BARNBURGH, CADEBY, HIGH MELTON, AND WILDETHORP

A BRIEF HISTORY

M. Stanhope

Medieval legal deeds seem to be devoid of emotional content. This is far from the case, for every land transaction involving a daughter’s dower was of the utmost importance to the social standing and security of her family; in some cases, to its very survival. Consequently, marriages were arranged, often when the future couple were extremely young, and were highly planned affairs, with many deeds giving minute details of lands (wealth) to be transferred. Moreover, marriage tended to occur within kinship groups of closely-knit families, so as to retain wealth within their group, and to strengthen bonds that afforded protection at times of civil unrest. The resulting degree of inbreeding led to a failure to produce male heirs, and the extinction of many lineages, as witnessed by the many tomes on the subject of extinct baronatages.

Those who held land in the places described herein were of the minor gentry and their yeoman tenants, who assiduously planned advantageous marriage alliances, so as to attain a better position in an endless game of medieval snakes and ladders.

The chronological ordering of this account is intended to aid any reader with a grasp of history to place legal deeds within a historical context; of particular note may be those pertaining to the period of the Black Death in the mid-14th century, with the ensuing massive mortality rate, shortage of labour, acts enforcing low wages at a time of rising food prices, being contributary factors in the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381. These were turbulent times, a comment generally applicable to the 11th-16th Centuries, and the transactions recorded herein may be seen as Darwinist survival tactics; their ‘dry’ content hiding much emotional wrangling.

Barnburgh, Cadeby, and High Melton, at the time of the Norman Conquest (1066), formed three settlements held by Saxon and Scandinavian landowners. Barnburgh (Berneburg) was held by Oswulf, Cadeby (Catebi) and High Melton by Svein, son of Svavi; Ketilbjorn (Chetelber) of Nettleton also had a lesser interest in High Melton, and held the now lost manor of Wildethorp, which occupied the high ground between High Melton and Cadeby. Of these settlements, High Melton was the smallest, being noted at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086) as having 9 households. Its name then was Middeltun, being the middle settlement between Sprotborough and Barnburgh. After 1086, the Norman baron, Roger de Busli, became the overlord of these settlements, as well many others: ‘The following list of places, fifty-five in number, in which Busli had manors in Yorkshire, has been compiled from Domesday: Lastan, Trapu (Thropum), Anestan, Torp, Wales, Hoton, Newhall, Wadeworth, Dadesley, Stanton, Helgebi (Hellaby), Maltby, Wickersley, Brinesford, Tirneslawe (Tinsley), Nortgrave, Gersebrog (Greasebrough), Grimeshov, Denby, Mexbro, Adwick, Barnbro, Wade (Wath), Hoyland, Wambulle (Wombwell), Middleton, Widuntorp, Catebi, Sprotbro’, Seusceuurde (Cusworth ?), Balby, Hallone, Billingley, Bodetone, Marra, Godetorp, Dennescop, Branwat, Barnby, Chiberworde (Kimberworth?), Honepol (Hampole), Frickley, Brodsworth, Haldworth, Ughill, Worrall, Wadsley, Arksey, Beneslaie, Adewiug, Marie, Hallun with its xvi. berewicks, Attercliff, Sheffield, Scawsby, Ecclesfelt. Elsi had lands in Stanton, Helgebi, and Worksop, and perhaps at Elsicar; Godric, in Brinesford and Gersebrog; Ulfac, in Grimesthorpe, Newhall, Mexbro, Aldwark, Hooton, Adwick upon Dearne, &c’ (Jonathan Eastwood. History of the parish of Ecclesfield: in the county of York. p. 55, 1862). High Melton was also known as Melton-le-Heyg (K.I., 3, 9, 10, 233 – 1285-1316); Hegh Melton (P.T. – 1379); and Melton-on-the-Hill.

It was not a case of Conquest era landowners living locally; such as Svein and Ketilbjorn held many estates in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and the last named continued to be a prominent landowner after 1086; obviously having pledged loyalty to the Norman invaders.

The dialect of English* spoken in pre-Conquest Yorkshire was likely unintelligible to people from the south of England, the aristocracy was primarily Danish in origin, and the Anglo-Saxon kings exercised a limited amount of power in the shire (William E. Kapelle, The Norman Conquest of the North: The Region and its Transformation 1000–1135, p. 11, 1979). It was the Scandinavian origin of pre-Conquest settlers of Yorkshire that was to prove troublesome to the Normans, who also came from the same stock. The ‘conquerors’ were unable to establish control beyond the Humber, where they continued to meet fierce resistance: Those Scandinavians who had settled in England were unwilling to give up their freedoms lightly. The possibility of such as Svein and Ketilbjorn being Christians can be considered: Such Danish rulers as Cnut had embraced Chistianity (whether for poitical reasons, or not), and such monuments as the Middleton Cross near Pickering, showing a pagan spear on a Christian cross, points to the influence of Christianity. *’Ti brek i two’ (to break in two) and ‘at brekke i tu’ is an example of the similarity between Yorkshire dialect and Danish.

BARNBURGH

‘The seat of Francis Fawkes, Esq. is finely situated in a pleasant and fertile vale, at the distance of six miles from Doncaster. About a mile from the grange is the village of Barnbrough, seated on a gently rising hill, and remarkable for a tradition relative to a singular and fatal contest between a man and a wild cat. The inhabitants say that the fight began in an adjacent wood, and that it was continued from thence into the porch of the church, where it ended fatally to both the combatants, as each ‘there expired of the wounds received in the conflict. ‘A rude representation in the church commemorates the event; and, as in similar traditions, the accidentally natural red tinge of some the stones has been construed into bloody stains, which all the properties of soap and water have not been able to efface’ (John Britten, The beauties of England and Wales, vol. 23, p. 876, 1812).

A rather less romantic explanation of the effigy of a knight with a lion at his feet in St. Peter’s Church, Barnburgh, may be put forward: Percival Cresacre, made his Will Jan. 19, 1476, desiring to be buried in the church of St. Peter at Barnborough, near the tomb of Alice his wife, a daughter of Thomas Mounteney, whose family crest was a wild cat, or Cat-a-Mountain, which was a pun on the Mounteney name. That the Barnburgh effigy seems to depict a lion is due to a Cat-a-Mountain being synonomous with any of various wild felines. It could be considered that Percival Cresacre may have suffered fatal injury in an altercation with a Mounteney (wild cat) in-law, the folk story surrounding his death being an allusion to that.

As to the derivation of Barnburgh; the Berneburg of Domesday: it is not necessarily the borough of Beorn: ‘Old English bern had the meaning of barn, granary. ‘Burgh’ is the same as ‘borough’, meaning a defended place. Neither does the Borough of Beorn theory necessarily imply that Barnburgh was the domain of an an Anglo-Saxon chieftain, as Bjorn (Anglo-Saxon), Björn (Swedish and Icelandic), and Bjørn (Norwegian and Danish), were versions of the same name.

The history of land ownership in Barnburgh is a complicated matter: As noticed by Cresacre More in his Life of Sir Thomas More: ‘Not far from Barnborough is the castle of Coningsborough, the ancient seat of the Earls of Warren. A moiety of Barnborough was held of that castle. Another moiety was held of the castle of Tickhill, a few miles further distant. The two great houses of Newmarch (Conisbrough moiety – M.S.) and FitzWilliam (Tickhill moiety – M.S.) held Barnborough. Both subinfeuded; and the tenants of the FitzWilliams’ moiety was the family of Cresacre.’

‘In Coningesburg habuit Haroldus comes V carucatas terre ad Geldam. Terra est ad V carucatas. Ibi habet nunc Willus de Warenna V carucatas in dominio, & XXI villanos & XI bordarios habentes XI carucatas. Ibi est ecelesia & presbitery & II molendini XXXII solidos valuerunt. Silva pastura I leaga longitudine, & I latitudine. Ad ipsum manerium pertinet soca harum. Ravenesfeld I car. & dimid. Cliftone III car. Bradeuuelle XI car. Barneburg VI car. Holand I car. Bilam I car. Daltone III car. Wilseuuice XV acre Hertil & Ciuetone XIII car. & dimid. Estone VI bovata. Sandale II car. Gresburg III car. Cuzeuuorde III car. Bramelei III car. Actone II bovat. Witestan III car. Wemesforde I car. & VI bovat. Doninitone II car. Anestan II car. Stenforde VI bovat. Bramuuite VI bovat. Fixcale V car. Torne IIII car. Tudeuuorde I car. Hedfeld VIII car. Stirestorp II car. Sandela I car. & III bovat. The modern names of the above places seem to be these. Ravenfield, Clifton, Braithwell, Barnbrough, Hoyland, Bilham, Dalton, Wilsick, Harthill, Kiveton, Aston, Kirk Sandal, Gresbrough, Cusworth, Bramley, Aughton, Whistan, Warmsworth, Dinnington, Anston, Stainforth, Bramwith, Fishlake, Thorne, Tudworth, Hatfield, Stiresthorpe, Sandal’ (John Watson, Memoirs of the Ancient Earls of Warren, vol. 1, p. 24, 1782).

The Conisbrough moiety went to the family of Newmarche, who had a mansion at Bentley, and lands in Sprotburgh and Cusworth, and comprised of lands encircled by Church Lane leading to Harlington, leading to the Crown Inn; this incorporating church lands gifted to Southwell Minster, see as follows. The Tickhill moiety comprised of lands between Hickleton Road and St. Helen’s Lane, bordered by Barnburgh Crags, and Doncaster Road, leading to High Melton. Various tenants held land in both moieties. What gradually developed was a local squirearchy, comprising of intermarried families (such as those of Cresacre, Cressy, Barlay, Bosville, Ellis, Metham, Melton, Mounteney, and Syward), who held parcels of land in Barnburgh, Cadeby, Harlington, High Melton, and Wildethorp; all seeking to remain owners of land rather than workers of land; this latter prospect appearing dreadful to owners at a time when a peasant may have risen at 3am, had a bowl of pottage, before commencing on a day-long toil. The owners in chief chose the clergy, almost invariably from within their family, who unsurprisingly preached that the contrasting lot of owners and workers was God’s will; a natural order of society that should not be opposed; an afterlife even more dreadful than the previous one being the threat to those who did.

It was not a case, however, of medieval peasant being unwilling participants in all aspects of religion. The village Church was the center of the medieval community. A person was baptized, married, and buried there; they confessed their sins to the priest and received the sacraments of Eucharist on Holy Days. Popular medieval religion was imbued with rituals and symbolism. For instance, before slicing bread a woman would tap the sign of the cross on it with her knife. The entire calendar was created with reference to many Holy Days. Yet, the medieval peasant, however immersed in religion, did not necessarily believe everything the village priest told them; they may have had a strong sense of the existence of God, believing that God was directly involved in human affairs, but a belief that God had ordained their position in society may have not been as prevalent as some make out. Hollywood and school history lessons do not dwell on the numerous uprisings against the established order that were brutally suppressed, yet to deny the the medieval peasant the ability to question and dissent is to deny the ability to be human.

Indeed, It is sometimes claimed that feudalism – society based on status and prestige, a society based on the division of orders according to one’s function – was seriously weakened by popular uprisings, such as the French Revolution. This can only be part of the case, however, as feudalism was first challenged by the marriage arrangements of the elite, in which successive generations interbred into the same narrow gene pool, resulting in the failure to produce male heirs. The necessity to marry within your kinship circle was to preserve and acquire wealth; to further bonds that were advantageous to your family; to cultivate relationships that may be of aid in times of political threat. The profuse number of deeds concerning land exchanges and rentals was a product of this exercise in survival – a form of medieval monopoly, in which a wrong move could threaten your family’s footage on the social ladder. When ancestry is uncertain, it may be considered that a family originated from one of the families within the kinship circle they were associated with. The Copleys are perhaps an example of this premise, they being suggested to be of Cressy stock, who may have held Copley within the township of Skircoat of the Honour of Warenne as early as the mid- twelth century., see as follows.

HIGH MELTON

The Cressy family were possessed of great wealth and had various estates in the parishes of Blyth, Gelding, Rampton, Kelham, Weston, East Markham in the county of Nottingham, at Risegate, Braytoft and Exton in Lincolnshire, and at Melton-on-the-Hill in Yorkshire. Branches of this formerly important family were settled at Hodsock, Olcotes, East Markham as well as at Gosberton, Surfleet and Moulton.

‘The Domesday Record contains no mention of this family holding any land or Manors in the County of Lincoln, in fact the first mention we find of the family is of one Roger de Cressy, who in the reign of Henry II. as Lord of Hodsock placed upon the altar of Saint Mary’s, Blyth, an instrument conveying to the monks of that monastery the donation of a bovate of land in Olcotes and a tithe of all his mills in his soc. of Hodsock, in return for which the convent were to give him, his ancestors and successors 4 masses weekly. (Roger de Cressy’s father, Hugh, acquired lands in the Honour of Warenne in Yorkshire through his wife – Keats-Rohan ‘Domesday Descendants’, p. 416, 2002 – M.S.).

This Roger was the son of Avicia de Tani’s sister; Avicia being married to William FitzWilliam; and probably through her became possessed of the lordship of Hodsock as well as other large possessions in the County of Nottingham. He married Cecilia, daughter of Gervase Clifton of Clifton, and died leaving her a widow with one son named William, a minor. The mother and son seem to have had no friendly feeling towards each other. William denied that his mother had been lawfully married and refused to give her dower; this was in the reign of King John and so great was the corruption of the Court at that time that both mother and son gave large bribes to the King, the one that she might be put in possession of her jointure, the other that he might be discharged from paying it. After an appeal had been made to the Archbishop of York, and William de Cressy had offered wager to try the matter by single combat, the dispute was settled in 1204 at Clarendon’ (The South Holland magazine p. 81, 1869). That is, she quit Hoddishat, Gedling, Kelum, Weston, Rampton, and Mareham to William and his heirs for half a knight’s fee in Melton, and five acres of medow in Lokenges for her life (‘Hodsok with the Hamlets’, Thoroton’s History of Nottinghamshire: vol. iii.: Republished with large additions by John Throsby (1796), pp. 414-418). Melton was held in the Honour of Warenne.

Hampole Priory — dedicated to The Virgin Mary. Order of St. Benedict. William de Clarefait, and Avicia de Tani, his wife, founded this house, about the year 1170, for fourteen or fifteen nuns. It afterwards possessed the churches of Aldwick-in-the-Street, given by Albreda de Lizures, and Melton, given by Avicia de Tani, and Sibella de Clarefait. Richard Rolle, hermit, mystic and poet , commonly called Richard de Hampole, was interred here, and many persons resorted to his tomb in pilgrimage. Four ladies of the Cressy family were nuns, probably at Hampole, to the founder of which house William de Clarefait ……. and Avicia his wife, the Cressy’s claimed a connection’ (George Lawton, The Religious Houses of Yorkshire, p. 60, 1863).

The manor of Hampole was held of Roger de Busli by William de Clarefait and Avicia his wife, a daughter of William de Tani. They endowed it with the town of Hampole, the church of Melton-on-the-Hill, and the mills of Melton. William de Clairfait was not synonomous with William FitzGodfric, ancestor of the FitzWilliams, see as follows.

Any sixteenth-century ‘composition’ repeated by Victorian antiquaries should be viewed with caution, especially when a claimed descent involved being either of the family of the Norman dukes, or of the Saxon kings, both connection being claimed for the descendants of Godric:

‘The family of FitzWilliam, notwithstanding the Norman form of the name, is certainly of Anglian or Scandinavian descent. The story of William FitzGodric, cousin to Edward the Confessor, and his son William FitzWilliam, ‘Ambassador at the court of William, Duke of Normandy, and Marshal of the Norman army at Hastings,’ is obviously mythical ……. Bridges, Northants, says that the first William FitzWilliam was a ‘natural son to the Conqueror’! William, son of Godric is , however, a real person, but he flourished a century and more after the Conquest. Godric’s father was named Ketelborn; in a lawsuit in 1211 he is said to have been seised of land at Hopton, not far from Emley, on the day of the death of Henry I, 1 Dec 1135. Godric was probably born about 1110-1115; there is no direct record of him.’ (This can not be the ‘Ketelborn’ who held land in High Melton in 1066, who was probably born circa 1030 – M.S.).

‘William son of Godric was probably born about 1140; he occurs in the Pipe Rolls from 1169-70 to 1179-80, and was dead in 1194. He married, probably about 1169-70, as her third husband, Aubrey, daughter and heir of Robert de Lisures* (son of Fulk de Lisours, the Domesday tenant of Sprotborough and other West Riding manors under Roger de Busli*), who married, about 1129-30, Aubrey, daughter of Robert de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, and in her issue heir of the great Lacy estates on the death of Robert de Lacy II., 1193-4. Aubrey de Lisours was therefore a great heiress through both parents. She married (1) Robert FitzEustace, c. 1150, by whom she had issue John the Constable of Chester (died 1190, from whom the 2nd house of Lacy descended); (2) William de Clairfait (as his second wife – M.S.), circa 1167; and (3) William FitzGodric, circa 1169-70 (Complete Peerage v., pp. 518-9: Note by Mr. W. Paley Balidon, F.S.A.). The following citation is part of the ‘obviously mythical’ ancestry. Sir William FitzWilliam, who was living in 1117, Lord of Elmley and Sprotborough, m. Ella, dau. and co-heir of William, Earl of Warren and Surrey, and had Roger, to whom the Earl of Warren gave the lordship of Gretewell, and Sir William FitzWilliam, an elder son, his successor (Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, p. 215, 1883). *There is no record of Robert being the son of Fulc de Lisures; he may have been his nephew: ‘Thorold de Lisours, the progenitor of the Nottinghamshire house, was the earliest subinfeudatory of Hodsoke, in that county, part of the Honour of Tickhill. He and his brother Fulk both witness Roger de Busli’s foundation charter of Blyth in 1088, ‘and this is,’ says Thoroton, ‘his last appearance, as far as I am aware, in any public record.’ The Cressys succeeded him at Hodsoke, but he had other estates in the county, and his descendants continued there till late in the fourteenth century (Duch. Cleveland, Battle Abbey Roll, p. 381, 1889).

‘About the middle of the twelfth century we meet with a certain Hugh de Tilly who had three sons Otho, Ralph, and Roger. Otho was a considerable man in South Yorkshire: he was steward of the Earl of Warenne at Conisbro’, and seems to have held property in Doncaster, where he erected the original Otho de Tilly cross. He, or possibly his father, had obtained a considerable estate in the Lacy fee during the reign of Henry I, and in 1166 he was returned as holding three knight’s fees under Henry de Lacy. He was the second witness (preceded only by the Archbishop of York) to the so-called foundation charter of Kirkstall Abbey by Henry de Lacy. But he left no male issue, and at his death his estates passed with his daughter and heiress to the Newmarch family’ (The Publications of the Thoresby Society, vol. 26, part 1, p. 16, 1919).

William FitzRaven, Sheriff of Wakefield (1148-59), married a daughter of Hugh de Boseville, from Beuzeville-la-Giffard, Normandy, who held land in Harthill, Yorks. Their daughter, Mabel FitzRaven (born at Hatfield, circa 1120) married Otho de Tilly, probably of Calvados, Tilly-sur-Seules, Normandy, a tenant of the Honour of Warenne in Barnbrough, Bilham, and elsewhere. Their daughter, Dyonesia de Tilly, married Henry de Novo Mercato (Neufmarche/Newmarche). Their son, Henry came of age in 1172 and died in 1178. He is recorded a holding an interest in Barnburgh (Farrar, E.Y.C., Honour of Warrene, extra series, vol. 6, p. 154, 1949). His son of the same name was a donator of land in Barnburgh to Southwell Cathedral chantry, see as follows.

The Ralf de Tilly who married Sybil, daughter of Avicia de Tani and William de Clairfait, was probably Dyonisia de Tilly’s cousin, a son of Otho de Tilly’s brother, Ralph. Their two sons Ralf and Roger, confirmed gifts of their mother to Hampole …….. ‘cartas Radulphi de Tilli et Rogeri fratris ejus, confirm. donationes Aviciae aviae suae et Sibillae de Clarefait.’

Burton, in the Monasticon Eboracense, has given an alphabetical list of the places where the lands of this monastery lay, with the names of the respective donors. These were: ‘The church of Adwyk or Athewyk given by Albrede de Lisures, and afterwards appropriated; with free warren in Adwyk: the grants of both were confirmed by Ralph, son of Ralph de Tilli, and Roger, his brother, by Sibilla de Clarefait, daughter of William de Clarefait and Avice de Tani, his wife. Free warren in Brampton, near Doncaster. The mill, together with the church of Bretewell, and three oxgangs of land. A moiety of the town of Clayton, held by a rent of the Vescy family. The town of Hanepole, with free warren. A messuage and one oxgang of land in Marr, given by John Bossevill. The church and mills of Melton, by Avicia de Tanai and Sibilla de Claresai. An annuity of a pound from Plomtree, near Scroby.’

Burton, from a Register of Deeds of the Metham family gives the following account of the situation and remains of Hampole in his time, 1758. ‘This nunnery stood in a pleasant vale lying east and west, in a fine country, near to the high-road leading from Wakefield to Doncaster. At present there is an old hall, which seems either to have been part of the priory, or to have been built out of its ruins, on the north side of the village, wherein is an old bow window on the south side, on the top of which are four escutcheons in stone; in one are two hands in chief, two birds in bass, and a crown or heart in the middle; in another a fess between three escallops; and in a third five fusils in fess; the fourth defaced. The Chapel stood on the north side of the hall, betwixt that and the little beck; and the ground is now called Chapel Green.’

