North Erpingham Hundred: Roughton

ROUGHTON.

Roger Bigot, ancestor of the Earls of Norfolk, had by a grant of the Conqueror, a lordship in this town, held by 2 freemen under Withri, who was expelled on the conquest; it contained 30 acres of land, &c. half an acre of meadow, valued then at 5s. at the survey at 10s. and 8d. and Edric also, (who was deprived) had a freeman with 3 acres, who could not leave it without the license of Edric, but these men Robert Malet laid claim to.

Part of this town was a beruite to Roger Bigot's lordship of Hanworth; to this there belonged 2 villains, 8 bordareres, one servus, one carucate of land in demean, and half a one among the tenants, with 3 acres of meadow. (fn. 1)

Roger de Glanville, who married Gundreda de Warren, relict of Roger Bigot Earl of Norfolk had an iuterest in this lordship in the reign of King Henry II. when he and his lady, Gundreda, on their founding the nunnery of Bungey in Suffolk, gave the patronage of this rectory to them, which was also appropriated to them; and in the first of King John, Gundreda, widow of Roger, demanded her dower herein of Robert Creke, and he called to warrant Agnes his wife, whose inheritance it was, she being a daughter and heiress of Glanvile; and in the 9th of that King, an assise was brought to find if Roger, brother of Robert de Glanville, was seized of a carucate of land here, which William de Eggefeld held, who called to warrant the Earl Roger Bigot, the capital lord.

In the 16th of Edward I. Agnes, widow of Thomas de Grimston, held Roughton manor of Robert del aloines, in free marriage by the 8th part of a fee, and this Robert was her son and heir. In the 5th of Edward II. Sir Robert de Ufford, and Cecilia his wife, settled it in tail on William, their son and heir, which Cecilia was daughter and heir of Robert de Valoines. Cecilia, in the 10th of Edward II. then a widow, by her deed, dated here on Saturday after the feast of St. Botolph, the abbot, covenants with the abbot of Coxford, reciting, That whereas the abbot and convent held the watermill of Thorp Market, with the pond, pool and causeway, situate in Thorp and in Roughton, and had by the grant of her ancestors, free augmentation of water upon her land in Roughton, by certain bounds on the west head of the pool and causeway, to mend the bank, paying 7s. per ann. as appears by a fine levied; and there being then a controversy between her and the prior, for the herbage growing on the pool, the causeway, and the fishing of the pool: she, for the soul's health of Sir Robert, her late husband, releases to the prior and his successors, all her right in the herbage and soil, within certain bounds then set out, saving for herself and tenants, a free way over the causeway, the herbage thereof, and liberty to make a bar, to prohibit carts going, but the prior's cart to go freely; and if the water in the pool should rise higher than it ought, her miller to have liberty to let the water out; and if her cattle went within the bounds, they were not to be impounded, but to be drove away; witnessess Sir John de Thorp, Sir Richard de Weyland, William de Peyvere, John, son of John de Repps, &c.

In the 16th of Edward II. the said lady settled it on Edmund de Ufford, her younger son; and Sir Edmund de Ufford had free warren in his demean lauds here, in the 6th of Edward III. On the death of Sir Edmund s. p. it came to the Earl of Suffolk; William Ufford being lord in the 43d of that King, and leaving his 3 sisters coheirs; Catherine, the eldest, brought it by marriage to Sir John Willoughby Lord Willoughby of Eresby; William Lord Willoughby died seized of it and of Edgfield in Norfolk, in the 11th of Henry IV. and Robert was his son and heir. In this family it continued till, on the death of William Lord Willoughby, in the 18th of Henry VIII. it came to his daughter and heir, Catherine, who had livery of it, in the 20th of that King, and brought it by marriage to Robert Bertue, Esq. whose son, Peregrine, on the death of his mother, had summons to parliament, as Lord Willoughby of Eresby. Of these lords see in Edgfield.

After this, Richard Stubbs is said to have held it.

In the 16th of James I. Robert Claphamson had a præcipe to deliver the manor of Roughton to Henry Faucet, Gent. and John Faucet was found to die seized of it, October 10, 1625; he had by Jane, his wife, a son and heir, William, who died a minor in the following year, so that his 2 sisters, Anne and Elizabeth, were his heirs, who both died s. p. about 1633.

Giles Tenant, counsellor at law, was lord in 1694; and James Tenant sold it to Mr. Richard Kett, wool-comber of Norwich, a Quaker, in which family it continues.

Hales Hall.

