The Manor of Theydon Mount.
BY J. H. Round, M.A., LL.D.
An extract from the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society.
‘New Series’ Volume 12 Part 3 (1911) p198-202.
THE rapid publication of rolls
and other medieval records by the Public Record Office and that of the early
Essex fines by our own Society have, between them, thrown light on points of
manorial history which have hitherto remained obscure. We must always remember
that Morant wrote at an early date for a county historian, and the wonder is
that he knew so much of our public records when they were still in MS. and
comparatively inaccessible.
His account of the early
history of the manor of Theydon Mount, which was one of some importance, is not
satisfactory. There is no question that it gave name to a certain Paulin de ‘Teydene’
who held three knight's fees in Teydene and Little Wakering of ‘the Honour of
Rayleigh' - that is to say the fief which had been forfeited by Henry of Essex.
This Paulin de Tayden appears in our
Feet of Fines for Essex (p. 74.) as tenant in 1228 of a quarter of the manor of
Thorp, that is Southorp in Southchurch.
Paulin had a predecessor, Henry de
Thaydene’, who held these three fees of the Honour of Rayleigh.
This was probably in the reign of John,
for Henry occurs in our Feet of Fines for Essex (pp. 32, 50, 55) in 1203-1218).
We also meet with Henry de
Teyden on the Close Rolls of John in 1213 and 1214.
In 1215 he came seriously to grief in
the great struggle between John and the barons, being one of the garrison of
Rochester castle who narrowly escaped hanging when it surrendered to the king's
forces, after a desperate defence, on November 30. This we learn from the
Patent Roll of 1216, which shows us John, on June 18, ordering Henry to be
brought to him in custody from prison.
A record of the following year proves that Paulin was his son and was in favour
with the Crown; for the Crown committed him his father's land (in
Gloucestershire).
He was also favoured, 23 September, 1225, by the
grant of a weekly market and a Michaelmas fair at Theydon (Mount),
and by an order (5 April, 1227) to Richard de Montfichet (as keeper of the
forest of Essex) to deliver to him two bucks and eight does for his park at Theydon.
He also received remission, three months
earlier, of the ‘relief’ due from him for three and a half fees held of the
Honour of 'Wallingford.
These had been held, as three fees, by
his father, Henry de Taydene,' in 1212,
and re-appear as three fees in Little Rissington, co. Glouc., under Edward I.
It is remarkable how far apart the
holdings of comparatively small landowners sometimes lay. In 1230 Walter de Evermue
secured, 50 marcs, the wardship and marriage of Paulin’s daughter in case of
his death (si humaniter contingat).
Morant knew nothing of Paulin
de Theydon or of his daughter, who brought the manor in marriage to Robert de
Briwes. This we learn from the Close Roll of 1236 where we read:-
Rex cepit homagium Roberti de
Briwes de terris et tenementis que tenet de hereditate Berte filie et heredis
Pauline (sic) de Teydene, uxoris predicti Roberti, de honore de Raelegh, cujus
custodiam Rex dederat Waltero de Evermuth.
The entry is not quite correct
for Paulin is here transformed into a woman
and the scribe's ‘Berte' must be an error for ‘Beatrice’. There is, we shall find, abundant proof that
the heiress' name was Beatrice.
Robert de Briwes, who thus
acquired Theydon Mount (and Little Wakering), bore a name which is usually
confused with Brus (or Bruce) on one hand and with ‘Braose' on the other. He is
wrongly styled by Morant Robert de 'Brus,' and must be carefully distinguished
from his more important contemporary, Sir Robert de Brus, of the famous family,
who was lord, in Essex, of Writtle. Robert de Briwes was son of John de Briwes,
who held some exchequer office in 1207,
and for whose land he did homage in 1229.
This land was at Stapley FitzPaine in
Somerset,
which the family held of the Honour of Mortain, and where they had been established
at least as early as 1172.
In the spring of 1238 our Feet
of Fines for Essex (p. 119) shew us Robert de ‘Brywes' and Beatrice his wife
parties to a fine with Robert, parson of Theydon, concerning land in Theydon.
On June 23, 1239, they received a grant
of a weekly market, on Thursdays at 'Tayden' and of a yearly fair there for
three days at Michaelmas.
