A History of Cawthorne/The Saxon Ailric and his Descendants, Tenants of Cawthorne

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A History of Cawthorne
by Charles Tiplady Pratt
Chapter III: THE SAXON AILRIC AND HIS DESCENDANTS, TENANTS OF CAWTHORNE
116823A History of Cawthorne — Chapter III: THE SAXON AILRIC AND HIS DESCENDANTS, TENANTS OF CAWTHORNECharles Tiplady Pratt

CHAPTER III.

THE SAXON AILRIC AND HIS DESCENDANTS,
TENANTS OF CAWTHORNE.

The Ailric of Domesday Book, spoken of in the first chapter, was succeeded by his son Swayne, whose name is probably still perpetuated by the neighbouring village of Hoyland Swein.

Whether Swein himself, as seems probable, was the founder of Silkstone Church or not, it was he who gave that church to the Priory of St. John at Pontefract, which, as we have seen, his own chief lord Robert de Laci had founded in 1090.

The original grant is for the first time given in Hunter's Deanery (Vol.II., p.221) from the Chartulary of Pontefract in Mr. Wentworth's possession at Woolley: "Swanus filius Ailrichi: Volo vos omnes scire qui nunc estis præsentes et futuri, quod ego, in remissione omnium peccatorum meorum, et pro salute animæ meæ, et omnium parentum meorum qui de hoc seculo transierunt, et pro animabus omnium heredum meorum dedi et concessi Deo, &c., ecclesiam de Silkstun et VI bovatas cum omnibus pert. et capellam de Caltorna cum II bovatis et cum II partibus omnium decimarum dominii mei, videlicet de garbis. Testem voco Deum, &c. &c."

He thus gives "the Chapel of Cawthorne, with two oxgangs of land" here "and with two parts of all the tithes of grain in his lordship," as well as "the Church of Silkstone." The Charter of Robert de Laci confirming this grant has already been referred to, and also that of Hugh de La Val, in which what is here called the "Chapel" (capellan) is mentioned as the "Church" (ecclesiam) of Cawthorne.

The successor of Swein was his son, Adam, whom Hunter describes as "one of the most considerable persons of his age." He was the founder of the only religious house which has ever existed in the Wapentake of Staincross, the Priory of St. Mary Magdalene de Lunda, commonly called Burton or Bretton Priory—"Monk-Bretton"— a Monastery of the Cluniac Order of St. Benedict.

The Foundation Charter of this Priory is given in the Monasticon. "Carta Adæ filii Suani de prima fundatione Monasterii Beatæ Mariæ Magdalenæ de Lunda, vulgo Munkebreton."

The religious House of Monk-Bretton was made over to the Prior and Monks of Pontefract shortly before the founder's death in 1158, and up to the time of the Priory's surrender, Nov 21, 1539, it paid a 5 yearly sum to Pontefract in acknowledgment of this dependence. In a full list of the property belonging to Bretton Priory at its dissolution are certain rents at Cawthorne and Barnby.

When Adam succeeded his father Swein, the Monks at Pontefract obtained from him an explanatory charter, confirming his father's Grant of the Church at Silkstone and its six adjoining oxgangs, with its chapels, lands, and tithes, "and" (he adds) "likewise the Chapel of my father at Cawthorne, which my said father had before given with two oxgangs of land and all belonging thereto in the same village, and with two parts of all the tithes of my father's lordships, which are as follows: Cawthorne, Kexborough, Gunthwaite, Penistone, Worsborough, Carlton, Newhall, Brierley, Walton, Mensthorpe, Wrangbrook, Middleton; viz., tithes of corn."

The following is the Latin text in the Monasticon. "Carta Adæ filii Swani."

"Sciant presentes et futuri quod ego Adam filius Swani fili Ailrichi pro amore Dei et salute. animæ meæ et matris meæ et omnium antecessorum meorum et heredum dedi et concessi et hac presenti carta mea confirmavi ecclesiæ sancti Johannis evangelistæ de Pontefracto * * ecclesiam de Silkston cum sex bovatis terræ et earum pertineniis in eadem villa eidem ecclesiæ adjacentibus, quam pater meus eis antea dederat in puram et perpetuam elemosinam cum capellis et terris et decimis et cum omnibus ad eam pertinentibus: similiter et capellam patris mei de Calthorne quam idem pater meus eis antea dederat cum duabus bovatis terræ et earum pertineniis in eadem villa et cum duabus partibus decimarum omnium dominiorum patris mei quæ hic certis exprimuntur voca"bulis, Calthorne, Kexburgh, Gunuthwait, Penyngestone, Wyrkesburgh, Carleton, Newhale, Brareley, Walton, Manesthorp, Wrangbruk, Midelton; scilicet garbarum et cum omnibus ad eas pertinentibus. * * * Item concessi dedi et presenti carta mea confirmavi prædictæ ecclesiæ sancti Johannis de Pontefracto et monachis ibidem Deo servientibus sexaginta acras terræ meæ in Calthorne in puram et perpetuam elemosinam ad mandatum pauperum faciendum in cæna Domini."

