-1382 / John / de Say / Lord Say [14]; aged 2 in 1375, died a minor in 1382, when the estates passed under the settlement of 1341 to his uncle John de Say as heir male of his father Geoffrey [15]
1382-1382+ / John / de Say / son of Geoffrey de Say and Maud, aged 30 in 1382,a nd heir under the settlement of 1341 [15-16]
<1395-1395+ / Isabel / Deneford / probably the re-married widow of John de Say, she held the manor for life when the de Say estates were settled by fine on William Heron and his wife Elizabeth de Say in 1395 [15]; in 1400 Thomas Cruwe released his right in the manor of Hamsey to William Heron, esq; had he married Isabel Deneford? [17]
1395>-1399 / Elizabeth / de Say / aged 16 in 1382, by which time she had married Sir John Fawsley of Northants (d1392) without the king’s licence [15] and (2) Sir William Heron by 1395, when she held ther reversion on the death of Isabel Deneford; she died childless [14]
1399-1404 / William / Heron / kt / held by the curtesy of England until his death in 1404 [14]
1404-1431 / William / Clinton / Lord Clinton [14], grandson of Idonea, heiress of Geoffrey de Say and Maud; inherited the reversion on the death of Elizabeth Heron in 1399; died 1431 [11, 14]
1431-1464 / John / Clinton / Lord Clinton (1410-1464) [14]; settled the manor on his wife Margaret, daughter of John St Leger; a prisoner in France 1441-47; after 1488 his widow married Richard Willoughby of Wollaton in Nottinghamshire [11, 14]
1464-1488 / John / Clinton / Lord Clinton (c1434-1488) [14]; in 1484 he conveyed the manor to Henry Willoughby and other feoffees, perhaps as a mortgage; later his son was to claim the manor [17]
1488-1502 / John / Clinton / Lord Clinton (c1471-1515) [14]; between 1487 and 1500 he petitioned chancery to obtain the deeds of the manor from his mother Ann, then wife of Thomas Willicote [14, 17]; in 1502 he and his wife Ann sold the manor to Edmund Dudley [23]
1502-1510 / Edmund / Dudley / esq / (1462-1510, ODNB) held the manor in 1504 and charged an annuity of £20 in favour of Lewes Grammar School in 1507; former minister of Henry 7, executed by the new regime in 1510, when the property descended to his son JD
1510-1526 / John / Dudley / kt / (1504-1553, ODNB); in 1526 the surviving feoffes of Edmund Dudley’s purchase, at the instance of John Dudley and his step-father Arthur Plantagenent Lord Lisle, vested the manor in John Dudley absolutely, who sold it to feoffees for Edward Lewknor; JD became Duke of Northumberland in 1551 [20]