The Manor of Boughton Aluph and Sir Thomas De Aldon

( 122 ) THE MANOR OF BOUGHTON ALUPH AND SIR THOMAS DE ALDON BY DOROTHY GARDINER. HASTED'S account (1) of the descent of the Manor of Boughton .Aluph in the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries is meagre and at certain points inaccurate. Particularly he dismisses to a footnote a good pubhc servant who controUed the fortunes of Boughton for at least thirty years, with the remark that " by some means this manor at the beginning of Edward Ill's reign was in possession of Sh Thomas Dalton." The history of the manor at this period is given with remarkable completeness in the Patent and Close Rolls, and it seems worth whUe gathering together the material, if only because of its probable bearing on Boughton Church as it now stands, and on the heraldic glass of which an account is given elsewhere in this volume. To summarize Hasted's story of the origins ; Boughton next Wye, earlier distinguished as Boughton-in-the-Bush, was owned in Saxon times by Earl Godwin and his son Earl Harold. After the Battle of Hastings the Conqueror gave the estate to Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, whose it was when the Domesday Survey was compUed. " In the lath of Wiwarlet," as Hasted's translation of the entry runs, " in Wi hundred, Earl (Eustace) holds Boltune . . . there is a church and 17 servants ; two miUs of seven shillings and 2 pence and 26 acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of 200 hogs." Thus began the long connection of the Manor with the Honour of Boulogne. No less long-continued was the grant by Count Eustace to the Leper Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene, Boulogne, of " a rent of 20 marks in the manor of Boutona," confirmed by charters of Henry I, Stephen and Henry I I I (2). Under King John, certain dues, recorded in 1210 (3), were paid by one Alulphus of Boughton, who then held the manor. Can it be the fact of his having replaced THE MANOR OE BOUGHTON ALUPH. 123 the Saxon church of wood by one of stone which led to the perpetuation of Alulph's name at Boughton ? The two thirteenth century chancels have round columns reminiscent of the work of WilHam the EngHshman in Canterbury Crypt. The family of Alulph enjoyed an eighty or ninety years' tenure of the place. Stephen de Bokton, who died in 1286, however left three daughters, co-hehesses ; Idonia, married to Thomas de Gatesden ; Joan, whe of Ralph de Otringden and Isolda, the widow since 1273 of Adam Paynel (4). Partition of the famUy estate became imminent. Before this was effected the three daughters and two sons-in-law met on November 4th, 1286, and agreed jointly to pay theh widowed mother, MatUda, 20s. in addition to her dowry, which included certain rents in Boughton and Boughton Wood (5). The partition was solemnly made, on December 14th, by Master Henry de Bray, the King's Clerk and Baihff of Abergavenny, in the presence of Edmund, Earl of CornwaU; the record is Ml of interesting detail (6). The remains of large and extensive buhdings discovered under parts of the garden of Boughton Court, on the slope of the hillside, may weU be rehcs of the de Bocton homestead here described; while a crypt, displaying twelfth century masons' marks, vaulted with small chalk blocks and fivesided ribs, still exists under the present dwelling house, Thomas and Idonia, we learn, had for theh share " a haU with adjoining chambers which is part of the chief messuage of Bocton, Kent, together with a knight's chamber, a kitchen, bakehouse with oven, a new stable, a byre with two fowlhouses, a great barn, a granary, dovecot, a house caUed ' pithuse,' a new gate with the court before it, certain trees growing here and there both within the garden and within and without the court." Joan and her husband had the second part of the chief messuage, barns and cowhouses. Isolda had a house in Essex, but she was not overlooked at Boughton, where she was