CUSTOMS OF THE MANOR OF MERDON
AS it was just at this time that the customs of the manor of Merdon were
revised, this seems to be the fittest place for giving Mr. Marsh’s
summary of them.
“The quantity of land in cultivation within the Manor of Merdon or parish
of Hursley is, as I imagine, not less than three-fifths of the whole, or
about 6000 acres; of which the greater part was anciently copyhold, under
the Bishop and Church of Winchester. The tenure by which it was held,
was, and indeed is still, that denominated _Borough English_, the most
singular custom of which is, that the _youngest_ son inherits the
copyhold of his father, in preference of all his elder brothers. The
origin of this tenure, according to Sir William Blackstone, is very
remote, it being his opinion that it was ‘a remnant of Saxon liberty’;
{53} and was so named in contradistinction to the Norman customs,
afterwards introduced by the Conqueror, from the Duchy of Normandy. The
reasons commonly assigned for the peculiar usage just mentioned are given
by Blackstone, but they are evidently not satisfactory to him, and, as it
should seem, not founded on truth. His own way of accounting for it is
far more rational and probable, though, it must be confessed, it is only
conjectural. He supposes that the ancient inhabitants of this island
were for the most part herdsmen and shepherds; that their elder sons, as
soon as they arrived at manhood, received from their father a certain
allotment of cattle, and removed from him, and that the youngest son, who
continued to the last with him, became naturally the heir of the family
and of the remaining property. Whether this were really the case or not
will probably ever remain a question of great uncertainty; and it is a
circumstance of too trifling a nature to deserve much investigation. It
is, however, worthy of remark that to this day this custom of descent to
the youngest son prevails among the Tartars; and that something very like
it was anciently the usage among most northern nations. {54} But
whatever be its origin, or in whatever way it be accounted for, such is
the custom now existing in this manor; and I have had frequent
opportunities of observing that it is held, especially by the inferior
class of copyholders, as sacred, and that they would, on no
consideration, divert their tenements out of the customary order of
inheritance.
“But besides this custom, there are others also in this manor which
indicate great antiquity, and which, there can be but little if any
doubt, are the same as were in use before the Norman Conquest. We are
told, indeed, by Judge Blackstone, that after that event the ancient
Saxon system of tenure was laid aside, and that the Normans, wherever
they had lands granted to them, introduced the feodal system; and that at
length it was adopted generally, and as constitutional, throughout the
kingdom. There does not, however, I think, appear to be sufficient
reason for supposing that this new system was received into this manor,
the customs here in use being evidently those of a more remote age, and
in their _circumstances_, if not in their _nature_, altogether unlike
those which were at this time established by the Normans.
“Under the feodal system, the tenant originally held his lands entirely
at the will of the lord, and at his death they reverted to the lord
again. The services to be performed for the lord were uncertain and
unlimited. The copyhold was also subject to a variety of grievous taxes,
which the lord had the privilege, upon many occasions, of imposing—such
as aids, reliefs, primer seisin, wardship, escheats for felony and want
of heirs, and many more, altogether so exorbitant and oppressive as often
totally to ruin the tenant and rob him of almost all interest in his
property. {56} The difference of the circumstances under which the lands
in the manor of Merdon are, and, as it seems, always were held, is
remarkably striking: here the copyhold is hereditary, the services are
certain and limited, the fines are fixed and unchangeable, the lord has
no right of wardship, neither is the copyhold liable to escheat for
felony; the widow of a tenant has also a right of inheritance, and the
tenement may be let without the lord’s consent for a year. All which
circumstances appear to bespeak an original and fundamental difference of
tenure from that of the feodal system, and are, I presume, to be
considered, not as encroachments that have gradually grown upon that
system, but as being of a more liberal extraction and much greater
antiquity. {57a} But besides these differences, the supposition here
advanced has this farther ground to rest upon, viz. that neither the name
of _Merdon_, nor that of _Hursley_, is so much as mentioned in the great
survey of the kingdom, called Domesday-Book, which, if the intention of
that survey be rightly understood, {57b} it seems next to a certainty
that one or other of them would have been had the new system been here
adopted. Nor, when it is considered that this was _Church_ property, and
that in many instances the alterations were not enforced, {58} out of
favour as it is supposed to the landholder, who was partial to the more
ancient tenure, ought it to be thought extraordinary that the customs in
this manor did not undergo the general change; since, if favour were
desirable and shown to any, who were so likely to expect and to find it
as the clergy? But however this point may really be, it appears evident
that the tenants of this manor have, from the earliest times to which we
have the means of resorting for information, enjoyed many unusual rights
and immunities, and that their services were, in many respects, far from
being so base and servile as those of the strictly feodal tenant.