To make this grant fully sure to them, the monks obtained a confirmatory charter from this Adam's grandson Robert de Montbegon, in the time of Roger de Laci, constable of Chester; who is one of the witnesses to it. In this grant he renounces all clam to the Church of Silkstone. They further obtain another deed from this Robert's sister Clementia de Lungvillers, dated at York, "in pleno comitatu et primo post festum Sancti Michælis," the 22nd year of Henry III. (1238), in which she is made to renounce for herself and heirs, in very strong language, all right of patronage and all rights of every kind in the Church of Silkstone, and in the chapels belonging to it: "nec ego nec hæredes mei aliquod jus vel clamium habere possimus vel vendicare in dicta ticclesia vel ejus pertinentus. Et si ita contingat quod aliquis hieredurn meorum contra hanc meam confirmationem et quietam clamationem ausu temerano venire priesumpserit, jus monachorum vel presentationem eorum impediendo in aliquo tempore cum dicta ecclesia vacaverit, maledictionem Dei omnipotentis et indignationem genetricis suic beatic Manic et maledictionem meam et omnium mulierum se noverit incursurum."

The grant was confirmed by the chief lords, by Robert de Laci, and by the Hugh de Ia Val mentioned above of Robert's exile, and by a Bull of Pope Celestine.

It was in the time of Swein, or his son Adam, that many of the churches in this neighbourhood were founded, and among them those of Penistone, High Hoyland, Roystone, Felkirk.

With Adam, the son of Swein, 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").

Hunter remarks that "the perplexed genealogy of these two great heiresses has exercised the skill of Dodsworth and innumerable other genealogists." In the Chartulary of Pontefract there is what he calls "a rare specimen of a pedigree prepared at the beginning of the fourteenth century," showing the descent of this family from Adam Fitz-Swein to a Thomas de Burgh then living. It is given in the Monasticon:

"Progenies Suani filii Alurici


"Swayn filius Alrick feovavit domum de Pontefracto et monachos ibidem Deo servientes de ecelesia de Silkeston, cum sex bovatis "terræ in eadem villa.

"Et de dieto Suano venit Adam filius ejus, et confirmavit feofamentum patris sui, scilicet de ecelesia de Silkeston cum sex bovatis terræ.

"Et de dicto Ada venit Matilda et Anabilla, et de Matilda venit Roger de Munbegun, Mabilia et Clementia de Lungvilers, de Clementia venit Johannes de Lungrilers, et de illo Johanne de Lungvilers venit alms Johannes de Lungvilers, et de illo Johaime venit Mahilia at Margareta uxor Galfridi de Neovila et de Mabilia venit Willielmus de Lamare, et de Willielmo de Lamare venit alia Mabilia, et de illa Mabilia venit Hugo de Neovila et de Anabella filia Adae venit Saira et de Sarra venit Thomas de Burgo et de Thoma de Burgo alius Thomas de Burgo et Johannes, et dictus Thomas expiravit sine hærede, et de Johanne venit Thomas de Burgo qui nune est."

The Son of Adam Fitz-Swein's daughter Clementia was John de Longvilliers (esch. 39 Henry III., 1254) whose son Sir John, of Hornby Castle (Lancs.), had an only daughter Margaret, who married a Geoffrey Neville (1268) and took into that family her father's large estates of Hornby Castle, Hutton Longvilliers in Yorkshire, and Appleby in Lincolnshire.

Adam Fitz-Swein's daughter Amabil, who inherited her father's more westward estates, including Cawthorne and its residence, married a William de Nevile. Dodsworth has copied a charter relating "Skyrewith" in Cumberland, in which William de Neville and Amabil his wife give to Thomas de Burgh fifteen "libratas terrae cum filia nostra Sarra in maritagio"

There is a second marriage of Amabil given to one Alexander de Crevequer, from which sprung also a family of Neviles, through the marriage of their daughter Cecilia. There are given altogether no less than four marriages of Adam Fitz-Swein's posterity into the Nevile family.

The Cawthorne and other estates descended by the above marriage into the de Burgh family, of which there are "several detached notices, Hunter says, in the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. in the Chartulary of Monk Bretton are several charters of the Nevilles and de Burghs having reference to Grants of Adam Fitz-Swein.

Hunter speaks of having seen two original undated Deeds of one Thomas, son of Philip de Burgh. One of these was a Grant to a Thomas le Hunt or le Hunter, of Calthorne, and Dionysia his wife of a toft and bovate at Calthorne, with his part of Milnestede in exchange for a culture called Hudderode. Among the witnesses are Robert de Barnaby, Thomas de Sayvile, and Richard Micklethwayte.