The Cressys appear in deeds with other prominent landowners in High Melton, notably the de Berleys (Barlays) of Selby, and the Sywards. De Berley. 32rd Edwd. I. 1303. Richard, son and heir of Robert. de Berley, paid a fine to the king of 40s. for license to make a certain sluice from the water of Ouse, in his fee of Berley (Abb. Rot. Orig. vol. 1, p. 141). This Richard married a lady named Sigreda, and he was dead in the 17th Edward II., 1323. He had taken part on the side of Lancaster, in the baron’s rebellion, and his lands escheated to the crown. They were given into the custody of Walter de Kilvyngton, but dowry was allowed to the wife. In the 29th Edward III., some parts of the manor of Berley had fallen into the hands of William de Grammary, one of the veterans of the Scottish wars. He held in Snayth, Cowyk, Goldall, Hethensall, Berley, and Wek, lands &c., of the value of £9. 5s. 0d. rent by sergeanty, and by the service of bearing the king’s bow in war. Sir Richard de Berley died about 1323 (Abbrev. Rot. Orig., 276), leaving William his son and heir (Reg. Melton, 594 b). I suppose the first de Berley (Thomas) of this account to be Richard’s grandson; the family intermarried with the de Greys, whose arms, impaling those of Clfton are found in the north window of St. James, High Melton.

CADEBY

‘Cadeby, or Cateby, a township, in the parish of Sprotbrough, union of Doncaster, N. division of the wapentake of Strafforth and Tickhill, W. riding of York, 4½ miles (W. S. W.) from Doncaster; containing 153 inhabitants. The priory of Bretton and the establishment at Nostal held lands here; and among the families that have possessed property, occurs that of Metham, who settled at Cadeby about the reign of Edward II., and continued to hold it in the time of Elizabeth. The township is situated in the south part of the parish, and upon the river Don, opposite to Conisbrough, with which place it is connected by the King’s ferry’ (A Topographical Dictionary of England, pp. 467-471, 1848). Cadeby was primarily held of the Newmarche family of the honour of Warenne: In the partition Hickleton and Cadeby (par. Sprotborough), including the advowson of Hickleton, an assignement was made to Ranulf de Newmarch, alias ‘Randulph de Hykilton’, son of William de Newmarche, ‘who confirmed the oxgang of land in Cadeby, or Catabi, given by his father. Adam FitzSwain gave the church of this place. William de Nevil and Amabil his wife confirmed the grants of Adam FitzSwain; and also gave their part of this town. Galfrid de Nevil and Mabil his wife, Adam de Montbegon and Maud his wife, confirmed the grants of Adam FitzSwain, and gave their shares of land in this town; all which was confirmed by Pope Urban the Third, and by John Malherbe and Maud his wife’ (Dodsworth, Monasticon anglicanum: vol. v., p. 132, 1835).

The FitzWilliams also had interest here: John FitzWilliam alias ‘John del Wodhall ‘ was witness (together with his cousin John FitzWilliam) to a settlement dated 25 Jul. 1361: ‘Thomas, son of Sir Thomas of Metham (of Marr – M.S.), to William of Metham of Cadby (his cousin – M.S.), and Margaret, his wife. The manor of Cadby. For their lives, and after their death to their son, John, with remainder to his brother, Richard, and a final remainder to the right heirs of William and Margaret. Witnesses: John FitzWilliam, Robert of Staynton, John del Wodhall, John Frere of Doncaster, William de Eyvill of Biyrland, Edmund of Portyngton, Nicholas Ros Lyn. Given at Cadby. ‘ – Estate Papers of the Copley Family, Baronets of Sprotborough. (The Copleys inherited Sprotborough through the marriage of Sir William Copley and Dorothy FitzWilliam, aunt and co-heiress of William FitzWilliam who died in 1516, last of the male line of the FitzWilliams of Sprotborough). Concerning Hickleton: the earliest mesne lord of whom we have any certain account is Peter de Rotherfield, who held Hickleton at the time of Kirkby’s Inquest. He had William, who left four daughters his coheirs, of whom one married William de Eyvill, who is said by Dodsworth to have had Hickleton.
Exchange: CD/377. 6 Nov. 1435: Katherine de Harum, widow of Walter de Harum, to William de Metham and his wife Margaret. All her lands in Cadeby for her lifetime in exchange for all lands and rents of William and Margaret in Scawsby, Cusworth, Bentley, Arksey and Doncaster, 2/3 of the mill of Scawsby, all their meadow in Bentley and Arksey, and 6s. annual rent from lands in Cadeby, and 30 faggots and sticks for all ploughs and harrows for her manor of Scawsby from their wood of Cadeby for her life, to be taken between Michaelmas (Sep. 29) and Christmas, with free ingress and egress through the wood to her manor of Scawsby. Witnesses: Richard son of Alexander, Thomas de Cresacre, Robert de Pikburne, Alexander de Pikburne, John de Arksay clerk et al. Given at Cadeby. Phillip Metham and William Metham were parties to a fine in 1571, Alexander Metham to a fine in 1572-3, and Dorothy and Jane his daughters and co- heiresses to a fine in 1592 concerning lands in Cadeby (Yorkshire Fines, vol. ii. pp. 9, 28).

BARNBURGH AND HARLINGTON DEEDS AND PERSONAGES

1148-1152. Notification by Elias de Bosville to Roger, archbishop of York, of his gift to Nostell priory of 20 acres of land in the place called Stagaldescroft (? in Barnborough), rendering 2s. yearly to him or his heirs after his return from Jerusalem. ……. Notification by Elias de Bosville to Roger, archbishop of York, of his gift, for the souls of Fulk his brother and William (third) Earl de Warenne, to Nostell Priory of his mill at Harlington, a bovate of land with a toft in Barnborough, and 6 acres of land and a toft there, and of William the miller and his wife and children. 1148 – June 1152. (Farrer, Clay, E.Y.C., cit. Nostell Cart., Cotton MS, Vesp. E xix., fol. 57v.). Elias and Fulc de Bosville were sons of Hugh de Bosville, aforementioned, and thus were uncles of Mabel FitzRaven, who married Otho de Tilly; their daughter, Dyonesia de Tilly, married, as said, Henry de Novo Mercato (Newmarche).

‘Elias de Boseville ……. appears to have been a person much connected with the Newmarches, to which connection the Bosviles owed the five fusils in fesse they bore on their shield, afterwards distinguished by three bears’ heads, or some other figure in chief. Sir John Bosvile, living 1252 and ’54, married the heiress of Darfield. They were afterwards seated at Ardsley and Newhall, Chevet, and Peniston-Coningsburgh, Warmsworth, Braithwell, and Ravenfield, Yorkshire, and Belhouse Grange, Notts. Their vast possessions must have placed them in the very first rank of the gentry of the North. Robert Bosvile was Constable of Pontefract in 1333. Thomas Bosvile, the last male, who died in 1639, desired in his will that he might be buried among his ancestors in the quire of the parish church of Darfield.’ — Hunter’s South Yorkshire. At the east end of the south choir one of their monuments, with effigies of a knight and lady of the time of Richard II.— the knight wearing the collar of SS as a Lancastrian badge— is still to be seen (Duch. Cleveland).

1242-3. ‘Adam de Neufmarche held one fee in Barnborough’ (Thurgarton Cart.).

1260. Inquest Post Mortem. James Cresacre Esq. Selby, August 29, 1418. ‘He held in demesne as a fee the manor of Barnburgh, extending in Barnburgh, Barnthorpe, Harlington, Wombwell, Millhouses, Darfield, Woodhall, Tyers Hill, and Bilham, of John FitzWilliam, as heir of John FitzWilliam, under age in the king’s ward, in socage (Socage was one of the feudal duties and hence land tenure forms in the feudal system. A farmer, for example, held the land in exchange for a clearly defined, fixed payment to be made at specified intervals to his feudal lord, who in turn had his own feudal obligations, to the farmer and to the Crown. In theory this might involve supplying the lord with produce but most usually it meant a straightforward payment of cash, i.e., rent. – M.S), by a rent of 20s. payable at Michaelmas, by a charter shown to the jurors and dated at Barnburgh on 25 July 1260. He died on 10 August 1417. Percival his son and heir is aged 18 and more’ (Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, c. 138/30 no. 12; e. 149/113, no. 4). That is, John Cresacre held land in Barnburgh in 1260.

(William FitzWilliam, son of William FitzGodric, was the father of Sir Thomas FitzWilliam, who to each of his female issue assigned lands for their portions, and the youngest, Albreda, was married to Sir Richard Walleis of Burghwalleis; another daughter, Dyonisia, married Sir Robert de Eyvill of Egmanton, Notts & Adlingfleet, Yorks., who died. aft. May 1242; their issue: John de Eyvill, who married Maud, widow of James D’Audithley, of Audley, Staffs, and Elena de Eyvill, as follows.

Sir Roger FitzWilliam, his second son, ancestor to the family at Woodhall, in Yorkshire, having that manor settled on him by his father, married Maud, daughter of Sir John Bosvile of Erdesley, in Yorkshire, and left John his heir, who by Alice, daughter of William, and sister to Sir Peter Middleton of Stockeld, had ‘John de Woodhall’ aforementioned, his successor, who married Catharine, daughter and coheir to Robert Haringal of Yorkshire, by Margaret his wife, daughter of William St. George, of Hatley St. George, in Cambridgeshire; and had Thomas and Roger, who both died unmarried; Isabel, Catharine, Margaret, and Joan; the three youngest of whom became professed nuns; and the eldest was married to Thomas Barlowe, (or Barley) of Woodsome, Esq; and in her right of Woodhall, who having only two daughters, Margaret the elder carried Woodhall to her husband, John, son of Richard Drax; and Mary, (or Mariota) was first married to John Bosvile, of Erdesley, in the county of York, Esq. whose son Richard, (by her) married Joan, daughter of Thomas Nevil, of Leversedge, and was father of John Bosvile of Gunthwaite, Esq., and secondly to the son of Percival Gresacre, of Barnburgh, Esq. whose son William, by Matildis, daughter of John FitzWilliam, had Thomas Cresacre of Newhall, Esq).

1278. Petitioners: Clemence de Longvillers. Addressees: King and council. Places mentioned: Egmanton, (Nottinghamshire); Barnburgh, (West Riding of Yorkshire). Other people mentioned: John de Eyvill (Deiville); Adam de Eyvill, brother of John de Eyvill; Thomas de Eyvill; John de Eyvill, nephew of John de Eyvill; William, John de Eyvill’s clerk; John de Husthayt; William de Eyvill of Egmanton; Robert de Eyvill of Egmanton. Nature of request: Clemence de Longvillers states that John de Eyvill, Adam his brother, Thomas de Eyvill, John de Eyvill, nephew of John de Eyvill, William, John de Eyvill’s clerk, John de Husthayt, William de Eyvill of Egmanton and Robert de Eyvill of Egmanton came with force and arms to her manors of Egmanton and Barnburgh, carried off her goods and chattels, and inflicted other outrages upon her. She requests justice. Endorsement: She is to take action by a writ of Chancery circ. 1278. By way of explanation, John Eyvill’s father, Robert, aforementioned, obtained land in Barnburgh from the dower of his wife, Denise FitzWilliam. John Eyvill’s sister, Elena, married John de Longvillers (son of Eudes de Longvillers and Clemence de Malherbe); their daughter, Clemence Longvillers, John Eyvill’s niece, exchanged free-warren in Egmanton for the Conisborough moiety of Barnburgh:

‘John de Eyvill, 7 E.1. (1279) by the judgement of the court was to hold to him and his heirs the manor of Egmanton, against Clementia de Lungvillers, to whom he had given the manor of Baneburgh in Yorkeftire, for her life, in exchange. John de Eyvill had free-warren granted here, 9 Jun. 9E.1., who had a fon of the fame name his heir, who married Margaret, who was latter wife (after his deceafe) of Adam de Everingham lord of Laxton, who claimed divers liberties here in her right, 3 E.3, and married his fon Adam de Everingham to Joane de Eyvill her daughter and heir of this manor, which by a fine, 17E.2 between John de Eyvill, and Margaret his wife, and Joane their daughter, querents, and Hugh de Scalton, defoic. was fettled on the faid John and Margaret, and Joane, and the heirs of Margaret, excepting one mill, two hundred and two acres of land, twenty three of meadow, fixty of wood, icos. and sod. rent in the fame manor; to which fine feveral perfons put to their claims, as Thomas de Burton of Egmanton, and Heldreda his wife, and John their fon, William, fon of Lawrence de Wefton, Thomas Deyvill of Egmanton, Robert Fourmery, John Fourmery, Thomas del Celer, William del Celer, and Thomas Trompour, theirs ……… There having fometimes before been fuits about common of pafture in the East Park, Adam de Everingham lord of Egmanton, fold to Henry Deyvill a certain place of wood beneath his park of Egmanton called the East Park, to cut down the wood thereof, according as it was affigned by certain bounds, in which park fir Thomas de Lungvillers, the prior of Newftede, Thomas Deyvill, Henry Deyvill his fon, Robert Formery, and all the commonality of the faid town had common for all manner of cattel, who all, 15 E. 3. agreed that fir Adam could inclofe it with an hedge for three years, in which time they would only common with their horfes after Michaelmas; but after the term of three years the fence to be thrown down, and they to dommon in it as before’ (Robert Thoroton, John Throsby, The antiquities of Nottinghamshire, extracted out of records, Volume 2, p. 217, 1790).

John de Eyvill, in 1282, granted fifteen tofts in Wombwell and Darfield to John de Cresacre, who appears to have acquired all of the Eyvill property in Wombwell, because he was listed as holding a portion of Wombwell of the Honour of Tickhill in Kirkby’s survey of 1284. Hunter related that the lands of Wombwell had been owned by the three Saxon lords (Cheteber, Tori, and Tor) before the Norman conquest. He wrote that Cheteber had owned fourteen bovates, to which were annexed a bovate in Toftes and two bovates in High Melton. Hunter discusses the land that had passed from Tori to Walter Deincourt, who apparently gave part of his land to a family of Saint Mary. At Kirby’s survey, John de Anforth, Stephen de Bellew (Bella Aqua), and William de Appelforth were listed as heirs of Saint Mary, and as holding one knight’s fee in Wombwell and Rawmarsh of Edmund Deincourt.

The kinship network of Barley, Bella Aqua, Bosville, Copely, Cresacre, Cressy, Eyvill, FitzWilliam, Foljambe, Longviliers, Malherb, Metham, Mounteney, Newmarche, Reinville, Vyncent, Wentworth, Westenay, Woodruffe, and Wormely:

‘Bartholomew de Sancta Maria, grandson of Pagan’ (a contemporary of the Conqueror, it is claimed) ‘left three sisters as his coheirs. Sibil, the second, married Jordan de Renevile, one of the subinfeudatories of the Baron of Hallamshire, and holding under him Cowley, and the part of the parish of Ecclesfield abutting upon Kimberworth. She had two daughters and coheirs, Margaret, who married Thomas Mounteney,* by which marriage the Mounteneys acquired Cowley; and Alice who married Thomas de Bella Acqua’ (Hunter’s South Yorkshire). Their son was Stephen de Bella Aqua. ‘Alice de Bella Aqua was childless, and Margaret became sole heir. The name of her husband is wrongly given. He was Sir Robert, the son of Arnold de Monteney, who had married a daughter of Gerard de Furnival and the Louvetot heiress, and held the estate of Shiercliffe of the castle and manor of Sheffield. The Monteneys obtained the King’s license to make a park round their house at Shiercliffe, and enjoyed certain manorial privileges. At their other manor of Cowley they had ‘great woods and abundance of redd deare, and a stately castle-like house moated about, pulled down not long since by the Earl of Salop after he had purchased the land’ (Dodsworth). *Kirkby’s Inquest, 1284: ‘Swynton. Thomas de Monteney tenet medietatem ejusdem villae de Roberto de Tibbethorpe ……. Robertus tenet de castro de Tikehull.’

‘Sir Robert and Margaret de Reineville had two sons, Robert, and Thomas; but in neither case did their line continue for more than another generation. Robert’s son left a daughter called Constance, the wife of John de Bosvile;* and Thomas’s son, another daughter, Joan, married to Thomas, Lord Furnival. It is presumed that she entered into second nuptials. This is certain, that Thomas Lord Furnival, her husband, died without issue; yet in a deed preserved by Dugdale and dated 15 Ric. II. she acknowledges a son John de Monteney, afterwards a knight, and her successor at Cowley and Shiercliffe’ (Hunter’s Hallamshire). The posterity of this John remained in Yorkshire till late in the seventeenth century; his immediate posterity being Thomas Mounteney, whose daughter married Percival Cresacre. *John de Bosvile’s son by a first wife was John Bosvile, who died in 1441, in Clayton, West Riding. He married (1) Mary Barley, daughter of Thomas Barley and Isabel FitzWilliam; (2) Isabel Cresacre, daughter of Percival Cresacre and Alice Mounteney, who died in 1480.

‘With Adam FitzSwayne, the son of Swayne, the male line of this great Saxon family became extinct. He left two daughters, co-heiresses: the family of one of them, Matilda, married to Adam de Montbegon, Lord of Hornby, became settled at Brierley, in possession of what we may call, speaking generally, the eastward portion of her father’s estate. Their son Roger de Montebegon died without issue 12 Henry III. By Matilda’s second husband, John de Malherb, she had two daughters, co-heiresses Clementia, married to Eudo de Longvillers, and Matilda, married to Geoffrey de Neville, ‘de Novavilla’ (C.T.Pratt, A History of Cawthorne, pp. 15-18, 1882).

1. Ilbert de Reinville fl. 1090 (E.Y.C. iii., pp. 248-250). 2. Adam de Reinville (E.Y.C. iii., pp. 248-250). 3. Hervey de Reinville (EYC iii. pp.248-250). 4. Eudes de Longvillers, seneschal of Robert de Lacy (E.Y.C. iii., pp. 304-5), who married Agnes, daughter of Hervey de Reinville of Badsworth. 5. Sir Eudes de Longvillers, d. 1229 (E.Y.C. iii., p. 318) who married Clemence de Malherbe, d.1246. 6. Sir John de Longvilliers d. 1254 (William Brown (1892), Yorkshire Inquisitions, v. 1, p.40). 7. Sir John de Longvilliers, who married Elena daughter of Sir Robert de Eyvill and Denise FitzWilliam. (Elena married, secondly, Sir William Montgomery of Cubley, Derbys. who presented to Badsworth church in right of his wife (W. Brown (ed.) (1904), Register of Archbishop Walter Giffard, Surtees Society Publication 109, p. 101).

Richard Wormeley of Hatfield, died by 1386, married Margaret Cresacre, daughter of Thomas Cresacre of Barnburgh; his son, Richard Wormeley of Hatfield, living in 1416, married a daughter of Thomas Mounteney of Cowley and Hickleton. Walter Gray, Archbishop of York, kept a register of his religious activities from 1215 to 1255. In 1240, he recorded that Henry de Novo Mercato (Newmarche) gave a plot of land in Barnburgh to Southwell Cathedral chantry. Among the witnesses to this who were named in the deeds was Thomas de Wirmele in Balcona (Balne). In 1210, the Curia Regis Roll, vol. 6, p.114, shows Henrici de Novo Mercato agreeing to the appointment by his sub-tenant Robert Mallet of Thomas de Wimerele as the vicar at Bolton-Upon Dearne. The right to choose the vicar was important in medieval society, giving someone the advowson or ‘living’ of a church gave him money, a house, and control in the local community, and suggests Thomas someone connected to the donator’s family, very often being a younger son of that family. A charter of 1228 records that Adam de Newmarch donated St Nicholas’ chapel at Cobcroft, a hamlet in Womersley parish, to be used as a chantry, and money to pay a monk or priest to pray for his soul and the soul of his wife Joanna (Pontefract Chartulary, vol. ii.).

Ralph de Newmarche seems to have settled at Bentley-cum-Arksey in Yorkshire, and to have been the companion of Roger de Busli, founder of the Honour of Tickhill in that county, of which Honour Ralph and his descendants held four knight’s fees in Arksey. We find him to have been one of the witnesses to Roger de Busli’s Charter, or grant of lands, to the Priory of Blythe in Tickhill, 1088. Among his possessions in the county of York were Bentley-cum-Arksey, near Doncaster, where he had his mansion, Bolton, Wymersley, and Barnby-upon-Don, to the rectory of which the Newmarches presented from the earliest period to which the records of the see of York extend down to the reign of Edward III. Adam de Newmarch, who succeeded Ralph, is known as the benefactor of the House of Austin, Canons of Nostell, Co. York, Temp. Henry I. (1100-1135) which was repaired at that time (Camd. Brit., p. 851).

It would appear that Adam married the Lady Adelina of Whatton, Notts, for we find that she made a gift to the Canons of Nostell of lands in Whatton, which another Adam de Newmarch, who from the dates and circumstances was doubtless a grandson of the Adam of whom we are now speaking, confirmed. This Adam may have married a daughter of Hugh de Bosvile; his principal seats were at Bentley and Whatton, which descended to his eldest son Henry. Henry de Newmarche, his son, brother of Adam, was the aforesaid donator of land in Barnburgh to Southwell Cathedral chantry; a similar donation being made by Henry de Newmarche’s tenant, Robert de Lexington: Three of these (chantrys) were founded by Mr. Robert Lexington, canon of this church, the two first at the altar of St. Thomas the martyr, for the health of his own soul and his ancestors, and for the souls of king John, of Brian de Insula, of his father, mother, brothers, sisters, parents, friends, parishioners, all his benefactors, and for all the faithful departed, and also for all the living for whom he was any way obliged to pray, or of whom he had ever received any thing either willingly or against their wills, for the performance whereof he gave the church, and some lands in Barneburgh near Doncaster, which he had of Henry de Novomercato, and were confirmed to him by Adam de Novomercato, brother of the said Henry, to the chapter of Southwell for the augmenting the divine worship in that church, and the sustenance of two priests, two deacons, and two sub-deacons, to minister in their order, and to follow the quire, as vicars according to the order of Walter Grey arch-bishop of York, dated at Orton in the twenty sixth year of his pontificate: and likewise to pay half a mark yearly towards lights, ornaments, and other necessaries for the said altar; and to twenty seven pounds of wax to make one light for the great altar, and thirteen pounds to make two for the said altar of St. Thomas the martyr, to burn on the day of his passion and translation; the remainder to be for the use of that altar as occasion shold require: which advowson and lands were likewise released to the chapter by Thomas, the son of Sir Thomas de Bella Aqua. And the succeeding rectors of Barnburgh did accordingly by the decree of the aforesaid arch-bishop pay quarterly to the said priests forty shillings, to the said deacons twenty, and to the said subdeacons sixteen and eight pence, besides the wax and half mark before mentioned (‘Southwell’, Thoroton’s History of Nottinghamshire: volume 3: Republished with large additions by John Throsby (1796), pp. 71-92).