“When it was that disputes first arose between the lord and tenants
concerning their respective rights is not, I believe, known with
certainty; but it appears that in the time of Mr. Maijor many of the
lord’s claims were complained of by the tenants as usurpations; as, on
the other hand, many of theirs were by the lord as new and uncustomary.
But it was in vain then for the tenants either to resist the lord’s
pretensions or to assert their own; such being Mr. Maijor’s power and
interest with the Cromwellian Government as to enable him, as they well
knew, easily to defeat all their efforts. In justice, however, to Mr.
Maijor, it should be mentioned that he acted, in one instance at least,
with great liberality towards the tenants; as by him it was that the
customary personal services were commuted for pecuniary payments—an
exchange which could not fail of being peculiarly acceptable to them, as
they were not only relieved by it from a service they considered as a
grievance, and performed reluctantly, but had the prospect of being in
the end great gainers by it. But though by this concession on the part
of the lord some ground of discontent was removed, yet disputes and
animosities still continued to subsist with respect to other customs; and
no sooner was Mr. Maijor dead, and the Cromwell family dispossessed of
its power, than the tenants laid aside their fears and renewed their
opposition. The circumstances of the times being now in their favour, it
might perhaps have been expected that they, in their turn, should
establish all their claims without contention. The case, however, was
quite otherwise, as neither Mrs. Cromwell nor her son would tamely forego
any one of their supposed privileges—on the contrary, Oliver defended
them in the true spirit of a Cromwell, and relinquished none but such as
the decisions of a jury, which were more than once resorted to, deprived
him of. In this state of strife and litigation things continued until
the year 1692, when most of the principal tenants concurred in a
determination to appeal to the Court of Chancery. A bill of complaint
was accordingly presented to the Court, stating their supposed
grievances, and soliciting its interference. Several hearings and
trials, ordered in consequence of this application, for the investigation
of the disputed customs, then ensued; after which, though not till more
than six years had elapsed, the Court finally adjudged and decreed the
customs of the manor to be, and continue for the future, as they here
follow:—
“_Custom_ 1. That all the copyholds and customary messuages, lands,
and tenements within the said manor are, and have been time out of
mind, copyholds of inheritance, demised and demisable to the
copyholders or customary tenants thereof, and their heirs in fee
simple by copy of Court Roll, according to the custom of the said
manor.
“_Custom_ 2. That the customary tenements within the said manor do
descend, and ought to descend, as tenements of the tenure, and in the
nature of Borough-English, not only to the youngest son or youngest
daughter, and for default of such issue of such customary tenant to
the youngest brother or youngest sister, but also, for default of
such brother and sister of such customary tenant, to the next kinsman
or kinswoman of the whole blood of the customary tenant in
possession, how far so ever remote.
“_Custom_ 3. That if any tenant of any copyhold die, seized of any
copyhold, his wife living, then she ought to come to the next Court
or Law-day to make her claim and election, whether she will pay a
penny and hold for her widow’s estate, or pay half her husband’s
fine, and to keep the copyhold tenement during her life.
“_Custom_ 4. That the husband of any wife (as customary tenant of
the said manor) dying, seized of any customary tenement within the
said manor, is entitled to have such customary tenement of his wife
so dying, during his life, though the said husband had no issue of
the body of his said wife.
“_Custom_ 5. That if any copyholder or customary tenant of the said
manor die, and leave his heir within the age of fourteen years, that
then the nearest of kin and farthest from the land, have had, and
ought to have the guardianship and custody of the body of such heir
and his copyholds, held of that manor, so that at the next Court or
Law-day he come in and challengeth the same, and to keep the same
until the heir come to be of the age of fourteen years.
“_Custom_ 6. That the heir of any customary tenant within the said
manor is compellable to pay his fine to the lord of the said manor,
and be admitted tenant before he attain his age of one and twenty
years, if he come to the possession of his customary estate.