In the word Hudderode here we have the original form of our frequent termination "Royd." In olden times, lands were divided into terra bovata—i.e. oxgang land, under the plough, and terra rodata, or rode land, synonymous with assart. Rode, changed by local pronunciation into "Royd," is the past participle of the provincial word "rid," to clear or grub: Hudderode would doubtless be "Hudde's clearing."

"Royd" and "stubbing;" which latter word means much the same as "royd," are almost as frequently found in our old local surveys as the word "field" ("felled") or "close" ("enclosure")

The other deed mentioned by Hunter makes a Grant to Richard the clerk here of certain lands near a place called Le Greve. The first witness is Sir Nicholas de Wortley; others, Robert de Barnby and John his brother, "dominus Willielmus capellanus meus tunc tempore et Willielmus de Landen tunc ballivus meus." The lands are described as those which Richard son of Gilbert of Calthorne holds, and which Robert Musket formerly sold to Gilbert son of Cornelius of Calthorn.

There is a grant of free warren at Cawthorne given to a "Geffery de Nevile"in 8 Edward I.

Hunter gives early charters of the le Hunt or le Hunter family as illustrating the state of social life in those remote times, and as introducing the names of numerous persons and places in Cawthorne.

In one of these, an indenture dated at Calthrne, the Feast of St. Martin 7 Edward I, there is an agreement for a Thomas le Hunt to take to wife a Beatrice, daughter of John de Methley of Thornhill, and the said John to give her fifty marks, while Thomas binds himself to make over all his lands at Calthorn and Barnby to Henry de Calthorn his chaplain, who is to re-enfeof jointly the said Thomas and Beatrice for them and their heirs.

In another deed, there is the grant by Thomas son of William Hertforth to Thomas son of Dionysia Hunt de Calthorn of one Adam Stot "nativum meum," with all his family already or hereafter born (1334) a "nativus" being the son of a villein annexed to the lord's land or to his person, transferable at his pleasure, and frequently conveyed with or without the land itself Bawden gives several examples of their gift and sale in his Glossary (pp. 21, 2) to his Domesday Book of Yorkshire.

The same Thomas son of Dionysia and his wife convey to a Nicholas Costnoght "all their growing wood known as Dykongreve, Canongreve, le Halker, and Coperonker; all the wood in Dikrode and Malkincroft and the Westrode, to burn for one forge, the said Nicholas to have pasture sufficient for his own Helehill 'et 'petras ad comburendas.'" This indenture was executed at Cawthorne on the Sunday next after the Feast of St. Matthias the Apostle, 17 Edward III.

The lands of the le Hunts at Cawthorne passed into the hands of one Thomas Bosvile of Ardsley and Alice his wife by a deed dated at Cawthorne "die Jovis prox. post festum ramis palmarum, 1367."

Thomas de Stainburgh and Constance his wife grant to Thomas Bosvile of Ardsley and Alice his wife all lands, &c., in Villa de Calthorn "et infra divisas ejusdem villæ post decessum Thomæ Hunt patris predictæ Constantiæ"

There is a curious covenant dated 44 Edward III. between Sir John de Burgh and Elizabeth the late wife of Nicholas Wortley, by which John, the eldest son of this Sir John, is to take to wife Elizabeth daughter of the said widow Elizabeth within five days of the Easter next ensuing, the said Elizaheth to have the Manor of Cawthorne, if her husband John should die before his father.

There is an "inquisitio post mortem," 7 Edward II, in which Thomas de Burgh is found to die seized of the manor of Cawthorne, held of the Honour of Pontefract, John his son and heir being then aged 22. This John had to establish his legitimacy against an objection raised by his own father's sister Elizabeth, married to Alexander Montfort, and he paid his relief for the manors of Cawthorne and Walton in 3 Edward III. In that same year, Hunter says, there was a fine in the Court at Westminster before John Le Stonor and other justices, between John de Burgh, querent., and William at Green chaplain and William de Hertford deforciants, of the Manor of Cawthorne, right of William de Herttord of the gift of John; and for this acknowledgment the said Green and Hertford grant the manor to the said John, except four messuages, 100 acres of land, seven of meadow and five of wood.

John de Burgh, son of John and Elizabeth, daughter of Nicholas Wortley, had a daughter by his first wife Catherine, who married John Ingoldsthorp. This family after two generations ended in a daughter and heiress Isabel who married John Nevil, Marquis Montacute. John de Burgh’s daughter Joan by his second wife married Sir William Assenhull, who in the great inquest of the Honour of Pontefract in 3 Henry VI. was found to hold two Knight’s fees at Cawthome, Keaton, and Mirfield, late John de Burgh’s.