The Cresacres were established in Barnborough from the thirteenth century, until their extinction in the reign of Henry VIII: 1. John Cresacre of Barnborough, mentioned in deeds (m.i.d.) 12th and 21st Edward I. 1294. DD/FJ/1/194/1. 19 Dec. 1294. Grant: (1) Ingeram Folemfaunt of Addewyck and wife Juliena. 2) Sir Nich. de Leicester. For £7 13s 4d p.a. for life of I.F., (1) to (2) manor of (Adwick) and 11 bovates land and meadow, — wood and 60s. rent in Addewyck, Mekesburg, Swynton, Tankerlay, Schelmarthorp and Raddeburn. Witn: Rob. Tilly, John de Cresacre, Stephen de Bella Aqua, John le Vavasour, John de Wynteworte, Alan Bachin of Wath, Adam de Mekesburg, clerk, etc. At Addewick, Sunday before Xmas, 23 Edw. I.

2. Thomas Cresacre of Barnborough, m.i.d. 17th Edward III. 3. John Cresacre of Barnborough, m.i.d. 24th Edward III, who married Alice, daughter of Robert Wasteneys of Headon. 4. John Cresacre of Barnborough, m.i.d. 20th Richard II., who married Sibil, daughter of — Cranbull. 5. James Cresacre of Barnborough, m.i.d. 21st Henry VI., who married Elizabeth, daughter of John Woodrove (Woodruffe). Elizabeth’s brother, Richard, was married to Beatrice FitzWilliam, daughter of Thomas FitzWilliam and Margaret Dymoke; their daughter, Beatrice Woodrove, married Thomas Wentworth, of Wentworth, Yorkshire. Elizabeth, daughter of John Woodruffe (of Wolley), and successively widow of James Cresacre, of Barnburgh, and Peter de la Hay, of Spaldington. This Will makes several additions to the pedigree of Cresacre, which is given in Mr. Hunter’s South Yorkshire, and suggests one or two alterations in it. The family of Cresacre had been seated at Barnborough from a very early date. The first will of any member of it that has as yet occurred to me is that of John Cresacre, the father-in-law of the testatrix, which is made on the Wednesday after the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, in 1408. He directs himself to be buried at Barnborough, and mentions Sibil his wife and James his son. The family of Cresacre seems to have had some connection with the parish of Campsall, where the testatrix appears to have passed her widowhood. An inscription, formerly in a window in the church, requested the prayers of the worshippers for the souls of John Cresacre and Elizabeth, his wife, who had piously erected the window which contained the request.

6. Percival Cresacre of Barnborough, who married Alice, daughter of Thomas Mounteney, and by her (who died in 1450, and was buried at Barnborough) had issue, John, his heir. James, died unmarried. Edward, sub-dean of the cathedral church of York. Ambrose, living 8th Edward IV. Isabel, married first to John Bosvile of Ardsley, and secondly, to Henry. Langton. This Percival Cresacre was living as late as 1455, when he was a feoffee of his dau. Isabel Langton, for the foundation of the Bosvile chantry in the church of Cawthorne. By his will, dated on the 19th of January, 1476-7, and which was proved at York on the 2nd of February following, he desires to be buried in the church of St. Peter at Barneburgh, near the tomb of Alice Cresacre his wife. He leaves 40s. to inclose with a stone wall (cum petris) the cemetery of his parish church; and he also leaves five marks to repair the tower of the same edifice. To Catherine Cresacre he bequeaths 20l. towards her marriage; and he makes his sons John and Mr. Edward Cresacre (sub-dean of York) with others, his executors. John Bosvile died 1441. He married (1) Mary Barley, daughter of Thomas Barley and Isabel FitzWilliam. She died before 1420. He married (2) Isabel Cresacre, daughter of Percival Cresacre and Alice Mounteney.

Anna Cresacre, daughter of Mr. Edward Cresacre, aforementioned, the last of that name, married in 1528 at the age of 18 years, John More, son of the famous Saint Sir Thomas More. A brass to the memory of this Anne Cresacre is to be found on the wall of the Cresacre Chapel in Barnburgh Church, which translates as: ‘Anna the only daughter and heiress of Edward Cresacre of Barnburgh near Doncaster in the County of Yorkshire, Esquire, was married to John More, only (son and heir) of Thomas More Knight, formerly Chancellor of England, which Anna departed this life December 2nd 1577 age 67.’

Writ to the Escheator, dated at Westminster, 16 Feb. 1419-20. Inquisition taken at Doncaster, St. Mark’s day, 1420, before Alverey Manston, Escheator, by the oath of Robert de Waddesley, esq., William Clarell of Madhow, Thomas Ripars of Loversale, Thomas Mountford of Kilnhurst, Thomas Worteley of Hardwick, Richard Pykburne of Pykburne, John Cressy of Melton, John de Byrley of Rotherham, John Shepeshanke of Adwick, William Wade of Gilthwaite, Richard Inkershill of the same, and John Dobbeson of Rotherham. William Wastenes (Westeneys) died seised of the manor of Todwick with its members and appurtenances in Todwick, Aughton, Treeton, Ulley, Wales, Waleswood, Brampton-en-le-Morthen and Hardwick with the advowson of the church of Todwick and of a chantry therein; all held of John Talbot, Lord Furnival, and Maud his wife, in her right, by the service of two knights’ fees, as of their manor of Whiston, and by suit at the court of the said manor every three weeks; they are worth yearly 26 marks clear. William died on Saturday after the Conversion of St. Paul last. John, his son and heir, is aged 15 years and more.

Percival Cresacre had a uncle of the same name: Confirmation charter from John FitzWilliam, kt., lord of Sprotborough, with the assent of Sir William Sprotborough, Master of the Hospital, and his associate, Sir Hugh Hankenson. CD/399. 10 Apr. 1404. The houses surrounding the Hospital, the meadow called Ankereng, the croft called Rycroft, 3 acres arable and meadow in Bentley; a messuage, 2 cottages, 2 bovates in Newton; 2 pastures in the common pasture of Sprotborough; a bovate in Scawsby; 2//3 of the tithe of corn from the hall flatt, blythe felde, olde Neuton between the crosses (infra cruces) in Sprotborough and of lands in Netherstrythorn and Venerode, 3 acres on the west of Hytherstrythorn, 6 acres in Stonythwong, and of 4 acres in foillstede; 2 cottages, 2 messuages, 2 bovates in Sprotborough; a piece of wood called le londe; ½ acre wood near tocrofte; a messuage, bovate and 3 roods meadow in le croft in Cusworth; 6 cartloads of coal from the mine at Cortworth. The Hospital to provide chaplains to say masses &c. for the souls of FitzWilliam, his ancestors and heirs at the altar of the Blessed Katherine in the parish church of Sprotbrough, to attend FitzWilliam and his heirs from All Saints to Nativity of St. John the Baptist each year (Nov1 to Jun 24), and to celebrate mass on the Feast of St. Edmund King and Martyr and on the Friday after the Octaves of Epiphany. The Master and Hospital to build a house in their messuage at Sprotborough for a poor man to dwell there forever and to give the poor man a cartload of wood from le londe. FitzWilliam and his heirs will give the poor man a dish of food each Sunday from their kitchen. Witnesses: Percival Cresacre, esq., William Hyckylton,* rector of Sprotborough, John Catys, Richard Dalton, Robert Philipson, Robert Gray, John Hulstok et al. *i.e. Newmarche.

St. Peters: ‘The benefice is a rectory, valued in the Liber regis at Church. £23. Patrons, the prebendaries of Southwell collegiate church, Nottinghamshire. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is a good edifice, erected in the fourteenth century, consisting of a nave with side aisles, a tower at the west end, and a chancel. The only addition to the original design is in the north chancel, where was probably the chantry of St. Mary. In the east window are some remains of the painted glass with which it was formerly adorned. The north aisle of the chancel has evidently been a private chapel, being separated from the rest of the aisle by screen-work, and containing its piscina. And, as little reason can there be to doubt that it was a chapel of the Cresacres, The north aisle is separated from the chancel by a wall, in which a richly ornamented flat arch is extended over an altar tomb, which thus stands between the two chancels, and 13 equally visible from both. The side towards the chancel has been the most highly wrought. At the crown of the arch is a shield, with the arms of Cresacre; and the side of the tomb is ornamented with seven shields, which once contained the arms of Bosvile, Wombwell, Cresacre, Wastenys, Woodruffe, FitzWilliam, and Wortley, all near connexions of the party intended to be particularly commemorated. On the tomb lie the effigies of Cresacre himself, cut in oak, and therefore far better preserved than if it had been in stone or marble. He is represented in a suit of plate armour, with his arms painted on the shield. The sword which hung to his belt has been removed. He has mustachios, his hands joined, his legs crossed, and a lion at his feet. When looked at from the west, the end of the tomb and arch are so contrived as to assume the form of a cross, on the shaft of which a rich rosary is carved. On the head of the cross is an inscription, indicating whose memory this curious piece of monumental architecture is intended to preserve:— Ora pro anima Parcivalli Cresacre Kt pro anima Alicia Cresacre uxoris ejus. Est Ave Maria proxima via ducere caelum. At the foot of the cross, which is at the same time the west end of the tomb – Specula in corde culpas anima’ (Thomas Allen, A new and complete history of the county of York, vol. i., p. 267, 1831).

1281. John Cresacre confirmed as holding land in Barnburgh.

c.1294. DD/FJ/1/194/66. n.d. (late 13th.c.) (1) Wm. s. of Adam de Herlington of Addewik. (2) Nich. de Leycestre. (1) to (2) all land his father had from Rich. Dun and son Gregory in Helbecholm in Addewik. Witn.: Sir Wm. s. of Thos., kt. Master Wm. de Bella aqua, Stephen his brother, Ingeram Folemfaunt, etc.

1294. To repeat: DD/FJ/1/194/1. 19 Dec. 1294. Grant: (1) Ingeram Folemfaunt of Addewyck and wife Juliena. 2) Sir Nich. de Leicester. For £7 13s 4d p.a. for life of I.F., (1) to (2) manor of (Adwick) and 11 bovates land and meadow, — wood and 60s. rent in Addewyck, Mekesburg, Swynton, Tankerlay, Schelmarthorp and Raddeburn. Witn: Rob. Tilly, John de Cresacre, Stephen de Bella Aqua, John le Vavasour, John de Wynteworte, Alan Bachin of Wath, Adam de Mekesburg, clerk, etc. At Addewick, Sunday before Xmas, 23 Edw. I.

1307. C241/67. Debtor: Richard Tyas (lord of Farnley Tyas, Agbrigg Wapentake, W.R.Yorks). Creditor: Francis Tyas, Thomas de Heaton, and John de Cresacre, executors of Francis Tyas, knight, deceased (of Farnley Tyas, Agbrigg Wapentake, W.R.Yorks). Amount: £29 10s. Before whom: Nicholas de Langton; Edward de York, Clerk; at York.

1316. DD/FJ/10/6/3. 9 July 1316. Licence: (1) Rob. de Raynbergh. (2) Prior and Convent of St. Oswald (Nostell). (1) to (2) to raise woodwork of (2)’s mill dam at Herlington.* Witn.: Stephen de Bella Aqua, John de Cresacre, Wm. le Loverd, Rob. le Taillour, etc. At Addewik, Friday after translation of St. Thos. Martyr. ‘The Bella Aqua from Belleau, or Bella Aqua, in Normandy. In 1165 this family held knight’s fees in Kent, Berks, and York. Gilbert de Bella Aqua witnessed a charter of the Archbishop of York, c. 1140 (Mon. i. 476).— They also held Warmsworth and Barnborough of the Newmarches. That is, they held the Conisborough moiety, and the Cresacres held the Tickhill moiety in 1316. ‘In 23 Edward I. (1305) John de Bella Aqua or Bellew married Laderina, youngest of the four sisters and coheirs of Peter, the last Lord Brus of Skelton; and in her right, upon the partition of that inheritance, had the lordships of Carleton in Balne, Ramlesforth, Thorpe-Arches, Tibthorpe, and certain lands in Sethbarne — all in the county of York. ‘John de Bella Aqua, fon and heir of fir Thomas de Bella Aqua, granted that he, his heirs, or affigns whofoever would hold his manor of Kirtelington, should be obliged to pay every year to the church of St. Mary, and St. James at Wellebek, and the canons there ferving God, fix fhillings of filver for a toft and bovat of land which he held of them, which were fometimes Raph, the prieft’s of Dukmanton. His deed bore date at Kiriclington, the Thursday next after the afcenfion, 1297, where were prefent as witneffes fir Thomas de Furnival, W. de Creffy ……… S. de Bella Aqua, his brother or coufin’ ** (The antiquities of Nottinghamshire, extracted out of records, volume ii., p. 98, 1790). *Harlington; originally a hamlet abutting Barnburgh: Walter W. Skeat (Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, fellow of Christ’s College, the Place-Names of Bedfordshire, 1906) perhaps gives the most thorough account of the origins of one settlement at various times called Herligtona, Erlintona Herlinton, and Arlington; his comments being applicable to Harlington (W.R.). ‘Herling answers to the A.S. Herlinga ……. as seen in Herlingaham, cited in Kemble’s Index. Herlinga is the genitive of …… Herlingas, i.e. sons or tribe of Herl. But Herl is obviously a much contracted form, and due to some A.S. name beginning with the very common prefix Here- . Almost certainly, Herl here represents Herulf, a common contraction of Herewulf, a well authenticated name. We may conclude that Harlington means the ‘Herewulfings’ down,’ or the down occupied by the family of Herewulf. The A.S. -ing, meaning ‘son of,’ and the pl. -ingas, meaning ‘sons of,’ or ‘ family of,’ are extremely common. There is another Harlington in Middlesex, and an East and West Harling in Norfolk. I explained Harlton in Cambs. as meaning ‘Herela’s town,’ where Herela is a pet-name formed from a name beginning with Here — such as Herebeald or Herefrith.’ **His brother – M.S.

1341. Court held at Barnsley, on Monday before the 1341 feast of Whitsuntide, Fine between Maud, Countess of Cambridge; Percival Cressacre, Esquire; James Cressacre, Esquire; and John Bosvile of New Hall, Esquire; and Isabel, his wife, deforciants of lands in Barnsley, the right of the same James.

1342. DD/FJ/1/194/32. 3 Nov. 1342. (1) Margaret widow of John Miller of Tikhill. (2) Wm. le Loverd of Addewyk. (1) to (2) a place of land called Dauber place in Addewyk. Witn.: Rob. Clarel, Wm. de Herlington, Nich. Dun, Thos. Shepschankes, Thos. Malcus, clerk, etc. At Addewik, Sunday after All Saints.

1344. DD/FJ/4/31/6. 25 June 1344. Fine: (1) John de Bella Aqua. (2) John de Anneslay, kt. Rob. de Anneslay, parson of Holme. (1) to (2) manors of Bolton upon Dyrne, Swynton, Barneburgh, Wildethorp and Hesteley, and 1/3 manor of Rauthemersh, and (2) to (1) and wife Isabella in tail the same. At Westminster, morrow of St. John Baptist.

1345. Westminster. Quindene of Michaelmas, 19 Ed. 1, 1345. John son of William son of Stephen de Herlyngton, quer., Michael Belle of Herlyngton and Qnenilda his wife, def., of one toft, 4 acres of land, and 4 acres of pasture, in Herlyngton: To hold to John and his heirs ; he gave 20 marks. Quitclaim and warranty; the deforciants for themselves and the heirs of Quenilda.

1355. DD/FJ/1/291/5. 11 April 1355: Grant. (1) Walter de Thornton, vicar of Doncaster. 2) Wm. de Farndall, chaplain. Wm. del Wode of Doncaster, King’s serjeant at arms. John de Barneby, chaplain. 1) to (2) 1½ a. late belonging to Sir Thos. de Schepley, late vicar of Whaytelagh, in Whaytelagh. Witn.: John de Barnburgh of Doncaster, John Boteler, etc. At Doncaster, Sat. in Easter week, 29 Edw. III.

1370. Westminster. William de Fyncheden, Henryde Barton, William de Nessefeld, Thomas Thurkell, William Clarel and Thomas de Saltmerskon, complaint by Gerard son of John Salvayn, ‘chivaler,’ that Henry Gramary, ‘chivaler,’ and Joan his wife, John de Barnburgh of Doncastre,Thomas Morehous, John Skelbrok, John Nanson of Skypwyth, John Shepherd of Northduffeld, Alan Ryffan, John Riffan and others entered his manor at Northduffeld and his freewarren there and at Harsewellco,. York, broke his houses and the doors and windows thereof, and his park there,burned timber from the houses, hunted without licence in his warren and park, felled trees growing at Northduffeld and Harsewell.

BARNBURGH: POLL TAX, 1379

Johannes de Agaland & Elizabetha uxor ejus. Robertus Ashebiry & Agnes uxor ejus. Elizabetha de Bernethorp. Ricardus de Bilham & Alicia uxor ejus. Johaunes Boller. Agnes de Bolton. Johanna Bonauntour. Thomas Broune & Agnes uxor ejus. Henricus Bullok & Beatrix uxor ejus. Johannes Campion. Simon Cartwryght & Margareta uxor ejus. Johannes de Cauthorn & Isabella uxor ejus. Johannes Couhird & Isabella uxor ejus. Henricus Couper & Alicia uxor ejus. Johannes de Cressakire & Isabella uxor ejus, ad valorem Militis. Ricardus de Cusseworth. Thomas Dicson & Cecilia uxor ejus. Johannes Dobson & Alicia uxor ejus. Henricus de Dukeworth. Adam Edeson. Ricardus de Elmeshale & Johanna uxor ejus. Robertus de Etkeslay & Emma uxor ejus. Agnes ffox. Ricardus Kirkeman & Matilda uxor ejus. Beatrix de Herlyngton, Huswyf. Thomas de Herlyngton & Johanna uxor ejus, Marchant. Dionisius del Hill & Dionisia uxor ejus. Ricardus Hogh & Juliana uxor ejus. Ricardus Kirkeman & Matilda uxor ejus. Johannes Leche. Johannes de Neusom & Elena uxor ejus. Willelmus Magotson. Hugo de Mattelay & Alicia uxor ejus. Robertus Milner & Agnes uxor ejus. Alicia Palmer. Johannes Parmenter & Alicia uxor ejus. Agnes Pert. Johannes del Pitte & Beatrix uxor ejus. Willelmus Presteman & Isabella uxor ejus. Adam de Pykall & Cecilia uxor ejus. Johannes Pynnyng. Magota de Sallowe. Robertus Shephird & Alicia uxor ejus. Thomas Sissotson & Juliana uxor ejus. Adam Smyth & Agnes uxor ejus. Willelmus Smyth. Thomas Spicer & Matilda uxor ejus. Willelmus de Totehill & Cecilia uxor ejus. Petrus Wabydyke & Alicia uxor ejus. Willelmus Wadyloue & Agnes uxor ejus. Adam de West & Beatrix uxor ejus. Agnes Wormely. Cecilia de Wortelay.

1380. William de Meolton (Melton), knight, now Sheriff of Yorkshire and formerly Escheator of Yorkshire. William de Cauntelow (Cantilupe), Places: Property in Barmbrough, Melton on the Hill, Wath-on-Dearne.

1385. CP. 25/1/278/144, number 3: Two weeks from Easter, 8 Richard II. (16 April 1385). And afterwards one week from St Michael, 10 Richard II. (6 October 1386). Parties: Adam de Balby, the parson of the church of Wermesworth, querent, and Robert Bosevyle of Conyngesburgh and Emma, his wife, deforciants. Property: 2 messuages, 3 bovates and 5 and a half acres of land in Barneburgh.

1400-1425. Petitioners: Anne Lascels (Lascelles). Addressees: King. Places mentioned: Escrick, (East Riding of Yorkshire); Kirkby Lonsdale, (Westmorland); Barnburgh, (West Riding of Yorkshire). Other people mentioned: Ralph Lascels of Escrick, husband of the petitioner; John de Middleton of Kirkby Lonsdale, steward of Ralph Lascels. Nature of request: The petitioner requests remedy against Middleton, her late husband’s steward, who wrongfully deprived her of property.

1421-1522. Ellis of Lepton and Barnburgh (From Harl. MSS. 1571, p. 43; and 1437, p. 230). Arms – Or, on a cross sable 5 crescents arg. in the 1st qu. a crescent gules. Crest – ‘The naked mayden, the more aunciente crest.’ Richard Ellis of Lepton, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, entailed his estates 1421, and had issue: Richard Ellis, s. and h.; John Ellis; Robert Ellis; and William Ellis of Kiddall. Richard had issue: John Ellis of Barnburgh, in the West Riding, who, by a daughter of Sir Langton, knt. had issue: Richard Ellis of Barnburgh, who, by a daughter of Rafe Aunger, had issue, John Ellis of Barnburgh, 13 Hen. VIII.

1422. DD/FJ/1/194/47. 1 April 1422. Release: (1) John Potter of Scolces.(2) Emmota widow of Thos. Palden of Adewyk. (1) to (2) a tenement in Adewyk (1) had from Thos. Palden. Witn.: John Herlyngton, Wm. Yngram, Thos. del Lound, etc. At Adewyk, 10 Hen. V.

1444. KM/109. 13 Jan. 1444. Deeds relating to Clifton: Acquittance from John Melton, knight, William Everyngham of Birkyn, Esquire, Roger Spence, rector of Barnburgh, Richard Rane, rector of Merton, Richard Neele, rector of Rowemersh, and John Coly, vicar of Wath, to Thurstan Banastre, for 18 marks rent of Clifton Manor.

1448. DD/FJ/1/224/5. 17 May 1448. Grant: (1) Adam de Spoforth of Hadylsay. John Myleson. John de Parysshe of Hadylsay. (2) Edmund de la Hugh of Barneburgh and wife Matilda. (1) to (2) in tail all lands had from Sir Hugh de Shyrlay, chaplain, in Middle Hadylsay. Witn.: John de la Hugh, clerk, Rich. Dyghton, Sir Wm. Arosmyth, chaplain. 26 Hen. VI.

