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leaving, as his only daughter and heiress, Sybil, who married as her first husband, Sir Robert de Tregoz, in whose family many of her estates became vested.1

The Manor of Allington remained in the direct line of the Tregoz family only for two generations. Sybil, the heiress of the Lord of Ewyas, had, by her first husband, two sons. The eldest, Robert de Tregoz, was slain in the battle of Evesham in 1265; the younger, John de Tregoz, succeeded in due course to this Manor. Dying in 1300, he left behind him two daughters as co-heiresses. They married respectively Roger la Warre, and Sir William Grandison, and a division of the Tregoz estates was made between these families. The descendants of Sir William Grandison were the St. John family, who were afterwards ennobled as Lords Bolingbroke, and the present holder of that title is still in possession of the estate at Lydiard Tregoz.

As a portion of her share of her father's estates, CLARICE, the elder daughter of John de Tregoz, who was married to ROGER la WARRE, received the Manor of Allington. In the family of La Warre it remained for about seventy years. Again, by the failure

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of male issue, it passed into another family. Joan, sister and heiress of Thomas la Warre, to Thomas, Baron West, Allington was added to his already numerous estates. When he died, he was siesed of lands in Hants, Dorset, Devon, Sussex, Lincolnshire, and Wilts. By his will, dated April 8th, 1405, (6 Henry IV.). he ordered his body to be laid in the new Chapel in the Minster of Christchurch, bequeathing to the work of that Church, £100, and another like sum, on the condition that the Canons of that church should once a year keep solemnly the obit of Thomas his father, Alice his mother, and Joan his wife. He also bequeathed 28 marks (£18 13 4), for 4500 masses for his soul, to be said within half-a-year of his decease. His two sons, Thomas and Reginald, inherited in succession the Manor of Allington. The latter was summoned to Parliament in 1426 in his mother's Barony of La Warre; the Barony of West being thereby merged in the former, and older title.

1 Amongst them was the estate of LEDIAR, which to this day, in its distinctive name, Lydiard Tregoz, preserves the memory of its ancient owner.

Richard, Baron West and La Warre, who next succeeded to the lordship of this Manor, at the death of his father in 1450, was a firm adherent of the House of Lancaster in the wars of the Roses. When, by the accession of Edward IV., the House of York triumphed, he requested leave of that King to quit England, and to go beyond the seas. This permission was given, but on the condition that he should take as his retinue, only twelve servants and twelve horses, the latter not exceeding in value 40 shillings each. He returned eventually to his own country, and dying in the year 1476 (16 Edw. IV.), left his eldest son Thomas as his successor in his high honors and estates.1

1 The following table will show the Descent of this Manor through the families of Tregoz, La Warre, and West. The names of those who were Lords of the Manor are printed in small capital letters.

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Thomas, seventh Baron West and La Warre, was in great favour with Henry VII. He assisted that King in obtaining the Crown, and in reward for his services, received a grant of several of the estates that had belonged to John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who was slain at Bosworth Field, and which by the Duke's attainder were at the bestowal of the King. In the second year of Henry VIII. he was appointed a Knight of the Garter. He was twice married, leaving by his first wife, two sons, Thomas who died in his father's life-time, and by his second wife, three sons, Owen, George, and Leonard. Eventually, Mary, daughter of Sir Owen West, became sole heiress, and the ancient Barony of West as well as that of La Warre, is still in abeyance between her descendants, if any now be existing. Nor, as the authorities hold, can it be any prejudice to their claims, that William, son of Sir George West, who is the ancestor of the present Earls of Delawar, was in 1570 created Baron La Warre.

We have not been able to ascertain the exact descent of the Manor of Allington for the next fifty years. After that time it it seems to have become the property, it is believed by purchase, of Sir Stephen Fox, the well known minister of Charles II. His son Stephen was advanced to the peerage in 1741, as Baron, and in 1756 as Earl, with the title of Lord Ilchester. From him descends the present Earl of Ilchester, who is now the Lord of the Manor.

The public records contain a few entries respecting some subinfeudations, or some early occupiers of land in Allington. Thus towards the close of the reign of Henry III. (c. 1270), we have Robert de Tregoz, in the first instance granting half-a-Knight's fee (about two hides and a half, or some 450 acres), in "Kainges and Almigeton," (Cannings and Allington), to Peter de Podington. This land was afterwards held under the same Peter de Podington by one "William Drois." The name of this tenant in its modern form "Drew," is still well known in the neighbourhood. The amusing controversy waged some few years ago as to the meaning of the name "Drew's Pond" will not soon be forgotten in Devizes.