A John Waterton married Katherine daughter & co-heiress of Sir John de Burgh, and thus became seized in the time of Richard II. of the capital messuage and lands at Walton and Cawthorne Park. Their son Richard Waterton married Constance the daughter and co-heiress of Sir William Assenhull, Knight of the Shire for Cambridge Co., 2 Henry VI., 1422, who in 1430 presented a clerk to the Vicarage of Kirk Heaton, which was alternately in the gift of the two lords of Cawthorne and Brierley.

In a pedigree in the Rawlinson MSS (Liber B.: p. 8 (14 new))), Thomas Harrington is given as "slayne at Wakefield" with John his son, the other son, "James, of Bryerly in Com. Ebon, attaynted 3 Henry VII. and restored 19 Henry VII." John leaves two daughters, co-heiresses, Ann married to Sir Edward Stanley, Lord Monteagle, and the other, Elizabeth, the wife of John Stanley.

In 10 Henry VII. an "inquisitio" of John Waterton shows that he held the Manor of Cawthorne of the king, as of the Honour of Pontefract, Robert being his son and heir.

At a Court held by John Waterton, Knight, Oct. 14th, 20 Edward IV. the following were free tenants of Cawthorne: George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbnry; the Prioress of Kirklees; Sir John Sayvile; Sir Thomas Wortley; Thomas Boswell of Ardsley, Esq; Richard Wentworth, Esq.; Sir William Darcy; Robert Rockley, Esq.; Edward Goldsborough, Esq.; Richard Everingham, Esq.; Edmund Dudley and Matilda his wife; Richard Crawshaw, Robert Barnby, and others.

A Sir Thomas Waterton, who was Sheriff of Yorkshire 1 Mary, and one of the Council of the North, held Cawthorne in the time of Bernard's Survey in 1577.

In 15 Elizabeth, William Stanley, Lord Mounteagle, who then represented the Brierley branch of Swein's posterity, sold certain rents amounting to £4 1s. 10d to his tenants at Cawthorne; and in 44 Elizabeth, Edward Talbot, who had then succeeded to the Mounteagle estates, sold 200 acres of land at Cawthorne to William and Nicholas Bramhall, John Shirt, Thomas Green, Charles Wainwright, and William Green.

The Watertons are not mentioned in connection with Cawthorne after 4 James I. (1607), their interest being sold soon after that time to the Wentworths of Bretton.

The Hall and Park of Cawthorne were settled upon Matthew Wentworth, the second son of Matthew Wentworth of Bretton, Esq., in the time of Charles I., and his younger brother Gervase had a messuage and mill at Cawthorne by the gift of his father in 1635.

In 13 James I. (1616) the king granted to their elder brother George Wentworth of Bullcliffe in West Bretton, gent., a Court Leet and view of frankpledge in Cawthorne and other places parcel of the Duchy of Lancaster. This lordship of the Manor of Cawthorne has continued to the present time in the owner of Bretton West.

A Sir William Wentworth, who died in 1763, married one of the sisters of Sir Thomas Blackett, and his son Sir Thomas Wentworth assumed the name of Blackett. By a will dated 29 May, 1792, he left Bretton and all his Yorkshire estates, including the Manor of Cawthorne, to Diana his daughter, married to Thomas Richard Beaumont, of the Oaks, Darton. He was succeeded by his son Thomas Wentworth Beaumont, Esq., many years M.P. for Northumberland, who died Dec. 20th, 1848, leaving his estates to his eldest son, their present possessor, the present lord of the Manor of Cawthorne, Wentworth Blackett Beaumont, of Bretton Hall and Bywell Hall, Esq., J.P., D.L., M.P. for South Northumberland. He was born April 11, 1829, and on March 6th, 1856, married Lady Margaret de Burgh, fourth daughter of the Marquess of Clanricarde. His heir, Wentworth Canning Beaumont, was born at Bywell, 29th Dec., 1860.

The name of Beaumont is found in connection with that of the de Laci family so far back as the time of Richard I., when Roger de Laci was accompanied by William Bellomonte in the Crusado of that time. The Widow of William de Bellomonte, or Beaumont, quit claimed to Henry de Laci, Earl of Lincoln, in 1294, and Annabella the widow of her son Sir -Richard de Bellomonte had a grant of lands at Hodresfield (Huddersfield) from the same Henri de Laci.

Arms of Lords of Cawthorne:—

Adam Fitz-Swein: Or a lion rampant, sable.

Waterton: Gules, three bars ermine, over all three crescents sable.

Wentworth: Sable, a cheveron between three leopards' faces or.

Beaumont: Gules, a lion rampant argt., langued and armed azure, within an orle of nine crescents of the second.

Crest: A bull's head erased, quarterly argent and gules.

Motto: Fide sed cui vide: "Trust, but mind whom you trust."


In the "Domesday Book" of 1873, Mr. Beaumont is given as the possessor of 24,098 acres, with a rental of £34,670.