1477. DD/FJ/1/224/6. Jan. 1477. Grant: (1) Edmund Hugh of Barnburgh and wife Matilda. 2) Rob. Walker of Sprothburgh. (1) to (2) a tenement on Medilhathilsay (1) had from Adam Spofforth, John Maleson and John Paryssh. At Hathilsay, 17 Edw. IV.

1486. John Dunham, senr., and Elizabeth his wife. Mill with lands in Wildethorp, Barmeburgh, Harlyngton, Mansthorp, and Bolton upon Dern, and the manors of Wildethorp, Barmeburgh, and Harlyngton, except 80 acres of plantation in these manors (‘Yorkshire Fines: 1486-99’, Feet of Fines of the Tudor period (Yorks): part 1: 1486-1571 (1887), pp. 1-14). The 13th of Hen. VIII. John Dunham gives to Godfrey Foljambe, Knt. John Byron, Knt. and John Foljambe, Knt. and James Foljambe, Esq. the manors of Bolton-upon-Derne, Barnburgh, and Wildthorp. These lands were parcell of the lands of FitzWilliam.

1487. William Grene. By his will dated the 20th May, 1487, his body is to be buried in the choir of the church of Rolleston before the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary of pity, and he leaves 20s. to the fabric of Rolleston Church and the same to Barnburgh (Yorks.) church, etc.

1504. ‘March 18, 1504. Edward Cresacre clerk, subdean of ye cathedrall church of York. To be buried w’in the cath. church of York, nere Saynt William tombe. To ye church of Preston, towardes ye fynysshing of ye steple, xiij s. iiijd., and all my tymbre liyng w’out my place at Wyrksope. To one prest, to syng for my saule by ye space of iiij yeres …… and he to have in his speciall memorie and praer my fader and my modyr saullez, and all thos saulles, in generall, that I am most bund to pray for. To Edward Cresacre, my godson, a standyng coppe w’ a coveryng of silver and gilt, a basyn and an ewer of silver parsell gilt; to be keped for him till he be xxj. To doctor Melton, chaunceler of the cath. church of York, the copburd y’ standes in my parlour at York. To Sir Peter Symson, my vicare, my best qwer abett. To Sir Roger Brompton my best surplase. To Robert Twiar xxs., w’a dublett of fence, or a jakkett, whether he will chese; and a batell axe w’ a parre of splenttes. To John Boswell, son of James Boswell, xxli.; and my chaplen, Syr John Fewler, to have ye rewle of hym, and it nott to be dispendyd; and also, yf he be disposed and will be a preist, he to have my Portase, my Mase-bok, and chalice w’ all my othir bokes: yf he be nott desposed, my godson, Edward Cresacre, to have them. To Robert Rokby, to ye mariyng of his yonger doughter, xx s. To ye church of Arxsay a vestment of blak velvett, for a rememorannce, to pray for my soull. To ye church of Barmeburgh a vestment of blak velvett, for a rememerannce, to pray for my soull. To ye house of Wirksope, to have one obett, the Prior v marc, supprior xxd., Sir Thomas Wod xx d.; every othir chanon xij d. John Anne, th’elder, of Frikley, esquier and Wm. Tias of Sprotburght yemon exrs. To John Anne th’ elder, towardes the mariyng of his doughters, xx marc. To Wm. Tias, towardes ye marrying of his daughters, x marc. Supervisor Sir Thomas Wortley knyght, to whome I bequeth one standing pece of sylver, w. ye coveryng, both gilt ………’

The testator was instituted to the rectory of Arksey on Aug. 10. 1469 (Reg. G. Neville, 112 a.), at the presentation of Richard Scrope, esq. On Oct. 1, 1485, he was collated to the stall of Dunnington at York (Reg. Rotherham, 101a), and on Dec. 24, 1490, he was made subdean (Ibid. 104a). He died March 31,1503, and was buried in the nave of York minster, under ‘a blue stone about 2 yards long, whereon is an escocheon charged with three lions salient, and a brass plate.’ (MS. Torre, 162.) The three (purple) lions rampant were the bearing of the ancient family of Cresacre of Barnborough, of which the testator was a cadet. The great-grandfather of the testator, John Cresacre, made his Will ‘die Mercurii post festum S. Matthei Apostoli,’ 1408, desiring to be buried in the church of St. Peter of Barnborough. He leaves the residue of his property to Sybil his wife and James his son, whom he appoints executors. (Reg. Test. ii. 576 a. b.). The father of the testator, Percival Cresacre, made his will Jan. 19, 1476, desiring to be buried in the church of St. Peter at Barnborough, near the tomb of Alice his wife (a daughter of Thomas Mounteney). To mend the tower of the church he leaves five marks. To Catherine Cresacre he gives twenty marks towards her marriage. His executors are John and Mr. Edward Cresacre, his sons. (Pr. Feb. 11 – Reg. Test. v. 12 ). The testator, Edward Cresacre, mentions several of his neighbours at Arksey. His godson, Edward Cresacre, was the last of his name. He left an only daughter, Anne, who became the wife of the only son of the famous Sir Thomas More. The name of Cresacre More preserved the memory of the ancient owners of Barnborough’ (Testamenta Eboracensia: Or, Wills Registered at York , Volume 53, p. 227, 1869).

Montigny, from a place of that name near Falaise, in Normandy. ‘Roger de Montigny gave lands to St. Vigor’s, Cerisy, temp. William I. (Mon. i. 961): and in Henry I.’s reign William de Montigny married a daughter and co-heir of Jordan Briset, a great baron of Essex’ (Mon. ii. 505).

1518-1529. C1/563: Rokeby v Constable. Plaintiffs: Rauf Rokeby, John, his son, and Anne, wife of the said John, and daughter and heir of Edward Cresacre. Defendants: Robert Constable, knight, and Brian Hastynges. Subject: Abduction of the said Anne at Bishop-Burton, and seizure of her rents at Barmbrough, Whitley, and Balne, and of deeds relating to lands in Whitley, Mosseley, and elsewhere.

1522. The 13th of Hen. VIII. John Dunham gives to Godfrey Foljambe, Knt. John Byron, Knt. and John Foljambe, Knt. and James Foljambe, Esq. the manor of Bolton-upon-Derne, Barnburgh, and Wildthorp. These lands were parcell of the lands of Fitzwilliam.(Collectanea topographica et genealogica, p. 357, 1834).

1565. CD/145. 1 Mar 1565. Underlease: Francis Moyre, of Frickley, gent., to William Mote, of Melton, yeoman. Reciting a lease from Thomas Fowler, Controller of the Queen’s Works, to Moyre of the manor of Wildthorpe, part of the inheritance of Vincent Grantham, a Queen’s ward, and heir to Mary Grantham, decd. Manor of Wildthorpe. Term of the minority of Grantham. Annual rent of £5.

1579. The value of the lands which were Godfrey Foljambe’s, Esq. & son of Godfrey brother of Sir James, which, after his death, descended to Godfrey Foljambe, Esq son of Sir James Foljambe, Knt. brother of the said Sir Godfrey the elder, 27th Oct. 21 Eliz. according to an agreement betwixt Thomas Parry, Knt. Master of the Court of Wards, &c. Out of these following to be paid to Sir James Foljambe by Sir Godfrey his brother 5/. 17s. 4d.; and to Mr. John Fitzwilliam 12/. yearly during the life of John and his wife, viz. the manor of Steeton 12/. 13s. 4d. Hollinghall 10/. 3s. Wadworth 23/. 10s. Morthing, Dalton, Tickhill, Stanton, Rotherham, and Barnburgh are 8/. 13s. Copyholds of Slade Hooton 8/.

Henry Foljambe in circa 1500 lists extensive properties in 23 places in Derbyshire (the great majority in Chesterfield and district), 7 in Yorkshire, and 5 in Nottinghamshire, and it is possible that this list is incomplete.Henry’s son and heir, the fourth Sir Godfrey Foljambe, found royal patronage as an esquire of the body to King Henry VIII. An unexecuted will of 1513 in the present collection was made by him when ‘intendyng to go over the see with the kynges grace’. He was at different periods receiver and feodary of Tickhill, in the Duchy of Lancaster, escheator of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and three times sheriff of the combined counties. He again furthered the family fortunes by arranging the marriages of his two sons to the two daughters and co-heiresses of Thomas Fitzwilliam of Aldwark, near Rotherham, Yorkshire, neices of the famous William FitzWilliam, Earl of Southampton. This match brought to the Foljambes extensive estates in south Yorkshire, which the FitzWilliam had in turn inherited from the Clarell family.

The senior male line of the family came to an end with Sir Francis Foljambe, created a baronet in 1622, who, to quote the family chronicler, Dr. Nathaniel Johnston, ‘was a person of great generousness, but of so profuse a temper, and hospitality to excess, that what by reason of the great jointure of the three … ladies, and the contentions about the estate and the less regarding of his interest by reason of his having no issue male, he sold Walton and most of his Derbyshire lands, and much of his Yorkshire lands, and entangled others, that reduced that estate which was so great … to £1000 per annum’.

1582. DD/FJ/1/278/4. Yorkshire Fines: Francis Wortley may alienate to George Woodroffe, manors of Carleton and Swynton with premises there and in Adwicke upon Derne, Barnebrughe, Barnotthorpe, Cadeby, Canonthorpe, Thursco, Ruston and Monke Bretton.

1589. CD/131. 1589. Quitclaim: Thomas de Bosevill to Walter de Harom. A messuage, 86 acres arable, 2 acres meadow, 46 acres wood, and appurtenances in Cadeby, which Walter has by a final concord from William Daniell of Hickleton and his wife Constance, Giles de Hickleton (i.e. Newmarche – M.S.) and his wife Elizabeth, Thomas de Ashburye and his wife Beatrice, and Walter de Apperlay and his wife Katherine.Witnesses: John de Doncastre, Robert Tilly, William de Winteworth Woodhouse, John de Cresacre, Stephen de Kenerthorpe, John Haringell, Richard de Pikburne, Robert de Hunsingdon, Robert de Rainbergh, Ingeram Folenfaunt et al.

1592. 1592. CD/355. 13 Feb 1592. Christopher Frederick, of London, gent., to Christopher Copley, of Sprotbrough, gent. Cottages and appurtenances, 13s. annual rent and 3 roods in Brakenwheate, in Barnbrough, a croft, oxgang, 1½ acre meadow in Cadeby and Mexborough. All part of the lands of the dissolved chantry of the B.V.M. in Barnbrough church. Reciting a grant under the seal of the Duchy of Lancaster to Thomas Coore for 21 years at 60s.6d. annual rent. 15 Jun 1574.

1600-1650. John Vincent was agent of Richard Duke of York for his Yorkshire property. For legal services rendered to the prior and convent of Lewes, he received a grant of a capital messuage called the Over hall in Braithwell. In 1427 John Vyncent was granted permission to build a hall to the west side of this building – Moat Hall. John Vincent (1405-1461) married in 1428 to Agnes Barlow of Barlow, Derbyshire. They had a daughter Allison born at Braithwell in 1432 and a son John born in 1436. John (1405-1461) was killed, with the Duke, at the Battle of Wakefield. John second son of John Vincent and Marjorie Page married, in 1558, at Bradfield, Sheffield, Margaret Hudson of Bradfield. Richard Vincent of Firsby, a student of Gray’s Inn, nephew of John and Margaret, married (23 Sept. 1595) Elizabeth Rokeby, daughter of Thomas Rokeby of Hotham. Richard died in 1617. Their second son was Thomas Vincent of Snaith and Barnburgh, who married Susan Bosville of Warmsworth, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Wormeley, of Hatfield, widow of Gervase Bosvile, of Warmsworth, and was buried at Conisborough, 10 Dec., 1652.

1608. CM/388. 1608. Exemplification of fine: Thomas Bingley and Edward Box pls. v. Thomas Lowye and Richard Lowye deforcs. 1 messuage, 1 barn, 1 garden, 1 orchard, 6 acres of land, 5 of meadow, for £41 in Barnbrough and Harlington (Yorks) Michaelmas octave.

1635. CD/121-122. 1665. Assignment of a mortgage: Cockin of Arksey, yeoman, and his wife Muriel, executrix of the Will of John Rusbye, late of Thorpe, to Richard Oxeley of Harlington, and Francis Smyth, of Cusworth, yeomen. Reciting an assignment of 20 Jan 1612 of the same mortgage.

1637: ‘I Richard Corbet of Wortley esquire, second son of Robert Corbet of Moreton-Corbett, Salop, have given to Richard Clyve of Huxley, Chester, esquire, and Ralph Clyve of Walford, Salop, esquire, all those my two manors of Carleton and Swinton, with appurtenances in the County of York, and all my messuages, lands, etc: in Adwyk-super-Deorne, Barnburgh, Bernolthorp, Harlington, Cadeby, Canonthorp, Tynneslow, Ruston, Monk-bretton, or elsewhere in the County of York. To hold to the said Richard and Ralph, to the use of me, the aforesaid Richard Corbet and Margaret my wife, and the heirs of the body of me, the aforesaid Richard.’

1665. CD/511. 6 Mar. 1655. Marriage Settlement: On the marriage of Godfrey Copley, of Sprotborough, esq., and Eleanor Walmesley, dau. of Lady Juliana Walmesley. In consideration that a deed to make a tenant to the precipe and a common recovery had been voided since they were lost in a fire at Lady Juliana’s house at Wildthorpe, and the deed (a bargain and sale) not enrolled within six months, and for £1000, Copley conveys to Sir Francis Munckton, of Cavell, kt., Charles Walmesley, of Stanier Hall, near Selby, esq., Richard Roundell, of Cowthorpe, gent., and Adam Boutton, of Dunkenhalghe, co. Lancs., gent., the Whirlpit close in Bentley, 2 cottages in Barnborough, lands in Plumtree and the advowson of Plumtree. To specified uses (very detailed). Reciting also a bargain and sale of 11 Nov 1650 between the same parties relating to the manors of Sprotborough, Wildthorpe, and Skinthorp, half the manor of Barnborough, the advowson of Sprotborough, part of the advowson of Penistone, all Copley’s lands in Sprotborough, Wildthorpe, Skinthorpe, Barnborough and Newton, and the manor of Plumtree.

1667. DD/N/221/16. 20 Dec. 1667: Letter from Wm. Justice to John Vincent of Barnborough Grange informing him of Mr. Peter Levett’s answer to a previous letter of J.V., i.e. that he (P.L.) ‘had it as a donitive’ from Mr. Thos. Vincent & gave ‘it’ back when Mr. Bedforth ‘entered the place’. (Melton-on-the-Hill benefice ?).

1682. Hickleton Deeds. 1682-1700. Hickleton with Bellah Wood, Barnbrough, Aldbrough, Cold Hiendley and Stotfold. The first twelve documents of this section concern the sale of Sir John Jackson’s estates at Hickleton and Barnborough in order to clear his debts. After his death, his trustees received the purchase price of £6425 from John Wentworth in several smaller amounts and used them to discharge specific encumbrances against the property. Jackson’s heirs and creditors then assigned their interest in the estate over to Wentworth.

1682. CD/450. 23 Feb. 1682. Copy of the Settlement (by release) on the marriage of Sir Godfrey Copley and Dame Katherine née Purcell: For £8000, Copley conveys to trustees, Sir George and Henry Cooke, of Wheatley, and John Thornicroft of Gray’s Inn, the manors of Sprotborough, Wildthorpe, and Skinthorpe; the advowson of Sprotborough; a moiety of the manor of Barnborough; a third of the advowson of Penistone; two thirds of the tithes of grain and hay in 250 acres and 20 acres meadow in Sprotborough; the manor of Plumtree; and all his other lands in Sprotborough, Wildthorpe, Skinthorpe, Newton, Cadeby, Cusworth, Bentley, Scawsby, Doncaster, Penistone, Adwick le Street, Arksey & c. and Plumtree, except the manor of Bowthorp. To specified uses (in detail).

1682. BFM/231. Final Concord: Messuage, a barn, garden and orchard and 12 acres of land, 7 acres of meadow and 12 acres of pasture in Arlington. Octave of St. Martin, 34 year of Charles II.

1687 C 5/89/1. Court of Chancery: Six Clerks Office: Markham v Worsley. Plaintiffs: Sir Robert Markham, bart and another. Defendants: Thomas Worsley, Mary Worsley his wife and others. Subject: manors of Harlington and Owston, Yorkshire.

1700. CD/21. 30 May 1700. Lease for possession: Sir Godfrey Copley of Sprotbrough, baronet, to Hugh Boscawen of Tregothnan (co.Cornwall), esquire, privy councillor, Sidney Wortley of Wortley, esquire, Sir Robert Cotton of Hatley St.George (co.Cambs.), knight, and Robert Molesworth of Edlington, esquire. The manors of Sprotbrough, Wildthorpe and Skinthorpe with free fishing in the Dunn and Derne, the advowson of the church of Sprotbrough, the moiety of the manor of Barmbrough, the third part of the advowson of the church of Penniston, two parts of the tithes of corn and hay in Sprotbrough and the manor of Plumtree (co. Notts.). For one year at a peppercorn rent.

1735. DD/N/195/17 & 18. 13 Dec. 1735: Indentures: Marriage Settlement – Articles of Agreement & Counterpart. (1) Geo. Nevile of Thorney esq. as DD/N/195/15 & DD/N/195/16. (2) Catherine Vincent as DD/N/195/15 & DD/N/16. (3) Henry Donston as DD/N/195/15 & DD/N/16. (2) as co-heir of late Thos. Vincent of Barnborough Grange, Yorks., entitled to £925 & tithes of Melton on the Hill, Yorks., & fourth part of estates in Barnborough & Melton on the Hill, has conveyed them to (3) in trust to sell; (2) also has £1375 & reversion in fee of her mother’s jointure (property in Yorks). In consideration of marriage of (1) & (2), agreed (1) to get £2000, (3) to sell estates in Barnborough & Melton, & pay (1) the balance of the £2000 & use the residue to purchase estates in England to be settled on the heirs of (1) & (2). Further agreed that on death of (2)’s mother her share of the jointure to be likewise sold & estates purchased settled on heirs of (1) & (2). Sigs. & seals of (1), (2) & (3). Parch.

John Vincent was agent of Richard Duke of York for his Yorkshire property. For legal services rendered to the prior and convent of Lewes, he received a grant of a capital messuage called the Over hall in Braithwell. He married (1428), Agnes Barlow. (Roche Abbey inscription: Pray for the soul of Agnes Vincent, wife of John Vincent of Braithwell who died 18th of February 1449). Their descendant, Richard Vincent of Firsby, a student of Gray’s Inn, married (1595), Elizabeth Rokeby, daughter of Thomas Rokeby of Hotham. Their second son, Thomas Vincent of Snaith and Barnburgh, married Susan Bosville of Warmsworth, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Wormeley, of Hatfield, widow of Gervase Bosvile of Warmsworth, and was buried at Conisborough, 10 Dec., 1652.

1736. MHD/14. 13-14 May 1736. Copy of conveyance: Isabella Crompton of Doncaster, widow, Henry Donston of Worksop, esq., and Ann his wife, Robert Dabziel esq., late Earl of Carnwath, Scotland, and Margaret his wife, and George Nevile and Cath. his wife to Thomas Kirby of Westerton, parish of West Ardsley, gent. Mansion House called Barnbrough Grange with appurtenances in occupation of George Mompesson gent. and adjoining cottage; 2 pews in Barnbrough Church lately possessed by Thos. Vincent; 3 parcels of enclosed arable or pasture ground called the Upper Wettacres, the Middle Wettacres and the lower Wettacres containing 18 acres; Six Acres Close containing 6 acres; a close called Cusby Yard or Gooseberry Yard containing 2 acres; Trulove Close containing 6 acres; 2 other closes commonly called the Great Margery Bower and Bull Close containing 16 acres; another close called Little Margery Bower containing 6 acres; Upper Horse Close and Low Horse Close containing 4 acres; Pond Close containing 3 acres; Coal Pit Close containing 6 acres; 2 other closes lying together called Wheat Close and Hatchet Close containing 15 acres; Lime Kiln Close otherwise Twelve Acres Close containing 11 acres; Calf close containing 1 acre; 3 closes called the Ten Acres Boneman, Nine Acres Boneman and Six Acres Boneman otherwise three Bonhams otherwise Bondman Closes adjoining one another and containing 25 acres; and a close called Grainge Field containing 8 acres and 2 roods. All above closes lately in occupation of Geo. Mompesson, John Smith, John Viccars, George Battie, George Wilson, John Challing, William Anty and John Cox. 3 closes called Thistle Crofts containing 10 acres late in occupation of George Harrup. Above lands collectively called Barnbrough Grange Estate. Consideration £4,550.

1744. MHD/17 13-14 Aug 1744. Conveyance: Clement Kynnersley of Uttoxeter, Staffs., esq., and Henry Elmsall of Thornhill, clerk, to Revd. John Fountayne of Melton upon the Hill, clerk. 3 closes called Little Boneman, Great Boneman and Upper Boneman in Barnbrough being part of the Barnbrough Grange Estate. Appointment of trustees. Consideration £150.

1744. MHD/18. 15 Aug 1744. Assignment of mortgage in trust to attend the inheritance: William Bowes of City of York, gent., and Anne his wife, who was the sister and administratrix of Rebecca Allot late of Elmsall, parish of South Kirkby, spin., deceased, to Charles Eyre of Doncaster, Doctor of Physick.3 closes called Ten Acres Boneman, Nine Acres Boneman and Six Acres Boneman part of Barnbrough Grange estate. Consideration £525.

1749. MHD/196/1-2. 29-30 May 1749. Conveyance: Revd. John Roberts of Sheffield, clerk, to Jonathan White of Adwick upon Dearne, miller. Cottage or tenement at Barnborough now in the possession of John Holland, a parcel of land lying near the said house commonly called the croft containing 1 rood also in the possession of John Holland, and Priest Croft in Barnborough containing half an acre. Consideration £91.

1756. SY741/Z1/1. 22 Oct. 1756. Lease: John Clark of Doncaster, butcher, to Joseph Johnson of Barnborough, butcher. The Old Red Lion in the Butchers Shambles, Doncaster, and adjoining messuage. For 1 year. For 5s.