In the time of Henry IV., (c. 1412), John Bennet 2 is entered as having been possessed of messuages and lands at Allington.

1 Test. de Nev. 137a. 2 Inq. p. M., 13 Hen. IV.

An "extent," or detailed description, of the Manor appears to be given in the account of the lands of Thomas la Warre,' who beld the estate at the commencement of the 15th century.

It may be added that the Lord of the Manor of All Cannings receives twenty shillings per annum, by way of quit rent, from land at Allington. In a previous page (p. 13), it has been alluded to as an annual "Pension from the Prebend," when recording the profits of the Manor in the 16th century.

THE PREBENDAL ESTATE IN ALLINGTON.

What is commonly termed the Prebend of All Cannings in the Church of St Mary, Winchester, derived its revenues from lands or tithes in Allington. A certain portion of the property of the Abbess had been thus assigned from an early period for the purpose of constituting a Prebend in connection with that Religious House.

The earlest valuation of the Prebend is contained in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica. It is there called the "Prebend of S. Mary, Winton, in the Church of Albecanying." The annual value is estimated at 20 marks, or £13 6s. 8d. By reference to p. 22, it will be seen that the Rectory and the Prebend were reckoned as of equal value at the close of the 13th century.

In the Inquisitiones Nonarum,3 we have the following entry respecting the Prebend :

"Prebenda in eadem villa [de Allekanyng] taxatur in xx marc.

Nona pars vellerum, garbarum, et agnorum anno preterito viii marc. Prebendar. habet in dote ix solid. redd.; pratum in dote xx solid.; decimæ feni xxvi solid. iv den. ; linum et aliæ minuta xx solid. Porcio Abb. Winton. beatæ Mariæ, videlicet, nonæ garbarum vellerum et agnorum val. preterito anno vi marc. et spectat ad prebendam predictam."

The reserved rent belonging to the Abbess of St. Mary Winton is, in subsequent documents, valued at £2 per annum.

The estate at Allington remained as the property of the Prebendary till the Reformation. At that time, by virtue of the Act of Parliament passed for the purpose, it was, like other property of

1 Inq. p. M., 5 Hen. VI. (1426). 2 Taxat. Eccles., p. 189.

Inquis. Non. p. 157.

Religious Houses, at the disposal of the Crown. It was accordingly, on 28th July, 1 Edw. VI., bestowed on the Duke of Somerset, the Protector. On August 11th, in the same year, the Duke surrendered it, together with other estates, in exchange with the Crown, for the Manors of Everleigh and Aldbourne. The prebendal estate was then granted to the Dean and Canons of Windsor,' who are still in possesssion of it. There was however a law-suit, with reference to this same Prebend, between the Earl of Hertford (Seymour), and the Dean and Canons of Windsor, which lasted many years, and was not finally settled till 1604. In Waylen's History of Marlborough (p. 529) under the head, "The case between the Earl of Hertford and the Deans and Canons of Windsor," occurs the following extract bearing upon this case :-" Whereas Hugh Gough, Parson of All Cannings, procured himself to be presented to the Prebend of All Cannings, being parcel of the said lands exchanged," (between Edward VI. and the Duke of Somerset) "the Dean and Canons exhibited their bill in Chancery against the said Hugh Gough; and therefore a decree was made that the said Dean and Canons should enjoy the said Prebend, according to the first intent of the King, which they had already enjoyed for nearly fifty years."

The tithes of Allington, which belong to the Dean and Chapter of Windsor, amount to £264 per annum, and are leased under them by Mr. Joseph Parry, who farms the principal estate there.

Before giving a list, such as we are able, of the Prebendaries, we may mention that a special privilege belonged to this appointment as regarded the conventual church of St. Mary, Winton. In the election of an Abbess, by the prescriptive custom of the Monastery, the Prebendary of All Cannings possessed two votes ;3 and we have it on record, that, at the election held on 21st April, 1488, Dame Alice Newe the Prioress, and procuratrix of the venerable Master John Nele, Prebendary of All Cannings, gave the said two votes for Dame Johanna Legh (or Ligh). See above, p. 11.

1 Harl. MS. 4316, fol. 188. 2 See above, p. 24.

3 See Baigent's History of the Church of Wyke, near Winchester, p. 35, note; a re-print from the Journal of the Archæol. Assoc. of September, 1863.

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