assigned the messuage of La Beleassise, with the timber of a barn standing in Idonia's garden. The division of the acres was exceedingly intricate, and must have been as cumbersome a plan as the shared-out mansion and the thhd part of fishpond, watermiU 124 THE MANOR OE BOUGHTON ALUPH AND and windmill which fell to each sister's lot. The document contains a wealth of local field and other names, e.g. places are mentioned caUed La Dane, Kingesfeld, Brumden, Hebbing, Prikesland, Clopham, Lingreshoke and so forth. Some of these names are stiU in use for fields close to Boughton Court. The advowson of the church being part of the manor, the three sisters and Mathda theh mother were to present in turn; Thomas and Idonia first ; Ralph and Joan; MatUda upon- the thhd voidance ; Isolda upon the fourth; " and thus successively for ever." The scattered thirds of the estate soon began to draw together again. Idonia's husband, Thomas de Gatesden died in 1303, and Idonia received permission to grant in fee simple her thhd of the manor to Sh Robert de Burghersh and his whe MatUda (7). Royal Hcence was requisite because the property " being of the honour of Boulogne is in the king's hands by the service of doing suit at the king's court of Wytham from month to month and of rendering £6 13s. 4d. yearly to the lepers of Boulogne " (8). The new owners now proceeded further to acquire Joan de Otringden's share. This was a more comphcated matter. In 1304 Laurence de Otringden, perhaps her son, for Ralph had died in 1287, made a grant of a thhd of Boughton Manor and advowson to John de Campania (an ancestor of the Kempes of Wye) to become effective on the death of the tenant, George de Laverton or de Laverinton (9). Two years later Gregory (George) de Laverinton had Hcence to enfeoff Robert and MatUda with the coveted lands (10). Isolda's thhd for the moment remained in abeyance. Let us now turn to Sh Robert de Burghersh and his whe, MatUda, sister of the notorious Bartholomew de Badlesmere. They had three sons, Stephen, Bartholomew named after his uncle, and Henry, subsequently Bishop of Lincoln. Bartholomew and Henry have no concern with the history of the manor despite Hasted's statements and the fact that Bartholomew in 1331 helped to abduct MatUda, wife of John de Asceles at " Bukton AUulf " (11). In 1304-5 we hear of Sh Robert, then Constable of Dover and Warden of the SIR THOMAS DE ALDON. 125 Cinque Ports, receiving a business cah at " Oluesbocton " from the Mayor of Faversham (12). The date of his death is uncertain, but his eldest son, Stephen, was also dead by 1310, leaving by his whe Cicely a young daughter, Maud or MatUda, a ward of the Crown (13). The connection of the de Pavely famUy with Boughton was not, as Hasted has it, by purchase but through Maud, the hehess's marriage with Sh Walter de Pavely the elder. By 1327 Maud was a widow, mother of one son, the second Sir Walter ; by 1329 she had married Sh Thomas de .Aldon, the Bang's Yeoman (14). He was an old friend of her family, an adherent of Bartholomew de Badlesmere at the siege of Leeds Castle, for which misdemeanour he eventuaUy received in 1323 the Royal pardon and restitution of his lands and goods (15). With characteristic energy he set about the recovery of the missing thhd part of his wife's manor. Isolda de Bocton, as we have seen, had married into the WUtshhe fanhly of Paynel; by 1326 she was apparently dead; at any rate in that year a certain Maud Paynel, possibly her grand-daughter, appears on the scene as owner of a thhd of Boughton Aluiph Manor and advowson, which she has Hcence to part with to one John de Kyneleye (16). John was either the incumbent of WroxhaU Gorges Church (Bath and Wells) or a kinsman of his, John de Kyneleye the younger, both of whom had deahhgs with Maud Paynel. Maud herself may perhaps be identified with MatUda, daughter of John Paynel, the owner of lands in Sussex, WUtshhe and Hampshire ; she was born in 1289 and married