1758. WWM/R/1/123. Sept. 1758: Letter from Lady Charlotte Watson-Wentworth, concerning the death, in action, of Sir John Armytage. Expresses grief for the Farrers of Barnborough. (Mrs Farrer was Sir John’s sister). 3 pages. (Former ref: R1-23).

1771. MHD/198/1-2. 1771. Fines: Plaintiff: John Fountayne, D.D. Deferciants: Jonathan White and Lydia his wife. 1 messuage, 3 cottages, 2 acres of land, 2 acres of meadow, 2 acres of pasture, and common of pasture for all cattle in Barnborough. Consideration £60. 3 weeks of Holy Trinity 11 Geo. III.

1788. CD/351. 15 Jan 1788. Deed to make a tenant to the precipe: Sir Lionel Copley, of Sprotbrough, bart., to Thomas Graham, of Lincoln’s Inn. The manors of Sprotbrough, Wildthorpe, Skinthorpe, Bowthorpe, Newton, Cadeby, and Scawsby; capital mansion at Sprotbrough; a free fishery in the Don and Dearne; Sprotbrough ferry; and all the messuages and lands in those lordships (described in detail). Two-thirds of all the tithes of 250 acres arable and 20 acres meadow in Sprotbrough; moiety of the manor of Barnbrough; a third of the advowson of Penistone; the manor and advowson of Plumtree, and the messuages and lands of the manor (described in detail).

1790. D239 M/T 431-432. 1790: Lease and release by Elizabeth Sidney Griffith, Henrietta Griffith, and Anna Maria Griffith of Barnborough Hall (co. York) spinsters, daughters and co-heirs of Rev. John Griffith deceased, Samuel Haslam of Bonsall gent., Isaac Wilkinson, John Matchitt, and Adam Wolley of Matlock gent., and John Smith of Caldon (co. Stafford) yeoman (trustees for the creditors of Haslam) to John Cooper of Ashbourne esq. of premises as in D239 M/T 429-430, with an assignment by Anthony Lax Maynard on the direction of Haslam and the Griffiths to John Bakewell of Castle Donnington (co. Leicester) gent. of the residue of two mortgage terms in trust for Cooper. Considerations: £2907 11s paid to Henrietta Griffith sen., widow of Rev. John Griffith, £905 5s 2d paid to Wolley and Smith, and £387 3s 10d paid to Cooper upon a security. Dated 23/24 June.

1791. D-AAB/1/2. 25 and 26 Nov. 1791. Lease and release: 1. James Farrer of Barnborough Grange, Yorkshire, Esq (eldest son and heir of James Farrer late of Barnborough Grange aforesaid, Esq. deceased). 2. Walter Fawkes of Farnley, Yorkshire, Esq., Thomas Hewett of Bilham House, Yorkshire, Esq. and John Raistrick of Rawdon, Yorkshire, surgeon (devisees in trust named in the last will and testament of the said James Farrer). 3. John Bentley of Bentleys in Saddleworth, Yorkshire, clothier.4. James Bentley of Blakehey Nook in Saddleworth, Yorkshire, clothier. By 1 and 2 to 3 and 4 of the property called Bentleys.

Ellis of Lepton and Barnburgh. (From Harl. MSS. 1571, p. 43; and 1437, p. 230). Arms – Or, on a cross sable 5 crescents arg. in the 1st qu. a crescent gules. Crest – The naked mayden, the. more aunciente crest.’ Richard Ellis of Lepton, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, entailed his estates 1421, and had issue, Richard Ellis, s. and h.; John Ellis; Robert Ellis; and William Ellis of Kiddall. Richard had issue, John Ellis of Barnburgh, in the West Riding, who, by , d. of Sir Langton, knt. had Richard Ellis of Barnburgh, who, by a daughter of Rafe Aunyer, had issue, John Ellis of Barnburgh, 13 Hen. VIII.; Wm. Ellis, 2d s. a priest; and Anne Ellis, ux. Bryan Allen of Brayton, co. Yorks. John, by his 2d wife Frances, d. of John Fleming of Charlton, near Wakefield, had issue, Anne Ellis, mar. 1st, Robt. Dawson, 2d, John Creekes of Retford, co. Notts.; Elizth. ux. Charles Slingsby, 3d s. of Edw. S. and parson of the rectory of Ripeberne.

1796. Halifax/B1/12/5/1. Dec. 1796: Lease of land in the townfields of Barnbrough and Harlington pa. Barnbrough: Robert Day and Christopher Felton his trustee. Release of the above land 1 Robert Day, 2 Christopher Felton to 3 Thomas Swindle 4 John Danser.

1819. MHD/19. 19-20 Dec. 1819. Conveyance: Joseph Whitaker of Morton, Notts., gent., to Richard Fountayne Wilson of Melton, esq. Parcel of land, part of the commons in the parish of Barnbrough, containing 1 acre, 2 roods and 30 perches (abutments). Consideration £14. 6s. 6d. Sketch of above land by W. Bingley. 12 November, 1819.

1823. Halifax/B1/12/5/2. Aug. 1823. Conveyance of lands in the townfields of Barnbrough and Harlington pa. of Barnbrough: 1. Thomas Swindle. 2. Elizabeth Danser. 3. Godfrey Wentworth. 4. John Lee. Swindle assigns the land and the remainder of the unexpired terms of years to Lee, in trust for Godfrey Wentworth. Includes: Solicitor’s correspondence and the account for the above transaction, with details of the enclosure of the relevant lands in Barnbrough.

1883-1904. MHD/301. 1883-1904: Deeds relating to Church Field Close at Harlington, parish of Barnborough 1883-1904; Bamforth, Goulthorp, Scorah, Faber, White and Nicholson families; Dearne Valley Railway Co.
HIGH MELTON DEEDS AND PERSONAGES

1284. Kirkby’s Inquest, the Inquisitions for the county of York were taken in the thirteenth year of Edward I. (1284-5). The entry for High Melton reads: ‘Melton Le Heyg. Willelmus de Cressy et Willelmus de Sancto Georgio pro Melton le Heg, quam tenent de castro de Tikehull. ‘The de Soham family held the manor of Netherall, in Cambridgeshire, from at least the earliest part of the 13th century. Robert de Soham (fl.1200-1208) was succeeded by his brother, Warin de Soham. In 1235, the manors descended to his son, Ralph de Soham. He was succeeded in 1271 by his daughter and heir Basilia,* who also obtained the dower of Ralph’s widow, Mabel, in 1283. Basilia had married her second husband, Baldwin St George, by 1282. Basilia was dead by 1295, when two of her daughters and coheirs held the manors; one of whom, Margaret, married, by 1282, her step-brother, Sir William St George, son of Baldwin St. George. Sir William St George and Margaret his wife held the manor of Netherhall Wygorns in Soham. Sir William was apparently dead by 7 Edward II. (1314), when ‘Margaret de Sancto Georgio’ granted the manor of Melton-on-the-Hill to Robert Haringel in free marriage with her daughter, Margaret (C143/102/23). *Basilia De Soham, lady of Mepham, in the Isle of Ely. She is called ‘one of the heirs of Tilly’ (The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 189, p. 458, 1851). Thus, a connection to the FitzWilliams is established: As herein shown, Sir Roger FitzWilliam married Maud, daughter of Sir John Bosvile, of Erdesley, and left John his heir, whose son, John, married Catharine, daughter and coheir of Robert Haringal, by Margaret, daughter of William St. George, of Hatley St. George in Cambridgeshire.

1331. DD/FJ/1/243/37. 15 March 1331. Grant: (1) Adam Miller of Herlington. (2) Hen. his brother. (1) to (2) a toft in Melton next Cateby. Witn.: Wm. Syward, John de Stelyngflet, Adam Bate, Wm. Kirkeman, etc. Sun. after St. Gregory Pope.

1331. DD/FJ/1/243/36 12 May 1331: Grant. (1) Alissia d. of Ralph Turpin of Melton. (2) Alissia Turpin her mother. (1) to (2) a messuage and 3a. in Hesselhegefildd, Kyrkefild, etc., in Melton. Witn.: Wm. Syward, John de Stelynggeflet, Adam Bate, etc. At Melton, Sun. after Ascension.
Adam FitzSwein, founder of the abbey at Monk Bretton, gave the abbey all his estate at Brampton, then called ‘Brampton juxta Wath’. Adam’s great-granddaughter, as given herein, held land in Barnburgh. It is probable that the Syward family of High Melton were tenants of Adam FitzSweins descendants – 1342: ‘Sciant quod ego Robertus Syward de Brampton dedi Roberto filio Daniel Broune del Abdy totam illam bovatam terraa in villa de Brampton quam habui ex donatione Willelmi filii Simonis Broune et unam rodam terrae quam habui ex donatione.’ (See entry under 1371).

1346. DD/FJ/1/243/38. 20 May 1346. Grant: (1) Hen. Miller of Herlyngton. (2) Wm. Carpenter of Waht. (1) to (2) a toft, etc., in Melton next Cateby. Witn.: Wm. Syward, Wm. de Bernethorp, John Partrik, etc. Sat. after St. Dunstan.

1349. DD/FJ/1/243/39. 11 Aug. 1349. Grant: (1) Agnes widow of Thos. de Hellgby. (2) Rob. her son. (1) to (2) in tail a messuage and 4a. 1r. in Heghemelton. Witn.: Sir Wm. de Stelyngflet, Wm. Syward, Adam Bate, etc. Tues, before Assumption.

1366. Dec. 4, at Westminster. Commission of oyer and terminer to William de Fynchedei. Westminster. Robert de Staynton, chivaler, William de Mirfeld, William de Rilleston and William de Estfeld, on complaint by Robert del Merssh the younger, that Hugh Suward of Melton and others lay in ambush for him at Sprotburgh, co. York, assaulted him with drawn swords took him to York, imprisoned him there until he made fine with then by 60l. for his deliverance, and so threatened him that he dares notgo anywhere to prosecute them or to make his profit.

1369. DD/FJ/1/243/40. 20 July 1369. Grant: (1) Rob. s. of Thos. de Alta Melton. (2) Wm. —- (1) to (2) a messuage and 4a. 3r. in Melton. Witn.: Hugh Syward, Rich. Bate, Rich. Syward, etc. St. Margaret.

1370. Grant. (1) Wm. s. of Thos. of High Melton. (2) Alice widow of Rob. s. of Thos. of High Melton. (1) to (2) for life a messuage and 4a. 3r. in High Melton, remainder in tail to her s. John. Sun. after Exalt. of Holy Cross, 43 Edw. III.

The Copleys of Sprotborough:

1371. DDTA 116. Wed. after Whitestesonenday. 28 May 1371. Grant by John Syward (his family being connected to the Montbegons of Brierley, see as follows – M.S.) to John fil. Willelmi de Esteburn and William fil. Roberti living in Esteburn and John Mason of Collyng of a messuage and 13½ acres of land meadow and waste in Collyng, which he had by grant from William fil. Johannis fil. Matildis de Styveton (Steeton); rent 6sh. 8d. Witn. John fil. Ade de Coppelay, John de Scardburh, Robert de Coppelay, etc. (Adam and Robert de Coppelay were brothers, sons of John Coppelay, whose brother, Adam, married the heiress of Oxenhope – 4 November 1341: Grant by Adam, son of William de Bateley to Adam de Oxenhope, lord of Bateley, and Marjery his wife and their heirs lawfully begotten, of all the messuages, lands and tenements, which had fallen to him by hereditary right after the death of William his father in the vill and territory of Bateley; with the remainder in default of issue to Adam, son of John de Coppelay, his heirs and assigns. Whether John fil. Ade de Coppelay was the father of Sir Richard Copley, Will proved at York, 28 Sept., 1434, is as problematic as assigning a Talvas ancestry to the Copleys (see Thoresby Society Miscellanea viii, vol. 26, 1924 & Miscellanea ix, vol. 28, 1928); which is as fanciful as the one claimed for the FitzWilliams. What does seem certain is that Alvary Copley Esq., of Batley, as follows, was of the stock of the Oxenhope Copleys, as was his namesake of 1621, also as follows, whose family’s kinship group included those once associated with the Honour of Skipton).

‘Malsis, though immediately adjoining to Glusburne, seems to have been considered as the manor-house of. Sutton, for, by inquisition taken 34 Henry VIII. it was found that Alvary Copley was seised of the manor of Sutton, or Malseyes, held of William Vavasour, Esq. as of his manor of Adyngham. Robert le Vavasour held 3 carucates in Sutton as early as the 4th of John. Under the Vavasours the first mesne lords seem to have been the Boyvils, of whom William de Boyvil, by inquisition (33 Edw. I.) was found to hold the manor of Sutton, in Aredale, of Sir William Vavasour; and in the 14th Edw. III. Edmund Boyvil released the said manor to Adam de Copley, whose descendants held it till the year 1621, when Alvary Copley sold it to one Laycock’ (Alvary Copley was a grandson of William Copley, who married a daughter of William FitzWilliam of Sprotborough – M.S.) …….. ‘Glusburne was part of the Colling Fee, though held of the Castle of Skipton, as of the superior fee. taken p. m. I. de Longvillers, he was found to have held the manor of Glusburne of Robert de Stiveton’ (who married Sybil, widow of John de Metham, father of Thomas de Metham – M.S.) …… ‘A principal estate in this manor belonged to the Scarboroughs, of whom John de Scarborough first occurs 43 Edw. III.’ (Whitaker, Hist. Craven, p. 167, 1812). Glusburn and other manors of the Colling Fee were held by Adam FitzSwein, whose daughter, Matilda, married Adam de Montbegon, Lord of Hornby, who became settled at Brierley. Their son Roger de Montebegon died without issue 12 Henry III. By Matilda’s second husband, John Malherbe, she had two daughters, co-heiresses: Clementia, married to Eudo de Longvillers, and Matilda, married to Geoffrey de Neville. (See entry for 1278, re Barnburgh). Robert de Stiveton was the father of his namesake, who held Marr in 1314 (vol. 1. Parl. Writs, Brit. Mus.)., an estate devolving to the aforesaid Thomas de Metham. Eastburn, Collyng as Cowling, and Glusborn were all in the parish of Kildwick, east-division of Staincliffe, 6 miles from Skipton.

The Copely family’s ancestry is very much connected to the Lacys. Between 1170 and 1184, mention is made of Hugh de Coppelei as father of Walter, thus, Hugh can be given a tentative d.o.b. of 1110-1120. His father may have been a tenant of Robert de Lacy, founder of the Priory of St. John at Pontefract. His son, Walter, may have married a sister of Adam FitzPeter de Birkin. What does seem clear is that the Richard de Coppeley of the c. 1197 charter, as follows, was of the same family as the later Copleys, who intermarried with the Batleys – they are linked by a continuum of association with the same kinship group, an integral component of which were the Lacys. Who, then, was the first Hugh de Coppelei of record? If he were synonomous with Hugh de Cressy, then most subsequent associations of the Copleys are readily explained. As stated herein: The Cressys are first found in Nottinghamshire about the middle of the twelfth century, holding of Roger de Busli’s Fee of Tickhill. ‘King Henry II. commanded Hugh de Cressy that his canons of Radeford should hold well and in peace and rightly three bovats in Hermedeston, which Avicia, the daughter of William de Taney, and William de Clerfait, gave, else the steward of Tickhill should see right done.’ — Thoroton’s Notts. This Avicia had been the first wife of William de Clerfait afterwards married to Albreda de Lisours (daughter of Albreda de Lacy, daughter of Robert de Lacy), and her father’s heiress, or rather co-heiress, as it is evident that Hugh was the husband of her sister. His son Roger de Cressy, in the same reign, confirms ‘the above gift, made by his aunt Avicia.’ (ibid.).

1. Peter FitzAsculf m. Emma de Lascelles. 1.1. Adam FitzPeter de Birkin, referred to in the Pipe Rolls (1166) as Adam son of Peter son of Essulf (Asculf). He married (1) Matilda (possible sister of Adam FitzSwein); (2) Matilda, daughter of Robert de Caux. Henry, prior of Pontefract, granted this bovate to Walter, son of Hugh de Coppelei, for 11d. yearly, by charter attested by Adam, son of Peter de Birkin, and therefore of a date before 1185′ (E.Y.C., vol. iii., p. 227). The connection between the Lacys and the priory of Pontefract was a close one, it being founded by Robert de Lacy, whose grandson and namesake’s estates passed to Albreda de Lisours, daughter of Albreda de Lacy and the said Robert de Lacy. Albreda de Lisours married (1) Richard FitzEustace, their grandson, Roger, Hugh de Cressy’s great-nephew, took Lacy as his name, and the probable descendants of Hugh de Coppelei (taken to be Hugh de Cressy) followed in the tenurial wake of the descendants of this Roger de Lacy. Albreda de Lisours, as described herein, by a further marriage, was also the matriarch of the FitzWilliams, into which family the Copleys intermarried.

CH:1/1. (c.1197). From Jordan, son of Peter de Presteley, to Roger, son of Helye de Broo, for his homage and service and money given of 5 perches of land at Popilandewalle, a perch at Nourithorplidate, ½ perch in the west part of (Noryhegrene ?) in ‘my’ south part, a section of land abutting on Heldeley, to be held of Jordan to Roger and his heirs excepting religious, church, chief lords and Jews in Hipperholme, paying 2½d. yearly: witnesses Philip de Fergley, Richard de Hyperum, Richard de Coppeley, Jordan de Rokis, Matthew de Shelf, Adam de Northunerum and others.

The Yorkshire Archaelogical Society, Record Series vol. 29, 1900. Court Rolls of The Manor of Wakefield, vol. i.. 1274-1297, by William Paley Bailon: ‘Hyperum. Thomas (son of Richard de Coppele* – M.S.) the man of Richard de Bateley against John son of Alice de Hyperum, says that on the Nativity of S. John the Baptist (June 24th) he took from him 9 arrows and a pair of gloves, value 4d., within the township of Hyperum, and used insulting words to him, and beat him, and broke his head, to his damage of 2s. John came, and denied everything against Richard de Bateley and his suit. (The plaintiff) claimed judgment because [the defendant] defended ‘against Richard de Bateley,’ and not ‘against Thomas, his man.’ Therefore John must pay Thomas his damages, and is amerced 12d.; pledge, John de Miggeley. ……. Roger of Hyperum complains (against) Thomas son of Richard de Coppele for assault. It is found by an inquisition of the township of Northouerum that Thomas did insult him with evil words, calling him idle and a robber, because the hedge of his (Rogers) court was defective so that the neighbours cattle pastured in his [Thomas] corn Thomas is therefore in mercy (found guilty); pledge John de Haldewvrth fine 2s. …….. Thomas son of Richard de Coppeley gives 12d for license to take a rood of land with a barn in Hyperum, from Thomas son of Thomas doing service and customs pledge William de Astey.’ *Uncle of Robert de Copley, who married the heiress of Batley, and had issue, Adam de Copley, as follows, who was the uncle of Hugh de Copley, who married Anne, daughter of Robert de Cromwellbottom. A Richard de Cromwellbottom was witness to deeds with John de Lacy in 1298 and 1308. Watson (Halifax, p. 307) says, ‘John (Lacy) married Ellen (some say Eleanor) daughter and heiress of Robert de Cromwelbothom; but he gives no evidence.

MD335/15/1/19 (14th century). Hipperholme. Feoffment of two pieces of land: 1. Hugh de Tothill 2. Richard son of Roger de Tothill and heirs Witnesses: Thomas de Lascy, Hugh de Coppeley, Henry de Coldeley, William de Huperum, William de Birstall Feoffment of lands lying in le Mersh, of which one piece lies at the lower boundary of Bru’u’gley on the north side of the high road and the other piece lies on the south side of the high road towards the house of Ivo Textor Seal With calendar by Blanche Tempest.

DD12/II/34/10 (n.d.) Grant: By Alice daughter of John son of Henry de Mixenden to Matthew son of Henry the Smith, Margery his wife and John their son, of a fourth part of a bovate in Illingwrth and a piece of land ‘le Threpcroft’ between Illingwrth and Haldewrth in the territory of Ovenden. Witnesses, Thomas de Thornhill, Thomas de Lasey, Hugh de Coppeley and others (named).

CH:1/2. 15 Apr 1397. Feoffment: From John Wilbe of Hipperholme to William, son of John de Haldeworth, of a tenement called Broghouse in Hipperholme: witnesses John Sayvill, Knt., Henry de Langfeld, John Lascy, Henry de Risseworth, John de Rokes: at Hipperholme in dm. Ram. palm. 1397.

1.1.1. — de Birkin m. Sir Robert le Vavasour.1.1.1.1. Maud le Vavasour. Maud le Vavasour was the daughter of Robert le Vavasour, deputy sheriff of Lancashire, and his first wife, an unnamed daughter of Adam de Birkin. Maud was heiress to properties in Edlington,Yorkshire. 1.1.1.2. Sir John Vavasour. Living 1279; he married Alice, daughter and heiress of Sir Robert de Cockfield, of Cockfield, in the county of Durham, by his wife Nichola, heiress of her brother de Sancto Marion. She confirmed a grant 1295. 1.1.1.2.1. Sir William Vavasour: Robert le Vavasour held 3 carucates in Sutton as early as the 4th of John. Under the Vavasours the first mesne lords seem to have been the Boyvils, of whom William de Boyvil, by inquisition (33 Edw. I.) was found to hold the manor of Sutton, in Aredale, of Sir William Vavasour; and in the 14th Edw. III. Edmund Boyvil released the said manor to Adam de Copley. 1.1.2. John of Birkin, m. Joan de L’Enveise. 1.1.2.1. Isabel de Birkin, m. Robert de Everingham. Asculf had at least 8 sons who took their second name from their place of ownership and principal residence. Here the toponymically derived names from the ownership of estates at Thornhill, Birkin and Tong are given for Essulf. The manor of Shelf, north-east of Halifax was granted to Essulf a predecessor of the Thornhill family of Thornhill. This grant occurred after the 2nd earl Warrene’s (William Placetis, d. 1138) tenure of the manor of Wakefield who had previously been granted the manor of Shelf. In 1316 Shelf (‘Shef’) was held by ‘Johannes de Schorell’ who was probably John de Thornhill. (Nomina Villarum, 1867, p.361). Adam de Everingham was granted free warren in Shelf between 1298 and 1314 (Watson p. 115), and gained some Thornhill lands by marriage of an ancestor to Isabel de Birkin for in the survey of the manor of Wakefield in 1314 Everingham is also described as lord of the vill of Midgley. (Watson, p. 141; Crabtree, History of Halifax, pp. 193-4). 1.1.2.1.1. Sir Adam de Everingham. 1.1.2.1.1.1. Sir Robert de Everingham, m. Alice de la Hyde. 1.1.2.1.1.1.1. Sir Adam de Everingham, m. Clarice de la Warre.