“_Custom_ 7. That the fine due to the lord of the said manor upon
the admission or alienation of any customary tenant, to any customary
tenement within the said manor, is, and time out of mind was, double
the quit-rent of the said customary tenement; that is to say, when
the quit-rent of any customary tenement was twenty shillings, the
tenant of such tenement did pay to the lord of the said manor forty
shillings for a fine.
“_Custom_ 8. That every heir and tenant of any customary lands of
the said manor may sell his inheritance during the life of the widow
of his ancestor, who enjoys such customary estate for life.
“_Custom_ 9. That it is lawful for any of the copyholders or
customary tenants of the said manor, to let her, his, or their
copyholds for one year, but not for any longer term, without a
licence from the lord of the said manor.
“_Custom_ 10. ‘That no _certain_ fine is payable to the lord of the
said manor from any customary tenant of the said manor for a licence
to let his customary tenement; but such fine may exceed a penny in
the pound of the yearly value of such customary tenement.
“_Custom_ 11. That every copyholder of inheritance of the said manor
may sell any of his coppices, under-woods, and rows, and use them at
pleasure; and may dig for stone, coal, earth, marle, chalk, sand and
gravel in their own grounds, to be employed thereon; and may also dig
any of the commons or wastes belonging to the said manor for earth or
gravel in the ancient pits there, where their predecessors have done,
for the improvement of their copyholds.
“_Custom_ 12. That all the customary tenants of the said manor, when
and as often as their old pits, where they used to dig earth, marle,
chalk, sand, clay, gravel, and other mould, were deficient, and would
not yield the same for them, that they, the said customary tenants,
may and have used to dig _new_ pits in any of the wastes and commons
of the lord within the said manor, and there dig and carry away
earth, marle, chalk, sand, clay, gravel, and other mould at their
pleasure, for the improvement of their customary tenements, or for
other necessary uses, without the licence of the lord of the said
manor.
“_Custom_ 13. That the ancient customary tenants of the said manor
(other than such as hold only purpresture lands) have always had
common of pasture and feedings in all the lord’s commons belonging to
the said manor, viz. upon Cranbury Common, Hiltingbury Common,
Ampfield Common, Bishop’s Wood, Pit Down, and Merdon Down, for all
their commonable cattle, levant and couchant, upon their respective
copyhold tenements, within the said manor.
“_Custom_ 14. That no customary tenant of the said manor can or
ought to plough any part of the land upon the aforesaid wastes and
commons, to lay dung, or for improving their customary lands.
“_Custom_ 15. That the Customary tenants of the said manor have not
had, nor ought to have in every year, at all times of the year,
common of pasture in the wastes, heaths, and commons of the lord of
the said manor within the said manor, for all their commonable
cattle, without number or stint, exclusive of the lord of the said
manor.
“_Custom_ 16. That the hazels, furzes, maples, alders, wythies,
crab-trees, fern, and bushes, growing upon the aforesaid wastes and
commons, or in either of them, as also the acorns when they there
fall, do belong to the customary tenants of the said manor, not
excluding the lord of the said manor for the time being from the
same. And that the customary tenants of the said manor have had, and
used and ought to have, right of cutting furzes growing upon the
wastes and commons of the said manor for their firing, and to cut
fern for their uses and that the said customary tenants, in like
manner, have right of cutting thorns, bushes, wythies, hazels,
maples, alders, and crab-trees, growing upon the wastes and commons
of the said manor, or in either of them, for making and repairing
their hedges and fencing of their grounds, but they are not to commit
any waste to the prejudice of the breeding, nursing, and raising of
young trees of oak, ash, and beech, which do wholly belong to the
lord of the said manor, to have, use, and fell; and that the acorns,
after they are fallen, do wholly belong to the customary tenants of
the said manor.
“_Custom_ 17. That the customary tenants of the said manor have
right to feed their cattle in the three coppices called South Holmes,
Hele Coppice, and Holman Coppice, within the said manor, and a right
to the mast there.
“_Custom_ 18. That the lord of the said manor ought not to cut down
the said coppices, or one of them altogether, or at any one time, but
by parts or pieces, when he pleases.
“_Custom_ 19. That when the lord of the said manor doth cut down
any, or either of the said coppices, he, by the custom, is not
compellable to fence the same for seven years after such cutting, nor
to suffer the same to lie open.
