THE HUNDRED OF ISLEWORTH
THE HUNDRED OF ISLEWORTH
The manor of Isleworth is rubricated in Domesday Book as lying in the
hundred of Hounslow. (fn. 1) The entry for Hampton follows Isleworth, and, though
it is without a separate rubric, Hampton may be assumed to be in the same
hundred. There were no other manors in Hounslow hundred, but Isleworth
manor then as later probably included the whole area of the three parishes of Heston,
Isleworth, and Twickenham. (fn. 2) No references to Hounslow hundred after 1086 have
been found, and a 12th-century charter refers to Isleworth, Twickenham, and Hampton
as being in the hundred of Isleworth. (fn. 3) Isleworth hundred is referred to in 1183, (fn. 4) and
in 1235 it included the vills of Hounslow, Isleworth, and Twickenham. (fn. 5) Hampton by
this date had been transferred to Spelthorne hundred, where it afterwards continued to
lie. (fn. 6) The three parishes of Heston, Isleworth, and Twickenham thereafter constituted
the whole hundred of Isleworth.
The geographical identity of the hundred and manor of Isleworth seems to have been
responsible for a good deal of confusion about the ownership of the hundred. In 1274
the jurors at the eyre said that the hundred belonged to Edmund, Earl of Cornwall. It
had escheated to Henry III as lands of a Norman, Robert de Dreux, and subsequently
Henry had granted the manor to his own brother, Richard of Cornwall: the implication
is that the manor and hundred were synonymous. (fn. 7) The jury also said that Richard and
his successor held view of frankpledge and so, by 1293, did the owners of two submanors, the Prior of St. Valéry and the Master of St. Giles's Hospital without London. (fn. 8)
Between them these franchises would in any case have considerably diminished the work
of the hundred court. In 1293 the eyre jurors said that in the time of Robert de Dreux
the men of the hundred came to the two county courts each year, but that Edmund of
Cornwall, who now held Isleworth manor, had withdrawn their suits. (fn. 9) They did not,
however, specifically say that the hundred belonged to Edmund. No reference to the value
of the hundred courts as such is made in the survey of Edmund's property at his death
in 1301, (fn. 10) but shortly before, in a charter of 1299, he referred to the hundred of Isleworth as his property. (fn. 11) In 1312 the manor-and presumably the hundred-escheated
to the Crown. In 1374 the hundred was specifically included in a lease of the manor, and
continued to be held with it until 1387. (fn. 12) In 1389 the servants of Queen Anne, who then
held Isleworth, were being made to account for the hundred at the Exchequer, because
it had not been expressly included in Richard II's grant to her. This practice was no
doubt stopped after a jury had affirmed that the manor and hundred had always been
one and the same within the memory of man. (fn. 13) A lessee held the manor and hundred
together from 1400 to 1421. (fn. 14)
Henry V's grant of Isleworth to Syon Abbey in 1421 included hundreds and wapentakes among a list of many appurtenances, (fn. 15) but there is no evidence that Syon ever
held the hundred, which may indeed have already been worth very little. No references
have been found to its court or its value after the 14th century. The abbey was, however, granted the right in 1492 to appoint a coroner for the 'manor, lordship and hundred' of Isleworth. (fn. 16) No grants of the manor after the Dissolution included the hundred,
and in the early 17th century it shared a bailiff with Spelthorne. (fn. 17) Though, like the
other hundreds, it survived as an administrative unit under its own constable until the
19th century, it was for some, mainly fiscal, purposes, grouped with Spelthorne and
Elthorne. (fn. 18) A final example, however, of the old confusion between the manor and
hundred occurs in the very fine map of the hundred made by Moses Glover for the
Earl of Northumberland in 1635. (fn. 19) This depicts 'the manor of Syon and one of the
seven hundreds' of the county, 'being one of the lordships' of the earl. Glover described
Syon House as being 'honoured as the mansion of the hundred and the residence of the
Earl of Northumberland' and referred to the bailiff of the manor as bailiff of the
hundred. (fn. 20)