Adam de Everingham, m. Joan de Eyville, granddaughter of Sir Robert de Eyville and Denise FitzWilliam; descendant of Albreda de Lisours.

1. Gilbert de Lacy. An issue dealt with by Clay was that of the identification and ancestry of Gilbert de Lacy, first of the Cromwellbotham family. Gilbert de Lacy’s career, esp. with regard to the lands he held in the lordship of Rochdale, was also dealt with by Farrer in his Lancashire Inquests. Clay wrote: ‘The late Mr. William Farrer, in a note in his Early Yorkshire Charters (iii, 405), has indicated that theancestor from whom this family was actually descended was a certain Gilbert de Lascy, who, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, held a sixth part of the lordship of Rochdale in right of his wife, Agnes de Owram;* and the Lancashire evidence relating to Rochdale seems quite conclusive on this matter. The first point which arises is the parentage of Gilbert. The evidence which is produced below tends to prove that he was an illegitimate son of Robert de Lacy, lord of Pontefract, who died in 1193, the last male representative of the first Lacy house, and who was succeeded in the Lascy fee by Roger de Lascy, the grandson of his first cousin, Albreda de Lisours, from whom the second Lascy line descended. The evidence is not sufficiently conclusive to amount to an actual proof; but its authenticity was accepted by Mr. Farrer. Certainly Gilbert witnessed several of Robert de Lacy’s charters, and was granted land by Robert in Rushton in Bowland. His marriage with Agnes de Owram, through whom he obtained a sixth of Rochdale, was due to Roger de Lacy, who may have had special motives in benefiting an illegitimate son of his predecessor. (See C. T. Clay, The Family of Lacy of Cromwellbottom and Leventhorpe, Miscellanea 28:482, notes 1 and 2). *Owram: It is mentioned in Domesday book as the Terra Ilberta de Lacy. John, son of Thomas de Lacy was lord of this manor, 28 Edward III
1.1. Hugh de Lacy. 1.1.1. Sir John de Lacy of Cromwellbottom. Within and parcel of the manor of South Owram, is a reputed manor called Cromwellbottom, held of the honor of Pontefract, in free and common soccage, by fealty only, for all services; the first mention of which is 30 Edward I. when John Lacy of Cromwellbottom, and Margaret his wife, passed a fine of the manor of Cromwellbottom to the heirs of the said John; this was in consequence of the above grant of Sir Hugh de Eland. 3 Edward II. Margaret, widow of this John Lacy, covenanted with Richard de Tonge, that Thomas, her younger son, should marry Margaret, daughter of the said Richard; the mother to maintain them and their issue during life, or allow them six marks per annum out of the manor of Cromwellbottom. 27 Edward III. John, son of Thomas de Lascy, granted this manor to certain trustees, but the deed to declare the uses is probably lost. William de Mirfield also granted the same to other trustees, 41 Edward III. Oliver Wodrove quit-claimed to Richard Lascy of Cromwellbottom, his right in this manor, 4 Hen. V. John Lacy of Cromwellbottom, 14 Edward IV. enfeoffed certain trustees in this manor, with intent that it should descend to his son Thomas, on condition that he suffered his mother to enjoy her dower without molestation (John Crabtree, A concise history of the parish and vicarage of Halifax, in the county of York p. 368, 1836). 1.1.1.1.Thomas de Lacy, married Margaret de Tong (b. 1303). See MD335/15/1/19, DD12/II/34/10, above. 1.1.1.1.1. Richard Lacy. 1.1.1.1.1.1. John Lacy. 1.1.1.1.1.1.1. John Lacy, Lord of Cromwellbotham. His sister, Alice, m. Sir Robert Tempest.

Copely is in the Township of Skircoat. It is not mentioned in Domesday Book, but was originally granted by the crown to the Earl of Warren; and it appears that John, Earl of Warren, claimed free warren here, 27 Hen. III.

HIGH MELTON, POLL TAX, 1379

Ricardus Anot & Alicia uxor ejus. Willelmus de Athewyk & Cecilia uxor ejus. Ricardus Bate & Johanna uxor ejus. Willelmus de Bele & Agnes uxor ejus. Johannes Bene & Agnes uxor ejus. Willelmus de Bernethorp & Anabella uxor ejus. Willelmus Bette. Willelmus Blome & Matilda uxor ejus. Thomas Campion & Alicia uxor ejus. Henricus Carter & Alicia uxor ejus. Willelmus de Chillam & ffelisia uxor ejus. Johannes Croke & Katerina uxor ejus. Willelmus de Donecastre. Johannes ffrankys & Johanna uxor ejus. Robertus Gibeson & Matilda uxor ejus. Ricardus atte Hall & Magota uxor ejus. Willelmus de Hannelay & Agnes uxor ejus. Willelmus Hobson & Alicia uxor ejus. Johannes de Legh & Johanna uxor ejus. Johannes de Melton & Johanna uxor ejus. Johannes de Merre & Matilda uxor ejus. Rogerus Milner & Johanna uxor ejus. Johannes Palcok & Beatrix uxor ejus. Willelmus filius Ricardi Peryn. Johannes Phiplipson & Cecilia uxor ejus. Johanna Robyndoghter. Willelmus filius Ricardi Peryn. Robertus de Shafton & Agnes uxor ejus. Henricus Smyth & Emma uxor ejus. Thomas Spynk & Alicia uxor ejus. Thomas de Staynburgh. Hugo Syward & Johanna uxor ejus, Marchant de bestes. Adam Thresher & Cecilia uxor ejus. Willelmus Watteson. Ricardus Wolsy & Agnes uxor ejus.

1380. DD/FJ/1/243/1. 24 June 1380: (1) Sir Hugh Kene, rector of Sprotburgh. Hugh Suward of Melton. (2) John de Stelingflet of Hoton. (1) to (2) a messuage in Melton (1) had from Alice Cressy. St. John Baptist, 4 Rich. II.

1380. William de Meolton (Melton), knight, now Sheriff of Yorkshire and formerly Escheator of Yorkshire, William de Cauntelow (Cantilupe), Places: Property in Barmbrough, Melton on the Hill, Wath-on-Dearne.

1382. DD/FJ/1/243/2. 3 May 1382. Grant: (1) John de Stelyngflet of Hoton. (2) Wm. Frankys of Cateby and wife Elena. (1) to (2) a messuage in Melton (1) had from Alice Cressy. Witn.: Wm. de Stelingflet, Rich. Bate, Thos. Blome, etc. Invent. of Holy Cross, 5 Rich. II.

1388. DD/DC/D/885. 6th January 1388. Quitclaim:1 John Wara the younger, of Clayton and Alice his wife. 2 Lord Richard del Screpe, knight, Robert de Hayteseke, Hugh Syward of Melton and William Gaimill the younger Land and tenements in Tubeholme which (1) had received from William le Chase and Elisot his wife, as part of their marriage settlement, and lands in Bentley, which they received after the death of William and Elisot. Given at Bentley.

1392. DD/FJ/1/243/7. 27 Sept. 1392. Grant: (1) Hugh Suward, sen., of Melton. Wm. Hayron. John Benne. (2) Wm. Peryne and wife Jenota. (1) to (2) ½a. in Scabhagholte in Kyrkefeld, Melton. Witn.: Hugh Suward, jun., John Blome, John del Mare. Fri. before St. Michael, 16 Rich. II.

1392. DD/FJ/1/243/5 27 Sept. 1392. Grant: (1) Hugh Suward of Melton. Sir Rich. Belle, chaplain. Thos. Blome. Rich. Bate. Wm. Hayron. Wm. de Hanelay. (2) Sir Wm. de Hikelton, parson of Sproyttburgh. Sir John Gaytes, vicar of Dewsbery. Wm. Philipson (of Cateby). (1) to (2) a messuage in Melton (1) had from John de Stilinflet of Hotone. Witn.: Thos. de Herlington, Rich. Partrike, Wm. de Stelingflet, etc. At Melton, Fri. before St. Michael, 16 Rich. II.

1396. DD/FJ/1/243/42. 29 Sept. 1396. Grant: (1) Hugh Cressy. Thos. Barlay. Lords of High Melton. (2) Hugh Sywerde, jun. Rich. Bate. Rich. Partrik. Wm. Haneley. (1) to (2) a ‘place’ of land on north of cemetary of All Saints Church, High Melton, 1 rose p.a. Witn.: Hugh Sywerde, sen., John Arnald, Thos. Blome, etc. Michaelmas. With note of Thos. Barlay that he sealed the same about 1378 as former charter lost.

1397. DD/FJ/1/243/15. 16 April 1397: Letter of attorney: (1) Sir John de Melton, chaplain. (2) Hugh Suward of Melton.(1) to (2) to receive seisin of 3 messuages, and 4a. 1r. in Melton and Cateby. At London, Mon. before Easter, 20 Rich. II.

1398-1399. John Melton, chaplain, to found a chantry in the parish church of High Melton, and to endow it with messuages and land in High Melton and Cadeby, retaining tenements in High Melton. York.

1402. DD/FJ/1/243/17. 28 Jan. 1402: Grant. (1) Hugh Syward of High Melton. (2) John Melton, chaplain, warden of Hospital of St. Mary Magdalen near Wynchaster. Hugh son of (1). (1) to (2) 13s 4d p.a. from all lands in Cathby, and 6s 8d p.a. from all lands (1) lately had of Rich. Partryke in High Melton. Witn.: Wm. Hayron, Thos. Blome, Wm. and John Peryn, John Trygote, etc. Melton, Sun. after conversion of St. Paul, 4 Hen. IV.

The de Meltons:

1. Thomas FitzWilliam b. 1206, d. bef. 1265, m. Agnes Bertram, eldeft daughter and coheir, with her two sisters, to Roger Bertram, baron of Mitford in Northumberland, who died in 1242. 1.1. William FitzWilliam, d. bef. 1294, m. Agnes Grey. Dodsworth’s Church Notes (Yorks. Arch. Soc. Recs. 34, pp. 118-119, 1904) refers to the arms of Grey of Wilton impaling those of Clifton in the north window of High Melton Church. 1.1.1. William FitzWilliam, d. April 11, 1341, m. Agnes Metham. 1.2. Dyonisia FitzWilliam, m. Robert de Eyville, b. 1205, d. aft. 1242. 1.2.1 John de Eyvill, d. Sept. 1, 1291, m. Maud, d. bef. April 22, 1276; br. of Ellen de Eyvill. 1.2.1.1. John de Eyville, d.1326, m. Margaret ……. d. aft. Feb. 1334. 1.2.1.1.1. Joan de Eyvill, d: 1377, m. Adam de Everingham, d. Feb. 9, 1379. ……. 1.2.1.1.1.1. Elizabeth Everingham, married William de Melton, d. 1399, Sheriff of Yorkshire; great-nephew of Archbishop Melton; according to the Leeds pedigree, William de Melton was the nephew of Margaret de Melton who m. John Mounteney Esq. (George Poulson, William Dade, The history and antiquities of the seigniory of Holderness, p. 199, 1841). The de Meltons were aptly described as ‘an ancient family in Yorkshire. William de Melton was sheriff of York, 1391. 14 Rich. II (Drake, 352), as was Sir John Melton, jun. 1454, ibid, 354 (William Robinson, The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Tottenham, vol. ii., p. 44, 1840). They did not originate in Aston as is sometimes claimed: ‘The manor of Aston, W.R.Y., came into (Archbishop) Melton’s hands in 1332, when Thomas de Aunby passed it over to him (Hunter’s South Yorkshire, ii., 162); nor is there any evidence of them having taken their toponym from West Melton, near Wath-on-Dearne; they were landowners in High Melton, and intermarried into the same circle of families as the Cresacres of that place, so a case for them having been a High Melton family (such as the Sywards) who adopted the de Melton name can be plausibly made.

1404. DD/FJ/1/243/8-9. 14 Sept. 1404. Demise and counterpart: (1) Cecilia d. of Agnes Arnald. (2) Hugh Suward of Melton. (1) to (2) all lands she inherited from mother in Melton and Wildethorpe, for life of (1), 5s p.a. Witn.: John Blome, John Peryn, etc. At Melton, Sun. before St. Matthew, 5 Hen. IV.

1406. DD/FJ/1/243/27. 24 Aug. 1406. Grant: (1) Prioress and Convent of Hampoll. (2) Rich. Belle of Melton, chaplain. John Blome. John Smyth of Melton. (1) to (2) the place of a toft in Melton. Witn.: Hugh Syward of Melton, Wm. Hayron, Thos. de Harlyngton, Rich. Dalton, etc. At Melton, St. Bartholomew, 7 Hen. IV.

1407. DD/FJ/1/243/21. 11 Aug. 1407. Grant: (1) John de Melton, sen., chaplain. (2) Rich. Bell, chaplain. (1) to (2) all premises in Melton, Cadeby, Wyldthorp, Adwyk and Messeburgh. Witn.: Hugh Syward, sen., Wm. Hayron, Hen. Spenser, etc. At Melton, Wed. after St. Laurence, Martyr, 7 Hen. IV.

1407. DD/FJ/1/282/37. 30 Nov. 1407. Grant: (1) Eliz. de Melton, d. and h. of Rich. de M. of Tikhill. (2) Adam Horsford, chaplain of B.V.M. of Tikhill. Nich. Cooke. (1) to (2) 6d p.a. from a messuage in Sundreland (in Tickhill). Witn.: Rob. Vessy, John Cutson, Wm. Cressy, Hugh Cressy bailiff of Sundreland, etc. At Tikhill, St. Andrew, 9 Hen. IV.

1417. DD/FJ/1/243/29. 7 May 1417. Grant: (1) Rich. Peryn, vicar of Bolton. (2) Rich. Bell, chaplain. John Blume. Thos. Staynburght. (1) to (2) a messuage in High Melton.Witn.: Hugh Sewarde, John Smyht, Rich. Snayth, etc. At Melton, St. John of Beverley.

1418. DD/FJ/1/243/30. 25 Dec. 1418. Grant: (1) Hugh Cresse. Thos. Barlow. Lords of High Melton. (2) Rich. Bell chaplain of B.V.M. chantry newly founded in Melton. (1) to (2) and successors a piece of waste on the Grene in Melton. Witn.: Hugh Siverd, John Blome, etc. Christmas Day.

1420. Agreement dated 1420 settled the division of the lands of Isabel (Woodhall) Barley between her grandson William. Bosvile, son of John Bosvile of Ardsley, and her surviving daughter Margaret (Barley) Drax: ‘This agreement made at London in December 1420, in the presence of James Stranwaise, Serjeant of Law of our Lord King (Henry V).Between John Bosville, Esquire, and William his elder son for the one part; and John Drax, Serejeant at Arms of our Lord King, and Margaret his wife for the other part. That is, John Drax and Margaret will have without any liabilities, the Manor of Wodhall, by Wombwell, and also all the lands, tenements, rents and services in Derfeld, Wombwell, Hymlingfeld, Wodhall, Smethley, Wykerburgh, and Bylynglay, which once belonged to Isabell, wife of Thomas de Barlay, and John de Wodhall, father of Isabell. Also, John Drax and Margaret will have all the lands, tenements, rents and services, which the Prior of Monk Bretton holds of the Manor of Wodhall; excepting for one year, afield in Derfeld called Giles Place, which, after one year will revert to John Drax and Margaret, for an annual payment of ten shillings to John Bosville and his heirs begotten by Mary, sometime his wife. And, John Bosville and his aforesaid heirs, will have the Manors of High Melton and Wath, called Thornhall, and all the lands, tenements, rents and services in High Melton, Wath, Little Melton, Brampton, Hickleton, Grisbro, High Burton, Gaytford, Selby and Brayton. John de Woodhall was the grandson of Sir Roger FitzThomas, of Woodhall, younger son of Sir Thomas FitzWilliam of Sprotborough (d. aft 1252) and his wife Agnes Bertram.

1421. Petitioners: John de Drax, king’s serjeant at arms; Margaret de Drax, wife of John de Drax. Addressees: Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, keeper of England, and all the lords spiritual and temporal in parliament. Places mentioned: Wood Hall, High Melton, Darfield, Wombwell, Gisburn, Burton Leonard, Gateforth, Brayton, Londesborough. Other people mentioned: Humphrey (of Lancaster), Duke of Gloucester; John Bosvyll, esquire; Marie Bosvyll, wife of John Bosvyll. Nature of request: The petitioners request remedy in their dispute with the Bosvylls over lands in Yorkshire. Endorsement: The chancellor is authorised by this parliament of 1 December 8 [sic] Henry V to call the parties and effect a resolution. Note The endorsement gives the regnal year as 8 Henry V, but the reference to the Duke of Gloucester as keeper of England and the date of opening of the parliament, 1 December, indicate that this must date from the parliament of December 1421.

1423. Petitioners: John de Drax, serjeant at arms; Margaret de Drax, wife of John de Drax and daughter and heir of Thomas and Isabel de Barley; William Bosvyll, son of Mary Bosvyll. Addressees: Commons in Parliament. Places mentioned: Darfield, Woodhall, High Melton, Little Houghton. Other people mentioned: Isabel de Barley, widow of Thomas de Barley; Thomas de Barley; Mary Bosvyll, daughter and heir of Thomas and Isabel de Barley; William Shirwode (Sherwood); John Croke (Crook), chaplain; Robert Waterton, squire; Edmund FitzWilliam. Nature of request: The right heirs of Isabel, widow of Thomas de Barley, request that FitzWilliam and Waterton be ordered to appear before the council to be examined on the matter contained within. Isabel, by her charter, enfeoffed Sherwood and Crook in her moiety of the church of Darfield, the manors of Woodhall and High Melton and all her lands in Yorkshire, to the intent that they would re-enfeoff her or her right heirs in the same. After her death Waterton entered certain lands in Darfield and Little Houghton and has taken their profits to his own use, to the great damage of the right heirs, and contrary to Isabel’s last will. Endorsement: It was agreed in this present Parliament in October in the … year of Henry VI, at the special request of the commons at the same Parliament, that this petition be heard by the King’s council who should have power by authority of Parliament to cause FitzWilliam and Waterton to appear before them, and to examine them on the matters contained in the petition, and to ordain remedy to the petitioners in this matter at their discretion, so that the last will of Isabel, widow of Thomas de Barley, can be duly executed and the inheritance restored to her rightful heirs as the petition desires. Covering dates [? 1423 The petition dates to 1423 since the endorsement mentions that it was presented at Parliament in October, and by 1425 the land had been divided between the heirs (C.P.R. 1422-9, p. 279).

1425. DD/FJ/1/243/25, 29 Sept. 1425. Grant: 1) Wm. Tomeson of Exethorp. (2) Rich. Belle, chaplain. Hugh Syward. John Blome. (1) to (2) 1/3 of a messuage and a bovate called Turpynoxgang, and ½a. in Westehallefeld in Melton. Witn.: John and Rich. Smyth, John Stelynflet, etc. Michaelmas.

1429. WWM/D/85. 16 Apr. 1429. Settlement: John de Melton of Normanton, to Robert Fitzwilliam, son of Lord John FitzWilliam, knight. All lands and tenements in Cusseworth, Yorks., once John Watthe’s; all lands and tenements in Derthington, called Walessee, once William of Sprotburgh’s, by gift of Robert de Melton and Thomas de Herlyngton: all lands in Neuton, Bentelay and Doncaster, except for one tenement in Doncaster situated between the tenements once William Worsoppe’s (south), and those once Thomas Bland’s (north) and butting west on Berredyke and east on the King’s highway, and held by grant of John FitzWilliam. To Robert Fitzwilliam and his heirs male, reversion to Sir John FitzWilliam.Witnesses: Edmund FitzWilliam, esq., John Wethelay, rector of Plomtre, William Rylleston, William Wethelay, William Arsmyth, chaplain. At Doncaster.

1430. DD/FJ/1/243/28. 2 Feb. 1430. Demise: (1) Alice Redenes, Prioress, and Convent of Hanepole. (2) Hugh Syward. Rich. Bell, chaplain. John Blome. John Stelyngflete. (1) to (2) a piece of garden, 20′ x 12’ in Melton, for 98 years, 1d p.a. At Hanepole, Purification of B.V.M.

1443. DD/FJ/1/205/6. 25 Dec. 1443. Grant: (1) Hugh Syward of Melton. (2) Rich. Smyth. of Melton. Thos. Wolsy, chaplain. of Melton. (1) to (2) 1½a. in North acres in Willethorp for B.V.M. of Melton. Witn.: John Nelson, John Havelag, Thos Smyth, etc. At Melton, Christmas.

1462. DD/FJ/1/221/2. 5 June 1462. Grant: (1) John Ruston of Swynton and wife Alice. (2) Thos. Wolree of High Melton, chaplain. Rich. Smith. John Nelson of High Melton. (1) to (2) 4d. p.a. from 1½a. in Gylbeke field in Goldthorp. At Goldthorp, Eve of Whit.

1484. DD/FJ/1/243/34. (c.1484). Feoffment: (1) Thos. Nelson, priest. (2) Sir John Stanley of Mekesburgh, priest. Thos. Maior, sen. and jun. Wm. and Geo. Maior. Rob. Reyne. (1) to (2) premises as above for chantry priest of B.V.M. at Melton Uppon Hill, founded by Sir John Melton, priest. Not executed.

1484. DD/FJ/1/243/33 5 Aug. 1484. Grant: (1) Thos. Wlsye, chaplain. (2) Thos. Nelson, chaplain. (1) to (2) all premises (1) had from Rich. Belle, chaplain, in Melton, Cadeby, Wyldthorp, Adwick and Mekesburgh. Witn.: Rob. Mawger, John Truluff, Wm. Drake, etc.