Nicolas de Upton before 1319 (17). In the assessment for the knighthood of the Black Prince, Sh Thomas de Aldon is described as owning lands in Boughton Aluph, formerly in the tenure of Thomas de Gatesdenne, John Paynel, and George de Larketon (Arch. Cant., X, p. 133). In his eagerness to recover the property Sh Thomas de .Aldon acted more hastily than a man of his experience should have done. He acquired from John de Kyneleye Isolda's portion without seeking royal permission. He had, however, a friend at court, and in 1329 was pardoned at the request of his wife's kinsman, Edward de Bohun (18). Edward was 126 THE MANOR OE BOUGHTON ALUPH AND appointed " Keeper of the County of Kent" in 1332. In 1334, by one of those complicated arrangements dear to the mediaeval mind, Sh Thomas and his whe enfeoffed WUHam atte WeUe, parson of the church of Pette, of Boughton Manor and other neighbouring properties, which he (WUHam) then re-granted in part to the hehs of Matilda, in part (and this apphed to Boughton) to any chUdren of the .Aldon marriage. In default of such chUdren two portions of Boughton were to go to MatUda's hehs, and the thhd portion to the right hehs of Thomas (19). That famous thhd is speciaUy described as " Le BeUe Assise," which was, as we know from the partition document, Isolda's share, and subsequently John and Maud Paynel's and John de Kyneleye's. II Sh Thomas de Aldon now settled down on the estate he had so fortunately rounded off. He obtained leave to creneUate the dwelling-place of his manor of Boughton Aluph (1339) (20). He engaged in a great variety of pubhc work in the county of Kent; served with John de Cobham and John de Segrave on the Commission of the Peace during Edward Ill's absence in Scotland (21), and again with de Cobham and the Bishop and Prior of Rochester was appointed " to lay before the men of the county of Kent . . . at Rochester on the morrow of Holy Cross Day next, the decisions of the coming CouncU of Westminster and the king's intention in regard to the safety of the realm " (22). Now it is his task to investigate the grievances of the good men of " Brugges and Lescluses " whose ship caUed La Godeyere has been seized ultra vires and removed to La Rye by Wynchelse (23). He is caUed to take custody of the maritime land in county Kent, and remains away two years, accompanied by his household, men-at-arms and archers (24). Again, he superintends the making of a waU and dyke to preserve the lands of tenants of Wittersham, Rolvenden, Iden and Peasmarsh, on the borders of Kent and Sussex, where six hundred acres have been drowned by the sea (25). PEDIGREE TO SHOW THE CONNECTION OF THE DE B A A D L E S M E R E .AND DE BURGHERSH FAMILIES. Bartholomew de Badlesmere (executed 1322). Matilda de B.=Robert de Burghersh. GilesdeB. Elizabeth Matilda Margery Margaret = I.Edmund, son of =JohndeVere, =WiUiaradeRos. =JohnTybetot. Roger Mortimer. Earl of Oxford. | = 2 . William de Bohun, Margaret de Ros Earlof Northampton. =Mdward de Bohun (brother of William de Bohun, above). Stephen de Burghersh Bartholomew =Cicely. de Burghersh. Maud = 1. Sir Walter de Pavely, | or Pavalli. Walter I Walter =2. Sir Thomas de Aldon. I Thomas. Henry Bp. of Lincoln. CO w o g b tef i> b O 128 THE MANOR OE BOUGHTON ALUPH AND A more personal matter was his appointment as executor to the WUl of his old patron, Edward de Bohun, brother of John de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex and Constable of England (26). To Sh Thomas the arrears of Edward de Bohun's wages as Justice of North Wales were paid (27), whUe Edward's wUl demised the manor of Maningford Bohun to him for Hfe. This connection and the fact that another de Badlesmere, EHzabeth, had married WUHam de Bohun as her second husband, no doubt accounts for the presence of the Bohun .Arms among the blazons in the church windows at Boughton (28). Later in his career Sh Thomas seems to have turned to sheep farming on a large scale, and