In our Feet of Fines for Essex (p. 165)
we have Robert de ‘Bruys' and Beatrice dealing with land in 'Thorp' in 1248,
and at Midsummer of the same year we have (p. 179) the important fine at
Clarendon, before the king himself and his justices, by which Robert de ‘Briwes'
and Beatrice transferred for 100 marcs (66l. 13s. 4d.) the manor of ‘Tayden’
,
with the advowson, to John de Lessinton, to be held of the heirs of Beatrice,
doing service for two knights fees and rendering suit at the court of Honour of
Rayleigh for Theydon ‘and for impedient's manor of Wakering’.
We have further a royal confirmation and
inspeximus of the charter by which Robert and Beatrice gave the manor to John;
but the consideration is given as a thousand marcs, and the object is ‘to
acquit their debts’.
About the same time we find
Robert de ‘Bruys' dealing with rents ‘in Longetotteslond in Little Wakering'
and ‘in the marsh of Barneflet’.
These names are important. The first
takes us back to a fine of December 1218,
which mentions ‘one marsh called Barnflete, which is of the fee of Henry de
Teydene, in the marsh called Fuelnesse' (Foulness), which proves that Henry was
then holding Little Wakering with Theydon Mount. The other name takes us back
further still ; for on the Pipe Roll of 1181 we read under ‘Terra Henrici de
Essex' (i.e. the Honour of Rayleigh) ‘xxxs. de Willelmo de Taidene de terra de
Langetot’.
This name seemed to defy identification, but
we now see that the ‘terra de Langetot’ was ‘Longetotteslond' in Little
Wakering. Consequently we have proof here that William de ‘Taidene' was holding
(Theydon Mount and) Little Wakering in 1181.
When Robert parted with his
wife's inheritance of Theydon Mount, he retained the other portion of her
holding, the knight's fee which lay in Little Wakering and Southorpe (in
Southchurch) and in 1252 (May 24) both these holdings are named among the demesne
lands on which he was granted free warren.
At his death in 1276 the Inquisition
taken is rather puzzling. It deals with lands in counties Norfolk and Lincoln,
which he held, ‘by the courtesy', as having married Beatrice, daughter and
heiress (or co-heiress') of Walter de Evermue, though their only child (or daughter
had died childless), and it also deals with Little Rissington, to which
Lettice, daughter of Henry de ‘Teyden' is given as heiress.
But it does not mention the Essex lands,
which seem to have passed to his son John. This implies that John's mother was
another wife, Beatrice de Teyden.
(Sou)thorpe was sub-enfeoffed,
being held of John in 1281 by John de Nevill as one knight's fee. Little
Wakering also was held of John de Brews by John de Nevill, at a nominal rent.
It is at this point that Morant begins
his history of that manor, on which he was, therefore in error. He cites the
fine of 1281 (9 Edward I.) relating to 19l. of rent in Little Wakering and
South Bemfleet belonging to John de Brews, but, owing to his one singular
failing – the confusion of mesne tenancies - he thought the Nevills were the early
owners and had no idea that the Theydons held the manor.
Meanwhile, Theydon Mount being
acquired as above by John do Lessinton (alias Lexington), he was duly returned,
at his death, in 1257, as holding two knight's fees in ‘Theydon ad montem' of
Sir Robert de Brywes.
His brother and heir, the bishop of
Lincoln, died a year or two later and was succeeded by two nephews, William de
Sutton and Richard de Markham, who divided the inheritance between them. A very
lengthy fine
records this division, and in it we find "Tayden' falling to Sutton's
share.
From this point the descent of the manor presents no difficulty. To
recapitulate, the two manors of Theydon Mount and Little Wakering (with part,
at least, of Southorp) were held of the Honour of Rayleigh, in the twelfth
century, by the Theydon family, with whose heiress they passed to that of
Briwes, under whom, in strictness, Theydon Mount was held by the Lexintons and
their heirs the Suttons, while Little Wakering (with Southorpe) was similarly
held of them by the Nevills ‘of Essex’. It is a striking illustration of the
laxity of the feudal system in practice that Hugh de Nevill, who was holding
thus low down in the scale, was returned in 1303 as holding Little Wakering ‘by
barony' (per baroniam).