1502. DD/FJ/1/243/35. 18 July, 7 Hen. VII. (1502). Grant: (1) Wm. Strafford, s. and h. of Alice S. (2) Thos. Nelson, chaplain of chantry of St. Mary of Melton. Wm. Mauger, Thos. Tyes, Rich. Bayn and John Hauley. (1) to (2) part of a messuage and 1 rood in Melton.

1549. DD/DC/D/914. 4th February 1549. Lease for 20 years: 1 King Edward VI. 2 Edward Churleley. The former chantry in High Melton parish church and all land belonging to it, namely one croft in 16 acres of land in Melton and Mildeh…, now or later in tenure of George Morley, 5 acres of fields in Bentley, now or late in the tenure of George Morley, hald an acre of woods, 1 messuage in Cadeby with 1 bovate of land now or late in the tenure or occupation of Margaret Foster, 10s rent paid by Henry de Lacie, for messuages and tenements in Adwick le Street, 12s rent paid by William Levet of Melton for 1 messuage called Adwyke Oxgang, 4s rent paid by Francis Frobisere for lands in Mexborough, 4d rent paid by Henry de Colbrand for 1½ acres of land in Goldthorpe, 1 messuage now or late in the tenure of Christopher Marshall of Melton, 1 cottage in the tenure of John Mason, 1 cottage now or late in the tenure of William Bowse, 1 cottage in the tenure of William Levet, 1 dove cote 1 cubiculum and turbary in the tenure of George Cruwm, 1 cubiculum with garden now or lately in the occupation of the former incumbent. All the above are part of the lands of the Duchy of Lancaster. Rent: £6. 12s. 12d per annum.

The Levetts of High Melton:

William Levett, son of William Levett of Normanton and High Melton, Doncaster married Elizabeth Syward; their son, William Levett, married (1) Ann Barby (2) Isabel Bosvile. Their son, William Levet (1500-1577) married Elizabeth Wentworth, daughter of William Wentworth of Sprotborough. Their son Nicholas Levett (1524-1578), was father of Thomas Levett: John Levett, third son of Thomas Levett of Melton, was born circa 1605. He was admitted pensioner at Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1623. Peile’s Register states that he had studied at Conisbrough and Haughton. He proceeded LL.D. in 1633 {per lit. reg.), and became a somewhat celebrated lawyer at York, but he seems always to have been financially embarrassed. In 1636 he married Mary, daughter and coheir of Emmanuel Mote, who owned the manor of Melton. Through this marriage John Levett acquired a considerable estate, including the manors of Melton and Bentley, cliavged with payments to the sisters of his wife. A collection of abstracts of deeds in Topographer and Genealogist, vol. 3, pp. 519-526 shows that by 1637 John Levett had sold Bentley manor to Sir Arthur Ingram, who in turn sold it to Bryan Cooke of Doncaster. The manor of Melton was offered to Sir John Melton in 1640, but as he failed to complete the purchase it went to Dr. Richard Berry, together with the Levett lands in Bentley and Cadeby, in satisfaction of large sums of money which Dr. Berry had lent to John and Thomas Levett. Hunter’s Deanery of Doncaster (quotes many letters from Dr. Berry. In one of them, dated 7 Dec. 1649, he says tliat a general release has been sealed between him and Levett; and in one dated 4 Mar. 1650 he says that Dr. Levett had promised to remove his wife and children out of Melton Hall and to yield possession, with all the demesne lands. Dr. Berry was the son of Williani Berrie of Waleshy, co. Lincoln, and was B.A. of Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1606, M.A. 1609, and B.Med. 1614.

1587. DD/DC/D/932. 2nd August 1587: 1. Thomas Cartwright, alias Vicars of Scawsby. 2. Leonard Wray of Adwick le Street, gent William. Adams of the same, gent, Thomas Cossbyle of Warmsworth, gent, Alexander Metham of Cadeby, gent, and Robert Mote of Melton, gent. The manor of Scawsby, a capital messuage in Marr called Marr Grange and all (1)’s messuages, cottages, buildings, lands, tenements, orchards, meadows, pasture, woods, court with view of frankpledge, rents, reversions and services in Scawsby, Marr, Arksey, Bentley and Brodsworth. Endorsement: Note of delivery of livery of seisin, 6 March 1588.

1637. CWM/154. 29 May 1637. Release and discharge from an annuity: Edmund Hastings, of Plumtree, co. Notts., esq., and his wife, Mary, to John Levett, LL.D., of York. Discharge from an annuity of £120 issuing from the manor of Bentley, and other lands to be specified in a fine to be levied as 20 messuages, 20 cottages, 20 tofts, 2 water mills, 3 dovecotes, 30 gardens, 20 orchards, 500a. arable, 140a. meadow, 400a. pasture, 100a. wood, 1000a. moor, 1000a. marsh, and £20 rent in Bentley, Arksey, Cusworth, Almholme, Shaftholme, Tilts, Stock Bridge, Langwaithe, Doncaster, Adwick, Barnby, Houghton, Swinton, Bolton, Wickersley, Marr, Melton, Wildthorpe, Scawsby and Tickhill. The annuity had been granted by Levett to Hastings by a deed of 22 Feb. 1635/6, when Levett bought the manor of Bentley from Hastings for £1500; but by a deed of even date with these presents, Levett had granted the annuity to be paid from the manor of Melton on the Hill and lands in Cadeby and Wildthorpe, which he had bought from his brother, Thomas Levett, Emanuel Mote of Melton, gent., and Thomas Lewis, of Marr, esq., and his son, Thomas Lewis. The annuity to be paid at the manor house at Plumtree.

1669. CD/168b. 1 May 1669. Articles of agreement: Sir Godfrey Copley, of Sprotbrough, bart., with Henry Earle and Henry Worrall, both of Cadeby. Earle will sell the ‘Wildthorpyard’ close in Sprotbrough to Copley for £3, whereupon Earle and Worrall will take a lease of it for 21 years at an annual rent of 17s.

1771. MHD/199. 21-22 Jun 1771. Conveyance: Jonathan White of Adwick upon Dearne, miller, and Lydia his wife to John Fountayne of Melton upon the Hill, D.D. and Dean of York. Cottage or tenement in Barnborough with small croft adjoining, in the occupation of Edward Garner; dwellinghouse or tenement (mostly new built) adjoining the above now in the occupation of John Clegg, dwellinghouse now divided into 3 tenements, and Priestcroft Close, all in Barnborough. Consideration £146.

The Fountaynes of Melton:

There is a pedigree of the Fountaynes of Melton on the Hill in J. Hunter’s ‘South Yorkshire’ vol. 1, p. 367, which traces the descent of the family from John Fountayne of Saul, Norfolk, died 4 June, 1671. The Court Rolls of the Manor of Old Hurst, Huntingdonshire, 1668-1689, indicate that John Fountayne and Thomas Fountayne were Lords of the Manor there 1668-1679 and 1681-1689 respectively. In the period 1668-1670 John Fountayne is described as ‘serjeant-at-law’.

The Montagu and Fountayne families were connected by the third marriage of the Very Rev. John Fountayne D.D., Dean of York, with Ann, only daughter of Charles Montagu of Papplewick, who died 12 September, 1786. An account of the descent of the Fountayne family from John Fountayne, Serjeant-at-Law (grandson of Arthur Fountaine of Salle, Norfolk), who died in 1671, the connection of the Fountaynes and Montagus by marriage, and their descendants, is given in Burke’s ‘Landed Gentry’ (1952) pp. 1809-1810.

1765. DD/BW/E7/36. August 1765: Plan of an intended new road from the west end of Melton Sheep Lane to where it meets the old road at Cusworth Lane End near York toll bar and likewise the old road intended to be shut up. Surveyor: J. Colbeck. Scale not given, but a description of the scheme on the plan gives measurements.

1823. Grant MHD/13. 12 Nov. 1823: William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, Earl Fitzwilliam, and Charles William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, commonly called Viscount Milton, to Richard Fountayne Wilson of Melton on the Hill esq. Fee farm rent of £3. 14s. 6d. issuing from Richard’s lands in Melton on the Hill. Consideration £59. 16s. 8d.

CADEBY/WILDETHORP DEEDS AND PERSONAGES

1300. DD/FJ/1/205/14. (c.1300) Grant: (1) Wm. s. of Rich. Sailwant of Wilthorp. (2) Rob. Fox his bro. and wife Agnes of Wilthorp. (1) to (2) 1a. 1r. in Wilthorp, 1 rose p.a. Witn.: Baudewin de Hercy of Cateby, Rob. de Insula of Cateby, Rob. French, etc. The de Hercy and de Insula families were feudatories of the Honour of Tickhill.

1324. DD/FJ/1/205/15. 6 Dec. 1324. Grant: (1) Hugh s. of Nich. de Cateby. (2) John le Warde and wife Johanna.
(1) to (2) ½a. in Scab Hace Molle in Cateby. Witn.: John Frankis of Cateby, Rob. Frankis,* John Dru, etc. At Catebi, St. Nicholas. *The same as Rob. French, as above noted.

1328. DD/FJ/1/205/16. 28 May 1328. Grant: (1) Custance d. of Baudewin Hercy of Cateby. (2) Thos. s. of Wm. de Schorbon (?) (1) to (2) a selion in Dunfeld abutting on Bencroft and road leading to Conisburgh Ferry. (Cadeby ?) Witn.: John and Rob. Frankys etc. At Cateby, Sat. before Trinity.

1350. DD/FJ/1/205/1. 4 April 1350. Grant. (1) John s. of Rob. Rotour of Catebi. (2) Sir Adam de Melton, chaplain. (1) to (2) land in Willethorp. Witn.: Rich. Frankys, Thos. Broun, Rich. Siward, etc. Sun. after Easter.

1354. DD/FJ/1/205/2. 23 April 1354. Grant: (1) John s. of Rob. Rotur of Cateby. (2) Sir Rich. Bate of Melton, chaplain. (1) to (2) ½ a. in le Medilfeylde of Cateby. Witn.: Wm. de Metham, John le Gray, Wm. Frankys, Rich. Frankys, etc. At Cateby, St. George.

1354. DD/FJ/1/205/3. 14 July 1354. Grant: (1) Rich. Machoun of Cateby and wife Cecilia. (2) Sir Rich. Bell of Melton, chaplain. (1) to (2) a plot of land with house thereon in Cateby. Witn.: Rich. and Wm. Frankys, John le Gray, etc. At Cateby, Mon. after 7 brothers martyrs.

1355. DD/FJ/1/205/4. 25 July 1355. Grant: (1) Thos. s. of Hugh Colyn of Cateby. (2) Sir. Rich. Bate of Melton, chaplain. (1) to (2) 1½ r. in Cateby. Witn.: Wm. de Metham, Rich. and Wm. Frankys, Thos. Broun, etc. At Cateby, St. James.

1357. DD/FJ/1/205/17. 12 Feb. 1357. Grant: (1) Cecilia d. of John de Scharham of Cateby. (2) Wm. s. of Philip de Melton. (1) to (2) all premises inherited from her father in Cateby and Wilthorp. Witn.: Wm. de Metham, Wm. and Rich. Frankys, Rich. Syward, etc. At Cateby, Mon. before St. Valentine.

1360. DD/FJ/1/205/8. 25 Oct. 1360. Grant: (1) Rich. Maychun of Cateby. (2) Rich. Gamyl of Wylthorp. (1) to (2) 1a. in Cateby. Witn.: Wm. and Rich. Frankys, John Gray, etc. At Cateby, Sun. in Octave of St. Luke.

1361. DD/FJ/1/205/10 22 Nov. 1361 Grant. (1) Thos. de Auston of Cateby. (2) Sir Rob. de Sprotteburgh. Sir. Rich. Bell. chaplains. Roger Diyr of Cateby. (1) to (2) all lands in Cateby and Wilethorp, with reversion to (1), wife Alice and heirs in tail. Witn.: Wm. de Metham, Rich. Franceys, Wm. Frankys, John le Gray, etc. At Cateby, St. Cecilia.

1363. DD/FJ/1/205/18. 9 April 1363. Grant: (1) Rich. Machoun of Cateby and wife Cecilia. (2) Rich. s. of Matilda de Wylethorp. (1) to (2) 1½ r. in Lemedil feld in Cateby. At Cateby, Sun. after St. Ambrose.

1364. DD/FJ/1/205/9 16 March 1364. Grant: (1) Wm. Robert, baker, former servant of Deruagold de Doncaster, and wife Margaret. (2) Rich. Gamyll of Wilthorp. (1) to (2) ½ a. messuage and croft in Cateby. Witn.: Wm. and Rich. Frankys, John Gray, etc. At Cateby, 3rd. Sun. in Lent.

1381. DD/FJ/1/205/11. 25 March 1381. Release: (1) John de Auston of Cateby. (2) Wm. Philipson of Cateby and wife Alice. (1) to (2) all lands in Cateby Wm. holds by law of England of (1)’s heritage, so that after death of Wm. they shall not revert to (1) but remain to (2) and heirs. At Cateby, Annunciation.

1413. DD/FJ/1/205/5. 29 Sept. 1413. Grant: (1) Wm. Philipson of Cateby. (2) Rich. Bell, chaplain of royal chapel in Tykhill Castle. John Blome of Melton. (1) to (2) 12d p.a. from 1a. 3r. in Cateby and Wildthorpe. Witn.: Hugh Syward, Rich. Dalton, John Gattys, etc. At Melton, Michaelmas.

1428. CP/25/1/280/156, number 4. The day after St Martin, 7 Henry VI (12 November 1428). Parties: William Dethik’ and Joan, his wife, querents, and John la Zouche, knight, and Margaret, his wife, deforciants. Property: The manor of Wildethorp’ and 40 shillings of rent in Mensthorp’. Action: Plea of covenant. Agreement: John and Margaret have granted to William and Joan the manor [and] rent and have rendered them to them in the same court, to hold to William and Joan, of John and Margaret and the heirs of Margaret for the lives of William and Joan, rendering yearly a rose at the Nativity of St John the Baptist for all service, and doing to the chief lords all other services. And after the decease of William and Joan the manor and rent shall revert to John and Margaret and the heirs of Margaret, quit of the heirs of William and Joan, to hold of the chief lords for ever. Warranty. For this: William and Joan have given them 100 marks of silver.

1484. DD/FJ/1/243/33. 5 Aug. 1484. Grant: (1) Thos. Wlsye, chaplain. (2) Thos. Nelson, chaplain. (1) to (2) all premises (1) had from Rich. Belle, chaplain, in Melton, Cadeby, Wyldthorp, Adwick and Mekesburgh. Witn.: Rob. Mawger, John Truluff, Wm. Drake, etc.

1484. DD/FJ/1/205/7 10 Dec. 1484. Grant. (1) John Philipson of Cadebe. Rich. Milner of Newton. (2) John Frankish of High Melton. Thos. Nelson, chaplain of B.V.M. of Melton. Rob. Mawger of Melton. (1) to (2) 12d p.a. from a tenement in Cadebe late John Graye’s. Witn.: Wm. Metham, Peter Toneclif, John Byrd, etc. At Cadeby.

1504. CD/130 9 Apr. 1504. Feoffment: William Phillipson, of Cadeby, to Richard Milnes, chaplain, and Robert Walker, of Sprotbrough. A messuage and appurtenances in Cadeby and all his other lands and rents in Yorkshire which descended to him by hereditary right. Witnesses: William Metham of Cadeby, Thomas Mauger of High Melton, John Birde of Cadeby et miltis aliis.

1509. DD/FJ/1/205/12. 11 Dec. 1509. Release: (1) Wm. Filipson of Cadebe. (2) Rich. Mauger, chaplain. Thos. Tyes, Rich. Rayner, John Handley, sen., Thos. Mauger, sr., Wm. Mauger, of High Melton. (1) to (2) 10a. in Cadebe and 1a. in Wyldtroth.

1509. DD/FJ/1/205/13. 20 Dec. 1509. Release: (1) John Byrde of Cadebe. (2) Rich. Mauger, chaplain, Thos. Tyes and others. (1) to (2) 1a. in North Field of Wyldtroth.

1560. CD/169. 12 Apr. 1560. Feoffment: Godfrey Fulyambe, of Walton, co. Derbys., esq., to Thomas Foster, of Cadeby, yeoman. A close in the town fields now in the tenure of Foster (location described). For £24.

1565. CD/145. 1 Mar 1565. Underlease: Francis Moyre, of Frickley, gent., to William Mote, of Melton, yeoman. Reciting a lease from Thomas Fowler, Controller of the Queen’s Works, to Moyre of the manor of Wildthorpe, part of the inheritance of Vincent Grantham, a Queen’s ward, and heir to Mary Grantham, decd. Manor of Wildthorpe. Term of the minority of Grantham. Annual rent of £5.

1568. CD/154. 12 Feb. 1568. Exemplification of a common recovery: Thomas Lewis, esq., and Godfrey Copley, esq., pl., v. William Armitage, esq., and Thomas Pearson, gent. Vouchee to warranty: Edward Howse. Manor of Wildthorpe, 3 messuages, 210 acres arable, 72 acres meadow, 130 acres pasture in Wildthorpe, Cadeby, Sprotbrough, Bentley and Skinthorpe.

1568. CD/110. 10 Jun. 1568. Bargain and sale: Richard Turner of Aston and his wife, Elizabeth, to John Rawlynson, of Sprotbrough, Alexander Mettham, of Cadeby, gents., and Henry Cartewright als. Vyckers, of Cadeby, husbandman. A messuage with all buildings, a toft and croft (½ acre), and 1½ acre land all in Cadeby; a cottage, and toft and croft in Cusworth. For £32.

1578. CD/133. 28 Oct. 1578. Feoffment: Ralph Levytt of High Melton, gent., to Richard Rogers of Cadeby, husbandman, and his wife, Joan. A cottage and croft with ½ acre arable in Cadeby (described). Annual rent charge of 2d.

1580. CD/134. 1 Aug 1580. Marriage settlement by way of release: Richard Rogers, of Cadeby, husbandman, and his wife Jennett, to Richard Robinson and Margaret Foster, Jennett’s dau., on the marriage of Robinson and Foster. A holding or mansion house in Cadeby now held by Rogers and formerly belonging to the chantry at High Melton, and 8 acres arable in the fields of Cadeby and Wildthorpe. Term of 10 years. Annual rent charge of 12s.4d.

1583. CD/136-137. 3 Dec. 1583. Feoffment for uses: Alexander Metham of Cadeby, gent., to John Copley, of Sprotbrough, gent., and Thomas Roberts of Barnbrough, yeoman. For a certain sum of money given to Metham by Thomas Jackson, of Cadeby, gent. A close in ‘Admancroft’ called ‘le troughe’, 3 acres arable, ½ rood meadow lying in ‘Doleffeeld’, ‘Myddlefeeld’, ‘Byrkelandes’ and in a close called ‘Stannop ynge’ (described). To the use of Metham for his life; then to the use of Jackson and his wife Dorothy, dau. of Metham, and the heirs of their bodies.

1586. CD/140.20 Oct. 1586. Feoffment: William Helagh, of Cadeby, yeoman, and his wife Jane, to Richard Robartson, of Cadeby, husbandman. 2 acres arable in the fields of Cadeby, of which 1 acre lies in ‘Woodfelde’ in a place called ‘le Midlestigh’, and 1 acre lies in ‘le dolefelde’ in a place called ‘Staynhills’ (described).

1589. CD/93. 29 Sep. 1589. Copy of inquisition post mortem: Of Alexander Metham formerly of Cadeby, gentleman, deceased, taken at York before Henry Thoresbye, eschaetor. It was sworn that he died seised of the manor of Cadebye and of forty four acres of land in Wyldethorpe in the parish of Sprotbrough; that by a deed of 1580 he had conveyed the manor and his capital messuage etc. to trustees to uses to make a settlement for Thomas Jackson and his wife, Dorothy; that by a deed of 1583 he had conveyed various messuages and lands in Cadeby and Sprotbrough to uses to make a settlement for William Helagh and Jane, his wife; that by a deed of 1586 he had conveyed two messuages, a cottage and lands in Cadeby and Wyldthorpe to uses to make a settlement for Susanna Metham; that the manor of Cadeby and other messuages in Cadeby were held by Alexander at the time of his death of William Copley as of the manor of Sprotbrough for an annual rent of 28s. and that property in Wyldethorpe was held of Vincent Grantham, esquire, as of the manor of Wyldethorpe at an annual rent of 6s.8d.; that the manor of Cadeby etc. was valued at £8 and the Wyldthorpe property at 33s.; that Alexander Metham died 27 Aug last, that Dorothy Jackson, Jane Helagh and Susanna Metham were his daughters and co-heiresses and were aged 30 years, 28 years and 15 years.

1592. CD/171. 14 Mar. 1592. Article of agreement: John Foster, of Tickhill, yeoman, with Richard Foster, of Cadeby, yeoman. Reciting a deed of 15 Mar 1587, by which Thomas Foster, decd., of Cadeby, gave to his sons, John and Richard, his messuage in the east end of Cadeby, which he had by gift of his brother, Richard, and also a messuage and 21½ acres arable with 3 closes of meadow called ‘Walkemill closes’. Agreement for the division of these lands.

1594. CD/146. 19 Sep 1594. Feoffment: Thomas Grantham, of Goldthorp, co.Lincs., esq., to Mary Lewys, of Marr, widow. Manor of Wildthorpe, a wood called ‘Scabbey’, a wood called ‘Stubbin’ and all appurtenances in Wildthorpe, High Melton, Sprotbrough and Cadeby. For £540.

1595. CD/147. 9 Oct. 1595. Exemplfication of a final concord: Mary Lewys, widow, p1., v. Thomas Grantham, esq. deforciant. Manor of Wildthorpe, 4 messuages, 4 cottages, 6 tofts, 10 barns, 10 gardens, 10 orchards, 160 acres arable, 60 acres meadow, 60 acres pasture, 100 acres wood, 100 acres moor, 100 acres heath, and 108s.3d. rent in Wildthorpe, Sprotbrough, High Melton, and Cadeby. For £500, Grantham recognised the right of Lewys.