we hear in 1345 how he sold to one John Malewayn, a London merchant, " nine sarplars and a pocket of wool," which were placed in an old ship at Eaversham to await conveyance to London and there seized as bearing no customs' seal and having paid no dues (29). In 1352 he was impeached by some of the king's ministers for failure since the Erench war, to pay the obHgatory rent of 20 1. to the lepers of St. Mary Magdalene, Boulogne. Enquiry, however, cleared him of the charge ; the rent had been duly handed over but detained by the king for the period of hostUities (30). Before July 6th, 1361, Sir Thomas's Hfe of manifold activity closed. One should perhaps add that the incident popularly connected with his name, the meeting in 1370 of Archbishop Simon of Sudbury with a band of pUgrims, his rebuke and the defiance of Sh Thomas de Aldon, must belong to the much less honourable career of bis son and namesake, the ultimate heir of the Boughton estates. It is not our purpose to foUow the later fortunes of Boughton Aluph and its manor, but it must be emphasized that Sh Thomas de Aldon's tenure (c. 1329-61) appears to coincide with important changes in the fabric of the church and the building of the spacious nave. Canon Livett has caUed attention (31) to the resemblance between the bases and caps of the nave arcade and those at Great Chart, which he attributes to " the middle or thhd quarter of the fourteenth century." .After Sh Thomas's day the fortunes of Boughton Aluph SIR THOMAS DE ALDON. 129 were for some years so insecure that nobody hkely to have been a church buUder remains on record. The presence among the heraldic shields existing, or known to have existed, in the nave windows of the arms of a number of persons associated with Sh Thomas as members of the Royal households, but not otherwise with the county of Kent, is also very interesting and significant. It must recaU to us the practice, Ulustrated in Canterbury Cloisters and elsewhere, of giving, so to speak, a receipt in this manner for contributions to contemporary building funds. Sh Thomas in fact " bled " his friends for the benefit of Boughton Church. The detaUs of these shields wUl be found in Mr. Councer's paper on the glass. Then, too, in 1343, Nicholas de EaUe, parson of " Bocton .Aluf " is known to have contracted a debt of 250 marks with Thomas Bek, Bishop of Lincoln, which may weU be connected with large expenditure on his church (32). In conclusion it may be of interest to note the names of several incumbents who served the church during the period these notes have covered : 1305. Stephen de Wylmington. 1312. John de Wylton. 1314. Robert Herbert. 1343. Nicholas de EaUe. 1350. John Erebody. 1499. WUHam Wayte. REFERENCES. (1) Hasted, HI, p. 190. (2) Calendar of Patent Bolls, 1317-21, p. 150. (3) Rotuli de Liberate, 'Misis et Prsestitis, Duffus Hardy (1844), pp. 184, 201. (4) O.C.B., 1272-79, p . 48. (5) Calendar of Close Bolls, 1279-80, p. 404. (6) lb., p. 467. (7) O.P.B., 1301-7, p. 163. (8) O.O.B., 1302-7, p. 55. (9) C.P.B., 1301-7, p. 245. 13 130 THE MANOR OE BOUGHTON ALUPH. (10) lb., p. 411, and cf. Cal. Chancery Warrants (1244-1326), p. 221. (11) C.P.B., 1330-34, p. 135. (12) Arch. Cant., XD7, p. 190. (Archives of Faversham). (13) C.P.B., 1307-13, p. 480. (14) C.C.B., 1377-81, p. 452, and cf. C.P.B., 1324-7, p. 347, and D.N.B. art. Burghersch, Bartholomew de. (15) O.P.B., 1321-24, pp. 326, 334, and cf. C.C.B., 1318-23, p. 517. (16) C.P.B., 1324-7, p. 208. (17) O.C.B., 1337-9, p. 534, and cf. C.C.B., 1318-23, p. 169. (18) O.P.B., 1327-30, p. 419. (19) lb., 1334-8, p. 3. (20) C.P.B., 1338-40, p. 253. (21) lb., 1334-8, p. 208. (22) lb., p. 604. (23) lb., p. 280. (24) lb., p. 324, and cf. C.C.B., 1337-9, pp. 619, 626. (25) C.P.B., 1340-43, p. 22. (26) C.O.B., 1333-7, p. 491. (27) lb., p. 552. (28) C.O.B., 1360-4, p. 199. (29) C.P.B., 1343-5, p. 674. (30) C.P.B., 1350-64, p. 298. (31) Arch. Cant., XXVI, p. 107. (32) C.C.B., 1343-46, p. 114.