“_Custom_ 20. That neither Thomas Colson, William Watts, _alias_
Watkins, nor the customary tenants of the tenement called Field
House, have a right of selling or disposing sand in any of the wastes
or commons of the lord of the said manor within the said manor.
“_Custom_ 21. That any customary tenant of the said manor seized of
any estate of inheritance, in any customary tenement within the said
manor, may cut timber, or any other trees standing or growing in or
upon his said customary tenement, for repairs of his ancient
customary messuages, with their appurtenances, and for estovers and
other necessary things to be used upon such his customary tenement,
without the licence or assignment of the lord of the said manor, but
not for building new messuages for habitation.
“_Custom_ 22. That no customary tenant of the said manor can cut,
sell, or dispose of any trees growing upon his customary tenement,
without the licence of the lord of the said manor, unless for
repairs, estovers, and other necessary things to be used upon his
customary tenement.
“_Custom_ 23. That any tenant seized of any estate of inheritance in
any of the customary tenements of the said manor, may cut down timber
trees or other trees, standing or growing in or upon one of his
customary tenements, to repair any other of his customary tenements,
within the said manor.
“_Custom_ 24. That no tenant of any customary tenement of the said
manor, may cut any timber trees or any other trees from off his
customary tenement, nor give or dispose of the same, for repairing of
any customary tenement, or any other customary tenement within the
said manor.
“_Custom_ 25. That the said customary tenants, and every of them,
may cut down any old trees, called decayed pollard trees, standing or
growing in or upon his customary tenement, and sell and dispose of
the same, at his and their will and pleasure.
“_Custom_ 26. That the lord of the said manor for the time being,
when, and as often as his mansion-house and the outhouses called
_Merdon Farm House_, shall want necessary repairs, may cut, and hath
used to cut down, one timber tree from off one farm or customary
tenement, once only during the life of the customary tenant of such
one farm, or customary tenement, for the necessary repairs of the
mansion-house and outhouses called _Merton Farm House_.
“_Custom_ 27. That the lord of the said manor, for the time being,
cannot cut down more trees than one, from any one customary tenement
in the life-time of any customary tenant thereof, for the repairs
aforesaid, nor can he take the loppings, toppings, boughs, or bark of
such trees so by him cut down, nor can he carry the same away.
“_Custom_ 28. That upon any surrender made before the reeve or
beadle, with two customary tenants of the said manor, or before any
two customary tenants of the said manor without the reeve or beadle,
no herriot is due to the lord of the said manor, if the estate
thereby made and surrendered be from the right heir.
“_Custom_ 29. That by the custom of the said manor, the jury at the
Court or Law-day held for the said manor, have yearly used to choose
the officers of and for the said manor, for the year ensuing, viz. a
Reeve, a Beadle, and a Hayward, and such officers have used, and
ought to be sworn at the said Court, to execute the said offices for
one year until they are lawfully discharged.
“_Custom_ 30. That the Hayward’s office hath been to collect and pay
to the lord of the said manor such custom money as was agreed for in
lieu of the custom works.”
The boundaries of the manor of Merdon, including Cranbury, and up to the
brook at Chandler’s Ford, have been kept up by “progresses” round them.
Probably the “gang” or Rogation procession was discontinued by either Sir
Philip Hobby or Richard Maijor; but on the borders between Hursley and
Baddesley, at a spot called High Trees Corner, near the railway, is
marked in the old map, “Here stode Gospell Oke.” It is not far from
Wool’s Grave, the next corner towards the Baddesley road. There, no
doubt, the procession halted for the reading of the Gospel for Rogation
week.
There are two curious entries in the old accounts:—
Chirurchets {67} vi Hennes and Cockes as apereth in the old 44
customary which I had from John Seymour.
And in the old book of Fines written in 1577—
The Reve doth gather by his scores £37 18 2.
The Bedell gathers the escheats.
The Reve the rents and eggs and is keeper of the West
heth.
A small farm near the church was held by Corpus Christi College, Oxford,
having probably been granted by Bishop Richard Fox, the founder, who held
the See of Winchester from 1500 to 1528. The bearing in his coat of arms
was a “pelican in her piety,” and the Pelican was the name of the public
house and of the farm that succeeded it down to the present day. The
title as well as that of the college are of course connected with the
emblem of the Pelican feeding her young from her own breast. Little
pelicans, alternately with Tudor portcullises, profusely adorn Fox’s
chantry in Winchester Cathedral.