1600. CD/173. 2 Jul. 1600. Feoffment: Ralph Foster, of Cadeby, yeoman, to his brother, Richard Foster, of the same. 7½ acres ½ rood arable and pasture dispersed in the fields of Cadeby and Wildthorpe (location described), which Ralph bought from Robert Sanderson, gent., and which were once the hereditaments of Thomas Blome. For £14.

1611. CD/94. 17 Aug. 1611. Copy of inquisition post mortem: Of Dorothy Jackson formerly of Cadbye, deceased, taken at Doncaster before William Bell, esquire, eschaetor. It was sworn that Dorothy had died seised of a mansion house and land in Cadbie on 6 October last; that the property was held of Godfrey Copley, esquire, as of the manor of Sprotbroughe as 1/200th part of a knight’s fee; that it was valued at 26s.8d. per annum; that Metham Jackson is son and next heir of Dorothy and was aged 29 years at the time of her death Assignment of a lease CD/148 1613 Richard Waterhouse, of High Melton, husbandman, to Godfrey Copley, of Sprotbrough, esq. Reciting a lease of 24 Jun 11 Jas.I (1613) from Thomas Lewis, of Marr, esq., to Waterhouse. Land in Wildthorpe. Remainder of an unexpired term of 21 years.

1615. CD/120. 12 May 1615. Bargain and sale: Matthew Jackson, of Cadeby, gent., to Godfrey Copley, of Sprotbrough, gent. All his messuages and appurtenances in the town fields of Cadeby, Wildthorpe, and High Melton, excepting wood ground called “Scabba”. For £400.

1616. CD/149. 1616. Feoffment: Mary Lewys, of High Melton, widow, widow of John Lewys, to her eldest son, Thomas Lewys, of Marr. Manor of Wildthorpe; a messuage called ‘hoyle’; a croft called ‘Robin yeard’ in High Melton which she bought from Gervase and Thomas Bosseville; a messuage and decayed croft called ‘Tumholme’ als. ‘John Croft’ in Balnin the lordship of Burghwallis and par. Ouston; a toft and croft called ‘Thistle Croft’ in Baln bought from Leonard Style, of Ouston; a croft and toft called ‘Thistle Croft’ in Baln bought from Elizabeth, widow, and Silvester Rowelstone; and all her jointure in High Melton (annual rents of £56.5s.5d.).

1616. CD/152. 16 Apr. 16. Lease: Godfrey Copley, of Sprotbrough, esq., to Thomas Levet, of High Melton, gent. A close of meadow or pasture in the lordship of Wildthorpe called ‘Wildthorpe Moor, between Melton Moor N., Wildthorpe Lane S., Eshe Close W. and Well Close E. Term of 21 years. Annual rent charge of £6.6s.8d.

1616. CD/150. 4 Nov. 1616. Bargain and sale: Thomas Lewis, of Marr, esq., to Godfrey Copley, of Sprotbrough, esq. Manor of Wildthorpe with the woods called ‘Scabbye’ and ‘Stubbing’. For £800.

1619. CD/12-13. 10 May 1619: Post nuptial settlement: Godfrey Copely of Sprotborough, esquire, to William Rowth of Waileswood, esquire. That in consideration of the marriage already had between Dorothy, daughter of William Rowth and William Copley of Sprotburgh, gentleman, he will allow William Rowth and Peter Rowth, gentleman, to enter into several messuages, lands etc. in Sprotburgh which William Copley, deceased father of Godfrey, leased to Richard Beamond, and also in two other messuages now occupied by William, husband of Dorothy, in order that a recovery may be suffered. The uses are to be that they shall be seized of the property to the use of Dorothy for her life in lieu of a jointure (but paying an annual rent to Godfrey and his heirs) and after the decease of Dorothy to the use of Godfrey and the heirs of his body, remainder to William and his male heirs, remainder to Mary Copley, daughter of Alveray Copley, deceased, and the heirs of her body, remainder to Isabel Pinckney, wife of James Pinckney, gentleman, remainder to Ann Mote, wife of Emanuel Mote of High Melton, gentleman, and the heirs of her body, with a final remainder to the right heirs of Godfrey Copley.

1632. Bag C/935. 1 Apr 1632. License to alienate: To Richard Washington, Darcy Washington and Anne his wife to alienate to Ralph Greaves and William (? ). A messuage and two gardens, etc., in Hampshall or Hampole.

1634. CD/155a-b. 1634. Final concord: William Copley, esq., pl., v. Ralph Copley, esq., and his wife Joan, deforciants. Manor of Wildthorpe, 10 messuages, 6 cottages, a dovecote, 6 gardens, 6 orchards, 400 acres arable, 60 acres meadow, 200 acres pasture, 40 acres wood, 400 acres furze and heath, in Wildthorpe, High Melton, Sprotbrough, Cadeby, Arksey, Newton, Skinthorpe, and Bentley. For £320, recognised as the right of William Copley.

1634. CD/153. 21 Jan. 1634. Deed to lead the uses of a fine: Edmund Hastinges, of Sprotbrough, esq., and his wife Mary, to William Copley, of the same, esq. Hastinges to levy a fine with Bartholomew Rolston, of Sutton, gent., and Thomas Copley, of Norton Priory, gent., of all the manor of Wildthorpe; and lands in Bentley late of Sir Samuel Saltonstall, kt.; and certain lands recently mortgaged by William Copley, of Leversall, and Leonard Bray, of Cusworth, esq., to Godfrey Copley, late of Sprotbrough, decd. To the use of Rolston and Thomas Copley. Covenant that a common recovery may be initiated by Thomas Lewis, of Marr, and Godfrey Copley, of Skelbrooke, esq., against Rolston and Thomas Copley, vouching Hastinges to warranty.

1639. CD/123. 1 May 1639. Bargain and sale: William Vickers als. Cartwright, of Bentley, yeoman, to Richard Foster, the elder, of Cadeby, yeoman. 2 yds. x ½ yd. of ground where Foster has built a chimney adjoining his messuage. For 11s.

The Washingtons of Adwick-le-Street:

The Adwick Washingtons have no proved connection with the first President of the USA, George Washington, a decendant of a John Washington who settled in Virginia in 1657. The coat of arms of the Adwick Washingtons was similar to that of George Washington, thus, at least, a common ancestry is suggested. James Washington, son of Darcy Washington, married Elizabeth, dau. of William Copely. James Washington’s sister, Grace, married Thomas Stanhope, who then held land in Hampole. By way of supposition: ‘The Reverend Godfrey Washington (1670–1729) was the great-uncle of the first U.S. President, George Washington. Godfrey Washington was appointed a Fellow of Peterhouse by the College Visitor, the Lord Bishop of Ely, on 8th April 1693, aged 22. He was born on 26th July 1670, a younger son of James Washington, of Adwick-le-Street; his mother was Elizabeth, daughter of William Copley, of Sprotborough. His eldest brother, Richard, died in 1678, aged 39: another brother, Francis, became Rector of Sprotborough’ (Peterhouse, Cambridge).

1642. CD/159. 4 Feb. 1642. Articles of agreement: William Copley, of Sprotbrough, esq., with George and Edward Gill, of Lightwood, par. Norton, co.Derbys., gents. For £500, Copley will sell to the Gills his lands in Wildthorpe and a messuage and farm in Cadeby called ‘Sikes’ farm, amounting to a clear annual value of £65. The Gills covenant to lease the lands for 21 years to James Washingtone, of Adwick le Street, esq., for an annual rent of £50. After the term of 21 years, Copley will recover seisin.

1645. CD/124. 10 Jun. 1645. Marriage settlement: William Vicars on his marriage to Elizabeth, dau. of William Holroyd of Wombwell, nailor, decd., to John Elam, of Wombwell, nailor, and Thomas Hoyland, of Wombwell. A messuage or mansion house with appurtenances and a croft or toft, garden and 3 acres arable (described) in Cadeby. To the use of Vicars for his life; then to the use of his wife, Elizabeth, for her life; then to the heirs of their bodies.

1650. CD/125. 30 Apr 1650. Bargain and sale: Darcy Washington, of Hampole, esq., to Robert Wharam, of the same, yeoman. One flat of land in Hampole in Doncaster Field (described); a bay in ‘Byard’ barn called the West Bay (described); a foldstead next to the barn; the Milne balk (described); part of the old damstead near the Milne Close or Dry Close. For £23.

1650. DD/N/196/3. 24 Aug. 1650. Indenture: Declaration of uses of a recovery. (1) Darcy Washington of Hampall, Yorks., esq. (2) Sir John Routh of Brinley, Kent, Kt., Godfrey Copley of Sprotborough, Yorks., esq. (3) Rev. Richd. Washington of Univ. Coll of Oxford, Geo. Gill of Hasselhurst, Derby, gent. (3) As tenants following the levying of a recovery hold Adwicke Hall, Adwicke Mill & all appurts. & Thurnwaits Cl., Stenen Closes, Hall Croft, Horse Close, Gunhill Croft, Smith’s Cl., Hopgarth, The Roides, Humberheads, Maistor Croft & Milne Closes & 500 arable in Milne Field, 54a. arable in Lowe Field, 43a. arable in Humberhead Field & 16a. meadow in Common Ings & all appurts in Adwicke to use of Eliz. Washington, widow of Jas. W. eldest s. of (1), for life. Rest of Manor of Adwicke & reversion of above to use of (1) & heirs male then to use of Richd. W., s. & h. of late Jas. W. & grandson of (1) & heirs male in tail.

1656. CD/17. 6 Sep. 1656. Pre-nuptial settlement:Godfrey Copley of Sprotbrough, esquire, to Arthur Stanhope of Bretby* (co.Derbys.), esquire, and William Stanhope the younger of Linby (co. Notts.), esquire. An annuity of £100 from the manors of Sprotbrough, Cadeby, Newton and Wildthorpe. For 99 years if Godfrey Copley and Elizabeth Stanhope jointly survive. In trust to the use of Elizabeth during the joint lives of Godfrey and Elizabeth. In consideration of an intended marriage between Godfrey and Elizabeth, daughter of William Stanhope, and of 5s. *Direct ancestor of the compiler of these notes.

1667. CD/99. 9 Feb. 1667. Assignement of goods and surrender of a term: Thomas Sykes of Cadeby, husbandman, to Sir Godfrey Copley of Sprodbrough, baronet. The remaining term in a lease of the manor house called Cadeby Hall, certain crops now growing in fields in Cadeby and Wildthorpe (details) and goods and chattels listed on attached schedule. In consideration of a debt of £60 and rent owing.

1668. CD/165. 1 May 1668. Bargain and sale: Henry Earle, the elder, and Henry Earle, the younger, both of Cadeby, yeoman, to Sir Godfrey Copley, of Sprotbrough, bart. A toft called ‘Wildthorpe Yearde’ (described) late in the tenure of Henry Worrall, in Sprotbrough. For £6.

1668. DD/N/196/4. 10 Aug. 1668. Indenture: Bargain & Sale. (1) Sir Godfrey Copley of Sprotburgh, Yorks., bart., Richd. Washington of Adwicke on the Street, esq., & wife, Eliz. (2) John Vincent of Baronbrough, Yorks., esq. For £1000 (1) to (2) messuage & appurts. in Adwicke in tenure of Geo. Maude, with outbuildings etc. & the Nabbs & Shaftholme Closes; 7a. in the Ings. & 42a.3r. & 37a.3r. arable in Townfields & messuage etc. in occ. of Robt. Crofts, New Close, Landend Close, Crosse Close & all other lands etc. of (1) in Adwicke & 24a. meadow in Hall Leys, Bentlay, & 2 cottages in Adwicke in occ. of John Harrison & Eliz. Manghill & all appurts. Schedule dated 28th July 1668 of above lands attached. Endorsed delivery of seizin.Sig., tag & seal of G.C. (1) Sigs. & tags of R.W. & E.W. (1).

1711. CD/186a. 12 Mar. 1711. Deed of gift: Anne Foster, of Cadeby, widow, to her son in law, Michael Athey and her daus. Gertrude and Mary Foster.

1716. CD/31. 28 Nov. 1716. Exemplification of recovery: Edward Baldwyn, gentleman, v. Jasper Blythman, gentleman. A messuage and land in Cadeby and Sprotbrough. Richard Foster and Margaret, his wife, vouched to warranty.

1733. CD/251. 6 Nov. 1733. Assignment of a mortgage: The mortgagees of Godfrey Copley, of Sprotbrough, esq., son and heir of Godfrey Copley, decd., and the legatees under the will of Lionel Copley, to the Hon. James Johnstone, of Twickenham, co. Middx.,esq. Manors of Plumtree and Cadeby. For £8,000 to the mortgagees.

1748. MHD/3. 28 Oct. 1748. Exchange: Godfrey Copley of Sprotbrough esq. to Revd. John Fountayne, Dean of York. Several parcels of land dispersed in the townfield, closes and grounds at Cadeby, namely 2 lands, 2 roods and 8 perches in North Acres in occupation of John Street (abutments), 3 lands more there 1 rood and 16 perches in occupation of Robert Marshall (abutments), 3 lands more there 1 rood and 16 perches in occupation of Wm. Clay, 8 lands more there 1 acre, 1 rood and 26 perches in occupation of Thos. Vickers (abutments) and 1 piece of land in Shearham Wood containing 1 acre. In exchange, Fountayne to Copley: Several parcels of land dispersed in the fields and territories of Cadeby, namely in North Acres 2 lands 1 rood and 25 perches in occupation of Ezra Hobson (abutments), 1 land more there 2 roods and 37 perches in occupation of Wm. Gilberthorpe (abutments), one land more there 2 roods and 31 perches in occupation of Thomas Hacken (abutments), 2 lands more there 1 acre 1 rood and 4 perches in occupation of John Rayner and Thomas Ranby (abutments), 1 other parcel of land in a place called Barcroft in occupation of Richard Pearson containing 3 roods and 18 perches (abutments). Another parcel of land in a place called Chief Ridding containing 3 roods and 12 perches and 19 perches in occupation of Samuel Howe (abutments).

1750. MHD/4 5-6 Apr. 1750. Conveyance: Elizabeth Tofield of Wilsick, widow and devisee of Thomas Tofield, late of Wilsick esq., deceased, and Thomas Tofield, only son and heir of said Thomas, to Thomas Robinson of Cadeby, parish of Sprotborough, carpenter. A stack garth and garden whereon a meastead formerly stood and 1 acre of arable land lying on the back thereof (abutments), ½ acre of arable land at Cadeby in the Woodfield in a place there called Woodhole (abutments). All above in occupation of Thomas Robinson. Consideration £36. 10s.

1750. MHD/5 14-15 Sep. 1750. Conveyance: Elizabeth Tofield of Wilsick, widow and devisee of Thomas Tofield, and Thomas Tofield only son of said Thomas, deceased, to Thomas Robinson of Cadeby parish of Sprotborough, carpenter. Several parcels of land in Cadeby, namely 3 roods of meadow ground in Bean Croft, 1 acre in Mary Balkfield, ½ acre and 2 roods in Hillfield, and 1 acre in Wood Field (abutments). Consideration £61.

1754. MHD/6. 16 Feb. 1754. Mortgage by way of lease for 500 years: Thomas Robinson of Cadeby, parish of Sprotborough, carpenter, to John Hargrave of Austerfield, yeoman. Meastead at Cadeby or stack garth and garden whereon a meastead formerly stood and whereon a tenement was lately erected, and 1 acre of arable land lying at the back thereof (abutments), ½ acre of arable land at Cadeby at Woodhole in the Woodfield, several parcels of land at Cadeby, namely 3 roods of meadow ground in Beancroft, 1 acre in Mary Balk field, ½ acre in Hill Field, 2 roods in Hill Field, 1 acre in Woodfield (abutments). All in occupation of Thomas Robinson. For securing £60 plus interest at 4½ per cent p.a. with equity of redemption for 6 months.

1756. MHD/7 27-28 Jul. 1756. Conveyance: Thomas Robinson of Cadeby, wheelwright, to Philip Robinson of Melton upon the Hill, yeoman. Messuage in Cadeby with croft adjoining containing ½ acre, a close called Beancroft containing 3 roods, 1 acre in a field in Cadeby called Ashlin Flatt, 1 acre in a field in Cadeby called the Woodfield, 1 acre in the Hill Field in Cadeby, and 1 acre in Marybalk field in Cadeby. Consideration £120.

1757. MHD/11. 5-6 Apr 1757. Conveyance: Thomas Robinson of Cadeby, parish of Sprotborough, carpenter, Mary his wife, and Philip Robinson his father, to Revd. Dr. John Fountayne, Dean of York. A stack garth and garden in Cadeby whereon a meastead formerly stood and whereon a tenement was lately erected, and 1 acre of arable land on the back thereof (abutments), 3 roods of meadow ground in a place called Beancroft, 1 acre in a place called Mary Balkfield, ½ acre in Hillfield and 2 roods more in the same field, and 1 acre in Woodfield (abutments). All above formerly in occupation of Thomas Robinson purchased from Elizabeth Tofeild widow and devisee of Thomas Tofeild late of Wilsick esq. and Thomas Tofeild only son and heir of said Thomas deceased. Consideration £50.

1793. MHD/193. 13-14 Feb 1793. Conveyance: William Egerton of Tatton Park, Cheshire, esq. (mortgagee in fee of the tenements and hereditaments hereby bargained and sold), Robert Parker of Halifax, gent. (a trustee for the sale of the same tenements), Robert Athorpe Athorpe of Dinnington esq. (only acting trustee and executor of John Foljambe late of Rotherham, gent., deceased), and John Foljambe of Rotherham, gent. (eldest son of the said John Foljambe, deceased,) to Joseph Johnson of Goldthorpe, gent. Messuage or farm with buildings and lands situated in Mexborough and Swinton, parish of Mexborough, containing 117 acres, 1 rood and 22 perches, formerly in the tenure of Joseph Morton; messuage or farm with lands and buildings in the parish of Mexborough containing 53 acres, 2 roods and 5 perches, 10 beastgates in the Parish of Mexborough called the Cow Pasture, both formerly in the occupation of Joseph Shepherd; messuage or farm, containing 36 acres and 26 perches, and 9 beastgates in the parish of Mexborough in the occupation of James Elam; messuage or farm in Mexborough containing 16 acres and 10 perches, and 5 beastgates, formerly in the tenure of Thomas Watson; messuage or farm in Mexborough containing 22 acres and 20 perches, and 6 beastgates, formerly in the tenure of Jonathan Cox; messuage or farm in Mexborough containing 32 acres, 1 rood and 31 perches, and 8½ beastgates, formerly in the tenure of William Cox; messuage or farm in Mexborough containing 29 acres, 2 roods and 34 perches; 6 beastgates called Cow Pasture formerly in the tenure of Thomas Tyas; lands in Mexborough containing 22 acres formerly in occupation of Richard Pearson, and messuage or farm usually occupied therewith in Mexborough containing 5 acres and 37 perches; 1 beastgate formerly in occupation of Widow Roberts; messuage or farm and 1 beastgate formerly in occupation of William Pearson; messuage or farm in Mexborough containing 3 acres, 1 rood and 32 perches, 1 beastgate formerly in occupation of John Slack; messuage or farm in Mexborough containing 6 acres, 1 rood and 9 perches, and 1 beastgate formerly in the occupation of Michael Handley; messuage or farm in Mexborough containing 9 acres and 34 perches, and 1 beastgate in the occupation of Richard Wilson; and lands in Mexborough containing 2 acres and 12 perches formerly in the occupation of Robert Fourness. Consideration £6,800.

1810. MHD/36. 2 Nov. 1810. Exchange with map attached: Richard Fountayne Wilson of Melton, Esq., to Sir Joseph Copley of Brook St., Grosvenor Sq., Middlesex, bart., brother of Sir Lionel Copley, late of Sprotborough Hall, deceased. Piece of land in North Acres Field marked no. 3 on map and containing 13 acres and 19 perches; a piece of ancient enclosure marked on the map no. 9; homestead and croft marked no. 40 in occupation of George Kendall containing one rood and 22 perches; a homestead or croft marked no. 42 late in occupation of Margaret South widow, containing 34 perches; a close called Bean Croft marked no. 85 late in occupation of George Kendall containing 2 roods and 22 perches; a close called near Woodda Croft marked no. 111 containing 1 acre 1 rood and 31 perches; a close called Middle Woodda Crofts marked no. 112 containing 1 acre 3 roods and 16 perches; a close called Far Woodda Crofts marked no. 113 and containing 4 acres and 1 perch; parcel of woodland called Madge Wood marked no. 151 containing 5 acres and 3 perches in possession of Richard Fountayne Wilson; Calf close marked on the map no. 97 containing 1 acre and 30 perches. Altogether 27 acres 3 roods and 21 perches situate in Cadeby in parish of Sprotborough. These lands all coloured red on map (abutments). In exchange Copley to Wilson parcel of land in North acres field marked no. 2 on map containing 14 acres and 2 roods; a piece of land called Wildthorpe yard marked no. 4 on map containing 1 acre, 2 roods and 38 perches late in occupation of Wm. Mason; a piece of ancient enclosure marked no. 5 on map being part of Upper Long Close late in occupation of Wm. Mason containing 1 rood and 16 perches; another piece of ancient enclosure marked no. 9(a) on map containing 19 perches late in occupation of Wm. Loxley; a close called Wildthorpe Yard marked no. 11 on plan containing 1 acre, 1 rood and 27 perches late in occupation of John Camm; part of Close called Wildthorpe Yard marked no. 13 on map containing 32 perches late in occupation of Wm. Mason; another close called Wildthorpe Yard marked no. 14 on map containing 1 rood and 7 perches late in occupation of Wm. Mason; Wildthorpe Close marked no. 15 on map containing 2 acres and 19 perches late in occupation of Joseph Naylor; Upper Moor Close marked no. 18 on map containing 6 acres 3 roods and 15 perches late in occupation of Wm. Mason; Lower Moor Close marked no. 19 on map containing 7 acres and 27 perches late in occupation of Wm. Mason; and Brachin Pitts Close marked no. 22 on map containing 6 acres 2 roods and 33 perches. Altogether 42 acres and 22 perches situate in Cadeby, parish of Sprotborough. These lands coloured yellow and purple on map (abutments). Map of Cadeby by R. Rodgers 1811.

copyright. m. stanhope