Sir Roger de Hales held here and in Metton, one fee of the Earl of Norfolk, in the first of Edward I. and Sir John de Hales was lord in the reign of Edward III.

John Sampson held it in right of his wife, in the 11th of Henry VI. Elianore Jenney, widow of Sir William Jenney, daughter of Sampson, died possessed of it in 1494. After that it was sold to the Heydons, and Christopher Heydon, Esq. in the 35th of Henry VIII. conveyed it to Robert Rugg, Esq. from them it came to—Herne, of Heverland, and Clement Herne was lord in 1690.

The tenths were 3l. 6s. 8d. Deducted 6s. 8d.

Besides the lordships abovementioned, Robert Earl of Morton, brother to the Conqueror by the mother's side, and made Earl of Cornwall by him, had the grant of a lordship here, of which Ulnoth, a younger son of Earl Goodwin, and brother to King Harold, was deprived; consisting of a carucate of land, 2 villains, and the moiety of another, and 5 bordarers, one carucate in demean, with one and an half among the tenants, &c. 2 acres of meadow, a mill, &c. 20 sheep and 12 goats, always valued at 20s. it was 9 furlongs long, and 5 broad, and paid 10d.½. gelt. (fn. 2)

The said Earl had only another manor in this county, Clare in Tunsted-hundred. His son William, rebelling against King Henry I. was deprived of these and his Earldom; and this lordship (as I take it) was then granted to Roger Bigot, ancestor to the Earls of Norfolk, and so united, as it seems, to the other lordships.

Pauline Peyvere, one of the King's justices, was lord of a manor in this town, ao. 33 Henry III. and that family had an interest here in the reign of Edward II. See in Thorp Market.

The Church of Roughton was a rectory, valued at 18 marks, which being granted to the nunnery of Bungey by Roger de Glanville and the Lady Gundreda his wife, it was appropriated to that convent; the said convent was found to hold it, and to be patrons of the vicarage which was founded on the appropriation of it, in the reign of King Edward I. when the vicar had a manse with 24 acres of land; the impropriate rectory had also a manse, but no lands, the vicarage being then valued at 2 marks, and paid Peter-pence, 9d. The present valor of the vicarage is 6l. The church is dedicated to St. Mary.

Vicars.

1320, Adam Wombe instituted vicar, presented by the prioress and convent of Bungeye.

1329, Nicholas de Banyngham. Ditto.

1333, Richard Hermer. Ditto.

1334, Mr. John de Roughton, by the prioress, &c.

1345, Richard Wade.

1349, John le Deen.

1349, Thomas Godknap. Ditto.

1355, Simon Cary. Ditto.

1370, Henry Barfoot, Ditto.

1381, John Swetman.

1385, William Atte Chirch.

1399, Robert Tulby.

Richard, son of Walter Parson of Walpole, rector.

1402, John Dynnington.

1408, Richard Joseph.

1409, Thomas Hogun.

1410, John Knot.

1420, John Pyttock.

1422, Thomas Pope.

1430, Thomas Eglesden.

1434, Nicholas Man.

1438, Walter Wellys.

1438, William Barber.

1443, John Borell.

1446, William Barbour.

1472, John Cantall, by the Bishop, a lapse.

1476, Henry Lucas.

1485, John Bishop,

1490, Richard Mooke.

1508, Roger Dawson.

1540, William Mepall, by Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk; on December 28, in the 29th of Henry VIII. this Duke had a grant of this impropriate rectory, and the patronage of the vicarage from the King, with all the manors, tenements, and lands in the county of Norfolk, belonging to the priory of Bungey, and the advowson of the church of Redenhale.

Pagwine Browne.

1570, Edward Read, by Edward Clere, Esq.

1580, James Person, by Lancelot Brown, M. D.

1584, Bernard Hargar, by Philip Earl of Arundel; in 1603, he returned 94 communicants.

1603, William Fleming.

Michael Frere, died rector, 1719, presented by the Bishop of Ely.

1719, Joseph Hogun, by the Bishop of Ely.

1746, Edward Hawkins. Ditto.

1747, Allen Aldhouse. Ditto.

In the church,

Hic jacet corpus Jac. Tenant gen. filij Johs. Tenant de Nealsing in com. Eborac. gen. qui obt. Feb. 9, 1668, ao. ætat. 71.—Hic jacet corpus Janæ uxor. Jaci. Tenant. filiæ Rob. Faldo de Northmins in com. Herlf. quæ obt. 4 Nov. 1678, ao. atat. 76.

William Hogan buried here in 1551.

Here were the guilds of All-Saints and the Holy Ghost.